WARNING: This article begins with a graphic clinical statement because all Catholics need to know the truth and not remain oblivious to it.

June 22, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — When a man and a woman make love, the miracles of conception and birth are possible. When two men attempt the same, the most glorious result possible is an anal discharge of semen mixed with fecal matter.

Despite the striking contrast, high-profile Catholics in positions of power and influence in North America are no longer able to detect any important difference between the two. They not only accept being ‘gay’ as fully normal, they promote ‘same-sex marriage,’ a.k.a., anti-conjugal, anti-complementary, genderless marriage, as fully equal to marriage between a man and a woman.

At the same time, these Catholic VIPs are becoming increasingly incapable of discerning the difference between male and female and the significance of complementarity. They now promote transnormativity.

Clearly, something is awry with prevailing views of marriage and human dignity among our Catholic elites when sodomy constitutes marital consummation and genitalia is no longer indicative of gender.

The fact that they continue to enjoy full communion with the Church despite broadcasting lies which defy natural law and deny the Gospel has only served to embolden them and invite others to follow their lead.

The minds of leading Catholics have sunk from dullness, to darkness, to depravity, and they are intent on dragging each of us down with them – by force of law, if necessary – and if not us, our children.

The bigger picture Is worse. Much worse

Put aside the world of North American Catholic political and societal elites for a moment. A far more grave threat stares us in the face.

What will happen when a critical mass of the Church’s prelates and clerics similarly untether themselves from truth? What will happen when they find the ways of the world more attractive than the message of the Gospel, trading the Church’s magnificent magisterium for the whim of popular culture?

Nudging away from truth, nullifying the work of the Holy Spirit

While the Vatican seems to be collecting and promoting pro-homosexualists and transgenderists, the nudge toward accepting these strange humanity-deforming ideologies is palpable here at home in North America.

In the Archdiocese of New York, Blessed Sacrament Church announced that its “Gay Fellowship” group partnered with Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way Foundation” to hold a fundraising dance in the parish hall on June 17.

Even the Jesuit Chaplain to the U.S. House of Representatives, Patrick J. Conroy, suggests that Church teaching on homosexuality is “outdated,” calling it “a dead end.” He implies that homosexual “marriage” is the only path to happiness for the same-sex attracted.

If the Church now starts watering down magisterial truth, mixing the profane with the holy, where will the same-sex attracted go when our consciences speak to us? Confessionals turned into self-affirmation kiosks comfort no one, and dispense tragedy.

What will happen to same-sex-attracted men and women, boys and girls, if the Church tosses truth out the window and rolls out a rainbow welcome mat? That won’t work, because it’s truth that attracts people to the Church and turns hearts to Christ. It’s truth that resonates in hearts and appeals to the intellect. It’s the pure Gospel message that inspires, not the lies and empty promises of the world.

Who am I to judge? Let me tell you

I am same-sex-attracted, and I once walked away from both my marriage and the Church and lived as a gay man.

Yet something stirred inside me. It was my conscience. After the initial emotional rush of feeling set free, I inwardly sensed something was not right, no matter how much I tried to suppress the thought. Nowadays, it’s nearly unanimously agreed that this unease of conscience comes from societal heteronormativity. We are told that exterior cultural pressures cause the same-sex attracted to feel “different,” resulting in depression, behavioral problems, even suicide. The term now in vogue is ‘minority stress.’

We are also told that the Church is ‘unwelcoming’ because it doesn’t approve of unchaste same-sex behavior, that the Church is ‘seeker unfriendly.’

My experience tells a different story. There was a powerful, innate interior recognition that there was something wrong with my behavior. It wasn’t society telling me I was ‘bad’ or accusing me or failing to accept me. Quite the contrary, I felt 100 percent accepted by everyone I knew. But their acceptance wasn’t the issue. No. My own perfectly functioning conscience was speaking to me, leading me to self-understanding.

In the end, I decided to live a chaste life, to return to my wife and to the Catholic Church. Why? Because it is in the Church that truth is to be found like no other place on earth: packed down, shaken together, filled to the brim and running over (Luke 6:38). And not just truth; I found authentic, intimate fellowship with Catholic brothers within my parish whom I love and who love me. One of the greatest aspects of brotherly love within parish life is this: We help each other not to sin, to find ever greater communion with God, and press forward as men who stand in the breach.

I can easily answer Pope Francis’ now famous question, “Who am I to judge?” I am a Christian who examines my conscience daily. I have to judge, because known truth and the Spirit beckon me to do so. It is my job to judge, to seek truth, and deny lies and the allure of the flesh and the world.

Were it not for the solid teaching of the Catholic Church challenging my life, confirming the work of the Holy Spirit in my life, I would be lost.

