Posted on 07/07/2016 10:31:28 AM PDT by ebb tide
San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy celebrated Pope Francis’ call for Christians to apologize to gays and suggested the Catholic Church consider changing how it refers to same-sex attraction and homosexual acts.
McElroy’s comments were published June 30 in an interview with the Jesuit magazine America.
“I think [the Pope’s call for an apology] opens up a very helpful pathway to dialogue and hopefully healing,” McElroy said. “What we need to project in the life of the church is ‘You are part of us and we are part of you.’ [LGBT Catholics] are part of our families.”
After the Orlando terrorist attack on a gay nightclub, McElroy called on Catholics to “combat” the “anti-gay prejudice that exists in our Catholic community and in our country.”
In the America interview, McElroy reiterated his assertion that such an animus exists among Catholics and blamed it on a lack of understanding of Church doctrine.
“My own view is that much of the destructive attitude of many Catholics to the gay and lesbian community is motivated by a failure to comprehend the totality of the church’s teaching on homosexuality,” he said.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that those with same-sex attraction “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity” and “every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided” (CCC 2358).
The Catechism also teaches: “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved” (CCC 2357).
In a poignant and heart-wrenching piece responding to the claim that the Church should apologize to homosexuals, actively gay man turned devout Catholic Joseph Sciambra wrote that the Church should apologize — to all of the people who have been deceived by unfaithful priests into believing the homosexual lifestyle is acceptable or healthy and for an ambiguous 1997 document from the U.S. bishops that failed to address the issue in a truly pastoral way.
“Dear Pope Francis: apologize for bad catechesis, for bad pastoral programs, for bad priests, and for the apathetic Bishops who do nothing to correct them,” Sciambra wrote. “As for the long dead who passed from this life, far too young, because no one ever bothered to tell them the Truth – no amount of apologizing will ever bring them back.”
McElroy told America that the Church should use “inclusive, embracing,” and “pastoral” language when referring to the same-sex attracted and sexual acts between people of the same sex.
Labeling homosexual acts as “intrinsically disordered,” as the Catechism does, is “very destructive language that I think we should not use pastorally,” McElroy said.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church never labels individuals “disordered.” It makes clear distinctions between a person (who is never “disordered”), his or her sexual attractions (which may be “intrinsically disordered” if they are contrary to natural law, but are not considered sinful in and of themselves), and his or her sexual acts (which may be “intrinsically disordered”).
The Catechism also labels lust a “disordered desire,” masturbation “an intrinsically and gravely disordered action,” and rape an “intrinsically evil act” (CCC 2351
What did you expect would happen to the Caholic Church when homosexuals were allowed in the priesthood? They are running the place now. When you ignore God’s Word, nothing good happens.
It’s in the Book, that’s the way it will be.
Well homosexual acts are like other immorality intrinsically disordered. Adultery is intrinsically disordered also from a Christian standpoint. No where in the bible does it say that it will cure one of their temptations to sin. What it does do is put one on a path where through Christ our broken vessels can be made whole not by ourselves but through Christ. The only mistake I see that the church made is to allow the idea that one’s temptations will be forever extinguished upon becoming a Christian when the exact opposite is often true. When you join the legion of eternity the legion of darkness sees you even more as a target. A large part of Christianity is learning to put ones temptations in context understanding that they do not define you.
My biggest problem with lgbt is that they define themselves by their sin. Many act as if the very idea that they might not act on temptation is harmful to them.
Lgbt are not of course alone. Many others behave the same when it is their sinful nature being chastised. Try suggesting to someone that is overweight that they shouldn’t have a cookie. Temptation is like that or else it wouldn’t be temptation. It makes that adulterous relationship seem so much better till of course you get divorced then get married and find out that it really wasn’t too much different which is of course why most marriages that are the product of adultery also fail. We could go on and on. Homosexuality is just another sin that is only more pronounced because it mocks the union that God defined for humanity since the world’s foundation which is of course the goal of the lucifer. He twists what is good into an aberration and then laughs as like drug addicts we refuse to let go of the corruption that eats us from the soul inside out.
Check McElroy’s history. Where has he been and are there any molestation complaints?
The New Catholic Church. It’s not your parent’s church any longer.
Destructive my foot. It’s too wishy washy if anything!
The good old Baltimore Catechism was spot on: “a sin that cries out to heaven for vengeance.”
Prayer for the Extirpation of the Sodomist Heresy
Almighty God, who in Thy ineffable glory did fashion man and woman in Thine image, deign to hear the plaintive cries of Thy suffering family on earth. Break all the heresies and powers of Hell that now rage against us, especially those pertaining to the unspeakable sin of sodomy. Look with mercy on those most pitiable souls it ensnares, and release them from its horrid clasp forever. Destroy the chains in which the devil has bound them, extinguish their every lust with the waters of Thy sacraments, and purify them in the divine fire of Thy Triune Love.
