Posted on 07/15/2021 9:47:18 AM PDT by ebb tide
In what is likely an historic first, the Vatican has instructed Spain’s bishops to disavow a conversion therapy group in that country .
Vida Nueva reported that in June the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy issued a report to the Spanish Episcopal Conference saying the bishops should distance themselves from the group known as Truth and Freedom. This group, founded in 2013, offers a form of conversion therapy that many Catholics, including clergy and religious, have attempted. The report continued (via Google Translate):
“‘Under no circumstances is [Truth and Freedom] an ecclesial association, and the Episcopal Conference has never supported or authorized it,’ sources [at the bishops’ conference] told this magazine, detailing how ‘there is much less support for this entity.’ ‘What’s more, we encourage those who consider themselves affected or victim to file a civil complaint, because from the canonical point of view we cannot stop what they do,’ reaffirms the church office.
“‘The fact that believers have participated cannot lead to the identification of a Church activity because it is not. This is how the Holy See has made it clear and that is how we have been asked to expose it and communicate it clearly in our dioceses’, points out a bishop. At the same time, he regrets that the promoters of ‘Truth and Freedom’ themselves have assumed the name ‘Catholic’ and have sought applicants in Christian spaces.”
The Vatican’s intervention last month follows 2019 reports that “about five or six” bishops, according to one of Truth and Freedom’s former members, participated in group activities and referred people, including youth, for conversion therapy. Vida Nueva explained:
“The Roman declaration in June comes after a first notice in November 2019 from the Holy See, when the participants in the [Spanish Episcopal Conference’s assembly] addressed a report on this organization that had been sent to [outgoing prefect of the Congregation for Clergy] Cardinal [Beniamino] Stella. The document collects the testimonies of several clergymen who denounced the group, having suffered practices that they call ‘humiliating’ and were justified by the concept of ‘reversible homosexuality’.
“In response to this, Stella sent it directly to the [Spanish bishops] and then asked the bishops who have priests or seminarians in their diocese who have taken part in the activities of the entity to investigate it. According to evidence from another internal source in a diocese where this movement has had a significant presence, an internal audit has not been undertaken.”
The topic of conversion therapy has been debated fiercely in some quarters of the Spanish church preceding the 2019 report to the entire bishops’ conference. In one incident, the government investigated the Diocese of Alcalá de Henares after a journalist reported the church there supported conversion therapy, which is illegal in many parts of the country. The diocese defended its involvement with the conversion therapy providers. Bishop Juan Antonio Reig Pla even suggested Catholics might be martyred for supporting the practice, which added to his highly LGBTQ-negative record.
The Vatican’s intervention now sets a precedent for bishops and pastors in other countries to follow. Spain is not the only country where church leaders have endorsed ex-gay organizations, and the vicious myth that homosexuality is somehow curable persists among many Catholics. But at the highest levels of the church, a shift seems to be occurring. Pope Francis has himself expressed concern about conversion therapy, according to lesbian activist Jayne Ozanne in 2019.
That this intervention is from the Vatican Congregation for Clergy raises an interesting question, too. Homosexuality is considered innate and natural in church teaching, even if such truth is too often disregarded by pastors. But if there is now greater adherence to this teaching, in particular from this congregation, then the concern for clergy and religious subjected to the practice could be an opening for a reconsideration of the ban on accepting gay men to the priesthood, which was issued by the same office. Regardless, that the Vatican intervened at all against such a damaging practice is a win.
Ping
This is Satanic.
Sad if true but take notice of the source. I would not take their reporting on the issue at face value. I do not doubt that it could be true but I would first like to see a more neutral report.
I guess the Pope is saying either the book of Romans does not apply to the Catholic church or this book is outdated.
I don’t believe Christ will be pleased with either explanation.
This article is so slanted in favor of LGBT+ “rights” that it is hard to separate the complete facts from the propaganda and selective quoting. It may well this particular group was condemned, but it might or might not be for legitimate reasons. It only cites “humiliating practices.” That can anything from denying that homosexuality is deviant, to truly bad tactics by this particular group.
Also this week, Jayne Ozanne, a lesbian who is an Anglican and activist against conversion therapy, met with Pope Francis on Thursday. She celebrated Mass with the pope at his private chapel and had a conversation afterwards. The Tablet reported that Ozanne presented Francis with two items: a copy of Just Love, her memoir, and the report of a 2018 survey on faith and sexuality:
“In Just Love Ms Ozanne describes her own experience as a gay Christian, including the impact ‘conversion therapy’ had on her. She was hospitalised, and ostracised by many conservative Christians after she recovered and came out as gay.
I continue to marvel at how God has allowed His church to not only be overtaken by demonic perverts, but allowed to do so with impunity.
That is RAPE!
They are banning RAPE THERAPY!!!!
I don't see any problem with the group, except for them offending the LGBTQ+ perverts and their civil laws.
So it’s a “vicious myth” that homosexuality can be cured? BS! If homosexuality can’t be forgiven and cured, then the Bible is a lie. What did the Apostle Paul have to say about it?
1 Corinthians 6:9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a] 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you WERE (emphasis mine). But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
There is no such thing as a homosexual identity, nor 57 other gender identities either. That’s a modern, incorrect construct. There are male and female identities and sinful and non-sinful ways to express human sexuality.
Everyone is tempted to sin, but temptation isn’t sin. Finding something sexually attractive about the same sex doesn’t mean one is a homosexual, nor does it mean one has sinned. Only when one acts on those temptations (or wishes in their hearts to do so) is it sin. One may be tempted often, rarely, or not at all for a given temptation, but temptation is definitely controllable (or the Bible lies)…
1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
Now unbelievers can believe whatever they want, but the Church claims to love and follow Christ. For us, we follow scripture. Now I don’t know if homosexual temptations can be completely removed by so called gay conversion therapy, but I do know temptations can be resisted and the human mind disciplined into right thinking. I know many Christians who have resisted all sorts of temptations, like alcoholism, and those twinges of past desires to sin grow rarer and rarer over time, but one has to resist them in the first place!
He's done no such thing.
Everything I’ve said about this pope is slowly coming true. Abortion... He sanctifies it giving communion to radical pro abortionists like Biden. It is only a matter of time before he sanctifies gay marriage.
Didn’t Jesus call on people to repent of their sins and convert, i.e., change their ways? Will the Vatican condemn participation in Alcoholics Anonymous groups?
I agree; “homosexual conversion therapy” could refer to many things, ranging from prayer and counseling to electric shock therapy.
Is it not the role of Christians to welcome those who repent.from sin?
Why is this Pope doing the opposite?
We’ve known for a long time that the church and the hierarchy are rife with homosexuals... but it seems now the church is actively promoting, endorsing and protecting the “lgbtq” philosophy?
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