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Maltese Archbishop Apologizes After Priest Says Being Gay ‘Worse Than Being Possessed’
Crux ^ | 1/7/22 | Ines San Martin

Posted on 01/07/2022 8:16:36 PM PST by marshmallow

A Catholic priest in Malta is under fire for what his archbishop called “inflammatory and hurtful comments” against gay people.

In a post on Facebook, Father David Muscat said that being gay is worse than being “possessed”. He was forced by the archdiocese of Malta to delete the post, which had caused uproar in the European island nation.

In a televised homily on Thursday night, Archbishop Charles Scicluna apologized in the name of the Church, while the archdiocese released a statement saying that a formal warning against the priest had been issued. He was also instructed to stop using hurtful language against any group or individual.

It said the archbishop also reminded Muscat that in accordance with Catholic teaching, members of the clergy are required to display respect, compassion and sensitivity to people from all walks of life.

Muscat, a priest from Mosta, had made the Facebook post about murder suspect, Abner Aquilina, with the priest speculating on the possibility that the assailant was gay or bisexual, or possessed by the devil. Muscat said that being gay was worse than being possessed.

(Excerpt) Read more at cruxnow.com ...


TOPICS: Catholic; Ministry/Outreach; Moral Issues
KEYWORDS: butitisworse; charlesscicluna; homofascism
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1 posted on 01/07/2022 8:16:36 PM PST by marshmallow
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To: marshmallow

What’s the difference?


2 posted on 01/07/2022 8:18:03 PM PST by Trillian
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To: Trillian

My thoughts exactly.


3 posted on 01/07/2022 8:19:16 PM PST by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: marshmallow

Sounds like the archbishop took it personally.


4 posted on 01/07/2022 8:19:19 PM PST by ClearCase_guy (The experts are liars. The conspiracy theorists are the people who have figured out the Truth.)
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To: Trillian

That being “gay” may be by choice, whereas being possessed may not be by choice.


5 posted on 01/07/2022 8:21:06 PM PST by captain_dave
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To: marshmallow

Well, that does sound like taking things a step too far. Kinda like saying being blind is worse than being a paraplegic.


6 posted on 01/07/2022 8:44:15 PM PST by OrangeHoof (Chinese communism will look different once the masks come off.)
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To: marshmallow

Worse than that

Keeps you separated from God


7 posted on 01/07/2022 8:44:57 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Trillian

For the bishop to say his comments were hurtful is sad because nothing in it could be as hurtful standing by and affirming someone who has an affliction that will leave them in misery without the joys of a natural, healthy life and family.

I grieve for so many young people who have been trained that living a biologically natural life is part of everything that is wrong and problematic in the world


8 posted on 01/07/2022 8:48:08 PM PST by epluribus_2 (He, had the best mom - ever.)
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To: marshmallow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Scicluna

. . .Both as a curial official and since becoming a bishop he has conducted investigations into sexual abuse by clergy on behalf of the Holy See and led a board that reviews such cases. He has been called “the Vatican’s most respected sex crimes expert”.[2] Since November 2018 he has also been Adjunct Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the curial body responsible for dealing with clerical sexual abuse cases on minors around the world. . .

Sexuality

During the Vatican Abuse Summit, Italian journalist Sandro Magister asked Scicluna why the term “homosexuality” was absent from the opening day presentations of the summit. Scicluna replied, “These are human conditions [heterosexuality and homosexuality] that we recognize, that exist. But they aren’t something that really predisposes to sin.”[27]. . .


9 posted on 01/07/2022 8:53:51 PM PST by Fedora
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To: marshmallow

If a sin cries out to heaven for vengeance, it’s worse than a great many things.

Giving someone a hard time for saying it’s worse than being possessed would seem to be a pretty good example of misplaced priorities, at least!


10 posted on 01/07/2022 8:54:49 PM PST by one guy in new jersey
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To: marshmallow

The attraction to the same sex is a form of the demonic, it is not natural, this is according to a woman who I heard speak on a Catholic radio show. Those who are afflicted with it need a Catholic priest who can deliver them from their bondage.

This priest is totally correct and his bishop is wrong to kiss up to the world, the flesh, and the devil.


11 posted on 01/07/2022 8:54:54 PM PST by blackpacific
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To: Fedora

https://www.ncregister.com/blog/archbishop-scicluna-inadvertently-tweets-support-for-gay-pride

Archbishop Scicluna ‘Inadvertently’ Tweets Support for ‘Gay Pride’
The supportive tweet is the latest controversy over same-sex issues surrounding Vatican’s point man on clerical sex abuse.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, the Vatican’s point man on clerical sex abuse, has apparently publicly approved a message on social media endorsing New York’s “gay pride” parade.

The archbishop, who is adjunct secretary at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and took a leading role in February’s summit of bishops on protection of minors in the Church, “liked” a tweet from Charlie Joughin, a supporter of LGBT rights in Washington, D.C.

