ThM 544: EXAMINATIONS    monk writing, Besancon, BM 434, 1372

[ MS-Word_DOC ]

To be returned by Friday, October 22

1)  A 23year-old man comes to see you, his parish priest. He has been married for ten months.  He tells you that “the spark has gone out” of his marriage and he no longer has the same “deep feelings” for his wife he had before their marriage or in the first few months of their life together.  He wonders whether their “love may not have been real”.  He asks you whether God expects him to stay in a relationship that “may have been a mistake”and in which he is no longer happy.

How would you assess this man’s situation?

What questions would you ask him, and what advice (including possible readings) would you offer him?

2)  A 24 year old man comes to see you, his parish priest. He confides to you that his sexual orientation is towards other males.   He has been told that the Catholic Church teaches that having a homosexual orientation is a “disorder”, and for this reason he is considering leaving the Church.

What do you tell him? Please include a broad discussion of what the Church means by “disordered” in official teaching documents, especially the Catechism of the Catholic Church

3)  What did St. Augustine mean by the “goods of marriage”?  How have these “goods” been traditionally ranked in Church teaching documents prior to the Twentieth Century (that is, which has been regarded as “higher” than the other[s]) , and how have they been ranked more recently?  What does this shift in emphasis signify?

In your answers, when you refer to numbered sections of Catholic Teaching Documents (canons, encyclicals, the Catechism, etc.) DO NOT simply cut and paste the text into your answer.  SUMMARIZE ACCURATELY what the relevant text says, just as you would in any real pastoral situation.  Please answer all parts of both questions

 1) A 24 year old woman comes to see you, her parish priest. She was married in the Church three years ago to a young man who is also a member of your parish.  They did not participate in Engaged Encounter: instead, they went through the marriage course that was organized by your predecessor, before you arrived at the parish. During the course of the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation she confides to you that she has been using oral contraceptives since she was 19.  She has not previously discussed this with you because a priest with whom she spoke during the first months of her marriage told her she did not need to mention contraception in confession.

She tells you that she has recently spoken to a friend who uses Natural Family Planning (NFP), and who encouraged her to both speak with you and to consider NFP.  She asks you three questions:

(a) what advantages NFP offers over contraception;

(b) whether NFP is the same as “calendar rhythm”, and

(c) whether NFP “really works”.

What do you tell her, and what resources do you recommend to her?

2)  You are the pastor of a large parish in Los Angeles. A 62-year old male parishoner asks to see you.  He explains that he is scheduled to have surgery for a brain tumor, and that he has been told that there is a significant possibility that the surgery may not be successful.  If it is unsuccessful, he has been told he may not recover consciousness, and the surgeon has recommended that he think about the kind of medical care he would like to receive if he is unable to express his own wishes: the surgeon has recommended that the parishoner fill our “advance directives”.  The parishoner is concerned for two reasons:

(a) His wife “always falls to pieces” when a member of the family is seriously ill, and he does not want her to be forced to make decisions for him.

(b) he is not sure whether the Catholic Church supports advance directives: in fact, another member of the parish has told him that “Catholics must always  accept feeding tubes”, and  “advance directives encourage euthanasia”.

What do you tell him? What sources do you recommend he read (please summarize what he will find in these sources)?

....x....  ’ “”.