If you have any information that might help the Bishop
regarding Fr. Cunningham, regardless of how old it is,
or about any priest involved with No Longer Silent
please read subsequent posts for advise and further details.
If you have a private question or comment use FReepMail.
Odd, I thought the Church - and Our Lord Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word - did forbid that.
And it hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a bill of divorce. But I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, excepting the cause of fornication, maketh her to commit adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery. (St. Matthew 5:31-32)
Demands that a bride found not to be a virgin be executed by stoning.
Orders the widow of a man who dies childless to have sex with each of his brothers until she bears her deceased husband a male heir.
Condones polygamy, marriage for 11-year-old girls and treating women as property.
Commands that adulterers be stoned to death.
It firmly believes, professes, and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, of the Mosaic law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future, although they were suited to the divine worship at that time, after our Lord's coming had been signified by them, ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began; and that whoever, even after the passion, placed hope in these matters of the law and submitted himself to them as necessary for salvation, as if faith in Christ could not save without them, sinned mortally. Yet it does not deny that after the passion of Christ up to the promulgation of the Gospel they could have been observed until they were believed to be in no way necessary for salvation; but after the promulgation of the Gospel it asserts that they cannot be observed without the loss of eternal salvation. All, therefore, who after that time observe circumcision and the Sabbath and the other requirements of the law, it declares alien to the Christian faith and not in the least fit to participate in eternal salvation, unless someday they recover from these errors. Therefore, it commands all who glory in the name of Christian, at whatever time, before or after baptism, to cease entirely from circumcision, since, whether or not one places hope in it, it cannot be observed at all without the loss of eternal salvation. (Ecumenical Council of Florence, Cantate Domino)
As usual, a liberal who doesn't have a clue about Christ's Catholic Church launches a diatribe against God's Word and the Holy Church of Jesus Christ. One might wonder if they'll ever stop throwing up strawmen by which to assail Divine Revelation?
Agreed, and the author should refrain from writing on the topic.
If your Bishop is as good as he sounds, he anticipated this reaction. I hope he stands firm unlike O'Malley.
Forbids divorce and remarriage by divorcees
o Commands that adulterers be stoned to death
o Orders the widow of a man who dies childless to have sex with each of his brothers until she bears her deceased husband a male heir
o Condones polygamy, marriage for 11-year-old girls and treating women as property
This is a conflict among Christians that has been around since Christianity began: at which point and to what extent does the Old Testament (the Law, Torah) end?
Well, with the exception of some confused Protestants, Christians are not Jews, and are not required or expected to practice Jewish religious laws and practices. St. Pual made that very clear.
The Bible may be made up of two Testaments, but without the New Testament there is no Christianity. The greatest value of the Old Testament is that it predicts, prophesies the coming of the Messiah and the events described in the New Testament that lead us to believe that that Messiah is Jesus Christ.
To the best of my knowledge, the New Testament does not approve of homosexuality. Christianity teaches us to love all people, but not necessarily to approve of their actions. Some people confuse love with approval. Love means we pray for their souls, even if they are our enemies. It does not mean we side with them.
Indeed, He is Risen!
Advocates of the religious acceptance of homosexuality respond that while the Bible is morally advanced in some areas, it is morally regressive in others. Its condemnation of homosexuality is one example, and the Torah's permitting slavery is another. Far from being immoral, however, the Torah's prohibition of homosexuality was a major part of its liberation (1) of the human being from the bonds of unrestrained sexuality and (2) of women from being peripheral to men's lives. As for slavery, while the Bible declares homosexuality wrong, it never declares slavery good.
Those who advocate religious acceptance of homosexuality also argue that the Bible prescribes the death penalty for a multitude of sins, including such seemingly inconsequential acts as gathering wood on the Sabbath. Thus, the fact that the Torah declares homosexuality a capital offense may mean that homosexuality is no more grave an offense than some violation of the Sabbath. And since we no longer condemn people who violate the Sabbath, why continue to condemn people who engage in homosexual acts?
