It is difficult, in a world in which the news cycle rolls over seemingly every twenty minutes, to comment on all the significant things that happen in the world and in the Church before they become old news. But as we have the opportunity to celebrate All Saint’s Day on a Sunday this year, it’s worth taking a moment to reflect on the recent news story on Pope Francis and his comments on civil unions and place it within the context of the entire history of the Church, because, to a certain degree, that’s what All Saint’s Day is about.

Most of you by now will have heard some variation of the story coming out of the Vatican last week that Pope Francis remarked on how “homosexuals have a right to be a part of the family," and that "they’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it." One of the struggles in commenting on this meaningfully is the fact that this story is still very much in flux, with new context and spin coming out every day. Perhaps we can expect further clarification in the days to come about the difference between how the Church understands marriage and how she understands civil unions. Another struggle is the fact that it is hard to have these conversations with larger groups of people (or in a parish bulletin) because some Catholics think it’s the greatest thing to ever happen in the Church, while others think this marks the end of days and are confused by it.
 
Bracketing both of those facts for a moment, we should take a step back and remember two things that the Church holds to be equally true: all people have the God-given right to respect, compassion, and recognition of their dignity, and that the Church teaches, and has always taught, that people of all sexual orientations are called to chastity, with the
understanding that sexual love’s proper place is within the bond of marriage between one man and one woman. It’s not always terribly popular to say either of those things, but the Church calls us to vehemently defend the fullness of Church teaching, even when it is a struggle to hold some things that seem to contradict one another in tension with each other. It’s even harder when we live in a culture that doesn’t have a unified sense of truth or language, but the call to proclaim the fullness of the Gospel transcends the limits and struggles of our day and age.

This brings us to one of the important lessons we can reflect on as we celebrate All Saint’s Day. It is confusing and difficult, at times, to understand exactly what it means to be a Catholic disciple of Jesus Christ in the twenty-first century. Sometimes it seems as if the entire world has shifted so dramatically in the last fifty years that it is impossible to understand what is true anymore. But even as we navigate the shifting landscape of contemporary culture, we should never forget that saints throughout the ages have lived in times with even less clarity than there is now. While we now have the blessing to be able to consult the Catechism, encyclicals, and other resources from the Church, other ages have had to discern the truth without such readily available teaching. St. Athanasius fought through the fog of Arianism with almost no support from the hierarchy of the Church. St. Charles Borromeo had to help craft a solution to the doctrinal disputes of his day before he could even begin to have conversations calling others to the truth. Even
St. Peter and St. Paul had to meet at the Council of Jerusalem to hammer out the relationship between the old and new covenants. If you feel lost, confused, or betrayed by the Church, know that many holy men and women have walked the very same path.
 
There will always be the temptation to despair or to reject Church teaching in favor of our own biases or opinions. But we can be both challenged and inspired by Jesus’consistent call in the Gospels to reflect openly on our own mindset, and to receive the fullness of truth that He offers us through His Church.
 
Prayers always,
Fr. McC