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The Vatican's Corrective to Liberal Catholics
Wall Street Journal ^ | 26 Apr 2012 | ELIZABETH SCALIA

Posted on 04/27/2012 7:27:51 AM PDT by Cronos

the church sent {Leadership Conference } a corrective last week.

After a three-year investigation into the state of non-cloistered religious life in the United States, the church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith produced an eight-page doctrinal assessment of the Leadership Conference, and its member communities, that identifies areas of keen concern. It cites theological and doctrinal errors; dissenting positions on the "pastoral approach to ministry of homosexual persons"; and the "prevalence of certain radical feminist themes" incompatible with church teaching, including female ordination.

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's first duty is to assure that the doctrines of the church are being accurately reflected and communicated to the church body by those canonically representing the faith. Yet its criticisms could not have surprised the sisters, many of whom acknowledge that their communities are "out of step" with Rome.

..in a thoughtful presentation that some believe spurred the investigation, then-Leadership Conference president Sister Laurie Brink had acknowledged that while many sisters walked unevenly with Rome, some had moved "beyond the church, even beyond Jesus." She called that a post-Christian mind-set that might ethically require those who held it to leave the church.

..The Congregation document recognizes the important contributions that Apostolic sisters have made to the church. It goes on to note that the Leadership Conference-associated sisters' definition of "social justice" speaks forcefully to issues of poverty, immigration and human rights (which is both praiseworthy and in line with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops).

But the assessment notes that the sisters barely nod at "sanctity of life" issues such as abortion, euthanasia and contraception, which the bishops also call matters of social justice.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
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the WSJ with it's balanced views is no MSM
1 posted on 04/27/2012 7:27:58 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: Cronos
the WSJ with it's balanced views is no MSM

Your comparison is inaccurate. The Wall Street Journal more accurately reflects mainstream America than does the DLEMM - Dominant Liberal Establishment Mass Media. Don't perpetuate the myth that the DLEMM is mainstream. It isn't.

2 posted on 04/27/2012 7:54:10 AM PDT by A.A. Cunningham (Barry Soetoro is a Kenyan communist)
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To: Cronos

Last I heard there are at least between 20% TO 50% of current practicing Priests were of the Homosexual persuasion.
What if anything has the hierarchy done to remedy this situation?
What percent of the curent group of priests are of Homosexual Persuasion?


3 posted on 04/27/2012 8:12:48 AM PDT by chatham
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To: chatham

I believe that’s a false number. The number would be less than 10%


4 posted on 04/27/2012 8:27:48 AM PDT by Cronos (**Marriage is about commitment, cohabitation is about convenience.**)
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To: chatham

Source? Link?


5 posted on 04/27/2012 8:30:13 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Stet.)
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To: chatham

Please provide a link or some proof to your percentages.

I am amazed that it only took 3 posts for the Catholic bashing to start. That is one of my main complaints about FR is the number of anti-Catholic posters you find here.


6 posted on 04/27/2012 8:30:41 AM PDT by Jack Burton007 (This is Jack Burton in the Pork Chop Express, and I'm talkin' to whoever's listenin' out there.)
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To: chatham

CRAP ALERT!

“Last I heard there are at least between 20% TO 50% of current practicing Priests were of the Homosexual persuasion.”

You’re an idiot!

It doesn’t matter where you “heard” this!
It is utter nonsense!


7 posted on 04/27/2012 8:37:57 AM PDT by G Larry (Criminals thrive on the indulgence of society's understanding)
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To: chatham

This is about religious women not priests. Please post to the subject at hand.

Perhaps you were not interested or did not see all the stories that ensued when Pope Benedict sent a team to investigate seminaries.

Short form — unless you want all my links as proof — the seminaries got cleaned up and are now overflowing with decent and devout men who wish to become a priest.

The same thing will happen with the religious women — just watch — in 10 years their convents will be bulging with young women who wish to pray and serve the Lord.

I’ve got more proof if you want it, BTW!


8 posted on 04/27/2012 8:44:04 AM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: chatham

Last I heard....

Aliens have a base on the Moon and that their leader is Ryan Seacrest and their goal is nothing less than enslaving humanity.


9 posted on 04/27/2012 8:46:40 AM PDT by PanzerKardinal (Some things are so idiotic only an intellectual would believe it.)
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To: Jack Burton007

Second it. Frankly the anti-Catholic Christian bashing from the non-Catholics is one of the things that I find a turn off.


