Church’s teachings haven’t changed; society has

    With the recent focus of the church on the Fortnight for Freedom and the calls to stand firm in our fight for religious freedom, one of the things that has astounded me, as a Catholic, has been the response within the young adult community.
    At least within my church and within my new community that I’ve moved to recently, I have been in awe over the number of people who signed up for adoration during that fortnight and the sheer number of people within the community – both young and old – who joined a rally in downtown St. Louis to pray the rosary in the streets as a public witness in the fight for religious liberty.
    Of course, there always will be the naysayers, and I’m not sure why I felt so surprised to see a friend of mine on Facebook publicly complain about how difficult she found it to stand with her church to say the Apostle’s Creed after the homily. Certainly, the homilies in my parish focused on informing the community about the “hot button” church teachings that have found their way into the public eye: contraception, same-sex marriage, abortion and in vitro fertilization.
    The young lady’s complaint was that the Catholic Church has been focusing on sexual matters as a sole purpose for religious freedom and ignoring love and social justice. As I logged off the website, I continued mulling over her hypocritical statement. How is it that standing up for religious freedom is not regarded by some people as social justice? Is not a socially just society a society that is based on principles of equality and one that understands the values of human rights and the basic human dignity of all human beings?
    Just because the topics of marriage and intimacy have been in the forefront due to our government’s attack on marriage, among other things, does not mean that these are new topics of church discussion.
    The church has always had a definitive position on life, so the continued coverage of society’s questions of intimacy – defining marriage, adopting freer methods of contraception, etc. – pertains precisely to the church’s teachings surrounding the creation of life. Marriage and the vows that a couple takes during the sacrament are explicitly inclusive of openness to children.
    The church’s beliefs and teachings surrounding the sanctity of life and the importance of marriage being defined as between a man and a woman have been under attack and are therefore at the forefront of the church’s agenda to teach and guide its followers in the faith.
    These messages are no less important than helping the poor. It should be understandable that the beliefs that are under attack and the moral obligations that are eroding quickly due to social pressures must be addressed during the homilies. How else is a priest to teach his flock?
    In fact, how different, really, is this current emphasis on church doctrine and preaching about the teachings than the millions of political campaign ads during this election season? The difference, unfortunately, is that people have become immune to politicians’ abilities to preach from their campaign “pulpits,” while many believe that the church needs to be silent. Faith and religion need to be private and segregated in our eroding society.
    As the attacks continue and our society does not back down in drowning out the church’s voice, I think the most recent homily that I have heard gives us courage, as my pastor said, to take up spiritual arms in the war that the government has brought upon us.
    The necessity of being educated and informed on church teaching has been blatant. How can we defend our faith if we do not know it? In addition, we should pray the rosary and attend adoration as often as we can. Prayer and education are our weapons – we must strive to continue to bring truth to a darkened society.
    Heather Bozant Witcher can be reached at hbozantwitcher@clarionherald.org.