Posts

Showing posts with the label Holy See

Why it’s impossible for the Catholic Church to bless homosexuals as a ‘couple’

Image
Under the overall leadership of Pope Francis , the Catholic Church these days appears to  wallow in terminal confusion and self-contradiction.    One day we read that  “A French priest has announced in a televised interview that Pope Francis approves of his blessing of homosexual couples.”   On the same day comes the report that :  The newly-installed bishop of the Portuguese city of Porto, Manuel Linda, appeared to reject that Catholic doctrine that divorced and invalidly remarried Catholics should abstain from sexual intercourse .  He stated in a recent interview, “I’m convinced that it isn’t really a family: if they do so. Both clerics featured in these reports appear to be well and favorably known to the Vatican .  Both take stands that conflict with longstanding Church doctrine. But in doing so, they also contradict and refute one another. For if there is no family without sexual intercourse, what sense does it make to bless, in any form, a homosexual partnership i

Homosexuality and the Synod on the Family

  The Ordinary Synod of the Bishops on the Family  opened today to address the theme of “The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the modern world.” The world’s media will be watching the bishops very closely, expecting them to ratify “changes” to the Church’s teaching on divorced Catholics and hoping for “changes” to the teaching on homosexuality . Journalists conveniently forget, what most of them know, that the core of Church teaching does not change. However, some of the bishops want to discuss precisely what this “core” really is. And that is unsettling. The issue of homosexuality  was raised by Pope Francis himself  when he declared early in his papacy, ““If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?,” deliberately using the English word, “gay.” This remark released an avalanche of comment both from within the Church and out that has continued unabated since it was made July 29, 2013. And to ensure this issue is brou

Gay Vatican official who ‘came out’ may influence Synod in a way he didn’t expect—or want

Image
Msgr. Krzystof Charamsa evidently thought that he was advancing the homosexual cause by coming out as gay on the eve of the Synod of Bishops . I think he miscalculated badly. The Vatican quickly dismissed Msgr. Charamsa from his post at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). He had anticipated that, and said he was willing to accept it for the good of the cause. “I’m prepared to pay the consequences, but it’s time the Church opened its eyes, and realized that offering gay believers total abstinence from a life of love is inhuman.”  Sure, the Polish priest captured the headlines. When an official of the Roman Curia proudly announces that he has a homosexual lover, he’s will draw plenty of publicity. Given the sympathies of the mass media, most of that publicity will be favorable.  But Msgr. Charamsa said that he wanted to influence the Synod by his announcement; he wanted to impress upon the bishops that homosexual love “must be nourished by the Church.”

Laymen support Swiss Bishop under fire for defending marriage

Image
A Swiss Catholic bishop who was sued earlier this month by homosexual activists for defending the Catholic Church's teaching on homosexuality has made a second public apology for not putting quotes from the Old Testament he used in sufficient context. Bishop Vitus Huonder explained that he did not intend to invite violence against homosexuals but to uphold the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on homosexuality. Bishop Huonder said: I wanted to show that in [the book of ] Leviticus, there is to be found a drastic rejection of homosexual acts and that we as Christians have to be aware of it. When within the Church there is now a search for a “pastoral change,” then it is appropriate to reflect – and without censorship – upon this question in the context of the Old Testament – at least also in order to make sure that we see what Christ, what the New Testament, and what the Tradition of the Church had brought to us. Despite his humble self-accusation of defi

LGBT Agenda is to change Christian doctrine - Rodney Croome from Tasmania

Image
English: St William's Catholic Church & School, Stake Pool, Sign (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Since when has teaching your children what you, and most of the world’s population, believe to be right been a thought crime? Since when have those beliefs, enshrined in the law of the land, and always seen as positive and good, suddenly been deemed harmful? Since when has a well-liked member of the church’s hierarchy been told when and where he should disseminate fundamental Christian doctrine, and threatened with being hauled up to an anti-discrimination body? Since last week, that’s when. And no, this isn’t North Korea , this is Tasmania. The unfortunate cleric is Catholic Archbishop of Hobart Julian Porteous, who has raised the ire of Australian Marriage Equality director Rodney Croome , a native of that island. It is no mystery that the archbishop — and every other bishop of the Catholic Church up to Pope Francis himself — is, and always will be, opposed to gay marriage. T

Pope Francis blasts ‘gender theory’ again: rejecting sexual difference is ‘a step backwards’

Image
ROME , April 15, 2015 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) – In his catechesis today, Pope Francis strongly refuted the foundational tenets of “ gender theory ” that forms the basis of radical feminism as well as the homosexualist political movement. The differences between men and women are not a matter of “subordination” as feminist and gender theory would have it, but of “communion and generation,” he said in his weekly General Audience at the Vatican .  The pope wondered aloud “if so-called gender theory is not an expression of frustration and resignation, that aims to cancel out sexual difference as it is no longer able to face it. Yes, we run the risk of taking a step backwards. Indeed, the removal of difference is the problem, not the solution.” He asked whether the current global crisis of faith, of belief in God and Christian teaching, “that is so harmful to us,” and that builds “incredulity and cynicism,” could be “connected to the crisis in the alliance between man and woman

Catholic school pulls out of Boston Saint Patrick’s Day Parade after gay group approved

Image
English: Saint Patrick stained glass window from Cathedral of Christ the Light, Oakland, CA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) February 26, 2015 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) -- Immaculate Heart of Mary School of Still River, MA has withdrawn its marching band and float of Saint Patrick from this year’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade after learning that a small homosexual activist group will be allowed to march while publicly identifying its homosexuality. The school is compelled by the teachings of the Catholic Church to pull out. According to the Principal, Brother Thomas Dalton, “Catholics are forbidden to sponsor or even participate in an event which openly promotes unnatural and immoral behavior. The Church will never accept nor condone same sex marriage and the homosexual life style.” For 25 years the school has participated in the parade dedicated to Saint Patrick and believes that to have a float with his representation leading a group openly promoting and proud of its homosexual ide

Gay-themed tours of the Sistine Chapel are propaganda: expert

Image
English: Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. Français : La Pietà de Michel-Ange située dans la Basilique Saint-Pierre, au Vatican. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “Gay” tours of Rome’s major sites, including St. Peter’s Basilica and Vatican Museums , have been a feature of the Roman tourism scene for years.  Websites offering exclusive “private & gay” guides are easy to find and well-established. While “Luca” the gay tour guide gives little hint on his website as to any particular sexual content in his tours,  Quiiky , the Italian gay tourism operator featured recently in the Guardian newspaper , offers clients the chance “to experience gay Rome.” In the blog post  at the Guardian, the UK’s leftist flagship newspaper, Jonathan Jones called the Quiiky tour a “welcome sign of changing attitudes,” in Italy . He states blandly, “ Michelangelo was gay,” citing the “copious visual and written evidence about his unconcealed sexual identity.” He goes o