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Just Getting Started...

by Pia de Solenni 

As a Catholic theologian who does media and speaking events, I get a lot of cringe-worthy questions and comments, especially those that indicate a lack of Catholic teaching.

Last year, for example, I was asked to defend Humanae Vitae (which, among other points, laid out the Church’s position on birth control) in a debate with another theologian at a Catholic university. After the event, a student came up to thank me, saying that she’d never heard anyone explain why she shouldn’t have sex before marriage. Her family upbringing had communicated that she shouldn’t, but she didn’t understand the “why” and, apparently, had not been offered any explanation even at this Catholic institution of higher learning.

Like other Catholic speakers, I have met Catholics who honestly claim that they did not know the Church’s position on birth control, but now that they do, they are willing to accept it and live accordingly.

While I welcome just about any question on the Catholic faith, I regret that we not infrequently lack the communication of Church teaching. So it was with great pleasure that I read the two new documents from the U.S. bishops on marriage and assisted reproductive technologies (ART) like in vitro fertilization (IVF).

These are tough topics to address.

With divorce rates about fifty percent for the entire population and a growing number of children being raised in something other than a two-parent family headed by their own parents – not to mention the increasing practice of cohabitation and same-sex partnerships – it’s clear that fewer people are experiencing marriage.

Similarly, when the culture seems baby crazy, from our fascination with Angelina Jolie to the mass consumerism of baby gear, even pro-life activists can appear to be caught up in the craze. Add to this that almost everyone knows someone who has used IVF to conceive, and it becomes incredibly difficult to explain why it’s wrong to have a beautiful, smiling child if the only way it can come into existence is by some means other than the conjugal embrace of its parents. After all, babies have been born as a result of IVF for over thirty years now.

In other words, our lived experience can get in the way of understanding the documents. For the most part, those who understand them and accept them are people who have already made conscious efforts to live the teachings and who take the time and effort to actually read the documents. It’s like giving the medicine to the healthy instead of the sick.

Yet, John Paul II repeatedly insisted that the starting point of dialogue, self-knowledge and conversion is lived experience. We start with the point that one is at and make the teaching relevant to that experience. No matter the situation or the circumstances, it’s always a human experience waiting for a human response.

The beauty of documents like the two released last week is that they provide a framework for dialogue and communication. They will shape the many efforts and projects that should flow from them. While some lament the absence of “good homilies,” these documents contain much more than can be communicated in a homily. In fact, they require a series of homilies to serve as a catechesis on each specific topic, and many priests would probably welcome additional training in how to speak about such sensitive and controversial topics.

In addition to homilies, the documents can be used to develop study and discussion guides for parishes. Too often we underestimate our local expertise and don’t realize that we have experts sitting in our pews. Any long-married couple has something to impart based on their own experience. If they know how to communicate, then they are the experts that can guide a discussion group. Similarly, both topics offer a unique opportunity to benefit from the input of permanent deacons who are married and who are dynamic communicators. This will include those who have children and those who have struggled with infertility, both important perspectives to include in the dialogue.

We are blessed to have a variety of Catholic radio and television shows. These venues could be called upon to discuss these documents, perhaps using a prepared discussion guide to help producers shape content.

Part of implementing the marriage document means having some realistic conversations about marriage prep and contraception. In many ways, these documents could be seen as a call to action. A bishop, for example, might gather together the Catholic leadership, lay and clerical, in his diocese to develop the implementation of these teachings beyond an occasional homily.

Suggestions could include aggressively promoting natural family planning and allowing various methods to be taught in a diocese. We have a growing number of psychological professionals who are also active Catholics. Surely, their input could be invaluable in developing marriage prep programs, not to mention the input of pastors who work frequently with married couples.

While this column doesn’t provide sufficient space to discuss all the ways in which the documents could be implemented, there’s no doubt that they have a great potential for the faithful and others who may be interested in learning more about the Catholic faith. Our communications strategy, however, needs to speak to people where they are at, meeting them in situations which are often less than perfect. The challenge with documents like this lies in making them relevant to the lived experience of people beyond the experts and those who are well catechized. They are not so much a work completed as a work just begun.

Pia de Solenni is a moral theologian; she writes from Seattle, Wash. She can be reached via Facebook and Twitter. (Her website is getting a makeover and is currently offline.)  

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(The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Headline Bistro or the Knights of Columbus.)