Catholics in Cleveland need your help. If you know a Catholic blogger, Catholic journalist, or Catholic leader, please forward this information to him. This Diocese is out of control!
On the one hand, this is disturbing. On the other hand, we already knew up front that these people are gays and lesbians, right? The activities on her website are about the least toxic things they could be involved in.
Who are we fooling? These people define themselves based on the fact that they engage in unnatural acts of sexual deviancy. The commit these acts, and they create their own self image based on the fact that they commit these acts. This is known well in advance, long before you create a "prayer day" for gays and lesbians. A liturgy created for gays and lesbians by definition means a liturgy created to celebrate unnatural, perverse, deviant sexual behavior. Gross, disgusting sexual behavior that revolts the feelings, insults the senses, and degrades the sensibilities of any person whose soul still contains any shred of sanctifying grace. Even to think about these acts is abhorrent. I won't specify what they consist of, and I try not to imagine it. This behavior is then glorified in these so-called liturgies. And since these people are the types who perform these same lewd behaviors literally in the middle of 5th Avenue in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral, why should they be reticent about actually performing the same such behaviors at their "gay and lesbian liturgies"?
Better that they should spend their time camping and gardening in Holmes County rather than being the DRE at your local parish.
You're right, I am again in error. Mea Culpa. My apologies to Sinkspur and all others I offended.
Why are you calling names? I realize the quote is correct, I just think we could be more edifying.
I'm from Cleveland and my sister is a lesbian. My uncle was the auxilary Bishop there and went on to Steubenville.
I never thought I would say this, but after my girls are confirmed and they have a good base in faith, I am out of this church.
I love being Catholic, but I do not like what the church has become. I am totally appalled. Maybe if JPII would keep his butt in the vatican and take care of the church instead of making nicey on every other non Christian religion, we would be better off.
If you are as you say, then you need to keep in mind that he first generation of Protestants were apostate Catholics. and the saame can be said of the Jacobins who made war against the French Church. You face far less powerful foes. Stand and fight.
One bad thing about the pre-VII Church was the ultramontanism of many clerics. They led us to believe that the pope,personally, had a lot more power than he has. This is why Pius XII has been assigned blame for things beyond his control. Eeven today many Catholic think all the pope has to do is to wave a magic wand and all will be right.
Letter to The Wanderer (August 22, 2002):
With rapt attention, I read about Brian Halderman and his vocation to the congregation of the Marianists. (The Wanderer, May 20, 2002). I am a friend of Brians, I am a charter member of Gay and Family Lesbian Ministry, Diocese of Cleveland, and a co-founder of the gay and lesbian faith-sharing community of Ascension, known throughout the diocese as a very affirming parish. I am also a volunteer for and patron of North Coast Mens Chorus, identified as Gay Mens Chorus.
Bizarre indeed that, on the one hand, The Wanderer decries some chorus members who attended a private party dressed as clergy or religious. On the other hand, it indulges, even lionizes, the likes of Bernard Law who, in a vain effort to maintain the illusion of sanctity that once veneered e institutional Church, colluded in the felonious sexual behavior of clergymen and, in so doing, became a felon himself. The Wanderer would do well to verify its deposits because its reality checks, though intentionally infrequent, invariably bounce.
Nonetheless, The Wanderer claims incisive knowledge of the Magisterium and of disposition and conduct requisite to identify oneself Catholic. Given this knowledge and the baptisimal responsibility for combatant status in the Church Militant, I urge carpe diem. In fact, otherwise indeed is the sin of omission.
Then again, notwithstanding its being self-proclaimed champion of the Vatican, The Wanderer has an undistinguished record in effecting the official censure, let alone removal, of prelates whom it deems transgressors. After all, Roger Mahoney, Mathew Clark, and Howard Hubbard are all still ministering to their respective sees.
Either The Wanderer is not as connected as it thinks or the Vatican authority itself has been infiltrated by the liberal agenda. In either case, The Wanderer is being dissed big time, and from the main office no less.
However, I am not one to bring glad tidings bereft of hope. Since attempts at bagging big game have failed, better to get practice on more accessible varmints or critters, like me. From Honolulu to New York City, I have a paper trail of contacts with hierarchy and subordinates that provides empirical evidence of my dissent from much of the magisterial preaching and policy.
Not the least of which is the origin of my same-sex orientation. It is a gift of divine beneficence, no less in value and integrity than the sexual orientation of my heterosexual brothers and sisters in Christ. Gods other gifts of Catholic faith, of my loving and successful 20-something daughter, and of my good health have distinctive and all the more profound meaning because of Gods gift of gay orientation. Therefore, I again admonish to seize the day by bringing my name and my record of dissent to the attention of Church authority, specifically to its inveterate power to excommunicate.
Among practicing Catholics, I am about as rank and file as the Church has, and to bag small game like me is doubtless a facile matter for The Wanderer. With trophies like me, and perhaps a few more my size, The Wanderer can more confidently set its on the ouster of dissident prelates and other big game. I hasten to remind that even Christ started out lowkey. Changing water into wine at Cana much preceded raising Lazarus from the dead. While well and good The Wanderers ambition, mismanaged, it becomes hubris.
