Synod Update Catholic Laity Speak On Human Sexuality and Belief

By Hilarie Roseman PhD

Author and Researcher Hilarie Roseman, a Catholic woman, presents a Synod on the Family update to her communication research. This research, taken in 1991, narrates the difficulties of engaging with issues of human sexuality and is very relevant to the same issues being discussed in 2014-5 in Rome. Catholics of Melbourne, Australia were researched: (a) to ascertain lay Catholic access and acceptance of human sexuality messages from the Catholic Church and secular sources in the mass media; (b) to define the issues of human sexuality that they felt were most important to them. One outcome was that Catholics have a fading memory of the words of Jesus Christ. This outcome needs to be understood as the root wound in our communities which needs to be healed. “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Luke 21:33). Be aware how large intake of mass media changes the moral tone, and how prayer brings it back again. Make sure you give a copy of this book to your Bishop. Hilarie Roseman PhD

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Dec 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9781326124212

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Synod Update Catholic Laity Speak On Human Sexuality and Belief

SYNOD UPDATE:  CATHOLIC LAITY SPEAK ON HUMAN SEXUALITY AND BELIEF

This book is dedicated to

MARY HELP OF CHRISTIANS

Patroness of Australia

A REPORT FROM:

Catholic access, use and evaluation of human sexuality messages from the Church and other secular sources in the mass media

RMIT, MASTER’S THESIS, COMMUNICATION RESEARCH

MELBOURNE 2000

Written by Hilarie Roseman PhD

Copyright Hilarie Roseman

Villa 356, 335 Eastbourne Road, Rosebud West

Victoria, Australia 2014

INTRODUCTION

It is with urgency that I update Catholic Laity Speak.  The Catholic Synod on Family which began in October 2014 will continue with a final meeting in Rome in October 2015.  This Synod has some laity among the global Bishops, but it is important to know that the Laity have already spoken in 1991 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.  Some of the issues in 2014 are to allow civilly divorced and remarried couples to receive Holy Communion, and also to make a Catholic annulment easier and more quickly available.  The discussion seems to go like this: Cardinal Kasper says the words of Jesus Christ sound abusive to divorced and remarried Catholics (http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/cardinal-kasper-adultery-language-is-offensive-insulting-31791/).  Cardinal Burke, dismissed from his Vatican position by Pope Francis, (http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/pope-removes-cardinal-burke-vatican-post) asks the Laity to write to their Bishop about these issues.  According to Pope Benedict, still writing and publishing, divorced and remarried Catholics should join the community at Mass, and with folded arms, go up and ask for a blessing from the priest, (http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350933?eng=y).

While this dialogue takes up a lot of time with the Bishops, it disregards the main issue revealed by the 1991 interviews in Melbourne.  Then it was clearly shown that the people of Melbourne had a media mind – that is a mind crammed full with images and messages from the media which were not in tune with the teachings of Jesus Christ.  These messages seemed to have overcome any Words of Jesus that these participants had received in over 10 years of Catholic Schooling.  Put simply, they had a faded memory of the teachings of Jesus Christ, and they rejected what they saw as the teachings of priests who did not know or understand family life.  This issue, the fading memory of Jesus and his Words, is an issue that should be discussed and rectified.  Jesus is the incarnation of the Word of God, and we are incorporated into the Word made Flesh at baptism, with the expectation that we will reside with Jesus forever in Heaven, because He died and was resurrected in atonement for our sins. These are his Words on Marriage which we should have embedded in our heart:

Matthew Chapter 19 verse 5    A man therefore, will leave his father and mother and will cling to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.  And so they are no longer two, they are one flesh.  What God then has joined let not man put asunder.

Mark, Chapter 10 verses 7-9    A man therefore will leave his father and mother and will cling to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.  Why then since they are no longer two, but one flesh,   what God has joined let man not put asunder.

Mark Chapter 10 verses 11-12

Whereupon then he told them if a man puts away his wife and marries another he behaves adulterously towards her, and if a woman puts away her husband and marries another, she is an adulteress.

