You have to read the Church’s documents in context and not prooftext them to try and attack the Church’s teaching.

In 1839, the Holy Father Pope Gregory XVI issued the apostolic letter addressing specifically Black slavery as practiced in the US: We reprove, then, by virtue of Our Apostolic Authority, all the practices abovementioned as absolutely unworthy of the Christian name. By the same Authority We prohibit and strictly forbid any Ecclesiastic or lay person from presuming to defend as permissible this traffic in Blacks under no matter what pretext or excuse, or from publishing or teaching in any manner whatsoever, in public or privately, opinions contrary to what We have set forth in this Apostolic Letter.

In 1866, the Holy Office issued an opinion addressing the situation of all forms of slavery (sadly I have only an excerpt, if you have the whole letter available online please provide a link:
“Slavery itself, considered as such in its essential nature, is not at all contrary to the natural and divine law, and there can be several just titles of slavery and these are referred to by approved theologians and commentators of the sacred canons. It is not contrary to the natural and divine law for a slave to be sold, bought, exchanged or given. The purchaser should carefully examine whether the slave who is put up for sale has been justly or unjustly deprived of his liberty, and that the vendor should do nothing which might endanger the life, virtue, or Catholic faith of the slave.”

You can see that this letter identifies that there are “just” and “unjust” forms of slavery. If you study the bible and the teachings of the Church throughout the ages, you will see that there are various forms of servitude both voluntary and involuntary. You can’t simply lump them all together, as some of them actually benefit the slavery in the context of that era. Therefore slavery as such is not intrinsicly evil. The Church has developed it’s prudential judgement in this area in relation to the modern world, to the current state of universal condemnation. One could reasonably argue that the Church ought to have acted more strenuously against all forms of servitude in earlier times, and that is a fair point, but it does not make your point valid.

The same can not be said with regard to homosexual acts which are intrinsicly evil, and inclination which is by it’s nature disordered. THe Church has developed it’s judgement on how to best minister to those suffering from such afflictions, but that does not make such acts condonable, nor will it ever change it’s teaching.

God Bless,

Matt

the Church issues authoritative documents for a reason. The whole point of theology and discussion is to SAVE SOULS, not as some intellectual exercise. There’s an old expression, which instructs the end of debate:

“Roma locutus est, causa finis est”. Learn it, live it, love it, or one day you will rue it.

God Bless,

Matt

Matt, you notion of “dissent” is from a distant planet. If you were to open your mind to the great discipline of Theology — which is a far far stranger landscape than you imagine — you would, I think, find much not only to bemuse you but to enrich. The instant hostility to all theological questioning which has characterized the neocath blog movement from get-go must give pause to those churchmen who worry about orthodoxy. They have carried that worry to the point of strangling the Catholic mind and of encouraging outbreaks of sectarian hostility (as Cardinal Lehmann remarked of the recent CDF pronouncement).

my email is mightyduk@gmail.com

God Bless,

Matt

Enjoy Lent
peace to all

don’t tell me you dissent as well?

The Church has teachings, not “situations”.

God Bless,

Matt