10 posted on 04/27/2012 9:06:48 AM PDT by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: chatham

PLEASE, the RC Church has stepped up and has gone ABOVE and BEYOND resolving the issue.


11 posted on 04/27/2012 9:09:26 AM PDT by Biggirl ("Jesus talked to us as individuals"-Jim Vicevich/Thanks JimV!)
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To: chatham

I heard you were gay.


12 posted on 04/27/2012 9:28:22 AM PDT by AdamBomb
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To: chatham
What if anything has the hierarchy done to remedy this situation?

It is an ongoing battle. For those interested -some links to documents and some excerpts:

Catholic documents and teaching on subject of homosexuality:

  1. The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality - Guidelines for Education within the Family

    104. A particular problem that can appear during the process of sexual maturation is homosexuality, which is also spreading more and more in urbanized societies. This phenomenon must be presented with balanced judgement, in the light of the documents of the Church. Young people need to be helped to distinguish between the concepts of what is normal and abnormal, between subjective guilt and objective disorder, avoiding what would arouse hostility. On the other hand, the structural and complementary orientation of sexuality must be well clarified in relation to marriage, procreation and Christian chastity. "Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained". A distinction must be made between a tendency that can be innate and acts of homosexuality that "are intrinsically disordered" and contrary to Natural Law.

    Especially when the practice of homosexual acts has not become a habit, many cases can benefit from appropriate therapy. In any case, persons in this situation must be accepted with respect, dignity and delicacy, and all forms of unjust discrimination must be avoided. If parents notice the appearance of this tendency or of related behaviour in their children, during childhood or adolescence, they should seek help from expert qualified persons in order to obtain all possible assistance.

    For most homosexual persons, this condition constitutes a trial. "They must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfil God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition". "Homosexual persons are called to chastity".

  2. Persona Humana - Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics

    VIII At the present time there are those who, basing themselves on observations in the psychological order, have begun to judge indulgently, and even to excuse completely, homosexual relations between certain people. This they do in opposition to the constant teaching of the Magisterium and to the moral sense of the Christian people.

    A distinction is drawn, and it seems with some reason, between homosexuals whose tendency comes from a false education, from a lack of normal sexual development, from habit, from bad example, or from other similar causes, and is transitory or at least not incurable; and homosexuals who are definitively such because of some kind of innate instinct or a pathological constitution judged to be incurable.

    In regard to this second category of subjects, some people conclude that their tendency is so natural that it justifies in their case homosexual relations within a sincere communion of life and love analogous to marriage, in so far as such homosexuals feel incapable of enduring a solitary life.

    In the pastoral field, these homosexuals must certainly be treated with understanding and sustained in the hope of overcoming their personal difficulties and their inability to fit into society. Their culpability will be judged with prudence. But no pastoral method can be employed which would give moral justification to these acts on the grounds that they would be consonant with the condition of such people. For according to the objective moral order, homosexual relations are acts which lack an essential and indispensable finality. In Sacred Scripture they are condemned as a serious depravity and even presented as the sad consequence of rejecting God. This judgment of Scripture does not of course permit us to conclude that all those who suffer from this anomaly are personally responsible for it, but it does attest to the fact that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and can in no case be approved of.

  3. Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons

    10. It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church's pastors wherever it occurs. It reveals a kind of disregard for others which endangers the most fundamental principles of a healthy society. The intrinsic dignity of each person must always be respected in word, in action and in law.

    But the proper reaction to crimes committed against homosexual persons should not be to claim that the homosexual condition is not disordered. When such a claim is made and when homosexual activity is consequently condoned, or when civil legislation is introduced to protect behavior to which no one has any conceivable right, neither the Church nor society at large should be surprised when other distorted notions and practices gain ground, and irrational and violent reactions increase.

    11. It has been argued that the homosexual orientation in certain cases is not the result of deliberate choice; and so the homosexual person would then have no choice but to behave in a homosexual fashion. Lacking freedom, such a person, even if engaged in homosexual activity, would not be culpable.

    Here, the Church's wise moral tradition is necessary since it warns against generalizations in judging individual cases. In fact, circumstances may exist, or may have existed in the past, which would reduce or remove the culpability of the individual in a given instance; or other circumstances may increase it. What is at all costs to be avoided is the unfounded and demeaning assumption that the sexual behaviour of homosexual persons is always and totally compulsive and therefore inculpable. What is essential is that the fundamental liberty which characterizes the human person and gives him his dignity be recognized as belonging to the homosexual person as well. As in every conversion from evil, the abandonment of homosexual activity will require a profound collaboration of the individual with God's liberating grace.

