Inside NCR
This weeks cover story details
a new reality that has taken root in Europe and the United States --
alternative forms of family.
Family is no longer the exclusive domain of heterosexual couples
and their children. More and more, single parents, divorced and remarried
couples, and combined families are making claims on the language and culture of
the family. Gay and lesbian couples, too, are openly professing their love and
extending that love to the children they are adopting. They enroll their kids
in school and sports activities, go to parent-teacher conferences and do their
share of carpooling.
We are well beyond the point of debate over whether such
alternative unions, de facto unions in Vatican parlance, and
nontraditional family groups should happen. They have become a part of life and
will increasingly play a role in church and society.
Some might see these developments as an affront to traditional
family ethics and ideals -- selfless love, nurturing the lives of biological or
adopted children, sexual intimacy within committed relationships and the
limitless goods that can come from humans bound by choice, blood, circumstance
and tradition. But something deeper and more significant could also be
happening. It just could be that those traditional values, so important to
preserve and foster, are spreading to nontraditional settings. Instead of
seeing these new forms in confrontation with what is good in traditional
marriages and families, we might view them as a new way of living what is good
in traditional marriages.
The misfortune is that at a time when considerable energy should
be focused on the implications of these new forms of family for church life
and, conversely, on the implications of religious belief for these new
expressions of family, few, except those inclined to condemn and dismiss, will
go near such subjects. It is dangerous to ask new theological questions these
days.
We hope our stories in this issue help the process of
understanding by outlining some of the issues involved, by helping to raise
some of the questions essential to discussing the issues, but most of all by
introducing you to people who are daily wrestling with and living out the
issues in the real world.
I am happy to announce that
Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister, noted author whose work appears regularly in
these pages, is writing a special Lenten meditation series that will appear in
NCR beginning in the Feb. 23 issue. Chittister, whose books include
In Search of Belief (Ligouri Publications, 1999) and Living Well:
Scriptural Reflections for Every Day (Orbis, 2000), will, in her inimitably
provocative way, delve into the readings of the week, raising questions about
how the ancient texts apply to 21st-century Catholic Christians.
We plan to run each reflection a week before the scripture
readings are used in the liturgy in the event that parish groups, ministers or
small Christian communities would like to use the Chittister pieces for
meditation or to prepare for the coming week.
Extra copies can be ordered. For information call 1-800-444-8910,
Ext. 2239.
-- Tom Roberts
My e-mail address is troberts@natcath.org
National Catholic Reporter, January 5,
2001
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