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Faithful Catholics in the Australian diocese of Wollongong are expressing frustration after the bishop canceled a presentation defending marriage, instead joining LGBT activists in their pro-homosexual propaganda on church property. On June 14 the Australian Family Association (AFA) was scheduled to deliver a presentation at the hall of St. Therese Catholic School in Wollongong, about 50 miles south of Sydney. The AFA describes as its mission "to cultivate within society an appreciation that the integrity and well-being of the family is essential to the stability, morale, security and prosperity of the Australian nation." A flyer for the event was emailed...

Like Any Progressive Disease, Sin Has Stages Msgr. Charles Pope • June 22, 2016 • How does it happen that so many people insist on living obstinately in sin until they are ultimately lost? As with all progressive diseases, sin is a sickness that moves through stages, further debilitating and hardening the sinner in his ways.St. Alphonsus Liguori laid out five stages through which sin (if not resisted and repented of in its initial attacks) takes an increasing toll on the human person, making repentance less likely and more difficult.While the names of the stages are mine, I am...

DETROIT (ChurchMilitant.com) - There is a growing movement with Christianity calling for greater acceptance of homosexuality. It is voicing itself differently depending on whether its of a Protestant or Catholic stripe, but it is increasing. Although diverging, for the time being, over the question of any sexual activity being immoral, both Protestant and Catholics who identify as gay are doing what they can to move the needle to a greater acceptance of homosexuality in general among followers and adherents. Within the Protestant world, a number of big name musicians continue a parade of announcing they are gay. The most recent...

Here is what I want to say to Christians for whom the fact that “transgender people are clearly happier and healthier and more fully alive when they are allowed to be transgender” is not a good enough reason to accept transgender people into their homes, workplaces, schools, and bathrooms: Since Jesus had no human biological father, and since God, his heavenly Father, lacks a body, then Jesus was a man who likely had no Y chromosome. Would this not make Jesus more like a transgender person than a cis-gender one? We could grant Jesus a Y chromosome, but then we...

Sin Can Be Attractive Bait, but There’s Always a Hook Msgr. Charles Pope • May 9, 2016 • Satan, it would seem, does not act in an arbitrary manner when trying to tempt us. Rather, he is more a master hunter carefully setting traps, or a skilled fisherman studying behavior in order to choose the most effective bait. Satan is calculating and clever.Sadly, most of us are far less calculating and clever in seeking to avoid temptation and sin. We often engage in the wishful thinking that no trouble will befall us. Our strategy seems to depend more on...

Last week, one of my recent articles was published on The Gospel Coalition website. I have realized over the years that any time I write about the ever-controversial topic of homosexuality, I should expect a couple truckloads of criticism to come rolling into the comments section. This TGC article was no exception. I scrolled through "the aftermath" on Facebook and Twitter the day following its publishing, trying my best to humbly process the comments of some disgruntled readers. Quite a few people commended my commitment to celibacy but also shared that they believe my ongoing experience of same-sex attraction is...

Adam Hamilton has once more entered into the fray of making pronouncements about what the Bible does and does not advocate when it comes to same sex sexual activity and same sex marriage, and you can read his post here, http://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/6876/the-bible-homosexuality-and-the-umc-part-one only the first of four such posts leading up to the General Conference in a couple of weeks. My concern is with the misinterpretation of the Bible in this post as well as the misrepresentation of Methodist cultural trends at various points and so once you’ve read what Adam says, then consider the following response. In the first place,...

For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;(Romans 1:25-27)We live in baffling times. The very...

The pope’s pastoral outreach to the divorced and civilly remarried in his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”) has been widely praised, but some feel that gays got short shrift. Pope Francis explores the possibility of those in “irregular” marriages receiving Communion after having entered a process of conscience formation and discernment with their pastor (“the internal forum”) and other committed Christians. He also calls for compassion and flexibility when ministering to engaged couples cohabitating without the benefit of marriage. “Hence it can no longer simply be said that all those in any ‘irregular’ situation are living in...

A Charlotte waitress says she was infuriated and hurt when a group of ladies left a message for her on their bill – taking aim at her sexual orientation. Alexandra Judd works at Zada Janes in Charlotte’s Plaza Midwood. She says a group of patrons she served for lunch Tuesday morning left her a “hateful message” in lieu of a tip. A Bible verse was left on the tip pointing Judd to Leviticus 20:13. “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination,” the King James version of the...

