Terra Incognita

“Legislating for the right for people of the same sex to marry is like legalising male breastfeeding.” said Archbishop Cordileone in the Catholic Herald. I have been trying to think of some image that illustrates the law being used to make the impossible possible. The best I could come up with is Cameron as Canute turning the sea back at his command. I am not the most imaginative of people, I simply can't imagine the impossible.
Some Italian medieval author has a special place in Hell for those who change the meaning of language, to the point where it becomes meaningless - he is actually writing about monks and musicians who obscure liturgical texts by embellishments - but the result is the same language is stripped of its meaning.

One of things that fascinates me about Cordileone and the radically orthodox bishops that are being appointed under Pope Benedict is that they are able to be imaginative, and radically counter-cultural - at least as far as contemporary culture is concerned. Another example would the new Bishop of Cloyne who took on the bankers in his first public address, Bishop Egan calling for a return to, and reappraisal of Humanae Vitae would be yet another example. Again and again Pope Benedict draws out from the Christian storehouse things both old and new his theology is exciting.

Jeremiah 6:16 says, "Thus says the LORD: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls."" It is really what Christian orthodoxy is about but there is also sense in which there is "cultural orthodoxy" and a culture being at ease with itself. The bright new worlds that are presented by theological and social engineers are entirely new unmapped paths, the green grass invariably turns out to be poisoned. It is simply uncharted territory, it is a land with no compass either a moral compass or any other.

Hence Cordileone can end his interview by saying, “All our detractors can do is call us names,” he says.... “Big deal if they shout at us or throw insults!” They shout and insult because they have no deep contrary arguments, what they want to put forward is without logic or reason, it is purely about fluffy feelings, advertising slogans and policies made on the hoof.