[livius]

"the determination of a person's spiritual readiness rests with the individual conscience and honesty of individual worshippers."

That's true, but the "Rainbow Sash" publicly declared which side their "conscience" was on. I guess the Bishop's was on the same side.

[Mark in the Old South]

"Elaine Eyre, who was there to support the Rainbow Sash Alliance, said you can't judge people. "We don't know what's in someone's heart," she said."

Some people are blithering idiots, what does this airhead think the rainbow sash symbolizes about what is in their heart. Leprechaun liberation? Stop the world, I want off, I think I'm gonna hurl!

[NYer]

Elaine Eyre, who was there to support the Rainbow Sash Alliance, said you can't judge people. "We don't know what's in someone's heart," she said.

Oh yes we can! The minute they put on that 'rainbow sash', they have declared themselves as active homosexuals, which is TOTALLY out of line with Catholic teaching.

The official position of the Catholic Church on Gay Unions:
CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING PROPOSALS TO GIVE LEGAL RECOGNITION TO UNIONS BETWEEN HOMOSEXUAL PERSONS

We have bishops and priests now who refuse to deny the Eucharist to people who are in public sin. They refuse to make the distinction between private and public. For instance, if I knew that one of you was living a sinful life and you came up to the communion rail, I would have to give you Holy Communion because, number one, I do not know if you have been to Confession; or even if I know that you had not, to deny you Holy Communion would cause a scandal because it would draw the attention to other people that what you are doing privately is now being made public. So unless I talk to you first and tell you, “If you come up to Communion, I will not give you Holy Communion,” the Church says that even though it is a sacrilege on your part to receive Holy Communion if you are in the state of mortal sin, I would still have to give you Communion. However, if one is a politician who has a public record of being pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia, pro-human-cloning, if there is some other public exposition of your sin, like these unfortunate souls who show up all over the place with rainbow sashes telling people that they are practicing a homosexual lifestyle and demanding that they receive Holy Communion, at that point, it is a sacrilege on the part of the priest to give them Holy Communion because their sin is no longer private – it is now public. But there are many who do not want to cause waves, and so they refuse to stand up for Jesus; instead, being politically correct is what is more important.
Fr. Robert Altier
FULL TEXT

Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list

[JimRed]

A homosexual Catholic who is celibate need only confess to whatever impure thoughts his sickness cause, do the required penance, and be absolved. Just like a normal individual who thinks about improper sexual behavior but resists the temptation. That's the ritual, anyway.

Just confessing in prayer and asking Christ for forgiveness is all it really takes. God hates the sin, but loves the sinner.

[formercalifornian]

I'm not a Catholic, but it seems to me that those wearing sashes are deliberately defying the teachings of the Catholic church and saying, "I plan to sin, I see no need of forgiveness for my blatant sin, but I want to draw you into my own pretense of receiving forgiveness. I am mocking the church's teaching that my sin is a sin and you MUST pretend with me. I am here to pretend I need to be absolved of a sin I don't want to be forgiven of and don't plan to stop commiting."

[longtermmemmory]

You can't judge?!!

No politics in the Church?!!

The homosexuals are judging in the chruch, The homosexuals are brining politics by inviting the cameras into the church. This is the church not a burger king have it your way burger.

I hope they keep the opposition to the homosexuals up. This priest is a digrace for condoning homosexuality.

[B Knotts]

The Rev. Michael Skluzacek, in a written statement handed to people as they entered the cathedral, said the groups were "mistakenly using the Mass and the Eucharist to make their own personal statements."

BZZZT!

One group is making a personal statement that they openly oppose the teaching of the Church.

The other group is affirming Church teaching.

Equating them does a disservice to all the laity.

[Cicero]

Where was the bishop? Out to lunch?

"Heather Siewart said she came to support the Ushers of the Eucharist, even though she's Protestant."

Interesting factoid. I believe that faithful Protestants and Catholics will be coming together more and more to oppose the anti-Christians.

The health of the Catholic Church has a major effect on everyone living in our country, including Protestants and Jews. And in turn the health of Protestant and Jewish groups also effects everybody. America has always depended on the religious faith and morality of its citizens to make it a place where people can be free, as de Toqueville noted long ago.

