ThM 544:
EXAMINATIONS 
 

monk writing, Besancon, BM 434, 1372

 

 

MIDTERM EXAMINATION, 2016

 

 

To be returned electronically via e-mail (ldysinger@stjohnsem.edu) by Friday, October 14

In your answers, when you refer to numbered sections of Catholic Teaching Documents (canons, encyclicals, the Catechism, etc.) DO NOT simply cut and paste the text into your answer.  SUMMARIZE ACCURATELY what the relevant text says, just as you would in any real pastoral situation.  Please answer all parts of all three questions

Please remember that whenever your answers include anything other than your own words or ideas, you must place the cited text in quotation marks and include appropriate references.  When citing text from the Internet always include in your reference the original author and source of the material you cited, together with the Webpage HTTP reference. For example:

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Ia, 103.4. http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1103.htm

And not merely: http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1103.htm

1.  Having read and discussed the John Jay Study, please respond to the following assertions (that reappear with depressing regularity in the secular media):

    a) The problem of clerical child abuse could be solved by allowing Roman Catholic priests to marry.
    b) The problem of clerical child abuse in the Roman Catholic Church could be solved by forbidding the ordination of anyone with a homosexual orientation.

2.  A 24 year old man comes to see you, his parish priest. He confides to you that his sexual orientation is towards other males.   He has been told that the Catholic Church teaches that having a homosexual orientation is a “disorder”, and for this reason he is considering leaving the Church.

What do you tell him? Please include a broad discussion of what the Church means by “disordered” in official teaching documents, especially the Catechism of the Catholic Church

3.  A 23 year old young woman who is a member of the parish where you are pastor has recently become engaged, and  has asked to see you.  During your meeting with her she explains that she recently attended a lecture on Catholic sexual ethics in “another parish” by a priest who teaches theology at a Catholic institution of higher learning.  The priest spent a significant of time criticizing the encyclical Humanæ Vitæ, claiming that it had “wrecked the life of many Catholic married couples” because it proposed “impossible and inhuman goals”.  The lecturer went on to claim that Humanæ Vitæ cannot be regarded as part of the authentic teaching magisterium of the Catholic Church because “it was not accepted by the people of God”; and furthermore that “the Catholic Church has moved on” from the moral norms proposed in the encyclical.

She is concerned that the opinions expressed by this priest may not be correct.

What do you tell her?

MS-Word Version:     PDF

 

 

FINAL EXAMINATION, 2016

 

 

In your answers, when you refer to numbered sections of Catholic Teaching Documents (canons, encyclicals, the Catechism, etc.) DO NOT simply cut and paste the text into your answer.  SUMMARIZE ACCURATELY what the relevant text says, just as you would in any real pastoral situation.  Please answer all parts of both questions

 1) A 24 year old woman comes to see you, her parish priest. She was married in the Church three years ago to a young man who is also a member of your parish.  They did not participate in Engaged Encounter: instead, they went through the marriage course that was organized by your predecessor, before you arrived at the parish. During the course of the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation she confides to you that she has been using oral contraceptives since she was 19.  She has not previously discussed this with you because a priest with whom she spoke during the first months of her marriage told her she did not need to mention contraception in confession.

She tells you that she has recently spoken to a friend who uses Natural Family Planning (NFP), and who encouraged her to both speak with you and to consider NFP.  She asks you three questions:

(a) what advantages NFP offers over contraception;

(b) whether NFP is the same as “calendar rhythm”, and

(c) whether NFP “really works”.

What do you tell her, and what resources do you recommend to her?

 

2)  You are the pastor of a large parish in Los Angeles. A 62-year old male parishoner asks to see you.  He explains that he is scheduled to have surgery for a brain tumor, and that he has been told that there is a significant possibility that the surgery may not be successful.  If it is unsuccessful, he has been told he may not recover consciousness, and the surgeon has recommended that he think about the kind of medical care he would like to receive if he is unable to express his own wishes: the surgeon has recommended that the parishoner fill our “advance directives”.  The parishoner is concerned for two reasons:

(a) His wife “always falls to pieces” when a member of the family is seriously ill, and he does not want her to be forced to make decisions for him.

(b) he is not sure whether the Catholic Church supports advance directives: in fact, another member of the parish has told him that “Catholics must always  accept feeding tubes”, and  “advance directives encourage euthanasia”.

What do you tell him? What sources do you recommend he read (please summarize what he will find in these sources)?

....x....  ’ “”.

 

 

 

 

What are your responses to Debbi Hoppe’s presentation on Sympto-Thermal Natural Family Planning: Was it what you expected? Were you surprised?
  1) What do you see as the priest’s role in recommending or encouraging NFP?
  2) What obstacles are you likely to face if you include this as a significant part of your teaching/ministry?