  4. Some Considerations Concerning the Response to Legislative Proposals on Non-discrimination of Homosexual Persons

    II. Applications

    10. "Sexual orientation" does not constitute a quality comparable to race, ethnic background, etc. in respect to non-discrimination. Unlike these, homosexual orientation is an objective disorder (cf. "Letter," No. 3) and evokes moral concern.

    11. There are areas in which it is not unjust discrimination to take sexual orientation into account, for example, in the placement of children for adoption or foster care, in employment of teachers or athletic coaches, and in military recruitment.

    13. Including "homosexual orientation" among the considerations on the basis of which it is illegal to discriminate can easily lead to regarding homosexuality as a positive source of human rights, for example, in respect to so-called affirmative action or preferential treatment in hiring practices. This is all the more deleterious since there is no right to homosexuality (cf. No. 10) which therefore should not form the basis for judicial claims. The passage from the recognition of homosexuality as a factor on which basis it is illegal to discriminate can easily lead, if not automatically, to the legislative protection and promotion of homosexuality. A person's homosexuality would be invoked in opposition to alleged discrimination, and thus the exercise of rights would be defended precisely via the affirmation of the homosexual condition instead of in terms of a violation of basic human rights.

  5. Third World Meeting of Families: Conclusions of the Pastoral Theological Congress

    Mention should also be made of recent attempts to legalize adoptions by homosexual persons, and this must be strongly rejected. It is obvious that this is not the situation for authentic up-bringing and personalizing growth. “The bond between two men or two women cannot constitute a real family, nor much less can the right be attributed to a union of this kind to adopt children without a family”. With regard to foster care and adoption, the great principle to be applied is always the child’s higher interests which much prevail over other considerations.

  6. Fourth World Meeting of Families: Conclusions of the Pastoral Theological Congress

    We reaffirm the rights and dignity of all children. They should never be neglected and abandoned on the streets. They should be protected, especially when threatened by exploitation through prostitution, pornography, child-labor, drug trafficking, homosexual adoption and immoral "sex education". A new threat to children is posed by the misuse of the Internet, when this intrudes into family life and undermines the rights and duties of parents.

    Children are the "crown of marriage", the real wealth of humanity. The natural place for their education is the family. It is here, in the community of life and love, that they are formed as members of Christ's Church. It is here that, honoring and loving their parents, they can enrich the lives of all members of the wider family.

  7. Considerations Regarding Proposals To Give Legal Recognition To Unions Between Homosexual Persons

    4. There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and family. Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural moral law. Homosexual acts “close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved”.

    7. Homosexual unions are totally lacking in the biological and anthropological elements of marriage and family which would be the basis, on the level of reason, for granting them legal recognition. Such unions are not able to contribute in a proper way to the procreation and survival of the human race. The possibility of using recently discovered methods of artificial reproduction, beyond involving a grave lack of respect for human dignity, does nothing to alter this inadequacy.

    Homosexual unions are also totally lacking in the conjugal dimension, which represents the human and ordered form of sexuality. Sexual relations are human when and insofar as they express and promote the mutual assistance of the sexes in marriage and are open to the transmission of new life.

    As experience has shown, the absence of sexual complementarity in these unions creates obstacles in the normal development of children who would be placed in the care of such persons. They would be deprived of the experience of either fatherhood or motherhood. Allowing children to be adopted by persons living in such unions would actually mean doing violence to these children, in the sense that their condition of dependency would be used to place them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development. This is gravely immoral and in open contradiction to the principle, recognized also in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, that the best interests of the child, as the weaker and more vulnerable party, are to be the paramount consideration in every case.

  8. Religiosorum Institutio

    30. Those To Be Excluded; Practical Directives

    Advantage to religious vows and ordination should be barred to those who are afflicted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute serious dangers.

  9. Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders

    Introduction

    In continuity with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and, in particular, with the Decree Optatam Totius[1] on priestly formation, the Congregation for Catholic Education has published various Documents with the aim of promoting a suitable, integral formation of future priests, by offering guidelines and precise norms regarding its diverse aspects.[2] In the meantime, the 1990 Synod of Bishops also reflected on the formation of priests in the circumstances of the present day, with the intention of bringing to completion the doctrine of the Council on this theme and making it more explicit and effective in today's world. Following this Synod, Pope John Paul II published the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis.

