In his comments published on the Italian online news site, Pontifex, the cardinal also pointed out that Catholic Church does not condemn the condition of being a homosexual as such. Instead, it is homosexual acts themselves that are mortally sinful. Posted on 12/03/2009 3:56:20 PM PST by wagglebee
ROME, December 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A leading Vatican cardinal caused a flutter in the secular press yesterday by stating that homosexuals who act on their sexual impulses cannot go to heaven.
"Transsexuals and homosexuals will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven and it is not me who says this, but Saint Paul," said Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, a Mexican and the former head of the Vatican's Council for Pastoral Assistance to Health Care Workers. The cardinal was reiterating the Catholic teaching that states that any sexual activity outside of marriage that is not repented of before death is a mortal sin, and therefore precludes entrance into heaven.
In his comments published on the Italian online news site, Pontifex, the cardinal also pointed out that Catholic Church does not condemn the condition of being a homosexual as such. Instead, it is homosexual acts themselves that are mortally sinful.
"People are not born homosexual," Cardinal Barragan was quoted as saying. "They become homosexual, for different reasons: education issues or because they did not develop their own identity during adolescence. It may not be their fault, but acting against nature and the dignity of the human body is an insult to God."
While the cardinal's statement of Christian sexual ethics was expressed with theological precision, the world's media and homosexualist groups have reacted with shock and outrage. The Italian homosexualist activist organisation, Arcigay, issued a statement saying, "Yes, it's true, we won't ever get into your heaven, which is a murky and unjust place."
Cardinal Barragan's reference to St. Paul was mostly likely from the saint's letter to the Romans, in which he rebuked those who indulge in a variety of sins, one of which is homosexuality. St. Paul wrote, "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth." The result of this denial is for these people to be given over to "degrading passions."
The letter continues: "Their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural. And in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error." Also condemned in the passage are greed, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slander and disobedience to parents.
Barragan's reference to the disorder of homosexuality is reflected in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, published during the pontificate of John Paul II, that says that while the "psychological genesis" of the homosexual inclination "remains largely unexplained," the acts themselves are "acts of grave depravity," and are "intrinsically disordered."
"They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved." The Catechism goes on to say that homosexuals, like all persons who want to live ordered lives, are called to "chastity" and "the virtues of self-mastery."
Cardinal Barragan also reiterated the section of the Catechism which urges against discriminating against homosexuals, saying that, "This does not justify any form of discrimination."
"We on earth cannot condemn, and as human beings we all have the same rights."
Popular among Catholic priests as well, or so we have heard. Which is why the Church took immediate action as soon as they suspected such activity, rather than merely transfer the offending priest to another district, right?
I believe Christ is the Light of the World, but we non-Catholics are just a wee bit tired of your smug hypocrisy. Fortunately, it is HE and not some Archbishop or Pope, who passes judgment on us.
I know all dogs go to heaven, but what about gay dogs?
The concept of being born homosexual is an interesting one. I’m inclined to believe that it is indeed possible, but that is because of sin. If of sin, then there is a remedy and that is Christ’s shed blood as an attonement for our sins. But that whole concept is lost on those who refuse to believe in the power of Jesus Christ over our sin.
No, they are homosexual predators who rape boys...in hopes of recruiting them into the "lifestyle"
Words mean things.
This refers to the propaganda gays like to use saying: "Most pedophiles are heterosexuals"...ie Gays don't rape girls.
Why don't you look it up and then apologize. Just because you have a limited vocabulary doesn't give you cause to insult me.
Sorry newbie liberal troll, but all homosexuals are dogs/dregs to the human race. God says they are an abomination...and His word is good enough for me. And if you disagree, they you must be a Christianphobe!
There’s a whole lotta homosexual defendin’ goin’ on here tonight!
Biblically the Cardinal is correct:
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. 1 Cor 6:9-11
Some are so deeply indoctrinated with moral relativism that they are unable to accept certain absolute truths.
If anyone is acting liberal it is you. You lost the debate, resorted to name calling and changed the subject.
Ditto for pedophiles and beastophiles.
You “non-Catholics are just a wee bit tired of (Catholics) smug hypocrisy”? Easy, there, Stallion. I ain’t got a dog in this fight, so to speak. I ain’t Catholic, nor do I burn in lust one toward another; I’m not a man who is with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in myself that recompense of my error. But following the good Cardinal’s reasoning, active homosexuals surely can’t go to Heaven, for, now, the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, ... they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God, according to St. Paul.
I would assume so. Why do you ask; is there something you need to confess?
sorry- forgot the sarc on the end of my post. You guys are WAY to serious.
(ANSA) - Rome, December 2 - Gays and transsexuals won't go to heaven, a top Roman Catholic cardinal said Wednesday.