Luke Chapter 16 verse 18

Every man who puts away his wife and marries another is an adulterer, and he too is an adulterer, that marries a woman who has been put away. (The Holy Bible, Knox Version, 1966, London: Burns & Oates Ltd., Macmillan & Co. Ltd.)

In his closing speech at the end of the 2014 meeting of the Synod on the Family Pope Francis said "there were also moments of desolation, of tensions and temptations, of which a few possibilities could be mentioned:

-One a temptation to hostile inflexibility, that is, wanting to close oneself within the written word (the letter) and not allowing oneself to be surprised by God, by the God of surprises, (the spirit), within the law, within the certitude of what we know and not of what we still need to learn and to achieve.  From the time of Christ, it is the temptation of the zealous, of the scrupulous, of the solicitous and of the so-called—today- traditionalists and also of the intellectuals." (http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/10/18/pope_francis_speech_at_the_conclusion_of_the_synod/1108944)

The Pope continues:

-          The temptation to a destructive tendency to goodness (it. Buonismo), that in the name of deceptive mercy binds the wounds without first curing them and treating them: that treats the symptoms and not the cause and the roots.  It is the temptation of the do-gooders, of the fearful, and also of the so-called progressives and liberals. (http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2014/10/18/pope_francis_speech_at_the_conclusion_of_the_synod/1108944)

While listening attentively to Pope Francis, myself, and those who read what the Catholic Laity themselves have spoken of – confusion and lack of understanding of family life from priests and bishops – I would beg to differ.  I truly believe that we are, in a sacramental way, incorporated into the Word of God, Jesus Christ, at baptism.  It is necessary therefore that we stamp His Words into our heart, so that they beat together with our own heartbeat. At the roots of human misery there is the yearning to do whatever we want to do, our way.  The power of procreation has been given to the man and the woman who become one flesh.  The huge magnitude of this power, which, together with the Holy Spirit, brings life to a human being is beyond our understanding. Humankind is made in the image of God with a body and soul and the expectation of eternal life in, with and through Jesus Christ.  With humility, with obedience, with love, we bow down and live in, with and through the Words of Jesus Christ.  Because Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, and because we are continually re-creating human flesh in marriage, we need to very closely adhere to the Way that Jesus presents to us as the blue print for life on earth.  That Catholics have a fading memory of the words of Jesus Christ is very sad and needs to be understood as the root wound which needs to be healed.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away (Luke 21:33).

I would ask you to read this small book which gives an overview of the responses of 84 Catholics in 7 parishes in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Be sure to give a copy to your local Bishop. Be aware how large intake of mass media changes the moral tone, how prayer brings it back again, and how the participants have a very fading knowledge of the teaching of Jesus.  Here is the abstract of the original thesis.

This book is dedicated to

MARY HELP OF CHRISTIANS

Patroness of Australia

ABSTRACT

Catholic access, use and evaluation of human sexuality messages from the Church and other secular sources in the mass media.

A collective memory is now discernible which is formed by global media access, and whoever controls this memory controls the world.  The mass media is a collective organism, a collective nervous system outside of our body. (McLuhan 1989)  In 1991 the Catholic receivers of mass media, whose minds are conceptual maps, systems of cultural thought, (Mary Midgley 1992), were  researched in the context of human sexuality messages.  Culture is communication (Hall 1973) and in contemporary culture image, message and manipulation of public opinion is achieved by means of an understanding of its deep motivation. (Giraud 1975)   The Catholics of Melbourne, Australia were researched: (a) to ascertain lay Catholic access and acceptance of human sexuality messages from the Catholic Church and secular sources in the mass media;  (b) to define the issues of human sexuality that they felt were most important to them.  The research also examined lay Catholics to find out if there was any perception of belief change since the implementation of Vatican Council II and to obtain a description of the communication of men and women.  One outcome was that  many of the respondents thought the Church to be in schism because of confused teaching, lack of understanding of family life, and a falling apart of the congregations.  In analysis it is argued that this ‘falling apart’ is a cultural falling apart from the central belief of the Catholic Church, the belief in Jesus Christ.

