Posted on 10/20/2011 3:36:08 PM PDT by NYer
Fairfield University’s student newspaper The Mirror reports that Fairfield provided transportation for students to hear openly gay sex columnist Dan Savage bash the Catholic Church in his keynote address for the Pro-Queer Life conference on Saturday.
The lecture contradicts assurances reportedly made by Fairfield President Fr. Jeffrey von Arx, S.J., to Bishop William Lori that the conference would “not be a vehicle for dissent.”
The Jesuit university reportedly bussed students to Union Theological Seminary in New York as part of their More Than a Monologue: Sexual Diversity and the Catholic Church,” an effort by Fairfield and Fordham Universities along with two non-denominational divinity schools to apparently cast doubt on Catholic teaching on homosexuality.
The Mirror reported that Savage:
…denounced the Bible as a credible source of model behavior, saying that sins, like masturbation, premarital sex and use of condoms and birth pills, once so adamantly prohibited in the past, can no longer be judged by the authorities of the church.
We have got to ignore the bt in the Bible about gay people, just as weve learned to ignore what the b-t in the Bible have said about women about polyester, about farming and about slavery, said Savage.
Priests cannot see the sins of people, and according to Savage, homosexuality cannot be so easily judged from the outside.
They cant see past our homosexuality to see our shared and common humanity, which is hugely ironic considering how many of those priests behind those pulpits are gay, he said.
In a slightly ironic twist, The Mirror reports that after Savage called for everyone to “see our shared and common humanity,” he called traditional marriage supporter Maggie Gallagher “vile.”
Savage’s lecture contradicts assurances to the bishops reportedly made by the presidents of Fairfield and Fordham Universities that the “More Than a Monologue” conferences, ”while sensitive to the experience of the participants, will not be a vehicle for dissent.” Those assurances were revealed in a September 22nd public statement by Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York and Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport, following a letter from The Cardinal Newman Society requesting Archbishop Dolan’s intervention and public concern arising from The Cardinal Newman Society’s reports on the conference series.
Meredith Marquez, assistant director of Student Diversity Programs, felt Savages speech was a fitting opener for LGBTQ History month.
I feel like while were celebrating LGBTQ people of America, she said, One of the pressing things thats going on right now are the suicides that have been happening. This event allows students to go and hear from probably the most popular and the funniestdefinitely the funniestand, I would argue, the most effective person to talk about this issue.
Marquez also noted that the conversation between homosexuals and the Church needs to continue.
To [Fairfield University], being Catholic is being accepting, she said. Thats how we can be the best Catholic institution if we live up to that mission. [It] is to be the most accepting that you can of all people. I am hoping that little messages will get through and its things like these that I would love all students will come to.
As part of the same series Fairfield will host its part of “More Than a Monologue” with a Care of Souls conference on October 29th. The theme of the event, according to The Mirror is, pastoral care of and by LGBTQ Catholics.
“Shall I go on?”
Yes, please, but be sure you have your facts straight, and that you’re not just talking about some rogue cleric.
It’s both provocative and sad at the same time, to see how deep some people’s persecution complexes run. I wonder if they ever think something happy in their heads when they look at the rest of the world that isn’t like them.
As long as a thread is not a "Catholic Caucus," I will continue to react in horror to the evil repeatedly allowed in this "church" by its highest leadership.
“I will continue to react in horror to the evil repeatedly allowed in this “church” by its highest leadership.”
It is very difficult to persuade a person that the sources he trusts have been lying to him. Not only does a person have an emotional investment in the beliefs he has developed on the basis of information received from those sources, it is difficult for most people to face the facts when they have been wrong.
Perhaps more importantly, no one wants to be the sort of person who could be fooled like that. Everyone wants to think, “If they were lying to me all those years, I would have picked up on it. After all, I’m not stupid.”
It’s like Mel Blanc said, “Bugs Bunny is who we want to be; Daffy Duck is who we are afraid we are.”
Still, you can fool all the people some of the time, which means that even the smartest people do get fooled.
Which is all my way of saying, with absolutely no hope whatsoever that my remarks will be taken as they are intended, that you have been told many lies about the Catholic Church.
Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps YOU may have been told many lies about the Catholic Church?
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