Open or Closed?

[frances111393]

You know how the Church has open and closed issues? Like, capitol punishment is sort of a more open issue, you can be for or against, as compared to abortion which is a closed topic.
What is the status of gay marriage? It seems like a much lesser problem, and not as deeply harmful as other things, plus it is so common...

[Fr. Vincent Serpa]

Hi,

No, the Church is not just more open to some moral issues and less so on others. It’s not a matter of openness; it’s a matter of whether an act is evil of itself or not. Capital punishment is not an intrinsic evil in that there are occasions where it is not evil. The Church does allow the taking of human life to protect the innocent, for example. With the matter of capital punishment, there is some room for disagreement among orthodox Catholics as to WHEN and WHERE it applies in our present day circumstances.

Abortion, on the other hand, is the taking of innocent human life and is never justified. This is also true of any attempt to pull marriage out of its context in any way; whether to apply it to more than two people at a time or to two people who cannot possibly conceive children because they are not designed for it. This should be a no-brainer. So much for our current secular culture!

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.