Creighton (Jesuit) University. Omaha, Nebraska. Family Center. Ties with the institution's center have been severed by the Archdiocese. Why? Two researchers urged the church to allow unmarried couples to live together and have sex and children as long as they are engaged. Now this is something that would catapult any Ordinary! Archbishop Elden Curtiss wasted no time is separating the Archdiocese from the center. The two researchers also stated in the same article that drew the heavy guns of the local Ordinary and the USCCB (Bishops' Conference) that they believed that the many unmarried couples living together today are not living in sin.
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokesperson for the USCCB said the positions in the article were giving the unmarried couples living together the benefits of marriage with the Sacrament of Matrimony.
The researchers wrote that between the 12th and 16th centuries, the Catholic Church allowed couples to have sex once they were betrothed. The Council of Trent brought an end to that practice. That has not stopped many Catholic couples from living together and having sex before their weddings, the authors wrote.
"Catholics who believe that all premarital sex is wrong believe that the ritual requirement of a wedding has always been the norm in the Catholic tradition. It has not," the authors wrote.
The Archbishop has told the University President that the wound can be healed by the removal of the two researchers from the Family Center.
Isn't this where Ex Corde Ecclesiae comes into practice? Faculty members are required to pledge to follow Catholic doctrine according to the document that has brought tension between many faculty members at Catholic higher education institutions and the local Bishop.
Good luck, Fr. President! Which side of the tracks?
