Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Proudly gay and proudly Catholic
Guardian UK ^ | Friday 10 April 2009 | Martin Pendergast

Posted on 04/14/2009 8:51:10 AM PDT by presidio9

Two days after the 1999 Soho pub bomb, monthly Masses were launched at a Catholic convent in London, welcoming lesbian and gay Catholics, their parents and families. Unable to find a central London Catholic church, after the convent's closure, LGBT Catholics found hospitality at Soho's Anglican parish church. Increasing numbers resulted in the Masses being held twice a month. While the Diocese of Westminster might have believed that the group would fade away, it recognised that real pastoral needs were being met, converts to Catholicism were being made, and a vibrant community could offer something to the local church. In March 2007, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor invited the Soho Masses LGBT community, in contact with around 300 people overall, to transfer its services to one of Soho's Catholic parishes.

A positive grass-roots story, but the church worldwide still fails to dialogue formally with its LGBT members. Official statements reflect harsh judgements, uninformed either by increasing knowledge about human sexual diversity, or Catholic theological pluralism. The pastoral practice on the ground varies enormously. LGBT pastoral ministries operate with differing degrees of hierarchical support. The Catholic church reflects the kind of divisions seen in the Anglican Communion over the issue of homosexuality, with some Bishops formally recognising only those groups which advocate celibacy.

Those viewing Catholicism from afar can be forgiven for assuming that the church has held its views on homosexuality for centuries. In fact, it only began to detail this teaching in a 1976 Declaration on Sexual Ethics, through the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then headed by the present Pope. This coined an untraditional Catholic term, "intrinsic disorder" to describe homosexuality,

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: apostate; catholic; celebratesin; cult; culturewar; homoagendaalert; homosexualagenda; protestants; sin
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last
To: Mrs. Don-o
I'm a practicing Catholic.

Yes, but having met your husband I'm pretty sure you're not a lesbian. ;^)

41 posted on 04/14/2009 10:27:46 AM PDT by Just another Joe (Warning: FReeping can be addictive and helpful to your mental health)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: Terabitten
The real question is, how do we react to our sin? Does it break our hearts, as it does God’s, or do we cling to it and hold it close?

If only it were just that. Those afflicted with homosexual attractions cling to it, hold it close, make the core of their identity, and then insist that what they do is not sinful at all.

Any church that accepts homosxualism is anti-Christ. It's that simple.
42 posted on 04/14/2009 10:29:36 AM PDT by Antoninus (Now accepting apologies from repentant Mittens.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Just another Joe
Maybe I should have said lapsed Catholic?

It is starting to annoy me that I'm seeing liberal journalists talk about "practicing Catholics" all the time these days. You're either Catholic or you are not. The term "non-practicing Catholic" is of course an oxymoron. If you agree with most of what the Church teaches, but you don't practice the religion, that doesn't give you the right to call yourself some sort of a half-assed Catholic. That may be true in other faiths, but Catholicism is an all or none religion.

43 posted on 04/14/2009 10:30:43 AM PDT by presidio9 (Islam Is As Islam Does)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: Just another Joe

:o)


44 posted on 04/14/2009 10:32:06 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (My husband has a really nice Y-chromosome.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: presidio9

You can be gay and Catholic. I’m a sinner, and I continue to sin, and I’m a Christian. One sins as good as another at damning you to hell. Nobody’s worthy.

I know there are gays out there that didn’t choose to be gay. I think homosexuality, for lack of a better term, is a disorder. I think you can be a pedophile and be Catholic too, because pedophilia is a disorder, as is necrophilia, bestiality, et. al.

The Church needs to hate the sin but love the sinner. ELCA, the episcopals, and others want to rewrite the Bible and call buggery a ‘gimme’ sin, and let bygones be bygones.

I hope the Church has learned from sweeping homosexuality and pedophilia among clergy under the rug at this point, and is engaging its own on how best to deal with this issue, because its important. Gay people, pedophiles - they deserve salvation too - as much as any other repentant sinner.

The problem, of course, is that the societal impact of their lapses take a horrific toll on the congregation and society at large.

The Catholic Church could, and should, lead on this. They certainly learned a great deal and responded pretty well to the Reformation.


45 posted on 04/14/2009 10:33:14 AM PDT by RinaseaofDs
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: presidio9

Yep. I had to rant this morning. :) It’s about homofascists behaving like a clown society. Put it in the bloggers section, not because I have a blog anywhere...I don’t...maybe shoulda put it in vanities. *shrug* Maybe should start a blog somewhere and get with the 21st century!


46 posted on 04/14/2009 10:34:01 AM PDT by 668 - Neighbor of the Beast ( AR2, Overdue! = American Revolution II...Overdue.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
That may be true in other faiths, but Catholicism is an all or none religion.

This should be said of Christianity in general.
However, what do you call someone that is a member of your religon, supposedly, that continues to, deliberately, do things that are, expressly, forbidden by your religon?

47 posted on 04/14/2009 10:34:02 AM PDT by Just another Joe (Warning: FReeping can be addictive and helpful to your mental health)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
Official statements reflect harsh judgements, uninformed either by increasing knowledge about human sexual diversity, or Catholic theological pluralism.

