Posted on 02/12/2008 5:29:53 PM PST by Zender500
In concluding her Jan. 30 column about homosexuality and the Catholic Church ("It's not a mortal sin to work for justice"), Mary Jean Smith writes: "The archbishop and others are wrong on this issue. I am not guilty of mortal sin. It is not a sin to love my daughter and work for justice on her behalf."
Here is what Archbishop John Nienstedt actually said:
"Those who actively encourage or promote homosexual acts or such activity within a homosexual lifestyle formally cooperate in a grave evil and, if they do so knowingly and willingly, are guilty of mortal sin," he wrote. "They have broken communion with the church and are prohibited from receiving Holy Communion until they have had a conversion of heart, expressed sorrow for their action and received sacramental absolution from a priest."
What Smith fails to see (or at least acknowledge) is that we can, we may and we must judge actions. It's not the person who is attracted to the same sex whom the church says is bad. The church, in fact, demands that all persons love and respect all other persons as reflections of God himself. It's the surrender to the impulse to act, sexually, on that attraction. That surrender is what the church judges to be wrong. We must love our children and others, but not the sins they commit. Any form of sexual action between two people of the same sex is inherently wrong. It obviates the purpose for which that faculty is intended, procreation.
The author finds "it strange that any reference to persons of homosexual orientation is always reduced to sexual acts." That's because it's not being attracted to the same sex that is wrong, but homosexual acts. The author's story touches the heart, truly. However, it would be no less touching to hear of a son or daughter who had some other condition. The affliction does not justify taking actions that are inherently wrong. At the same time, we (everyone who responds to Christ's call to love and respect all people) are saddened at the injustice and persecution of people, particularly children, who have same-sex attraction. It is not easy to tell them that they must remain chaste, but as Nienstedt said in a further article:
"As a priest and bishop, I have the responsibility before God and in the name of Jesus Christ to call all men and women to conversion, the first step of which is recognizing sinful activity for what it is. Sometimes that is not a comfortable thing to do, but it is always the compassionate thing to do."
Smith has her facts wrong about priests. Only a very small percentage of Catholic priests, about 4 percent, abused children. And 80 percent to 90 percent of the priestly abuse attacks of minors were committed by priests (males) on post-pubescent males. See the report from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice titled "The Nature and Scope of the Problem of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States."
There are good priests, of course, who are afflicted with same-sex attraction, probably some of the most caring and concerned. The vast majority do not give in to the desire for sex with another male, let alone a minor.
Nienstedt, in admonishing those who advocate and condone homosexual activity, either for their children or others, does not act on his authority alone. He is conveying the teaching of the church's magisterium, its teaching authority, as that teaching has existed since the church's inception. We are thankful for him and his insight into and readiness to take on those who, while calling themselves Catholic, misrepresent this important teaching of the church.
Indicating that the bishops have been systematically selected from among the worst priests, not the best.How are Bishops selected? Who chooses and how?
Romans 1: the last 4-5 verses. If you support sin, even if you don't participate, you are as guilty as the perp. That's the fallacy behind Guliani saying, I don't like abortion, but I don't want to tell a woman what she can't do........Guilty!!
Also correct, His was an external temptation - not to go to the cross. Have it all here and now. Eat his fill, have the world as His kingdom.
The same power that raised Christ from the dead is also able to change lives if we would but avail ourselves of it. Sins of all sort fall by the wayside, sexual or otherwise.
Another Scripture is appropriate as well - "To him who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin." - James 4:17
That comes from the argument that Giuliani knows what the right thing is.
There are always exceptions to that rule. A friend of by brothers is a conservative Catholic, a newspaper columnist who constantly stands up against evil yet all his life he has had male attraction/temptation. Yet he does not submit to his temptations nor does he entertain them. His faith is far stronger than his weakness and he refuses to let that darker side rule. His submission is to Christ and the rule of the Church. I must say that I am hard pressed (pun not intended) to think of a man I admire more!
Blessings
Mel
Why would one submit to something they don't entertain? Don't let this man disappoint you. I have never heard of such a non-practicing homo or hetersexual person in mind.
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The bishop is right, of course, in arguing that homosexual acts are sins. Jesus’ words about “lust in the heart” seem to indicate, however, that the bishop needs to rethink whether “same sex attraction” is also a sin.
Homosexuality is destructive, it kills, and it perverts the mind. These are reasons we can understand for God calling it a sin. There are probably other issues that we don’t see, but that God does see. Therefore, those things God calls sin are sin whether I understand it or not.
The bishop (and the Catholic Church) are only injuring themselves by trying to draw a distinction between priest who abuse children and those who abuse adolescents.
It sounds as if they are attempting to excuse sinful behavior. The bishop is entirely off base by bringing it up, and it plays very badly in the media and among those who support the church in its efforts to clean up its system.
The bishop seems very forceful in his views that homosexuality is a sin both in thought and deed:
"As a priest and bishop, I have the responsibility before God and in the name of Jesus Christ to call all men and women to conversion, the first step of which is recognizing sinful activity for what it is. Sometimes that is not a comfortable thing to do, but it is always the compassionate thing to do."
You are right. There are actually 3 voice in that article. The author’s, Smith’s, and Archbishop Nienstedt’s. My quick reading did get the 3 a bit mixed up in terms of what was being advocated by whom.
Yeah, I had to read it a couple times myself try to distinguish who was advocating which position. It seems that we have a bishop who is absolutely correct in his position, being defended by a well-meaning Catholic layperson who MOSTLY gets it, and an apostate who seems to think that Christianity should become just another new age cult.
The MA legislature is mulling over S905 that would repeal those “archaic” laws. Surprised?
We had a judge at our local court who set bail at a mere $2,000 for a pre-op tranny who along with his boyfriend kidnapped and raped a 14 year old girl because he wanted to see the tranny have sex with a girl one last time. The judge had previously been Geoghan’s lawyer.
“Only a very small percentage of Catholic priests, about 4 percent, abused children.”
ONLY 4 percent???? I’m guessing that’s HUGE compared to the general population.
Well put it this way - as much as is possible he makes every thought captive. I struggle with even wanting to struggle in the area of the mind most of the time.
Mel
He will not disappoint me as I don’t put my trust or hope in men.
Well put it this way - as much as is possible he makes every thought captive. I struggle with even wanting to struggle in the area of the mind most of the time.
Mel
He will not disappoint me as I don’t put my trust or hope in men.
In general, they are recommended by those who are already bishops. As documented in Randy Engel’s book, The Rite of Sodomy, many bishops have been recommended by the bishops they were sleeping with.
The worst bishops in the U.S. (Bernardin, Wuerl, Niederauer, Ryan, Law, Mugavero, Cushing, Untener, McCarrick, etc., etc.) can be traced back, step-by-step, to Abp. O’Connell of Boston and Cardinal Spellman of New York. Both notorious gay bishops. They created a kind of hierarchy within the hierarchy. Engel lays out a kind of gay genealogy. Almost every bishop who has actually been caught in some kind of sexual scandal, and the worst of the enablers, are part of this group. (There have been plenty of corrupt, enabling bishops who aren’t part of this gay family tree, also.)
This is why these bishops are so malleable in the hands of the Church’s enemies. You don’t think that the pro-aborts who march up to receive Communion from “Donna” Wuerl don’t know all about him? And that he doesn’t know that they have the power (and the information) to destroy him, if he makes the mistake of becoming a Catholic?
What’s your point?
I’m not sure what practical result you are looking for.
You say there’s no real distinction between homosexual acts and being attracted to people of one’s own sex.
Should it be somehow prohibited for people to be attracted to people of the same sex? I don’t how you could enforce that.
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