Cross-post from Religion: Pope Francis: Kids Must Have Moms and Dads

[goldent]

45. Final thoughts

I appreciate your thoughts - I'll try to respond in kind. First, it seems you were expecting or hoping for a lot of discussion from Catholics about this. Frankly, I didn't for a couple of reasons...

- There is not a lot of activity in this group overall. Just look at the history.

- I think people in safe-haven groups tend not to bring up "downer" stories a lot - at least that is what I noticed is several safe-haven groups. For discussing downer stories, you might as well go to the Religion group - there are plenty to choose from and plenty of activity.

- I suspect a low portion of DU Catholics post here. I think in DU there is a feeling that you will be viewed negatively if you admit to being a Catholic - for sure you see this in the Religion group. Plus a lot of DU people who are Catholics just don't have a lot to say about it - they come to DU to discuss politics.

I think you may be reducing the RCC to its policy on gay marriage (one that would be considered mainstream not so many years ago). Maybe Catholics view the RCC as a much larger thing and view the policy on gay marriage as a wart -- not a good thing, but small part of the body. I suspect if you saw an outline of RCC's social doctrine, you would agree with >75% of it. Of course, you could say, I don't care if I agree with 99% of it - the gay marriage policy is a deal breaker. Everyone has to decide what is right for themselves.

In the end, I hope you understand that when I voted for Pres Obama in 2008, I didn't do it because I thought his position against gay marriage was right - I did it for many other reasons. And similarly, I am not a member of the RCC because I think its position against gay marriage is right, I am a member for many other reasons.