[Diago]

From the Final Communque of the US Cardinals:

On April 23-24, 2002, an extraordinary meeting was held in the Vatican between the Cardinals of the United States and the leadership of the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops and the heads of several offices of the Holy See on the subject of the sexual abuse of minors.The meeting was called with three goals in mind:

- on the part of the American Bishops, to inform the Holy See about the difficulties which they have faced in recent months,

- on the part of the Roman Dicasteries, to hear directly from the American Cardinals and the chief officials of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops a general evaluation of the situation,

- and together to develop ways to move forward in addressing these issues.

As is known, the Holy Father received the working group in his private library late in the morning of Tuesday, April 23, and gave a programmatic address. Today, at the end of the morning session, His Holiness invited the American Cardinals and Bishops to lunch, to continue their discussion of some of the themes raised at the meeting.The participants first of all wish to express their unanimous gratitude to the Holy Father for his clear indications of direction and commitment for the future. In communion with the Pope they reaffirm certain basic principles:

***

5) Given the doctrinal issues underlying the deplorable behavior in question, certain lines of response have been proposed:a) the Pastors of the Church need clearly to promote the correct moral teaching of the Church and publicly to reprimand individuals who spread dissent and groups which advance ambiguous approaches to pastoral care;

[tiki]

) Given the doctrinal issues underlying the deplorable behavior in question, certain lines of response have been proposed:a) the Pastors of the Church need clearly to promote the correct moral teaching of the Church and publicly to reprimand individuals who spread dissent and groups which advance ambiguous approaches to pastoral care;

Not to sound too silly and trite but...DUH!

[A. Pole]

Retreat for Gay and Lesbian Catholics

Unbelievable.

[WriteOn]

What is this crap? If I lived closer to Cleveland I'd have to do some serious headknocking! Where is that whoopass?

[GKBelloc]

Another example of clueless Cleveland. Haven't the homosexuals caused us enough grief without the diocese promoting homosexual "pride"? Being proud to be a homosexual is like being proud to have schizophrenia or manic depression. It is just plain messed up. And the last thing anybody needs is for the diocese to pretend that it's A-OKAY.

[wwjdn]

A simple quote from the Bible on this issue:

9 When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin.
10 But I wasn't talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or who are greedy or are swindlers or idol worshipers. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that.
11 What I meant was that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a Christian yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or a drunkard, or a swindler. Don't even eat with such people.
12 It isn't my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your job to judge those inside the church who are sinning in these ways.
13 God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, "You must remove the evil person from among you."

1 Corinthians 5

[GKBelloc]

Bump. Let's cut the cancer out of the American Catholic Church.

[Las Vegas Dave]

FYI: Ping!

[Rudder]

Excellent move, Diago. The Church must be purged of the evil element now within its ranks of clergy. The laity must now give clear direction to the clerics.

Try "Embarrassed," for a better headline.