Today I want to address a popular argument made by those who try to reconcile homosexuality with Christianity. The argument is that Jesus Himself never said a word about homosexuality. Those who make this argument grant that Paul condemned it as sinful (Rom 1:26–27; 1 Cor 6:9–10; 1 Tim 1:9–10). But the sentiment behind this objection is that Paul had corrupted the way of life and the ideology that Jesus came to propagate, and that Jesus would have been “loving” and “accepting” of homosexuals, just as they are. But is it true that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality? Actually,...

Who knows our sin? While Scripture could be taken to mean saints in heaven are aware of details of our sin, it is unlikely Msgr. Charles PopeMarch 27, 2016 Question: Do the souls in heaven know our sins, or is that knowledge reserved to God alone?— Peter Tate, Long Beach, California Answer: We are in the realm of speculative theology when it comes to answering questions like this. However, it does not seem to pertain to God’s justice that he would reveal our sins to others (even the saints in heaven), especially our more hidden sins. We are not...

Pope Francis, who has long revealed his liberal positions through interviews, came out on Friday in an official statement calling on Catholics to be more accepting of homosexuals as well as divorced Catholics. While he didn't change official church doctrines in his paper, which is an "apostolic exhortation" instructing Catholics on how to live, the pope paved the way for a serious shift in the Catholic church away from central tenets of the faith. "A pastor cannot feel that it is enough simply to apply moral laws...as if they were stones to throw at people's lives," he wrote in the...

Utopia has arrived. We’ll all be sinless from now on. April Fools’! The older I get the more I see we cannot eliminate sin, but we must try to contain it. Containment means allowing some divorce but ending no-fault ease. It means allowing some welfare but ending easy pickings. It means allowing small federal and state budget deficits but not the large ones we now have. Wise store managers work to minimize shoplifting, but they know a few thieves will get away. Wise officials have the same sense regarding graft and corruption. Otherwise, they and we are April fools. Thirteen...

Much has been written about the sacrament of reconciliation — the theology behind it, the scriptural evidence for it, the power and benefits of it for penitents. But what’s it like, experientially, for a priest to hear the sins of others week after week and month after month? Can it be a burden? Does it affect a priest’s spiritual life? Aleteia’s lifestyle editor, Zoe Romanowsky, asked Msgr. Charles Pope about what it’s been like to hear confessions over his 24 years as a priest. Msgr. Charles Pope is the pastor of Holy Comforter-St. Cyprian in Washington DC. He is a...

God loves His world — loves it so much that He set in motion a perfect plan to erase evil by offering sin’s ultimate redemption on a cross at Calvary In his superbly crafted poem entitled “The Creation,” famed African-American poet and educator, James Weldon Johnson, uses majestic imagery to explain how God built the cosmos. The Creator’s hands are key to this imagery, as illustrated in the following lines: Then God reached out and took the light in His hands, And God rolled the light in His hands Until He made the sun; And He set that sun a-blazing...

Every now and then I’m reminded of just how clever Satan can be, especially during Lent.Consider, for example, a pernicious little sin that seems to have taken root and grown in the age of social media: detraction. I’ve been seeing it more and more. Nobody really talks about it or the harm it inflicts — though the pope has stressed, often, the inherent evil of its close cousin,  gossip. (The pontiff has even compared gossip to terrorism.)So what’s the big deal? Let me count the ways.First, the catechism teaches that detraction is a sin against the eighth commandment: 2477 Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and...

We've been thinking over the confusion coming out of Pope Francis' latest in-flight interview and the danger that this poses to souls throughout the world; exacerbated as this all is by the many sensationalist headlines breaking everywhere, by Fr. Lombardi's deepening of the problem and by the silence of the world's bishops and priests. We want to offer a few pointers to help anyone who may be feeling confused, let-down or even shaken in their faith. 1. Know that the Magisterium of the Church has consistently affirmed the truth relating to the use of contraceptives according to natural and divine...

Genesis 3 is so revealing on how the devil tempts us to make wrong decisions. As a result we disobey God and thus, harm our our selves. He Strikes Up a Conversation"Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?," said the serpent to the woman? You see, how craft and deceiving he is? He didn't approach her with a scary look you see in movies, telling her about his evil intentions. Instead, he struck up a very casual conversation with Eve, where nothing seemed apparently wrong. Be careful of this. The devil is very...

Oh Troubler, why do you trouble us? We had just talked to you, we thought you were doing better… Why did you take your eyes off of Him who comes to us in the midst of every storm? What did you see, when you gazed at the Babylonian garment? What misery was so great that you were willing to sell out, just to relieve it? Did it work? Are you better now? Now, we who love you are miserable? Wouldn’t it be better to suffer than to sin? Which is worse, suffering or sin? Which is the cause and which...