Posted on 06/08/2021 7:32:31 AM PDT by ebb tide
All roads lead to Rome, not only from Cardinal Reinhard Marx's turbulent Germany, but also from the quiet and remote American state of Indiana.
In Indianapolis, the capital, a school run by the Jesuits has appealed to the Holy See to be granted the right to disobey its archbishop, on a matter the “synodal way” afoot in Germany has mastered: homosexuality.
It all started with the mock wedding celebrated in 2017 between Layton Payne-Elliott, a teacher at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School (left, photo by Kathleen Delaney for the newspaper "Indy Star"), and Joshua Payne-Elliott (right), a teacher at another Catholic school in Indianapolis, Cathedral High School.
Because of their condition as “spouses” of the same sex, incompatible with Catholic doctrine, the archbishop of Indianapolis, Charles C. Thompson, in June 2019 ordered their respective schools to fire both. Cathedral obeyed, Brebeuf did not.
This is not the first such case in Indianapolis. In 2018, another Catholic school in the archdiocese, Roncalli High School, fired for the same reason two of its employees who had “married,” Shelly Fitzgerald and Lynn Starkey.
Both slapped the archdiocese with lawsuits now pending in federal court.
This time, Cathedral High School also tried at first to oppose the firing of Joshua Payne-Elliott through the courts, but after the change of its director it decided to bow to the command of the archdiocese.
Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School, on the other hand, has held firm to its refusal to fire Layton Payne-Elliott, and for this reason the archdiocese has removed it from the list of Catholic schools.
Joshua Payne-Elliott, expelled from Cathedral, however, has not given up and has taken the archdiocese to court, complaining that he was unjustly removed “because of who I am and who I love.”
The archdiocese has defended itself by appealing to the first amendment of the American constitution, which protects the separation between Church and state and thus prohibits a secular power from interfering in the internal matters of a church, including the freedom to choose its teachers in keeping with the faith professed.
The court initially gave the go-ahead for the trial, but the Indiana Supreme Court, hearing the case at the urging of the Trump administration and the attorney general of Indiana, Republican Todd Rokita, in December 2020 ordereda refiling. And the court, with a new judge, shelved the trial on May 7, essentially siding with the archdiocese.
Joshua Payne-Elliott has appealed against this dismissal, while for its part Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School - which also hosts a Gender Sexuality Alliance Club in support of LGBTQ students - has appealed the archdiocese's decision to remove it from the list of Catholic schools.
Brebeuf expressed the reason for the rebellion in a statement signed by its president, the Jesuit William Verbryke, and by the entire board of directors, in which it claimed that its “identity as a Catholic Jesuit institution remains unchanged.”
According to Brebeuf, “this direct insertion into an employment matter of a school governed by a religious order is unprecedented; this is a unique action among the more than 80 Jesuit secondary / pre-secondary schools which operate in dioceses throughout North America.”
And the rebels against the archdiocese of Indianapolis - the statement specifies - are not only Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School, but the entire “USA Midwest Province of the Society of Jesus.”
But it doesn’t end there, because the leaders of Brebeuf, backed by the Jesuits led by their provincial superior Brian G. Paulson, have appealed to Rome for the Holy See’s recognition - against the archdiocese of Indianapolis - of their “informed conscience on this particular matter,” meaning the legitimacy of their refusal to “dismiss a highly capable and qualified teacher due to the teacher being a spouse within a civilly-recognized same-sex marriage.”
It is hard to imagine that such a step by an entire province of the Society of Jesus was taken without the approval of the superior general of the Society, Arturo Sosa Abascal.
But meanwhile time goes on and the appeal lies without an answer on some desk in the Vatican curia.
Because just as Rome, ultimately meaning Pope Francis, no longer knows what to do to confront the synod of Germany - especially after the resignation of Cardinal Marx aimed at relaunching it - so also it appears uncertain even in the face of this rebellion of the American Jesuits.
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Ping
You can call yourself "superman" a hundred times and you still won't fly if you jump off a cliff.
When people who have knowledge of the Lord reject that knowledge they are sometimes subsequently subject to being turned over to reprobate minds.
The fruit associated with this is that they champion homosexuality in society. When they do this it is like unto a canary that dies in a mine, a warning that the air there is bad and deadly, a warning to flee.
We are seeing this fruit on display everywhere, at least in the West, so when all is said and done should we be surprised to learn that Romans 1:18-32 had been going on just as it seems to be?
There was a point in His earthly ministry that the Lord said some hard things and many who had been following Him stopped following. He turned to the 12 and asked if they would leave too.
“To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Peter said.
We live in a time when many seem to be going away from the truth yet staying in the building, trying to draw the faithful to follow after them, to cling to them rather than to cling to Christ.
Could the Lord ask us even now what He asked the 12 then?
Then our answer should be as theirs was. Cling to the Lord who has the words of eternal life and not to men.
Actually you will fly, just not for long.
Bergoglio will deal with this the way he deals with everything illicit and contrary to Catholic teachings that he approves of...he never makes a direct statement of support but simply ignores it and lets it go ahead.
And if questioned or challenged on it, he never responds.
It’s been a pretty effective technique so far.
All the Jesuit provinces, at least in USA, are very pro-gay and have been for decades. Article should not assume Sosa involved, nothing extraordinary here. What is stunningly unusual is the involvement of the Archbishop in governance of an Order.
Pet my monkey!!
You've got to be kidding.
Yes, we know about that. My point was that this sort of behavior and posturing by the Jesuits is so commonplace that easily the Province could act outrageously without needing any permission from Sosa. About 12 years ago I read a letter from the Jesuit Provincial of a different area, internal memo to all their priests, “we will support our homosexual brothers.” This is normal for Jebs, Superior General does not give his approval, it’s de rigeur.
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