    In light of this abundant teaching, the present Instruction does not intend to dwell on all questions in the area of affectivity and sexuality that require an attentive discernment during the entire period of formation. Rather, it contains norms concerning a specific question, made more urgent by the current situation, and that is: whether to admit to the seminary and to holy orders candidates who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies.


13 posted on 04/27/2012 11:38:57 AM PDT by DBeers (†)
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To: Cronos
The Vatican's Corrective to Liberal Catholics
The Church and the Sisters: What Is Really Happening?
Media and Nuns Colluding in Deception, Says Expert: Vatican’s Reform no David and Goliath Battle
The Real Shock...
A Catholic ‘war on women’ {Barf alert/liberal tripe}
The Vatican and the Sisters
The Vatican and the Sisters
NPR Offers Air to Catholic Sister to Diss Pope, Bishops: 'Women Get It First Then Explain to Guys'

Important Background Information About the CDF-LCWR Situation
Nuns Gone Wild: A Trip Down Memory Lane
Exhibit A for Explaining the LCWR Report
Vatican Crackdown on U.S. Nuns a Long Time Brewing
LCWR: getting to the truth of the matter (the blogosphere response to CDF document)
Radical feminist nuns’ group ‘stunned’ by Vatican criticisms, reform plan
Vatican announces reform of US women's religious conference (more details)
Citing doctrinal problems, Vatican announces reforms of US nuns' group
In hard-hitting document Vatican launches clean-up of feminist nuns in United States
LCWR Having a Bad Day. Vatican Names Archbishop Delegate to Continue Watching LCWR and Network

14 posted on 04/27/2012 4:23:54 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: DBeers

Great information, However it doesn’t answer the question.
What is the Hierarchy doing about the Huge number of practicing Priests who admit to being Homosexual.
They can’t all be suffering in Silence.
Contrary to your information the problem continues to cause massive problems of Credibility for the Catholic Church.


15 posted on 04/28/2012 4:18:04 AM PDT by chatham
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To: DBeers

Great information, However it doesn’t answer the question.
What is the Hierarchy doing about the Huge number of practicing Priests who admit to being Homosexual.
They can’t all be suffering in Silence.
Contrary to your information the problem continues to cause massive problems of Credibility for the Catholic Church.


16 posted on 04/28/2012 4:18:13 AM PDT by chatham
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To: Cronos

There are books written by Priests who were men who were in charge of Seminaries and were fully knowledgeable of the situations.
These books were printed about 2004 by active priests .
The numbers quoted in the books were between 20% TO 50%.


17 posted on 04/28/2012 4:26:30 AM PDT by chatham
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To: Cronos

There are books written by Priests who were men who were in charge of Seminaries and were fully knowledgeable of the situations.
These books were printed about 2004 by active priests .
The numbers quoted in the books were between 20% TO 50%.


18 posted on 04/28/2012 4:26:42 AM PDT by chatham
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To: chatham
Great information, However it doesn’t answer the question.

Care to show me ANY other supposed authentic Church that has published such information let alone not been coerced into teaching lies and embracing the homosexual agenda?

What is the Hierarchy doing about the Huge number of practicing Priests who admit to being Homosexual. They can’t all be suffering in Silence.

They are eliminating the problem one step at a time regardless the gnashing of teeth from one extreme comprised of those who think such is unfair or bigoted or those from the other extreme who demand immediate resolution. Now to the flawed premise of your query --the first question being: What exactly would make you happy? Followed by the obvious second question: Why does your opinion matter? Finally, the final question, if your opinion, why not other opinions? See where this goes...

Contrary to your information the problem continues to cause massive problems of Credibility for the Catholic Church.

Contrary to your feeling and opinion, it is the teaching body, the body of faith, the Magesterium that is authentic and without error. The credibility is right there in what I presented REGARDLESS any actions or inactions of imperfect men before, now, or later.

I would suggest that the credibility you seek (your road to Damascus) is of the world, and the critics seeking such, shall not prevail against the credibility of the Church just as the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

19 posted on 04/29/2012 10:59:10 PM PDT by DBeers (†)
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To: DBeers

Just keep believing and the church will continue to deminish and lose the faithful.
As far as the Magesterium are concerned,
“ The road to Hell is paved with the skulls of Bishops”.


20 posted on 04/30/2012 7:16:50 AM PDT by chatham
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