Posted on 05/27/2016 3:58:05 PM PDT by ebb tide
A Quebec Catholic parish invited same-sex and cohabitating couples to “renew their conjugal commitment” in a “Feast of Love” last month.
Sainte-Anne’s Parish in the Diocese of Chicoutimi decided to move away from its annual “Feast of Fidelity” honoring married couples, in favor of the new event, because Pope Francis has said not to judge, says Father Sylvain Gravel.
The April 23-24 Feast of Love, announced in the parish bulletin a week earlier, was “simply to recognize all forms of love,” Gravel told LifeSiteNews in a telephone interview, adding that inspiration for the event was “le nouveau pape” and his famous injunction, “Who am I to judge?”
“For Francis, the person is the best,” observed Gravel in his halting English. “He is a person.”
Gravel is one of three priests, including “moderator” Fr. Mario Tremblay and Fr. Gérald Linteau, who along with the Valin pastoral council oversee the running of Sainte-Anne’s mega-parish, an amalgamation of three parishes with seven church buildings between them.
The Valin pastoral council decided this year, “in openness to all couples of today,” to change the annual Feast of Fidelity — traditionally, a celebration for couples celebrating 25, 40, 50 or 60 years of marriage — to the Feast of Love, reads the bulletin announcement, translated on a blog by François Tremblay.
According to the announcement, the Feast of Love is intended to “welcome any couple who desire to celebrate their love and to renew their conjugal commitment, whatever the type of commitment (be it Catholic marriage, civil marriage, common law spouse or of the same-sex, and whatever the number of years (1 year, 8 years, 25 years, 57 years, 62 years,…).”
“We consider that any couple commitment is important,” it reads. “We invite you to come celebrate your love with us, to renew your commitment in couple life, and to allow us to entrust you to the Lord in this beautiful commitment of yours.”
Gravel told LifeSiteNews that Chicoutimi’s Bishop André Rivest knew about the Feast of Love and that “he’s okay, for me, he approve.”
But Jacques Bouchard, diocesan communications director, denied this in an email to LifeSiteNews.
“The diocese is not in agreement with this feast,” Bouchard wrote.
When asked if Gravel knows he cannot hold such events in the future, Gravel replied that: “He has met with the bishop.”
When asked if Bishop Rivest would support a future Feast of Love or similar event celebrating same-sex and co-habitating couples in a Catholic parish, if it were held separately from the traditional Feast of Fidelity, Bouchard replied: “Non.”
He did not specify what actions, if any, the diocese was taking to prevent such events in the future, noting, “This concerns internal management.”
Blogger Tremblay, who recently returned to his hometown Chicoutimi from Montreal, says it was clear that “there’s something wrong in some way” in the diocese when in 2008, Rivest refused to allow the traditional Mass, even though about 200 people petitioned for it and there was a priest willing to celebrate the Mass in its ancient form every week.
“We want clear doctrine preached,” he told LifeSiteNews, adding that the lack of such clear preaching is a principle reason “why our diocese is closing churches and we don’t have much young people going to church.”
The 31-year-old, who credits the traditional Catholic priests he met at age 19 for his own strong faith, contends that “there’s a lot of modernism” in our diocese. We are more afraid of the traditional Mass than people doing that ‘Feast of Love,’ that’s what I see.”
“We’re not against our bishop, our diocese,” noted Tremblay. “We love them. We want to help. We want people to know, so that things like that don’t happen again.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered" and can never be condoned, and that the homosexual inclination itself is “objectively disordered” (2357, 2358).
Pope Francis elaborated on his July 2013 remark in the January 2015 book, The Name of God is Mercy: “On that occasion I said this: If a person is gay and seeks out the Lord and is willing, who am I to judge that person? I was paraphrasing by heart the Catechism of the Catholic Church where it says that these people should be treated with delicacy and not be marginalized.”
He added: “And people should not be defined only by their sexual tendencies: let us not forget that God loves all his creatures and we are destined to receive his infinite love. I prefer that homosexuals come to confession, that they stay close to the Lord, and that we pray all together.”
Francis had preceded his 2013 remark, part of a long answer to a reporter’s question about an alleged “gay lobby” in the Vatican, with these statements: “I still haven’t found anyone with an identity card in the Vatican with ‘gay’ on it. They say there are some there. I believe that when you are dealing with such a person, you must distinguish between the fact of a person being gay and the fact of someone forming a lobby, because not all lobbies are good. This one is not good. If someone is gay and is searching for the Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?”
In his exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Francis stated: ”There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family” (p. 251).
"Tame the heretics"?? What do you suggest: burning the women who were considered witches? Salem redux?
People have FREE WILL. Why must their free will be stifled? Folks can speak with them, in a loving way, but, in the end, the choice is THEIRS, good or bad.
Are you suggesting that the role of the Pope (from the Latin for "father") be to "tame the heretics"? Would Jesus do that?
True, true, true!
I give to Catholic charities because I know that 95% of the money goes to the people it's supposed to help. Nuns, brothers, friars, etc., work for the love of God and draw no salaries like lay people do. Priests do get a salary but it's not like they get "Silicon Valley" wages. They are given room and board, but that isn't the same as a salary.