Kenneth Dayson
Lakewood, Ohio
(Editors Note: Kenneth Dayson should read The Wanderer more often and carefully. Indulges and lionizes are not words that come to mind as regards The Wanderers treatment of Cardinal Law.
As for Daysons alleged paper trail, we would be delighted to have him provide it to us - including names, dates, places.
Dayson is right about The Wanderers lack of success in persuading the Holy Sea to remove certain prelates, but to paraphrase Fox News, The Wanderer reports; the Pope decides.)
A radio interview given by Kevin Dayson and Brian Halderman.
http://www.wcpn.org/spotlight/news/2002/0517faith-1.html News Out Of Faith - Part 1: Catholic & Gay Aired May 17, 2002
Stories of clergy members sexually abusing parishioners have fueled a high profile scandal for the Catholic church, but theyve also renewed an older controversy. Gay Catholics are protesting recent statements by members of the church hierarchy in regard to the presence of homosexuals in the clergy. 90.3 WCPN®s David C. Barnett reports.
David C. BarnettIllinois Bishop Wilton Gregory threw down the gauntlet last month. The President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops minced no words when American Catholic Church officials gathered in Rome. Wilton GregoryThere is a homosexual atmosphere in some of our seminaries which keeps some candidates away because they dont want to be associated with that or they are afraid of being harrassed.
Ken DaysonI was disappointed in the Bishops statement. It was totally inappropriate.
DCB59-year-old Ken Dayson describes himself as a Cradle Catholic - raised in the faith all the way up through his college days at John Carroll University. Hes also a gay man who has spent years reconciling his sexual and religious lives.
KDMy sexual orientation is a gift of God just as much as it is for any heterosexual. The Church just doesnt see it that way.
DCBGay and Lesbian Catholics find themselves up against centuries of church doctrine. Sexual intimacy is only sanctioned for the purpose of procreation. If a relationship isnt going to yield children, the Catholic Catechism labels it as objectively disordered. But some argue that the Church has made efforts to soften that description.
Laurie JureckiThe church is very clear that theres a difference between orientation and activity.
DCBAs a pastoral associate at Ascension Church on Clevelands Westside, Laurie Jurecki helps conduct a ministry for gays and lesbians. She says the Church has made some strides in reaching out to homosexual parishioners.
LJIs still not acceptable to everybody, but its a huge leap. We were able to say to people being gay isnt a sin. Its not evil," immoral" - all those words that have been attached to being homosexual.
DCBIn 1997, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a pastoral message aimed at further easing a long-standing alienation. Titled Always Our Children, the document offers advice for parents and priests . 25-year-old Brian Halderman likes what it says - as far as it goes.
Brian HaldermanIt calls for parents to accept your children. We as a church should accept that. I want to be able to say that Im a gay man and a Catholic and I have just as much a place here at the table as you do.
DCBThe church is a daily presence in the life of Brian Halderman - he works in the Education Dept. of the Cleveland Diocese. He says recent news stories only accentuate a disconnect he sometimes feels.
BHIts difficult. In coming to work here, one of the things I was never going to compromise was who I was. But, my experience here has been welcoming. This Diocese respects the dignity of a person.
DCBLaurie Jurecki of Ascension Church is concerned that the church hierarchy is taking some steps backwards.
LJThe most difficult thing at this point for those of us who work with gay and lesbian community is the very unfortunate statements made by some of our Cardinals which have, right from the get-go of this clergy abuse crisis, connected pedophilia with homosexuality. Its a power issue. Its like rape. Its not about sex. Its not about gender. Somehow this community becomes the scapegoat for another horrible issue.
DCBBased on the comments of Bishop Gregory, Ken Dayson wonders if there will be other ramifications.
KDNow theyre talking about there being more screening of young people entering the priesthood. They might even try to screen out gay candidates, but itll never work. Look at the dwindling number of men entering the clergy. Theyre in dire straits for numbers. They cant afford to start excluding gay people.
DCBWe made several unsuccessful attempts to get comments from local seminary officials, but national numbers indicate that seminary enrollment has dropped 80% in the last 50 years.
BHI can tell you there are a number of gay priests in Cleveland. And its difficult for them. Theyre feeling very put-upon right now. And they do such wonderful work.
DCBNext month, Illinois Bishop Gregory, Cleveland Bishop Anthony Pilla, and church leaders from across the country will meet in Dallas to discuss new policies regarding such things as zero tolerance for sexual predators. Brian Halderman says the time is ripe for an overall dialog about sexuality in the church, though he doubts it will happen. Still, both he and Ken Dayson say that even the recent lurid headlines have left them unshaken in their devotion to a faith that rises above the current scandal.
KDIf I choose to leave, theyve won. I wont let them win. Im sorry, they will never convince me that my sexuality is a fundamental moral disorder.
DCBIn Cleveland, David C. Barnett, 90.3 WCPN News