by Malachi Martin "Every Pope worth his salt sets a dominant strategy for his
Posted on 11/18/2005 7:09:29 AM PST by NYer
A Jesuit retreat house in Manhasset is hosting a workshop about gay Catholics and the church that had been barred from diocesan property last year by Bishop William Murphy of the Diocese of Rockville Centre.
The workshop on building bridges to gay people comes just as the Vatican is about to release a document restating its prohibition barring gay men from the priesthood.
Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, the organization leading the workshop, said yesterday that the program does not challenge church orthodoxy.
"Our mission is simply to try to help Catholic institutions learn more about the reality of gay and lesbian Catholics," DeBernardo said. "We focus on how you develop programs at a local level so that gay and lesbian people will feel welcome in a Catholic parish."
He said that the pending Vatican document has made his group's message even more urgent - and tougher to sell.
"It makes it more difficult to help people see that there is a tradition in the Catholic church of acceptance of lesbian and gay people," he said. "And it also shows that the thinking of the Vatican's leaders on homosexuality is very much out of step with what American Catholics, not to mention scientists and social scientists, think about homosexuality."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Religious orders exercise their ministries in a given diocese "at the pleasure of the bishop." If he feels that an egregious enough situation exists, he can order them out of his territory. It's an extremely rare event, though, and probably more of a PR nightmare and headache than even a modern-day St. Athanasius would want to bear.
At the very least! Personally, I think the Jesuits ought to be suppressed as an order. After all, there ARE precedents! ;-) And there are far better grounds THIS time...
116. We have the duty, as Bishops, to be vigilant that the word of God is faithfully taught. My Brothers in the Episcopate, it is part of our pastoral ministry to see to it that this moral teaching is faithfully handed down and to have recourse to appropriate measures to ensure that the faithful are guarded from every doctrine and theory contrary to it. In carrying out this task we are all assisted by theologians; even so, theological opinions constitute neither the rule nor the norm of our teaching. Its authority is derived, by the assistance of the Holy Spirit and in communion cum Petro et sub Petro, from our fidelity to the Catholic faith which comes from the Apostles. As Bishops, we have the grave obligation to be personally vigilant that the "sound doctrine" (1 Tim 1:10) of faith and morals is taught in our Dioceses.
A particular responsibility is incumbent upon Bishops with regard to Catholic institutions. Whether these are agencies for the pastoral care of the family or for social work, or institutions dedicated to teaching or health care, Bishops can canonically erect and recognize these structures and delegate certain responsibilities to them. Nevertheless, Bishops are never relieved of their own personal obligations. It falls to them, in communion with the Holy See, both to grant the title "Catholic" to Church-related schools,179 universities,180 health-care facilities and counseling services, and, in cases of a serious failure to live up to that title, to take it away.
Maybe they just need a change in leadership. There are some good Jesuits out there... Father Mitch Pacwa for one.
"It's time to give these folks their walking papers."
Time for the Swiss Guard to start earning their pay.
According to Bishop Vick Gene Robinson, many catholics are back peddling into the Episcopal Church. There is hope!
And you would be correct. According to the article,
About two dozen people, including several priests and nuns from the diocese of Rockville Centre, are registered, he said.
Given the failure of the repeated attempts of the church's legitimate authorities to resolve the problems presented by the writings and pastoral activities of the two authors, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is obliged to declare for the good of the Catholic faithful that the positions advanced by Sister Jeannine Gramick and Father Robert Nugent regarding the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts and the objective disorder of the homosexual inclination are doctrinally unacceptable because they do not faithfully convey the clear and constant teaching of the Catholic Church in this area.3
Cardinal Ratzinger's Notification on Gramick and Nugent
The Jesuits produce wonderful saints and awful scoundrels... I've known at least one of both.
Two exceptions are the Society of Jesus and Opus Dei >>
why is that?
They should still be suppressed. Fr. Pacwa, and the few others, can certainly sign-on with some other order. But the Jesuits are beyond saving at this point.
When the mindset among the world's religious orders has returned to being thoroughly Catholic, the pope of the time can always recreate the Jesuits in the mold envisioned by St. Ignatius.
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Thanks for posting that link. Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI makes the position of the Church in a clear and compelling way.
I recall you mentioning that. They're quite the group of dissenters, aren't they.
Dissenters? I wouldn't say that. I'd say heretics and apostates.
I should think that the Roman Catholic Church already has many programs in place to guide sinners toward repentance. Why do they need another one tailored to just this group?
Perhaps the pope should point out, during the bishops' ad limina visits, that the Swiss Guards "don't carry halberds for nothing!"
THAT should get their undivided attention and...um...renew their zeal!
Benedikt, Gott Geschickt!
:))) Or as I'd put it, "Emerilze 'em, Holy Father - BAM!"
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