Courtney McGrailDear Editor, In the course of the interview with Mary McAleese ‘There’s something about Mary’ (IC 12/11/2015) she stated “My views are founded emphatically in the Gospel”, before going on to explain in beautiful language that her faith in Christ is “the essence of my being”, “the love of Christ, his offer of mercy to the world, the sense that every single person is a child of God”, that infuses her and gives her the outlook she has on the world and the outlook “I have on our gay citizens”.
Mrs McAleese has omitted another aspect of the Gospel, namely the teaching of Jesus on marriage. At a time when there was no sacrament of matrimony, when marriage between a man and a woman was established for centuries and when there was confusion around divorce we are told in Matthew 19 that Jesus grounds his reply to a question about divorce in the foundations of God’s creation of human beings male and female “have you not read that the Creator from the beginning made them male and female?” (Gen 1:27) and in his teaching on marriage “This is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Gen 2:24). Jesus is asserting the Creator’s will around marriage of a man and woman. Marriage here could not be interpreted as being between two people of the same sex.
In my opinion the most difficult aspect of Christianity is to combine the two dimensions of Christ’s legacy as reflected in the Gospel, namely seeing every single person as a child of God as stated by Mrs McAleese, and acknowledging and being true to the moral teaching of Jesus. This can be especially difficult in painful, personal and close circumstances. I also admire Pope Francis and in my opinion he is giving a lead in combining in person and teaching the two dimensions of the Gospel.
Yours etc.,
Eileen Gaughan,
Strandhill,
Sligo.