"Catholic theological pluralism" is within bounds set by the authentic magisterium. Of course the Church has always taught that homosexual activity is wrong and the inclination disordered, but that we should love the sinner and hate the sin, but I suppose any statements reflecting that are "uninformed" by the views of people who do not actually believe what the Church teaches.

48 posted on 04/14/2009 10:35:22 AM PDT by Unam Sanctam
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
I know what you mean, presidio9. Another word they like is "devout."

Nancy Pelosi. Douglas Kmiec. "Devout" Catholics.

It's the usual MSM axiom: The only good Catholic is a bad Catholic."

49 posted on 04/14/2009 10:40:05 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Some minds are like concrete: thoroughly mixed up and permanently set.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: Albion Wilde
...Marxist takeover of the American Medical Association and the universities arose in the late 60s did the Church -- or any other group -- have to spell it out. ...

Amazing, is it not, that in the morning of that meeting homosexuality was a recognized psychiatric disorder, and in the afternoon it was validated as an alternative lifestyle?

50 posted on 04/14/2009 10:40:50 AM PDT by Kenny Bunk (The Election of 2008: Given the choice between stupid and evil, the stupid chose evil.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 30 | View Replies]

To: Ev Reeman

You can be gay and be Catholic but you can’t continue to say that if you are acting on your desires.


51 posted on 04/14/2009 10:53:53 AM PDT by chris_bdba
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Just another Joe
This should be said of Christianity in general.

No, it could be said of the various Christian faiths, but not "Christianity." If you have the following three beliefs, you can call yourself a Christian in my book: That Jesus Christ was the only Son of God. That He was crucified, died, was buried and rose again. That He did these things, so that we may be free from sin, and share eternal life with Him.

After that, feel free to do what you please. Keep in mind that for hundreds of years, Catholics did not believe that any of the protestant faiths were actually practicing Christianity. The words Catholicism and Catholicism were once realitively synonymous, and Catholics talked about there being only one Cathlolic Church.

However, what do you call someone that is a member of your religon, supposedly, that continues to, deliberately, do things that are, expressly, forbidden by your religon?

I give up. Nancy Palosi? John Kerry? Ted Kennedy? Rudy Giuliani? Too bad we can't burn heretics anymore, huh?

52 posted on 04/14/2009 10:56:01 AM PDT by presidio9 (Islam Is As Islam Does)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
After that, feel free to do what you please.

First faith, then works, but works should follow faith as surely as G*d created the universe.

In Mathew Jesus said, paraphrasing, "If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."

To me that says anyone that professes to believe the things you mention should go all or nothing to do their best to live the way Christ lived.

I can't say that I have done that but I continue to strive for it.

53 posted on 04/14/2009 11:13:15 AM PDT by Just another Joe (Warning: FReeping can be addictive and helpful to your mental health)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: presidio9

Schizophrenic, too?


54 posted on 04/14/2009 11:14:48 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Terabitten
What the gays fail to understand is that homosexuality is simply sin......We’re all sinners - that much is agreed. The real question is, how do we react to our sin?

BINGO!!

Instead of acknowledging and repenting of their sin, these "Catholics" want the Church to accept and recognize their sin.

Speaking as a non Catholic...
55 posted on 04/14/2009 11:49:15 AM PDT by RedMonqey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Mrs. Don-o

“These feelings are flaws in my inner self, and if unresisted, they would be morally wrong; but if I do not cooperate with them, neither in thought, word, or deed, they are not sins.”

These things are indeed sins. Every thought, every action, falls into one of only two categories. Faith or sin.

That said, why not proudly hateful and proudly Catholic? Or proudly pedophilic and proudly Catholic? Or proudly heroin addicted and proudly Catholic? Or proudly dishonest and proudly Catholic.

I agree with you. The author is painfully ignorant.


56 posted on 04/14/2009 11:53:15 AM PDT by getitright (surrender aint peace)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: RedMonqey
Speaking as a non Catholic...

Me too. I doubt there's anything there that Catholics and Protestants would disagree on, though.

57 posted on 04/14/2009 11:57:08 AM PDT by Terabitten (To all RINOs: You're expendable. Sarah isn't.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: getitright
Ah. But feelings are neither thoughts, nor words, nor actions. They are not sins. They can, however, be temptations.

Hebrews 4:15 (KJV)
For we have not an high priest
who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities;
but He was in all points tempted
like as we are,
yet without sin.


58 posted on 04/14/2009 12:06:01 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("O my Jesus...Lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of Thy Mercy. ..")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: presidio9
In fact, it only began to detail this teaching in a 1976 Declaration on Sexual Ethics

What rubbish. There are plenty of passages in both the Old and New Testaments that define Homosexuality as an sin.

.

The Bible doesn't specifically mention pederasty nor forbids it in lawyer-esque language but that does not mean it is not a sin.
59 posted on 04/14/2009 12:11:21 PM PDT by RedMonqey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Terabitten
We're just being ecumenical

Certainly the liberals would applause us for doing so/sarc.

60 posted on 04/14/2009 12:15:58 PM PDT by RedMonqey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson