Pontifical Family Council President: "World Family Meeting in Philly open to homosexual couples."

“Everyone is welcome, nobody is excluded”. With these words Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, replied to the questions from journalists at a press conference for the presentation of the eighth World Meeting of Families, planned for the 22nd to the 27th of September in Philadelphia. Asked about the presence or non-presence of homosexual couples in Philadelphia, Monsignor responded: “We are following Instrumentum Laboris on the Synod to the letter. Everyone can come, nobody is excluded. And if anyone feels excluded, I’ll leave the 99 little sheep and go and get him”, he added with a quip.

“The intimate connection” between the meeting in the USA and the Synod, specified Monsignor Paglia, “is evidently not only temporal. The hope is that the meeting in Philadelphia and the Synod in October may truly build an ecclesial and social season, characterized by a renewed focus on the family. We want to work towards this. We want the Gospel of mercy proclaimed in the great cities of the world, most of all in the poorest and most marginalized quarters.”

And as for the rainbow flag --- Archbishop Chaput would tear it doen personally.

Morning!

Archbishop Chaput's statement was:

"We don't want to provide a platform at the meeting for people to lobby for positions contrary to the life of our Church,"

Perhaps that "would" should be changed to "will."

The meeting is having a session on homosexuality:

Ron Belgau, a professor at Notre Dame University, and his mother, Beverley Belgau, will present a session titled "Always Consider the Person: Homosexuality in the Family," in which Ron Belgau will speak about being gay and Catholic.

More on that:

McIntyre said Belgau, who has described himself as gay and celibate, will discuss "coming to terms with his sexual orientation and the manner in which he embraced the teaching of Christ in the church."

So the session is intended to do the right thing (if you have same sex attraction, you can't act on it: you have to remain celibate). But it gives the devil some space. And at THIS time in the USA, that is, IMHO, a bad, bad mistake.

And with that little opening and at THIS time in the USA, it virually guarantees that some "lobbying group" some equivalent to "Act Up" will guaranteed show up to this meeting and will do their business. This "Act Up" group will have the full backing of the media. And any effort to either remove them or to make them act with even a slight amount of decorum will be met with catcalls of "homophobia" throughout the media.

The devil is currently confident enough to roar. It appears that they are setting things up to feed a kitten some milk when what is needed is a liontamer to get him back in his cage.

No speakers for gay marriage, gay fornication, straight fornication, contraception, divorce/remarriage without annulment, polygamy, etc.

They probably have their lawyers working on it. Figuring out how they can sue their way to get on stage or at least get some kind of cash settlement out of it.

There is a time and place for discussing the issues of homosexuality and homosexual "couples" but a meeting on the family is not that place unless it's under the heading of "Threats to the Family".

Whatever the intention, the outcome will simply be a further blurring of the lines which is the last thing we need at the moment. Homosexual "couples are in no sense "family". Their situation is certainly deserving of discussion and ministry but not in the context of the traditional family. The latter is an image of God's relationship with his Church, the latter is an ongoing and gravely sinful situation.

The juxtaposition of these two diametrically opposed models of "family" in a public meeting will simply cause further confusion and scandalize to those whose faith is already weak. Is the sin of scandal even considered these days in the promotion of the all encompassing "new mercy"? There's a lot of talk about "the poor" and "the weak". How about an occasional thought for those struggling with their faith and who desperately need the positive witness of a Church which is heroically confronting the zeitgeist and the world.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.