Chaste same-sex-attracted Catholics are baffled by the increasing mixed messages arising from the Church, especially from her prelates. And as the voices within the Church calling for her to surrender to the sexual revolution grow louder, the voice of the Gospel grows fainter. These mixed messages damage lives, excusing the very behavior and thought patterns so many seek to escape. They nullify the work of the Holy Spirit.

Trading rock for sand

Satan has long been wearing a hard hat as he excavates beneath the Church, blasting away at the Church’s rock-solid foundation of truth, replacing it with truckload after truckload of sand. The digging and tunneling used to emanate from outside the Church as the ruler of this world burrowed beneath. But now jack hammers are held by clerics who are taking over the jobs extremists outside the church used to do.

With the Church’s magisterial foundation weakened, the structure above will remain intact for a while, but once new waves of attack start rolling in, perhaps from the world of Muslim fundamentalism, the structure will begin to visibly crumble: slowly at first, and then rapidly. Very rapidly. With the Church’s foundation undermined, the faith of many will quiver and collapse and Catholic institutions will buckle and fall.

Many will be caught by surprise, wondering as they wander about the rubble how this could have happened so quickly.

Yet rest assured, the Church belongs to Christ and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Still, the nagging question remains: How much and how many will be lost because of the Catholic bishops and academics who have lost their way?

And the article with the facts:

If I'm baptized as a Catholic, does that mean I'm Catholic forever, even if I marry outside the Church?

Edward Peters

August 4, 2011

Full Question

Once people are baptized Catholic, are they Catholic forever? What if they marry outside of the Church or join another religion? If they aren't Catholic anymore, how can they become Catholic again?

Answer

Once someone is validly baptized, Catholic or otherwise, he is baptized forever (CIC 845). One can never lose baptism or become "unbaptized," although one might lose the benefits of baptism by personal sin. But as to whether someone baptized Catholic is thereafter always Catholic, that's a slightly different question.

In most cases, the answer will be that someone baptized Catholic remains Catholic (see CIC 111, 205). But, by implication of canon 205--which requires, to be considered in full communion with the Church, a basic profession of the faith, some level of sacramental participation, and some degree of submission to ecclesiastical governance--one can imagine circumstances under which someone who was baptized Catholic might reject any or all of these elements to the point at which he could not be considered fully Catholic anymore, nothwithstanding the fact that he remained baptized.

In support of this interpretation, keep in mind that the Code of Canon Law contains a norm that, although dealing with technical requirements related to marriage, has implications for your question. Canon 1117 requires that canonical form for marriage be observed by anyone baptized Catholic unless that person has "left the Church by a formal act of defection." The 1983 Code does not define "formal act of defection," but clearly the concept of leaving the Church, as opposed to simply lapsing in one's faith or breaking the laws of the Church, exists in canon law and has repercussions in Church life.

While what is really needed here is an "authentic interpretation" by Roman authorities as to what constitutes a formal act of defection, a few things seem clear: (1) merely marrying outside the Church does not by itself count as a formal act of defection, and such a person would still be considered Catholic under canon law (albeit perhaps a "bad" Catholic and certainly one in an invalid marriage); (2) mere attendance at the services of another denomination, even if over a long period of time, does not constitute a formal act of defection from the Church; and (3) the failure to practice one's Catholic faith, even over a long period of time, does not constitute a formal act of defection.

That said, it is generally accepted that formal registration in another denomination, especially when coupled with support or work for that denomination and extended participation in its religious services, does constitute a formal act of defection from the Catholic Church. For that matter, a public declaration of defection from the Church, under otherwise credible circumstances, might well constitute a formal act of defection, since registration in another denomination is not strictly required for defection to take place. In any case, though, since Catholic baptism establishes a canonical presumption of Catholic affiliation, canonical proof of defection from the Church must be produced to overcome that presumption.

Finally, as to how one can come back into the Church, canon law does not specify a procedure to be used. The "abjuration of errors" formerly required by canon law under certain situations similar to the one you describe (1917 CIC 2314) has not been carried over in the 1983 Code. Therefore, I think that sacramental confession is generally the best route to follow. If there had been some public act (say, a letter to one's bishop) by which one's formal defection was accomplished, I think it prudent to repudiate such an act in the same or a similar public manner so as to remove any lingering doubts about one's ecclesiastical status.

All of this deals with one's juridic (legal) status as a Catholic. It does not deal with other forms of union one may have with the Catholic Church, such as the moral obligations one has toward the Church, even when one is in rebellion against it. The Code itself acknowledges the existence of certain continuing legal obligations to the Church, even after a formal defection. Canon 11 states that ecclesiastical laws bind those baptized or received into the Catholic Church, but the Code nowhere makes express provision for the corresponding legal obligations to be obviated when a person defects from the Church (except in a few cases, such as observing the Catholic form of marriage). Thus, for example, a priest who formally has defected from the Church is still bound by his vow of celibacy.

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