Local News
Letter To the Editor
Published: August 5, 2010
To the Editor:
One of the principal obligations of the Church is to form the moral conscience of the laity. In the July 16 document “Substantive Norms” promulgated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (The Georgia Bulletin, July 22 issue) two different issues are condemned and described as grave moral offenses punishable by excommunication.
Article 6: 1 condemns violations of the sixth commandment as it refers to clerical sexual abuse of minors. Article 5: 1, 2, 3 condemns violations of church law regarding the ordination of women to the priesthood.
These violations are of two different orders—one of moral law, the other of church law. To treat them as deserving the same penalty diminishes the egregiousness of the former and inflates the gravity of the latter to ludicrous proportion. Catholic laity are ill served by this confusion.
Dana Greene
Atlanta
