Posted on 09/27/2011 7:13:08 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
An elderly priest on the Acadian Peninsula has been barred from performing church services in the Bathurst diocese after he made remarks about homosexuals and women who have had an abortion.
Rev. Donat Gionet, 85, gave the sermon at the Roman Catholic church in Saint-Léolin while replacing the regular parish priest late last month.
He stands by the comments he made in Saint-Léolin, a village of about 730 people located about 50 kilometres east of Bathurst.
Reached in Caraquet on Wednesday, Gionet declined an interview but did provide a written statement.
In a letter written in French that he provided to the Telegraph-Journal, Gionet stated the sermon in question was about the destruction of the Church and the need to seek forgiveness for past sins:
"I said: 'Today, it is we Catholics who are destroying our Catholic Church. We need only look at the number of abortions among Catholics, look at the homosexuals, and ourselves.' (That's when I pointed at my chest - through that action I wanted to say, we the priests) and I continued saying: We are destroying our Church ourselves. And that's when I said that those were the words expressed by Pope John Paul II. At that point, in the St-Léolin church only, I added: 'We can add to that the practice of watching gay parades, we are encouraging this evil' ... What would you think of someone who seeing what was happening on (Sept.) 11, 2001, the crumbling of the towers, had begun clapping? We must not encourage evil, whatever form it takes."Bishop Valéry Vienneau has revoked Gionet's rights to serve mass across the Diocese of Bathurst, a decision welcomed by Joseph Lanteigne, the openly gay mayor of Saint-Léolin.
"The action taken by the diocese is good and I know it isn't easy for the diocese."
Since the incident, Gionet has quit his position on the Saint-Léolin parish's pastoral committee.
Rev. Wesley Wade, vicar general of the Diocese of Bathurst, said Gionet's teachings don't meet the diocese's goal of following Christ's example of loving unconditionally.
"We have to respect people on their own journey," Wade said.
"The first message of Christ was to reveal to us a loving father and a merciful father and that we are all called to be his children and that we are all loved unconditionally by Him."
While the Church gets criticized as a judgmental institution, Wade said the reality is "it's full of compassion."
In a letter to parishioners earlier this week, Vienneau said Gionet had been pulled from active ministry.
At a meeting last week, Gionet told Vienneau that he had no plans to change or temper his comments.
Gionet also said, as a priest, he has a duty to encourage those who aren't living their lives according to Catholic teachings to mend their ways.
How is fancy Nancy related to this story?
My guess is that could be said for a number of stories, should we recycle them too?
No it doesn't, but recycled stories do.
“Rev. Wesley Wade, vicar general of the Diocese of Bathurst, said Gionet’s teachings don’t meet the diocese’s goal of following Christ’s example of loving unconditionally.”
Poppycock. The Bishop should be replaced and the priest reinstated. Unconditional love does not mean unconditional acceptance of acts and practices. It means unconditional acceptance of people despite them.
Perhaps the Bishop has been mau-maued into forgetting the bit about loving the sinner while hating the sin. I know it’s mocked in trendy circles, even among churchmen.
If the law prohibits the priest’s freedom to speak his mind from the pulpit, then he can choose to be jailed for what he believes, and challenge the law by his example. Since he, unlike the Bishop, strikes me as a brave man, he might choose to live out his final days in glorious defiance of political correctness.
A priest is punished for upholding the tenets of Catichism and Pelosi is not for violating one of the main tenets.
delenda est...
To paraphrase Harry Truman; "Give me a one handed Protestant"!
On one hand we hear endlessly from the Protestant posters about what an abomination and blemish on Christianity the Inquisitions were and then on the other hand we hear them clamor endlessly about the need to institute an new Inquisition to determine the appropriate level of Catholicness of sinners.
Old news? Posted 5 days ago is “old”? Often multiple articles are posted about the same incident, they often give more background, details, etc.
Five days is old??
“My guess is that could be said for a number of stories, should we recycle them too?”
Wake up pal, it happens here all the time.
It’s beginning to appear that your problem is more with the story than the fact it’s a repeat.
I'll keep that in mind.
As far as the story goes, the existence and knowledge of bad Bishops is a wee bit older than you, me and even the interweb.
A. I didn’t post the story, so I didn’t have to worry about doing a search.
B. The story was not the exact same article; therefore search wouldn’t have done any good.
C. Every day, FR has articles about the same event/topic, from varied sources, some shedding more light with more details, background etc.
D. What are you really upset about?
Christ loved them enough to tell them openly and clearly that they were doing wrong.
Ping for tomorrow.
If Christ loves unconditionally, no one would go to hell. But we are told in no uncertain terms that the vast majority of humanity will be assigned there.
I don't see how our rejection of God's love is evidence that he actually doesn't love us. Hell, in my opinion, proves that it is our love that is conditional, not God's.
Never impied that you were the poster, not sure what your point is by making a false claim.
B. The story was not the exact same article; therefore search wouldn’t have done any good.
C. Every day, FR has articles about the same event/topic, from varied sources, some shedding more light with more details, background etc.
See "B"
D. What are you really upset about?
Nothingt, just pointing out the obvious.
Ping tomorrow then!
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