Contemporary culture, a mass media culture, presents a collective memory of shamanic events to our mind (Katz 1994).   The respondents chose to access and take into their memory new information on human sexuality from the mass media, and not from the Catholic Church and are in the process of becoming secularized. The research sample was taken from seven parishes, and the 84 men and women in the cohort were aged from 18 to 80.  The mind/memory of a person enables consciousness.   Access of, and action from, human sexuality messages drawn from mass media give new experiences to put down in  memory, and it is through memory we achieve a sense of  personal identity (Davis 1990). Mass media induce cognitive change (Schramm et al 1991) and this cognitive change is taking us away from our identity as a Catholic culture.  The respondents recorded a change in belief, a confusion of identity, and reveal the process of change in a Catholic culture based on its new belief system coming from information from a secular global culture and empirically based modern knowledge.

THE OVERALL RESPONSE

Ten years ago I began this report with figures about Mass attendance. It was

Sunday 29th February, 2004.  I read in the Sunday Age, as reported by Barney Zwartz, that figures from the National Church Life Survey, a five-yearly church census released yesterday, revealed that the number of Catholics attending Mass weekly dropped by nearly 100,000 between 1996 and 2001to 765,000.  This means only 15 percent of Australia’s five million Catholics go to Mass weekly.  Zwartz said that declining attendance at Mass has been attributed largely to an ageing demographic, but also to dissatisfaction with inflexible and authoritarian church leadership (Zwartz:2004).  I continued:

Friday, 5th March, 2004.  Yesterday I went to my Lenten Group at Swan Reach in South Eastern Victoria, and asked them to pray that I will be able to address the news item telling us that another 100,000 Australians are not there when Jesus says, in the Mass, that he has come to bring forgiveness.  I have tried to write this story many times, but the depth and breadth of it has escaped me – I become emotional and not focused.  But now I have to make one last effort.  My Parish group has prayed for me, and I must co-operate with the graces given. I continue to the present day:

Today, in this Synod update, November 2014, I find that the figures are still falling.  There are 5,439,267 Catholics in Australia now and the Catholic Pastoral Research tell us that in 2011 there was a percentage of 12.2% of all Australian Catholics attending Mass on a typical Sunday. (http://pro.catholic.org.au/faq).  So now let us continue the story of the thesis.

The parishes and participants

In 1991 I researched seven Catholic parishes – East, West, North and South of Melbourne.  I spoke to 84 Catholic laity, aged from 18 to 80 about mass media messages on human sexuality from the Catholic Church and other sources.    The conclusion to be made from 208 questions, many with multiple parts was that:

1.(i)   From their responses Catholics say that they take into their memory mass media messages not in tune with Catholic teaching.

(ii)  There is a subsequent belief change perceived by the respondents and from correlating their responses this belief change would come from not only their access of  mass media news and entertainment, but also from their Catholic formation in the Catholic school system.

(iii)  There is public affirmation of second marriages and cohabitation, with the understanding by many that this behaviour is not wrong.

2.(i)    The Melbourne Catholic Church sends its messages on human sexuality   through the mass media by way of celibate male sources.

(ii)    The laity are either married or interested in marriage, define their important human sexuality issues as relationships, and agree that men and women communicate differently and interpret and talk about religious issues differently.

(iii)   The mass media messages from the Catholic sources are still traditional teaching but hardly ever concern marriage

3.(i)  Catholics according to this research are, on the whole, not accepting these messages from the Church.  Over half of the research sample did not access them at all.  Of those who did access these messages, just over a quarter accepted them.

(ii)   This engenders a perception of the community falling apart

(a)  The respondents perceive a No Mass Going behaviour

(b)  A lack of understanding theological language

(c)   A diminishing feeling of belonging to the Catholic Church

(iii)  The respondents are recorded as showing a fading memory of the person of Jesus Christ.

(iv)  The respondents perceive that this schism is caused by priests giving confused teachings and who lack understanding of family life, want to get married and who do not do enough for the young. 

The three major variables gender, age and formation of mind (education) give understanding to this outcome.

Gender

The respondents say that there are biological differences, social differences, emotional differences and process or task orientated differences in communication between men and women.  They agree, (92.85%), that men and women communicate differently.  They also agree, both men