[sweetliberty]

"...a group that donned rainbow-colored sashes and ribbons in support of a right for gay Catholics to receive communion"

In the first place, there is no RIGHT to communion, but that which is granted by God. In the second place, if the priest of the church is giving communion to practicing queers, then it is unlikely that a group of laypeople are going to make a difference. Why, if they (the laypeople) are so concerned, are they staying in a church that goes against their conscience and which defies the scriptures?

Who do these perverts think they are anyway? Why do they think they have the right to usurp the authority of the church?

[sweetliberty]

"We don't know what's in someone's heart,"

Well, I think the rainbow sash is a dead giveaway of their arrogance, defiance of the church and refusal to repent of their sin and that says a great deal about what is in their hearts. I should think that it would be revealing enough that a man of God might be inclined to deny communion for their own spiritual good. Withholding the sacrament is not meant as a punishment so much as a persuasion to repentance.

"For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body." (1 Corin. 11:29)

[scripter]

Continuing to ping for lj.

Homosexual Agenda: Categorical Index of Links (Version 1.1)

Homosexual Agenda: Categorical Index of Links (Version 1.0)

Homosexual Agenda Index (bump list)

Homosexual Agenda Keyword Search

[k omalley]

I believe that the Church is going to be forced to go underground, perhaps because of persecution but mainly because her Mass and most holy sacraments are being turned into a circus and a travesty by pro-abortionists and homosexual activists.

[Aliska]

I wouldn't be surprised but what some misguided heterosexual homosexual supporters (there are quite a few of them out there now) donned the sash to make common cause with them.

I'd feel better about everything if the church had leaders who were more willing to go to the mat for what the church teaches. I fear things will only get worse unless they start drawing some lines.

Wearing a rainbow sash to church *is* a political statement. They are the ones who are politicizing the mass by so doing.

[Integrityrocks]

What I just don't get is this: The Church of England, Episcopal church, either way you want to say it.. embraces the "gay" agenda. There are only a few differences between the Roman Catholic Church and the Episcopal doctrine. The one major one being the infallibility of the Pope and the second being the true presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist. Now, since the pope does not embrace the "gay" agenda and the gay congregation clearly does not embrace the doctrine of the Eucharist being truly the body and blood of Christ - why do they even want to be in a Roman Catholic church. Re: the Eucharist. The Church teaches under the infallibility of the Pope, that you cannot receive the Eucharist in the state of sin. Any Catholic who is living with someone and/or engaging in sex (even heterosexual) outside of a "sacramental" marriage, is living in sin. This isn't just a "gay" issue. You are not allowed to receive the Eucharist in the state of "living in sin", hence the whole Kerry flap. People who embrace a believe against Roman Catholic Infallible doctrine, are not allowed to receive communion. So, why do they even want to be Catholic?

[Arthur McGowan]

In a written statement, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said that while only baptized Catholics should take Holy Communion, "the determination of a person's spiritual readiness rests with the individual conscience and honesty of individual worshippers."

That's a selective and dishonest quotation. The Archdiocesan statement said that only baptized Catholics in the state of grace should receive Communion. Its statement made very clear that the sash wearers should NOT receive Communion, while still saying that no one would be denied Communion.

[Unam Sanctam]

In a written statement, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis said that while only baptized Catholics should take Holy Communion, "the determination of a person's spiritual readiness rests with the individual conscience and honesty of individual worshippers."

This is simply not enough. The bishops have a duty to tell Catholics that they need to inform their consciences by the teaching of the Church, which is that absolution must be obtained for any mortal sin before one should approach the sacrament.

[Petronski]

Several alliance members shouted back: "Yes it is!"

"Yeth it ith!"

[Bernard]

Since Christians have routinely broken away from the original church for hundreds of years, it looks like time to have a Homosexual Protestant church established. After all, it's what other Protestants have done.

If these people were sincere in their statement that they want to be accepted as believers, that is what they would do. If they are just interested in publicity, then they would disrupt traditional Catholic services to prove a point.

Oh, wait a minute...

[SuziQ]

Doug Hughes, a rainbow sash wearer, said gays have received the Eucharist on Pentecost Sunday for centuries.

Then that's between themselves and God, and they have had to answer for it. When they make a public statement that's in defiance to a WELL-KNOWN Church teaching it goes beyond individual conscience and into the public square.

These folks are USING the Church to force their lifestyle on the other parishoners and they have no right to do that. The priest should have asked them to remove their sashes or LEAVE!

[evets]

God loves you. Everyone else thinks that you're gay.