Nuns take vows of poverty; priests don't. Priests rarely live ostentatiously, unless they are bishops and cardinals...and even then, like Pope Frances, MAY "take the bus to work" if they choose.
Other charities, like the Red Cross, veterans groups, etc., for example, have to PAY salaries to the folks who work there, which is fair. They don't do it for free, so only 5% of the money goes to the people who need it.
Those are just the nature of the charities.
Do you believe that religious liberty is a human right? Do you believe that ecumenism is Catholic?
If you answer yes to these questions, Vatican II most certainly affected you personally.
The word conjugal comes from the Latin word, conjux, meaning "husband, wife."
A man and a man or a woman and a woman cannot possibly fulfill the meaning of that word.
I do but then I was born and bred an American and we believe in that.
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Do you believe that ecumenism is Catholic?
From GOOGLE: Ecumenism refers to efforts by Christians of different church traditions to develop closer relationships and better understandings. It is also often used about efforts towards the visible and organic unity of different Christian churches in some form.
If you answer yes to these questions, Vatican II most certainly affected you personally.
Ecumenism only works if Catholic dogma is not compromised. There isn't a whole lot of dogma as much is tradition.
Go to CATHOLIC ANSWERS for details.
Homosexual unions: EVIL.
I REFUSE to use the worD "marriage" with them because it is an IMPOSSIBILITY!
People have free will but there are consequences to choices usually. I would think the Pope would want a consistent message. He can excommunicate and defrock. It seems like a funny way to run a church (everybody designed their own Gospel).
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1. Oh yes, there are consequences. I learned that when I was three years old.
2. He does have a consistent message: love God and love each other, which was the "greatest commandment" that Jesus gave us.
The pope isn't a RULER. He is the earthly "father" or "vicar" who continues to lead his flock. His word is gold ONLY when it comes to morality.
3. He can but there is a trial first. It's not a simple or easy trial either. It's a MOST serious event and not lightly taken. The priest in question has had to REPEATEDLY PREACHED heresy.
AND, the "Devil's Advocate" position is STILL around, even after all these centuries.
4. The Pope doesn't not interpret the words of Jesus. The Church did way back when and did it with the help of all the bishops on the planet. There were eventually TOO MANY bishops so CARDINALS were selected from the bishops.
The "new" laws, speeding, drugs, etc., are "new" sins, on the face, but...they are OLD ones, aren't they? The Pope might declare speeding and drugs as sins, but he wouldn't do that on his own. The "sin" has to come from the PLETHORA of cardinals, bishops and priests from throughout the world. It wouldn't be a shocker to ANY of us, either, as we know that breaking the law is wrong, even if we disagree with it.
The Church has preached from the same Bible, which they collated, by the way, for the last 2000 years. It's more than that, of course, because the Old Testament is EONS older.
The Protestant Bible IS slightly different. My Baptist-turned-Presbyterian friend in Texas and I compared Bibles once. There are some books in her newer version of the Bible that the older Catholic Bible has or doesn't have. I HAVE forgotten which was which.
I never go to “Catholic Answers” for Catholic answers. It is the last place I will go if I want the truth about Vatican II.
“I REFUSE to use the worD “marriage” with them because it is an IMPOSSIBILITY!”
I like to call it “sodomite play-pretend marriage.”
Just curious, has Vatican II made an impact on your life?
If yes, how?
If no, then WHO CARES?
THAT is actually a VERY accurate description of it.
Good on you!
I "googled" him and wasn't impressed. Why should I care about him now?
Because he's the sole "senior" apologist at Catholic Answers, which you had earlier recommended as a resource.
So, I believed in religious liberty, I believed in false ecumenism, etc, etc. In other words it led me to believe in false things. In my ignorance, I did not believe in the Catholic Faith because the Catholic Faith has never taught religious liberty is a human right. The Catholic Faith never taught ecumenism. The Catholic Faith never taught that other churches are means of salvation. And so on and son.....
Vatican II has negatively impacted every Catholic. Some are aware of it and others are not.
Religious orders generally are self-funding, or they don't exist. They don't get some regular paycheck from Rome, or from their local bishop. Most of them run farms, make an sell some sort of craft, etc.
Jesus said LOVE GOD AND LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
Where in the Bible is religious liberty spoken of as a right?
Isn't ecumenism all about learning to love one another? The very word "church" comes from the Greek "assembly," that is, coming together.
I can't think of how Vatican II negatively impacted me. I can't think how it impacted me at all. The Mass is the same celebration of God's love for us. The readings in the Gospels are the same. The homilies are the same: love God and love each other.
Nothing has changed in Catholic dogma. Of course, it can't. "Religious freedom" isn't a dogma of any faith that I know of.
Which one of the plethora of Protestant denominations do you belong to now? Also, does that denomination preach that religious liberty is a right? It would be interesting to know that bit of information. I didn't think that any faith, "old time religion" preached that.
No sarcasm intended anywhere, at all.
Pope Saint Pius V, born Antonio Ghislieri, was Pope from 8 January 1566 to his death in 1572. He is venerated as a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Wikipedia
Born: January 17, 1504, Bosco Marengo, Italy
Died: May 1, 1572, Rome, Italy Ordination: 1528
redecessor: Pope Pius IV
Parents: Paolo Ghislieri, Domenica Augeria
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