Christian spirituality: ‘Greater, more important issues’
Besides sexual sins, there are many other very serious moral issues about which we talk much less
Answering a journalist’s question about homosexuality during a press conference following his African tour, Pope Leo challenged the common perception that Church morality is focused almost exclusively on sexual issues.
In his own words: “We tend to think that when the Church is talking about morality, that the only issue of morality is sexual. And, in reality, I believe there are much greater, more important issues, such as justice, equality, freedom of men and women, freedom of religion, that would all take priority before that particular issue.”
Obviously, the pope did not want to say that sexual sins are not serious. Often, they are, especially when sexuality becomes a source of injustice, used to exploit persons treating them as if they were objects.
However, an excessive insistence on sexual sins could easily blind us to other very serious moral issues, about which, alas, we talk much less. Pope Leo mentioned a few examples – probably those that came to his mind at the time. They far from exhaust the list.
I’d like to comment on a few of them. Not respecting the values mentioned by Pope Leo would heavily damage the communitarian dimension of society and hurt people. Unfortunately, the prioritising of individualism and relativism of our postmodern culture is very prone to do just this.
In the first place, the pope mentioned justice. We sin against justice even when we jump a queue, especially if it would cause suffering to someone else who has greater needs than ourselves. Unfortunately, this happens both on the micro and on the macro levels. People can easily be forced to wait longer for services, or even excluded or deprived of their rights.
‘Having a friend in the market’ is convenient but it could result in stealing the rights of those who do not have one.
Those invested with power – independently of how much power they are invested in – should keep in mind that their foremost duty is to use it to protect the weak. Naturally, those at the top need to be even more careful not to abuse it as, having more power, they can inflict even greater harm.
Another issue mentioned by Pope Leo is not respecting equality. Respecting equality does not necessarily mean treating everybody equally.
The eight pupils of Don Lorenzo Milani’s school of Barbiana in the outskirts of Florence, authors of the famous Letter to a Teacher, strongly insisted that, “there is nothing that is more unjust than sharing equally among the unequal”. Equality demands of us to be exceptionally attentive to the needs of the weakest.
When talking about the “freedom of men and women”, Pope Leo probably had in mind situations he had just witnessed on his African tour. However, people are being deprived of freedom not only by dictators but also within the family, in the classroom, at places of work and in many other ways.
Jesus spoke very little about sexuality. Speaking about the Last Judgment, he reserved condemnation for those who would not feed the hungry, welcome strangers, visit the marginalised, help the poor. On the other hand, he never denied the sinfulness of misused sexuality.
Pope Leo follows Jesus. Both condemn sexual sins without being blind to other sins we tend to forget.
