Posted on 05/30/2004 3:21:39 PM PDT by miltonim
This is simply not enough. The bishops have a duty to tell Catholics that they need to inform their consciences by the teaching of the Church, which is that absolution must be obtained for any mortal sin before one should approach the sacrament.
Why bash the Ushers?
You think the Minnesota Clergy would ever grow a spine?
The Ushers knew they never would.
So they did what they did.
More power to them.
"Shame on the "Ushers of the Eucharist" for usurping the office of priest, disrupting a Mass and potentially violating the civil law."
I don't agree with you there.
Rebuking sinners is one of the spiritual acts of mercy, and if that wasn't a rebuke to sinners -- the priest as well as the homosexuals, if that isn't redundant -- then I don't know what is.
They did not usurp his office, they protested his failure to exercise it.
What they disrupted was a sacrilege, and if that's not something that needs to be disrupted, nothing does.
If this is a violation of the civil law, then the law is wrong.
Good post, NYer.
"Yeth it ith!"
Yes. This is like idolotry. Shaping God, molding God into something like your own image, or an image you find more desirable.
When my brother converted from atheism to Reformed Judaism, he said he did it because Reformed Judaism was in line with what he already believed. Making God like him in a sense.
Oh, I think God likes pretty much everyone. ;)
I understand, but I understand his point as well. I left Catholicism because too many parts didn't jive with my understanding of the Universe.
But I understood that I was making myself an ex-Catholic. And I have great admiration for those who can keep the faith. When they understand it.
Is there a Gay Muslim movement?
If these people were sincere in their statement that they want to be accepted as believers, that is what they would do. If they are just interested in publicity, then they would disrupt traditional Catholic services to prove a point.
Oh, wait a minute...
Then that's between themselves and God, and they have had to answer for it. When they make a public statement that's in defiance to a WELL-KNOWN Church teaching it goes beyond individual conscience and into the public square.
These folks are USING the Church to force their lifestyle on the other parishoners and they have no right to do that. The priest should have asked them to remove their sashes or LEAVE!
Not if you're Catholic. One must avail themselves of the Sacrament of Penance which requires firm resolve to sin no more, sincere repentance for sins committed and auricular Confession as taught in Scripture.
What I said about the Bible applies to all Christians, whether they are Catholic or Protestant...NOONE is to take Communion unless they realize that unless they have asked forgiveness for their sins (and that is prayer between them and God not just a Priest)they would be "partaking of Christs Body and Blood" unworthily and would be jeapordizing their very life. READ IT FOR YOURSELF it is in I Corinthians Chapter 11: Verses 24-34
Taking Communion is serious business with God.
"It is a far worse sacrilege to commit an offense while falsely invoking the Holy Name of Jesus Christ or the Church."
You have got one really bizarre take on this. It was the sodomites who were disrupting the Mass, with their brazen display of the badge of their perversion.
"for the Holy Spirit always promotes unity in the Church."
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Horse pucky. The Holy Spirit always promotes holiness, and I believe that when you have unholy terrors like these sodomites, the Holy Spirit promotes throwing their disobedient, perverted butts out! And ditto priests and bishops who allow this kind of atrocity.
I do not think it is very effective method - look how it worked for conservative Episcopalians. They should move this priest out of the church on a wheelbarrow (a traditional method to punish bad leaders in Eastern Europe).
Better yet it would be to use traditional American way:
Go for it, it will work!
Not always:
Eph:6:17: And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
Heb:4:12: For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Mt:10:34: Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.
1Cor:1:10: Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
The true unity has to be based on sharing "the same mind and the same judgment" in spirit of truth. There is no place in the Church to celebrate the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah.
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.