Friday, January 04, 2008

Pulling back the curtain

Fr. Mich of Good Shepherd Parish of Menomonee Falls pens a letter to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in support of a lawsuit to overturn the ban on gay marriage - never mind that it is contrary to what he is supposed to teach as church doctrine on any given Sunday. Fr. Mich's objection to the result of the collective wisdom of his parishioners, the Church, and the citizens of Wisconsin, is that the result had the taint of being favorable to the majority.
As a child in what was then called civics class, I was taught that our form of government is exceptional because it protects the rights of a minority against the will of the majority. It was indicative that some of the rhetoric promoting the marriage amendment in Wisconsin stated the exact opposite - let the people of Wisconsin decide - in other words, let the people of Wisconsin decide on the rights of a minority by submitting those rights to a majority vote in the amendment process.
Never mind that the supposed "right" of homosexuals (the minority in question) to marry has no precedent and, as the governor himself pointed out, had no standing under the pre-existing law. The constitutional amendment was made necessary by the threat of judicial activism, in Wisconsin or elsewhere. Ironically, it is that type of judicial activism in overturning a state constitutional amendment Fr. Mich would approve, even if such judicial activism should run counter to what he was likely taught as a child in civics class.

We might tease the good father that perhaps he should concern himself with another aspect of the law where the rights of the minority are threatened by the majority. A majority of the state legislature would trammel the conscientious objections of Catholics and others that believe in life beginning at conception, and require all hospitals and medical practitioners to provide "emergency contraception" to victims of rape, regardless of whether the required drug also acts as an abortifacient. However, we suspect the cause of life doesn't tickle Fr. Mich's conscience.

So we'll comment instead on Fr. Mich's arrogance, that he knows better than the teachings of the Pope, centuries of tradition, and the teachings of his faith (such as it is), that he willingly disobeys his ordination vows. Perhaps his time would be better spent composing his confessions rather than letters to the newspaper.