Posted on 06/17/2019 5:25:08 PM PDT by ebb tide
PETITION: Support Canadian priest rebuked by archbishop for opposing LGBT Pride. Sign the petition here.
PICTON, Ontario, June 17, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A Catholic priest who told his parishioners last week that they should “not attend” pro-homosexual pride events in June is standing by his message despite pushback from LGBT activists and even his own archbishop.
LGBT activists demonstrating outside St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church in Picton, Ontario, Sunday, June 16, 2019. Jeff Gunnarson
Fr. Robert Chisholm of St. Gregory the Great Parish in Picton, Ontario refused to apologize this weekend for the anti-Pride bulletin announcement despite more than a hundred LGBT protesters in rainbow regalia showing up outside his church doors on Sunday to protest and despite being publicly reproached by his archbishop.
Last week, Fr. Chisholm told parishioners, as reported by LifeSiteNews, that “Catholics and all other Christians should not attend LGBTQ2 'Pride Month' events held this month.”
“They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Christian faith and morals. This is especially harmful to children because it could lead them away from God’s revealed Truth,” he wrote in his June 9 bulletin.
Fr. Robert Chisholm bulletin announcement, June 9, 2019.
The announcement provoked immediate backlash from LGBT activists who organized a demonstration outside the parish during the 10 AM Mass on Sunday.
"Let’s keep it loving... the words of one bigot don’t follow the congregation. He does have to know that this is a loving and accepting community,” stated LGBT supporter Tabitha Kay about the protest in a Facebook post.
Faithful Catholics within the Church prior to the 10 AM Mass responded by praying the rosary and the St. Michael’s prayer for safety and protection.
Parishioners and supporters of Fr. Chisholm during Sunday Mass at St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church in Picton, Ontario, June 16, 2019. Jeff Gunnarson
Kingston Archbishop Michael Mulhall issued a statement on the archdiocese’s website late Friday afternoon, calling the priest’s statement “inappropriate.”
“I did not sanction this message, and it does not reflect the spirit of accompanying charity and compassion that should always characterize our faith. The archdiocese has spoken with the pastor of the parish. He regrets any hurt his inappropriate comments have caused,” Archbishop Mulhall stated.
LifeSiteNews reached out to Archbishop Mulhall by phone to ask what was “inappropriate” about the priest’s statement, but did not receive a response by press time.
Instead of giving his customary homily during the Sunday service, Fr. Chisholm told the congregation that he was going to read a statement about the matter that came from the archbishop’s office since he had been directly told that he should not preach a homily.
In a three sentence paragraph, the priest referenced the comments that were made in last week’s bulletin relating to Pride month. He said that he now realizes some Catholics and non-Catholics were “offended” by the bulletin announcement. He then said that he apologizes for “any hurt” that he caused.
St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church in Picton, Ontario.
Jeff Gunnarson, national president of Campaign Life Coalition, who attended the morning Mass in support of Fr. Chisholm, told LifeSiteNews that the priest “read that statement in such a way that he did not apologize.”
“Fr. Chisholm made it clear that this was not his statement,” he said.
Gunnarson related that after the homily, Fr. Chisholm walked from the pulpit to the sanctuary where he led the congregation in the Church’s custom of reciting the Nicene Creed. It was after this that the priest was moved to sing “Faith of Our Fathers,” a 1849 famous Catholic hymn that commemorates the English martyrs who held fast in their faith rather than submit to the church of England created by Henry VIII and Elizabeth.
The words of the song sung by Fr. Chisholm are the following:
Faith of our Fathers! living still
In spite of dungeon, fire, and sword:
Oh, how our hearts beat high with joy
Whene'er we hear that glorious word.
Faith of our Fathers! Holy Faith!
We will be true to thee till death.
Commented Gunnarson: “Prior to singing the song, Fr. Chisholm explained that the song, when it mentions ‘dungeon, fire, and sword,’ refers to the various ways these Catholic martyrs were put to death.”
“While not commenting on his previous bulletin announcement in any way, it was as if Fr. Chisholm were telling the congregation that we need to proclaim the faith today without apology, without hesitation, even if it means becoming martyrs for the faith,” he said.
“It’s as if he were saying that this is how we respond to such events as Catholics: We have to look to the martyrs,” he added.
Gunnarson commented on Archbishop Mulhall calling the priest’s bulletin announcement “inappropriate,” saying that it was really the Archbishop’s statement that was “inappropriate.”
“Fr. Chisholm did the right thing to educate his parishioners about the danger of Pride events, basically warning them that participating in these events could be to the ruin of their souls.”
“It’s downright cowardly to not back up your priest who's come out boldly against lifestyles and choices that are contrary to Catholic morals and teaching,” he added.
The Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered” since they are “contrary to the natural law” and they “close the sexual act to the gift of life.” The Church also teaches that same-sex attraction itself is “objectively disordered” since God created sexual attraction to be between a male and female for the sake of procreation.