The tweet, dated July 1, was a photo of two men celebrating the New York parade with the words, “Going out with a bang.”

The city’s June 30 “World Pride” event ended “LGBT Pride Month,” which took place throughout the month of June and included parades in cities around the world.

The Register asked Archbishop Scicluna July 2 if he could confirm whether or not he had himself “liked” the tweet and if so, whether he would like to comment.

Kevin Papagiorcopulo, the head of media for the Archdiocese of Malta, told the Register, “With reference to your email to Archbishop Scicluna on his Twitter account activity, please be informed that the like was done inadvertently and has since been removed.”

The tweet no longer shows up on his Twitter page.

The archbishop has been embroiled in controversy over same-sex issues since the February summit of bishops at the Vatican when he told reporters that both homosexuality and heterosexuality are “human conditions that we recognize, and that exist, but they aren’t something that really predisposes to sin.”

He was responding to a question querying why the word “homosexuality” was completely absent from the summit’s opening day despite the John Jay Report showing that more than 80% of clerical abuse victims were post-pubescent boys.

Archbishop Scicluna said in dealing with abuse cases “we don’t have categories of people” but individuals. In relation to decades of widespread homosexuality in U.S. seminaries he said, “You cannot not address misconduct of that nature, which is sinful, but this is not about the sexual abuse of minors.”

But more controversy was to follow when a priest, appearing on a Maltese television program in March, spoke approvingly of homosexuality as created by God and “part of his plan.” Archbishop Scicluna had asked the priest, Father Kevin Schembri, to appear on the program in his place.

Father Schembri, who is the archdiocesan defender of the bond, told the program that if a person recognizes he is “a gay person as created by God, he does not need to change” and would be “harming himself” if he did not accept himself “as a gay person.” Homosexual love is simply a “variant” created by God, he added in the television interview.

Father Schembri’s comments led to a number of complaints sent to the archdiocese, according to sources. They also told the Register at the time that the incident was indicative of a disturbing level of tolerance of homosexual behavior in the once deeply Catholic country, especially among clergy.

When Archbishop Scicluna failed to publicly correct the priest and reassert the Church’s teaching on homosexuality, a lay group of Maltese Catholics took out a full-page advertisement in The Times of Malta on May 24, calling on the archbishop to discipline Father Schembri.

The open letter restated the Church’s teaching on homosexuality and called on the archbishop to also “make a public pronouncement disassociating the Church in Malta” from Father Schembri’s “heterodox opinions.”

To date, the archbishop has issued no such public correction. . .


12 posted on 01/07/2022 8:56:23 PM PST by Fedora
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To: marshmallow

What would happen to St. Peter Damian today, he wrote a book on the evil of sodomy. Possession is pretty horrible, our Lord cast out devils. Best not to be a sexual compulsive or possessed.


13 posted on 01/07/2022 8:56:56 PM PST by MDLION (J"Trust in the Lord with all your heart" -Proverbs 3:5)
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To: marshmallow

The operative word there is “Worse.”


14 posted on 01/07/2022 8:57:07 PM PST by Fai Mao (I don't think we have enough telephone poles.)
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To: marshmallow

Yep. Homosexual is a choice. Possessed is not.


15 posted on 01/07/2022 8:57:41 PM PST by CodeToad (Arm up! They Have!)
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To: marshmallow

“being gay is worse than being “possessed”. Sloppy.

Say it this way: consenting to the unnatural vice and gay activities is a sign of possession, since only people in hell will see such gross activities as interesting.


16 posted on 01/07/2022 9:00:58 PM PST by Falconspeed ("Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others." Robert Louis Stevenson.)
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To: marshmallow

Engaging in homosexual activity is possession. As well as pre- and extra-marital relations, pornography use, and self-abuse.


17 posted on 01/07/2022 9:34:51 PM PST by JoanSmith
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To: CodeToad

“Homosexual is a choice. Possessed is not.”

People become possessed because of their choices. A demon cannot enter unless it has been invited. Sexual perversion is a very easy way for a demon to enter.

Many people are ignorant to the activities that cause possession. But to imply it has nothing to do with choice is inaccurate.


18 posted on 01/07/2022 9:38:33 PM PST by JoanSmith
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To: marshmallow

Obsession with buggery is clearly demonic possession. There is nothing worse than that.


19 posted on 01/07/2022 10:43:45 PM PST by Louis Foxwell (Hatred is the essential tool of the tyrant.)
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To: marshmallow

Ever notice that men can become women, women can become men, and straight people can become gay. The only thing that can never change is a gay becoming straight.


20 posted on 01/08/2022 1:12:47 AM PST by Brooklyn Attitude (I went to bed on November 3rd 2020 and woke up in 1984.)
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