The text on the homosexuality of the Polish bishops, a clumsy attack on the papal document "What is a man"

Reflections by Don Don Gian Luca Carrega*

Meanwhile, thank you for the immense translation work, which was a precious service for the Church and to the truth, putting the inconsistency of a document presumptuous as ignorant.

Unfortunately, precisely because there is no (still) an official or reliable translation, we must be cautious in the assessments and not fall into some too precise references that could be spoiled by an erroneous translation. But what is written already lends itself to a close and precise criticism that I expose here.

The Chapter III presents an attack on Document of the pontifical biblical commission "What is man?" (December 2019) which appears clumsy both in intentions and content. The accusation that is moved, in a rather explicit way, is to have married "new interpretations " who go against the magisterium in the name of modern theories and the desire to please the contemporary public. And so the condemnation of Sodoma by virtue of the sin of inhospitality with respect to the proverbial sodomy of its inhabitants is stamped as extravagant.

Of course, the basis of these criticisms is the belief that the magisterium is a monolithic reality waterproof to the development of knowledge and the progress of studies, a position that is commented on its own in the academic field.

But the most partisan appearance is the total groundlessness of criticism. It would be enough, in fact, to attend the exegesis of the Church Fathers to realize that the so -called "New interpretations" they are the same that they supported in their commentaries.

Just to give an example, Efrem Il Siro, deacon and doctor of the Church, in his comment on Genesis (§16) puts in close connection the episode of Sodoma with that of the chapter prior to the oaks of Mamre.

Sant'Efrem observes that God wanted to test the hospitality of Abraham and that of the sodomites and wanted to act without being conditioned by prejudices: "It is not that God, who had just said their sins were very serious (Gen 18,20), he didn't know they had sinned. This was an example for the judges, because they did not judge with prejudice, even when they were based on a reliable rumor"(Ibidem).

We are in the 4th century and the LGBT lobby that conditions the exegesis does not yet exist. But Efrem is an intelligent man who reads the biblical text to listen to what he says, not to attribute to him the meaning he wants to give him.

Here, the point is this: we should judge in an equany way, listening to reality and not of one's prejudices, reading the writing with an open heart, not to shore up pre -packaged arguments.

* Don Gian Luca Carrega is a professor of Holy Scripture at the theological faculty of Turin and director of the office for the pastoral care of the culture of the diocese of Turin and, on a mandate received by his archbishop, he also deals with pastoral activities for LGBT people and their family members.