In Thy sovereignty also, remember the innocence of Thy children now on earth and yet to be born, and suffer not their cries to heaven for vengeance to endure. Obliterate every power of the enemy over the people of God, drive those who preach these errors from Thy holy sanctuary, and bring to speedy and total ruin every state, every province, and every city that exults in these crimes against nature, making, we humbly beg Thee, provision for Thy faithful as once Thou did with our patriarch Abraham.
O Lord Jesus Christ crucified, so hated by the principalities of the world, grant Thy poor servants the honor to suffer meekly with Thee the taunts, insults, and injuries of Calvary. And, in merciful consideration for the many weaknesses of our fallen nature, generously bestow on us every consolation and courage that Thou gave to St. Peter on the road from Rome, that we may both faithfully witness Thee to the fleeting empires of men, and forever adore Thee in Thy everlasting kingdom in heaven. Amen.
It will be as we find in Revelation, the lampstand has been removed from the Catholic Church.
“What did you expect would happen to the Catholic Church when homosexuals were allowed in the priesthood? They are running the place now.”
They are not only running it, they are ruining it. How quickly some forget. It was homosexual priests in the Church that has cost the Church billions of dollars to settle lawsuits brought on by child molestation charges against these homo priests from all over the world, although predominantly in the U.S. Gays have been the bane of the Catholic Church’s existence, one way or the other.
Thanks for that prayer. I had not seen it before.
McElroy seems to want to deny truth. That is not a good idea.
I am not Roman Catholic, but this ought to alert the laity about some wolves in your midst.
Or, you can join those of us who are Reformed. ;-)
Yes, we have our problems too, I know.
The bishop is conflating two disparate issues (though I suspect he knows this): the “sin” as defined by scripture, and the “sinner”.
Yes, the church has - by and large - treated homosexuals as if they were a special class of sinners; MORE sinful than say adulterers, or slanderers, gossipers or back-biters. You’ll notice that Christ more often than not directed his angst at hypocrisy.
It is purely my speculation, but my belief is that Christ, had scripture recorded him meeting with a homosexual, he would have - like Zacchaeus (the thief, cheat & social pariah), or the woman at the well (serial adulterer), or the woman being stoned for adultery - addressed their underlying “heart” issue - and told them to “go and sin no more”.
Consider the Apostle Paul: do we think he was uttering hyperbole when he described himself as the “chief of sinners”?
Having said that, the church must hold the line on what sin IS. We do not help the homosexual by declaring that their lifestyle is normal & healthy - anymore than we would describe the lifestyle of a drunk or an adulterer as healthy. Those that would encourage this sort of thinking are committing the greater sin and are worthy of having a millstone hung around their neck (Matthew 18:6).
Our message should be that the blood of Christ is sufficient to cover ALL sin for those who repent and believe.
And for those of us who are believers, I like to remind us - as Steve Brown is fond of stating - that all of us are beggars, telling others where we have found bread.
Bergoglio appointed McElroy BECAUSE McElroy is an outspoken proponent of Communion-for-abortionists.
www.tinyurl.com/canon915
Substantial numbers of bishops do not accept Catholic teaching on sexual morality, be it on contraception and abortion or sodomy. Many, perhaps most, of these dissenters are themselves homosexuals.
As far as I know, it’s only been on my hard drive, and here on FR.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3332938/posts
Problems with reading comprehension?
FIRST, he was X. Then, LATER, he became Y.
When Lynch was rector of the seminary, he installed video cameras in the showers. Later, Saint John Paul II appointed him bishop.
Unmitigated slander, uttered by a liberal in love with his own intellect.
Another "pearl of wisdom" from fatuous McElroy:
"...Through such encounters, he said, Catholics may take inspiration from the rich spirituality of the Muslim people, which includes the centrality of daily prayer, a commitment to asceticism and an understanding of "the immensity and the richness" of divine mercy..." (http://www.catholicnews.com/services/englishnews/2016/bishop-challenges-catholics-to-combat-ugly-tide-of-anti-islamic-bigotry.cfm)
I think I’d like to see what he actually said rather than being quoted piece-meal with a lot of ellipses and sentence fragments. May be he said what the writer asserts he said, but there’s no way to arrive at an informed opinion about what someone said unless you actually hear or read what they said, and not what someone says they said.
Creeps like McElroy aren’t after gay men’s money. Their motives for excusing sodomy and abortion run MUCH deeper than that.
Bergoglio appointed McElroy because McElroy argued for years FOR Communion-for-Pelosi.
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