"Transsexuals and gays will never enter the heavenly kingdom," said Javier Lozano Barragan, until recently the Vatican's 'health minister'.
"It's not me who says so, it's St Paul," he said, referring to the saint credited with forging the early Church.
St Paul (5 BC-67 AD) wrote many epistles (letters) to the rapidly spreading early Christian community.
In one of them, to the Romans, he said about unbelievers: ''God gave them up to degrading passions. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error".
Barragan, who still holds positions on various Church bodies, added that people were not born gay but became so.
"Perhaps they aren't guilty but by acting against the dignity of the body they will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven," he repeated.
Barragan's remarks drew a prompt reaction from the Italian gay association Arcigay, which said "yes, it's true, we won't ever get into your heaven, which is a murky and unjust place".
It added that Barragan's statement came in the wake of a spate of attacks on gays and "a media campaign against the dignity of transsexual persons," referring to unflattering portraits of prostitutes involved in a Rome sex scandal. In its teachings, the Catholic Church describes homosexuality as a "disorder" which bars active gays from taking part in the Church.
The Vatican sparked polemics last December when it opposed a proposed United Nations declaration to decriminalise homosexuality in the world.
But in July the Holy See said it agreed that homosexuality should be decriminalised and backed the Council of Europe's plans to prepare a measure on the issue.
At least 86 countries ban gays and many others approve their torture and imprisonment.
The seven Islamic-led nations of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Nigeria and Mauritania mandate the death penalty for gays.
Cardinal Barragan, 76, resigned in May as head of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Workers, because of his age.
Source: ANSA
Apparently the gay community in Italy agrees with him, though. Note in the above article the following:
Barragan's remarks drew a prompt reaction from the Italian gay association Arcigay, which said "yes, it's true, we won't ever get into your heaven, which is a murky and unjust place".
A stunning admission, wouldn't you say?
Perhaps you don't understand the scripture you posted...
Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.
Such were some of them but now they are not...Why aren't they??? Because they quit drinking??? Or because they quit being covetous or quit fornicating??? The answer to that is no...There is nothing they could do to become righteous...
They have become righteous because they turned to Jesus and claimed Him for their Savior and He imputed HIS Righteousness to them...
1Co 5:9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:
1Co 5:10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.
1Co 5:11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.
1Co 5:12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within?
1Co 5:13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
There are fornicators and covetous in God church...
I agree with much of your post but this is where I believe you can do better. St. Paul was very clear that this sin, among other related sexual sins, will lead the practitioner to Hell. This is a sad fact. We are all called, as an act of Christian love, to proclaim this truth to those whose souls may be in jeopardy. In fact, it would be a most dire form of cruelty not to speak this truth to those who are at risk.
“Judge not, lest ye be judged” is a widely over-quoted verse (particularly by immoral hacks that cannot tolerate condemnation) — but I have always believed that it was intended to refer to judging the Salvation of another.
As for the often misquoted and even more often misapplied "Judge not, lest ye be judged...", we should first remember that it isn't saying that those moral relativists who refuse to judge anything will themselves be free of all judgment. Rather, it tells us that we should be prepared to be condemned the standards by which we condemn other people. The verse doesn't tell us not to judge or condemn, merely to do so with prudence, justice, and love.
Judge actions, not Salvation. Active homosexuality is wrong ... whether homosexuals are denied admittance to Heaven based on that wrongdoing is between them and the Almighty.
Finally, the cardinal in the article was not condemning any individual to Hell. The Catholic Church has never claimed with any authority that any individual is in Hell. The Cardinal was simply making a factual warning about the tragic consequences of bad behavior. To do any less would be a dereliction of his duties as a priest and shepherd.
It is quite concerning how so many people skip over the rest of the verse as well as others that say no sinner can be in the presence of God. Not even one lie. Ahh..but who can be saved, you ask? Whosoever is “written in the Lamb’s Book of Life”. Salvation is a gift of God. It is by grace through faith that any of us can ever be in heaven with God and sin is sin. A lie is just as worthy of damnation as the rape of a child. Mankinds’ laws place levels of penalties for crimes. God’s law says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and that the penalty for sin, any sin, is DEATH.
We can never earn or merit eternal life and that is why Jesus Christ, God incarnate, lived a perfect, sinless life so that he could give that life as a sacrifice for our sins. So to say that someone will go to heaven, or not, based upon their behavior, is to make the cross of Christ of none effect. If we could be justified by the law, Christ is dead in vain. That is what GRACE is all about. No one deserves, or merits, or works for, or earns grace.
Titus 3:5 (King James Version)
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;”.
Thanks for speaking up about this. I agree!
Only that I was hoping for an implied message that this edict also applied to the Church's internal homosexual issue and that the Church is taking a hard line against the Pederast Priests....as in kicking them out.
So, you speak for all "non-Catholics?"
uh huh.
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