Posted on 05/19/2012 6:41:37 AM PDT by cleghornboy
Students at Saint Mary's High School in Kitchener, Ontario just celebrated "anti-homophobia day." According to an article in the Metro News, "The anti-homophobia day event was organized by the school's sexual minority support group known as PRISM - Pride and Respect for Individuals of a Sexual Minority."
Officials at Saint Mary's High School have assured everyone that the event is in full accord with Catholic teaching and that the anti-homophobia day is all about following Jesus' example. In a statement which may be found here, we are told that, "Jesus offers us the model for how we should live our lives and teaches us that being inclusive and compassionate is part of our call as Catholic Christians. The Catholic Catechism challenges us to treat gay persons with the dignity and respect deserving of all God's people."
There you have it. For officials at Saint Mary's High School, Jesus was nothing more than a moronic hippy who proclaimed "inclusion" and "compassion." But is this really the Gospel? Oscar Romero, the martyred Archbishop of San Salvador, once said: "A preaching that does not point out sin is not the preaching of the gospel. A preaching that makes sinners feel good, so that they are secured in their sinful state, betrays the gospels call...A preaching that awakens, a preaching that enlightens - as when a light turned on awakens and of course annoys a sleeper - that is the preaching of Christ, calling: Wake up! Be converted! That is the Church's authentic preaching."
When Jesus began His public ministry, He did so with the word "repent" (Matthew 4:17). He said nothing about "inclusion." And He advised the woman caught in adultery to "sin no more" (John 8:11). Likewise, in the case of the man cured at the Pool of Bethesda, Jesus advised him to "sin no more lest something worse befall thee" (John 5:14).When queried on the subject of how many would be saved, Jesus replied "few" because the "gate" to Heaven is "narrow" (Matthew 7:13-14). And while no one can pinpoint the precise meaning of the word "few," still, it is sobering that Jesus chose the image of a narrow gate.
The Jesus of the Gospels (as opposed to the moronic hippy-counterfeit promoted by the intellectually-challenged sophomoric souls at Saint Mary's High School), is likened in the gospel to a stern master who has lazy servants flogged and murderous ones put to death (Matthew 21:41; Luke 12:47). And while it is true that Jesus is Mercy, He is also Justice. And for every parable illustrative of His mercy, there are three or four threatening divine retribution.
The Judgment Day is always described as a day of wrath and never as a day of rejoicing (Proverbs 11:4; Zephaniah 1:15; Sirach 5:10; Romans 2:5; Revelation 6:17). Why is this? If everyone (or even a large segment of mankind) is headed for Heaven, why does Sacred Scripture refer to the Judgment Day as a day of wrath? If Jesus' message was one of "inclusion," why does He assure us that those who reject His teaching will find themselves punished severely and ban them from the Kingdom to a Hell where "there will be wailing and grinding of teeth"? (Matthew 24: 51).
The smug, self-satisfied "we-are-all-saved-already" attitude found in so many Catholic parishes (and schools) is the result of the sin of presumption. Because many of our priests have betrayed Jesus by refusing to preach on the reality of sin and the reality of Hell, a spiritual dry-rot has infected much of the Church. This is why nearly everyone receives Holy Communion at Mass but nearly no one goes to Confession.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church has this to say about presumption: "There are two kinds of presumption. Either man presumes upon his own capacities, (hoping to be able to save himself without help from on high), or he presumes upon God's almighty power or his mercy (hoping to obtain his forgiveness without conversion and glory without merit)." (CCC, 2092).
The words of Sacred Scripture remind us that such an attitude is very, very wrong: "Of forgiveness be not overconfident, adding sin upon sin. Say not:' Great is his mercy; my many sins he will forgive.' For mercy and anger alike are with him; upon the wicked alights his wrath." (Sirach 5:5-7).
It is most significant that Saint Mary's "sexual minority support group" should emphasize homosexual pride. In his book entitled, "True to Our Feelings," Robert Solomon writes, "Aristotle calls shame [in his Nicomachean Ethics] a 'quasi-virtue' because to act wrongly and not be ashamed is much worse than to act wrongly and be ashamed because one has done wrong." (p. 96).
Thomas Aquinas follows Aristotle in viewing shame as a "quasi-virtue" and asserts, in his Summa Theologica, that shame, being praiseworthy, is either itself a virtue or contributes to virtue. He says that shame is a recoiling from that which is dishonorable and disgraceful, and since lack of moderation is the most dishonorable and disgraceful thing there is, shame contributes more to moderation than to any other virtue. He says that shame is not so much an essential component of moderation as it is a preparation for it, laying its foundation by instilling in persons the horror of that which brings dishonor and disgrace.
Those who promote the radical homosexual agenda exhort others to "shed the burden of shame." But one who is shameless fears neither God nor man. For such a person, that which is shameful becomes something to boast in. But we already have St. Paul's warning: "For many, as I have often told you and now tell you even in tears, conduct themselves as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction. Their God is their stomach; their glory is in their 'shame.' Their minds are occupied with earthly things." (Philippians 3: 18, 19).
Parents who send their children to Saint Mary's High School in Kitchener in the hope that they will obtain a solid Catholic education are being betrayed. Instead, they are being propagandized with a counterfeit gospel and a counterfeit "Christ." They are being educated not for Heaven but for Hell.
Apostasy
The school officials are as insane as the general queer population.
I checked both the Wiki and the school’s own website. Despite being originally founded by the School Sisters of Notre Dame, the has (apparently) been no ordered faculty since 1990.
All principals and assistants listed since that time are lay people.
It states exactly what is the teaching of the Church on matters, such as homosexuality.
Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.
Catechism of The Catholic Church 2357-2359 (Emphasis Added)
...............
So as Catholics we are called to recognize that homosexuality is a grave depravity, but we must treat those that are afflicted with homosexuality with respect, compassion and sensitivity.
The call to treat all peoples "with the dignity and respect deserving of all God's people." is absolutely correct. It is certainly not a call to apostasy, heresy or making Christ to be some sort of "Moronic Hippy".
I would argue that in his zeal to advance a point, the author fails to include the full position of the Church.
Finally someone who has their head screwed on right. This is pervasive in all churches.
I do not see a call to chastity from St. Mary’s High School. Only a call to “Gay Pride.”
False compassion is not a virtue.
Pope Saint Pius X, in his 1910 Catechism, teaches us that sodomy ranks second in gravity to voluntary homicide, among the sins that “cry out to God for vengeance.” According to this Catechism, these sins “are said to cry out to God because the Holy Spirit says so and because their iniquity is so grave and manifest that it provokes God to punish with more severe chastisements.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church published by the Vatican in 1994 teaches clearly that homosexuality is contrary to nature and that homosexual acts are among the “sins gravely contrary to chastity.” (CCC, 2396). This Catechism teaches that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered,” “contrary to the natural law,” and that “under no circumstances can they be approved.” (CCC, 2357).
St. Mary’s High School is attempting to convince others that Christian “compassion” for homosexual persons should leave such individuals comfortable in their sin.
Now while it is true that everything must be done to help sinners, this cannot include helping them to sin or to remain in sin. Because of human frailty, every sinner deserves both pity and compassion. However, vice and sin must be excluded from this compassion. This because sin can never be the proper object of compassion. (Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 30, a.1, ad 1).
It is a false compassion which supplies the sinner with the means to remain attached to sin. Such “compassion” provides an assistance (whether material or moral) which actually enables the sinner to remain firmly attached to his evil ways. By contrast, true compassion leads the sinner away from vice and back to virtue. As Thomas Aquinas explains:
“We love sinners out of charity, not so as to will what they will, or to rejoice in what gives them joy, but so as to make them will what we will, and rejoice in what rejoices us. Hence it is written: ‘They shall be turned to thee, and thou shalt not be turned to them.’” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 25, a.6, ad 4, citing Jeremiah 15:19).
St. Thomas Aquinas teaches us that the sentiment of compassion only becomes a virtue when it is guided by reason, since “it is essential to human virtue that the movements of the soul should be regulated by reason.” (Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 30, c.3). Without such regulation, compassion is merely a passion. A false compassion is a compassion not regulated and tempered by reason and is, therefore, a potentially dangerous inclination. This because it is subject to favoring not only that which is good but also that which is evil (Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 30, a.1, ad 3).
An authentic compassion always stems from charity. True compassion is an effect of charity (Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 30, a.3, ad 3). But it must be remembered that the object of this virtue is God, whose love extends to His creatures. (Summa Theologica, II-II, q. 25, a.3). Therefore, the virtue of compassion seeks to bring God to the one who suffers so that he may thereby participate in the infinite love of God. As St. Augustine explains:
“’Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ Now, you love yourself suitably when you love God better than yourself. What, then, you aim at in yourself you must aim at in your neighbor, namely, that he may love God with a perfect affection.” (St. Augustine, Of the Morals of the Catholic Church, No. 49, which may be found here: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1401.htm).
"A preaching that does not point out sin is not the preaching of the gospel. A preaching that makes sinners feel good, so that they are secured in their sinful state, betrays the gospels call...A preaching that awakens, a preaching that enlightens - as when a light turned on awakens and of course annoys a sleeper - that is the preaching of Christ, calling: Wake up! Be converted! That is the Church's authentic preaching."
The man who said that, Oscar Romero, the martyred Archbishop of San Salvador, is almost universally admired on the Left. Good. His words should be particularly hard for them to ignore.
Pride and Respect? I thought they would have preferred Joy.
Did they forget the story from the Gospel of John?
Christ is saying “You must eat my flesh and drink my blood, or you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
And some followers said, “This is a hard saying,” and they left.
Christ let them leave. He did not chase after them and say I was only speaking symbolically. Jesus meant what he said — eat his flesh and drink his blood in the Eucharist. He let theym go.
All the stories of him talking with the Pharisees about their laws also prove that Christ was not inclusive. He tried to explain, but their hearts were heardened — he let them go.
• “And then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Messiah’; or, ‘Behold, He is there’; do not believe him; for false Messiahs and false prophets will arise, and will show signs and wonders, in order to lead astray, if possible, the elect. “But take heed; behold, I have told you everything in advance.” (Mark 13:21-23)
The “Jesus” they serve is one they made up and not the one found in sacred scripture. In other words, it’s called idolatry.
Your header is a tad deceptive IMHO.
One of the best lines in the bible.
“But take ye heed; behold, I have foretold you all things.” (Mark 13:23)
I don’t think translation was necessary.
http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica
.it/articolo/1350247?eng=y
Are you the Paul Melanson who authored this piece?
I visited your home page.
“Born in Bitburg, Germany, Paul Melanson is a Catholic lay-philosopher and apologist whose work has appeared in many publications and websites including The Union Leader, The Wanderer, Seattle Catholic, Newsblaze, Helium, and Amazines. He has been interviewed by The National Catholic Register, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the television newsmagazine Chronicle.”
So...you are a Catholic lay-philosopher and apologist? An apologist for the Catholic church?
That group of publications is not conservative and, in fact, might be subversive, especially the Southern Poverty Law Center.
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