Posted on 06/30/2008 3:46:03 AM PDT by Caleb1411
Last week, controversy erupted when Archbishop John Nienstedt informed St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church in Minneapolis that it could not hold a gay pride prayer service in its sanctuary. The service -- held for several years in conjunction with the annual Twin Cities Gay Pride festival -- celebrates the gay identity.
In response, organizers moved the celebration outside the church. One gay activist attended in what must have struck him as a clown's outfit, given the occasion -- the robes of an archbishop, miter and all. David McCaffrey of the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities (CPCSM) condemned what he called Nienstedt's "reign of homophobic hatred." In an e-mail to the group's members, he characterized the archbishop's decision as "yet another volley of dehumanizing spiritual violence directed at GLBT persons and their families."
Clearly, there is hatred here. But it is not coming from the Catholic Church. Rather, it's a tool of those who are trying to compel the church to conform to their personal demands with caricatures and public mockery.
Opponents charge that the church does not welcome gays. They point to the fact that the archdiocese won't sponsor a gay pride prayer service as evidence.
But the truth is different: The church welcomes everyone. Far from rejecting gays as sinners, Christianity teaches that all human beings are sinners. In fact, it maintains, it is precisely because we are sinners that we need the Christian message.
So Michael Bayly of CPCSM got it wrong when he told the Star Tribune that "the archdiocese is now dictating to people who they can and cannot pray for." The church advocates prayer for all, straight and gay alike, because it regards all as sinners.
But "gay pride" is a different matter.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Oh, they love melodrama and speechmaking don't they?
Drama queens.
Their anti-Catholic diatribes are coming from their deep, spiritual anger with the Church (and it comes from their own guilt). They WANT the Church to change its more than 2000 year old teaching about the sin of the homosexual lifestyle......so that they will be approved and no longer feel the guilt. That will never happen. We can only pray for them.
There is quite a bit of hate-filled vitriol spilling over into the comments section. Most of it is aimed at the author, some at the Catholic Church. They’re trying countertransference of blame here—trying to single out past wrongs of the church. It’s a very immature coping mechanism.
These little darlings are spilling forth a hate they wouldn’t have dreamed of even 5-years ago.
The Church need only stand firm against these sinners. Their message and its inspiration is all too plainly clear.
“Their message and its inspiration is all too plainly clear.”
Exactly!
Does this mean they have actually held this sham in their sanctuary before? And they say that the Archbishop informing the church that they cannot hold the gay pride prayer service "controversial". The controversy should have occured when they first held such a service in the church.
Virtually everything Kersten writes in the Minneapolis Star Tribune causes consternation among people who'd like to be a moral law unto themselves. Gays aren't the only ones who go into high dudgeon at her writings. Everyone who's abridged the Bible into two words -- "Judge not" -- takes offense at Kersten's columns.
Celebrating Sodom and Gomorrah. I can't imagine why the Archbishop objected!
Does anyone feel like they have woken up in some kind of Stalinist nightmare? If Obama is elected we will see show trials for "homophobes"?
“the archbishop’s decision as “yet another volley of dehumanizing spiritual violence directed at GLBT persons and their families.””
except for the source of the violence he’s correct in his observation.
The fact that they shy away from identifying themselves as homosexual, having adopted the word “gay” tells me that they know “homosexual” acts are wrong.
OK maybe someone here can clear this up for me:
“a gay pride prayer service”
WHO WOULD THEY BE PRAYING TO, EXACTLY?
What have the mentally ill got to be “proud” about? They should be getting help!
An excellent observation. A tip o' my hat to you.
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Pride goeth before destruction...
-- Proverbs 16:18
the robes of an archbishop, miter and all.
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