The Church teaches that everybody, including those with a disordered sexuality — often expressing itself in lust, masturbation, fornication, pornography, homosexuality — are called to chastity, that is to the moral virtue of a rightly ordered sexuality integrated within the person. The Christian faith holds that homosexual acts, along with murdering the innocent, depriving a laborer of his wages, and oppressing the poor, are one of the four sins that cry to heaven for justice.
Gay Pride parades, often touted as “family friendly,” often involve nudity, participants engaging in mock-homosexual acts as they march along the parade route, and even participants engaging in mock acts of sadomasochism, wearing nothing but leather straps and other bondage gear.
“Your kids will probably see boobs and penises. There will [be] bodies of all shapes, sizes and in all states of undress,” wrote the CBC's Alice Lawlor in 2016 as she outlined to parents what they can expect when they bring their family to a Pride Parade.
Participants usually perform hyper-sexualized dancing with twerking and grinding. This year at a Washington D.C. Pride event, pro-LGBT revelers vandalized a police car [WARNING: Link leads to sexually graphic material] by climbing onto the hood and performing public sexual acts with various parts of the car.
It is generally acknowledged by those on the right and left that the parades exist to push the acceptance of homosexual lifestyles and the behaviors that go with it.
A petition in support of Fr. Chisholm launched by LifeSiteNews has been signed by over 1,500 people.
“Thank you for your courage in fulfilling your duty to keep your flock safe by warning them of the spiritual danger of partaking in LGBT ‘Pride Month’ events,” the petition states.
“The LGBT ‘Pride’ message is increasingly overtaking the culture right now, and is even infiltrating the Church herself, presenting a grievous risk to our faith and the faith of our children,” it continues.
“As Catholics, we believe that all men and women deserve respect and compassion, but at the same time, we can never ‘respect’ sin or an agenda to promote sin. We support you and pray that the archbishop will repent of his actions, and choose rather to defend you in the face of these protests,” it adds.
Archbishop Michael Mulhall
Archdiocese of Kingston, Ontario
Ph: (613) 548-4461
chancery@romancatholic.kingston.on.ca
To support Fr. Robert Chisholm
Ph: (613)-476-6276
stgregory@sympatico.ca
This posting by FR’s says it best and when printed up makes a good bumper sticker or poster;
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3749188/posts/#40
it reads CELEBRATE PERVERSITY each word is against a rainbow background. .
If Archbishop Mulhall hasn’t actually given the guy the ax he is, for Canada, taking a fair bit of heat.
It’s worth noting that the good Archbishop doesn’t take issue with the truth of the statement. And I can vouch with some confidence that the Archbishop would agree that the statement is fundamentally true.
FWIW—the Archbishop was consecrated by Archbishop Ventura back when Ventura was still in Canada. There is presently a thread going on Ventura.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/religion/3757602/posts?page=1
Archbishop Mulhall still administrator of the diocese where Lifesite itself is headquartered and has offered them a lot of cover from the rest of the Episcopal conference.
Knowing the Archbishop to some degree, as well as Canada, I can assure you that the Archbishop understands that the only thing that would make the priest’s detractors happy is a head on a platter, but that they just might be satisfied by forcing the priest into retirement.
I think the Archbishop would prefer not having his own head on a platter and not having his priests in the media.
Making national news for a few days and then being silenced forever may or may not be what various people are called to do.
Archbishop Mulhall is no Pope John Paul II.
Yes. Archbishop Mulhall can skin a moose, is a fairly extreme introvert (esp. for a bishop) and prefers a tree-stand to a stage.
Canada of 2019 is no Rome of 2000.
I’m confident that Mulhall would have sniffed out Maciel, and he does take abuse by the clergy seriously.
Mulhall served as vicar spiritual in cleaning up the absolute mess left behind by Doyle in Peterborough, and then succeeded O’Brien twice—albeit with Smith in-between in the first instance.
“regretting any hurt” is about as nothing of an apology as you can make.
I disagree. Mulhall sided with the queers at the expense of an orthodox priest trying to protect his flock.
Disgusting
Worrying about “hurting” the feelings of people who openly celebrate sodomy in parades is not what I would call a quality of an orthodox bishop.
I’m sure Jesus Christ hurt quite a few feelings in His time.
If hurt feelings are merely collateral damage in an action that has some positive effect I agree with you.
I live in a small Ontario town somewhat like Picton (ok, we’re just about a quarter of Picton’s size, and two of our three Churches are Catholic and we have three priests, so there are some dissimilarities). I drove by Picton a week ago. I can’t picture the bulletin announcement being anything but preaching to the choir. To the extent that the bulletin is going to have any effect, it will be negative.
Keep it in the pulpit.
Again, I disagree; I think any effects have been positive, in the Catholic sense, not in the PC sense, howerver.
And what's wrong with preaching to the choir? It's not like the priest took out a full page add in the Picton Gazette.
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