Posted on 01/12/2005 4:00:01 AM PST by Catholic54321
PAMPLONA, January 11, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In the many western countries where homosexual "marriage" is being pushed through courts and legislatures, pro-family groups have complained that the leadership of Catholic bishops has often been distressingly weak.
National Catholic bishops conferences in some of these countries and many individual bishops are contenting themselves with pronouncements and strategies focusing only on Catholic teaching about the beauty and worth of marriage while assiduously avoiding any mention of the agenda to force acceptance of homosexuality that is driving the same-sex marriage push. One Canadian bishop told LifeSiteNews.com that the Canadian Catholic public was "not ready to hear" the Church's teaching on homosexuality.
Such political correctness does not seem to be restraining the bishops of Spain however. Fernando Sebastian, Archbishop of Pamplona in northern Spain and Secretary of the Spanish bishops conference, has infuriated homosexual activists by referring to homosexuality as an "epidemic" and identifying it as a "fount of psychological problems and painful frustrations."
"Homosexuals, if they wish, and with well-targeted help, can change their situation," The bishop said on Saturday. He added, "For me, all are sons of God, and all deserve the same respect."
The comments come as Spain's socialist government continues to work to sever that country's historical connection with Catholicism. On January 3rd, the Zapatero cabinet voted to legalize homosexual unions and call them 'marriage.' Since coming to power last year, the new government has moved quickly to eliminate mandatory Catholic religious education in schools, legalize embryonic stem cell research, and promoted abortion. The Spanish socialists were among the first to ratify a European Parliament 94.03% of Spain's population remains Catholic.
The irony is that the socialists came into power only because of the election impact of the terrible train bombing by Islamic terrorists who, among other reasons, justify their actions because of moral corruption in the West.
In a pastoral letter, the current bishop of Avila, home of St. Teresa of Avila, one of Catholicism's most famous 16th century mystic saints and theologians, compared the violent shift away from Spanish traditions to a coups d'etat. Bishop Jesus Garcia Burrillo called the changes "a violent cultural earthquake," in his recent pastoral letter, as reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer. "It is not easy to find in history, in such a short space of time, so many changes affecting morality [except] in time of coups d'etat," he said.
It is perhaps, not surprising that Catholic bishops in other countries are afraid to speak out against homosexuality. One Spanish homosexual activist group, Popular Gay Platform, has launched a lawsuit against the Spanish Catholic primate, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, when he said in a sermon that homosexuality threatened the social security system.
It is. The Socialists only got elected because they knew how to take advantage of the chaos and fear after the bombing. In defense of the electorate, I will say nobody had really paid much attention to their program or to their candidate, Zapatero, because he had never been expected to win. In other words, you can't really say they knowingly voted for his program.
However, he has emerged as possibly the hardest left of all of the European politicians in office right now. He and his cronies hate the Church, which they see as they only power that opposes them, and he has been attacking it since the day he took office. Of course, at the same time, he has been giving government money for the building of mosques in Spain.
This is getting very little coverage outside of Spain, but friends in Spain are very worried about it, and the bishops are trying to resist and fight back while there is still time. Cardinal Rouco of Madrid is a real leader in this; he is a fine shepherd, and the left is doing everything to bring him down.
I'm surprised. They're supposed to believe in God.
Too bad this article wasn't posted to the News/Activism Forum. It would have had a better audience.
I'll have to pray for the clergy of Spain, esp. this Cardinal. Thanks for the tip.
It's good to see some Bishops with spine. It's also enlightening to see the leftists' program laid out so completely. Is there really any difference in kind between the Zapatistas in Spain and the democRATS in the USA?
Where have you been?
But aside from the liberalism of our Bishop's it's becoming more and more against civil law to speak any ill against homosexuals. It's classified a hate crime. It won't be long before the law comes for these Bishops.
It's already happened in Canada and other countries. Eventually it will be a crime to even say you are Catholic.
I hope the morally depraved socialista Presidente Zapatero gets kicked to the curb in approximately 1152 days...
Spain has apostatized. It had the lowest birthrate in the world in the year 2000 and it is still the lowest in Europe.- The real Spaniards-in figures.
Over 90% of the population may claim to be "Catholic" but they surely are not living according to Church teaching in the area of marriage and the family.
The government and its changes may have appeared suddenly but all this has been incubating for quite some time. Of course, most people didn't see it coming but they never do. Too busy watching television.
How sad to see the Spanish turn their backs on the heroic witness of their parents and grandparents in the 1930s. I forsee another dose of religious persecution just around the corner.
>>>>In a pastoral letter, the current bishop of Avila, home of St. Teresa of Avila, one of Catholicism's most famous 16th century mystic saints and theologians, compared the violent shift away from Spanish traditions to a coups d'etat.
We named our daughter Avila. Good to see the faith is still alive there.
patent
It's against the law to profess Christianity in many countries, yet millions do it anyway, and many die for it. What's wrong with Bishops that they're afraid of *homosexuals*, of all things?
I'll be glad when the persecution really starts. Lukewarmness is death.
"94.03% of Spain's population remains Catholic"
yeah right. if this were true, there's no way slime like Zapatero would've been elected and there'd be huge outcries about the stem-cell and gay marriage laws.
Well, I wish the Spanish clergy luck. Spain is apparently suffering from the same terminal disease infecting most of Western Europe. Gutless cowards who voted overwhelmingly(80%, if I hear correctly)for a left-wing regime in the wake of Islamic terrorism are incapable of preserving their religious and cultural identity. These Spaniards knew who and what they were voting for when they tossed out their government and went Socialist following the train bombings.
It was a very narrow win, actually. Something like 51% of the voters voted for the Socialists, and there was massive voter intimidation (of Conservative voters) with Socialist coordinated mini-riots outside of PP headquarters, etc. In addition, the press was firmly in the camp of the Socialists and distorted, lied and did everything possible to get the PSOE back in power.
So that means that almost half of Spain did not vote for the Socialists, even with all of the pressure. However, even those who did vote for the Socialists didn't expect Zapatero to do the things he has done: he represents the extreme left wing of his party, and even some of the older Socialists have been trying to get him to moderate his views. But he's not going to, and I fear that things are only going to get worse in Spain.
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