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Which Gradualism? Whose Relationships?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 May 2016
Abstract
The 2014 extraordinary meeting of the Synod of Bishops explicitly referenced gradualism three times in the Relatio post Disceptationem. Is this moral theology concept helpful for analyzing relationships? This question is more difficult than it first seems. One needs to first ask “which gradualism,” as the three references imply three different understandings: Gradualism as Growth in Holiness, Gradualism as Pastoral Practice, and Gradualism as Inclusivism. Second, one must ask “whose relationship” it can help. I turn to hookup culture as it is a ubiquitous phenomenon on college campuses. As only Gradualism as Inclusivism proves helpful in hookup culture, it has the best potential to help those pursuing good relationships that might not readily align with church teaching.
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References
1 Zach Noble, Facebook message to author, January 16, 2015. Noble is a journalist and assistant editor for The Blaze, http://www.theblaze.com. The comment is used with permission.
2 Synod of Bishops 2014, Eleventh General Assembly, Relatio post Disceptationem, http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/relatio-post-disceptationem-2014-synod-bishops-family.
3 Synod of Bishops 2014, Eleventh General Assembly, Relatio Synodi, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/synod/documents/rc_synod_doc_20141018_relatio-synodi-familia_en.html.
4 New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. (Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2002), s.vv. “Synod of Bishops (Fifth General Assembly, 1980),” “McQuaid, Bernard John,” “Missiology,” and “Homosexuals, Pastoral Care of.”
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9 Ibid., 148–49.
10 Ibid., 147.
11 Ibid., 149.
12 See Walter Kasper, The Gospel of the Family (New York: Paulist Press, 2014); and Robert Dodaro, OSA, Remaining in the Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2014).
13 Keenan, A History of Catholic Moral Theology, 147.
14 United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children and Suggestions for Pastoral Ministers (1997), http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/homosexuality/always-our-children.cfm.
15 See Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, October 1, 1986, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html.
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27 Congregation on the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church (Dominus Iesus), August 6, 2000, http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20000806_dominus-iesus_en.html, can be read as a defense against relativism. Most of the critics felt it was a step backward to a kind of colonialism. See Dunn, Matthew, “The CDF's Declaration Dominus Iesus and Pope John Paul II,” Louvain Studies 36, no. 1 (2012): 46–75Google Scholar, for a summary of the critiques against Dominus Iesus.
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33 Raimon Panikkar, The Intra-Religious Dialogue, rev. ed. (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1999).
34 See Edward Idris Cardinal Cassidy, “Nostra Aetate: The State of the Question,” Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue, Rediscovering Vatican II (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2005), 225–58, for a detailed account of this work in interreligious dialogue.
35 Mark Regnerus and Jeremy Uecker, Premarital Sex in America: How Young Americans Meet, Mate, and Think about Marrying (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 105–6.
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39 Garcia et al., “Sexual HookUp Culture,” 167–68.
40 Ibid.
41 Heldman and Wade, “Hook-Up Culture,” 325.
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47 Anonymous, Facebook message to author, October 15, 2014. This comment is used with permission.
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50 See Garcia et al., “Sexual HookUp Culture,” 167–68; and Heldman and Wade, “Hook-Up Culture,” 325.
51 For why this is and possible ways forward, see Terrence Tilley, Inventing Catholic Tradition (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2000).
52 Freitas, The End of Sex, as well as Freitas, Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, and Religion on America's College Campuses (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010).
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