The answer is that we do not derive our approach toward homosexuality from the fact that the Torah made it a capital offense. We learn it from the fact that the Bible makes a moral statement about homosexuality. It makes no statement about gathering wood on the Sabbath. The Torah uses its strongest term of censure abomination to describe homosexuality. It is the Bible's moral evaluation of homosexuality that distinguishes homosexuality from other offenses, capital or otherwise. As Professor Greenberg, who betrays no inclination toward religious belief writes, When the word toevah (abomination) does appear in the Hebrew Bible, it is sometimes applied to idolatry, cult prostitution, magic, or divination, and is sometimes used more generally. It always conveys great repugnance (emphasis added). Moreover, the Bible lists homosexuality together with child sacrifice among the abominations practiced by the peoples living in the land about to be conquered by the Jews. The two are certainly not morally equatable, but they both characterized a morally primitive world that Judaism set out to destroy. They both characterized a way of life opposite to the one that God demanded of Jews (and even of non-Jew homosexuality is among the sexual offenses that constitute one of the seven laws of the children of Noah that Judaism holds all people must observe). Finally, the Bible adds a unique threat to the Jews if they engage in homosexuality and the other offenses of the Canaanites: You will be vomited out of the land just as the non-Jews who practise these things were vomited out of the land. Again, as Greenberg notes, this threat suggests that the offenses were considered serious indeed.
In the name of "ecumenism," some dissenters have been celebrating Mass with other faiths. This is strictly disallowed.
Canon 908 Catholic priests are forbidden to concelebrate the Eucharist with priests or ministers of Churches or ecclesial communities which are not in full communion with the catholic Church.
The one has nothing to do with the other. Bishop Olmstead is within his rights to suspend the priest, if these allegations are correct.
Priestly pedophilia a homosexual problem - Letter of May 5, 2004
Columnist Mary K. Reinhart (Tribune, Saturday) has attributed thoughts to Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted that are false. He "doesnt want gays and lesbians in his church," as she writes. What he and the Vatican do not want are sexually active men in the priesthood, homosexual or otherwise.
It may have escaped Rineharts notice that more than 90 percent of the victims of sexual abuse in the Church have been teenage boys, not prepubescent children. That is a homosexual problem, not a pedophile problem.
The doors of too many seminaries were thrown open to homosexuals during the sexual revolution of the 1960s, despite a Vatican directive in 1961 that forbade their entry. The head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Wilton Gregory, has stated, "The Catholic Church is locked in an ongoing struggle to make sure that the priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men."
Thank God we finally have a bishop in the Phoenix diocese that knows which end is up. If it all adds up to homophobia in Rineharts eyes, too bad.
KENNETH R. FOOTE
MESA
Compassion need not include acceptance - Letter of May 7, 2004
Mary K. Reinharts acknowledgment, midway in her diatribe (Tribune, Saturday) against Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, reveals her ignorance about Catholic teaching on homosexuality when she states she is no religious scholar.
Catholic teaching does not condone violence or discrimination against men and women because of any perceived sexual orientation. Nevertheless, and this is where the Roman Catholic clergy who signed the of the Phoenix Declaration erred and have rightly been called to correct their actions, the Catholic Church goes on to state that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered and "[u]nder no circumstances can they be approved."
The Phoenix Declaration, as it is written, could lead Catholics into a situation where, because of the misguided actions by some clergy in signing it, they may conduct themselves in a manner they think is not improper while jeopardizing their eternal souls.
I dont expect Reinhart to understand this; she is not a religious scholar. However, I expect Bishop Olmsted to understand this and act to safeguard Catholics in our diocese from being misled. Furthermore, there is nothing inconsistent with embracing all of Gods children with respect, compassion, and sensitivity and denying acceptance of immoral conduct.
BILL MONTGOMERY
GILBERT
THE VENT - MAY 04, 2004 - East Valley Opinion
The Vent is your chance to sound off: Phone comments to (480) 898-6806
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"One of the biggest problems with todays society is that too many people are trying to put a question mark where God puts a period."
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"I agree with one thing Mary K. Reinhart in her Saturday column: She is definitely no Bible scholar. Neither am I. But if she would read Romans 1, she would see (that) the New Testament condemns homosexuality as well as the Old Testament."
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"Father (Jack) Cunningham did something good and positive for the Catholic religion and gets suspended, while other priests who molest children, are still allowed to celebrate Mass with nothing done against them. Thats wrong."
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"Just to set the record straight: Parishioners of the Gilbert parish of Father John Cunningham are not just irked at the bishop. We are furious!"
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"How about pro-choice before conception and pro-life after? That should make everyone happy."
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THE VENT - MAY 05, 2004 - East Valley Opinion
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"Im also a parishioner at St. Mary Magdalenes. Just to set the record straight, not all of us are upset at what happened to Father John Cunningham. What he (is accused of doing) was against Church law and what hes going to get is a natural consequence of his actions."
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