Also fits the way too many have viewed the Catholic Church, don't you think?
To them I say:
Posted on 02/27/2006 4:29:24 AM PST by Loyalist
MONTREAL -- In an unusual public dissent with their leaders, 19 Quebec Roman Catholic priests published yesterday an open letter taking issue with the church's opposition to both same-sex marriage and the ordination of active gays into the priesthood.
Does the church "have the last word on the mysteries of political, social, family and sexual life?" the 980-word letter asks. "In these matters, the official teaching of the Church has shown itself more than once to be wrong."
One of the authors, Father Claude Lefebvre of the Saint-Étienne parish in Montreal, said the letter stemmed from a discussion group of Quebec priests who felt uneasy about the church's official discourse.
"We don't want people to believe that everyone within the church thinks the same way," he said in an interview.
The priests' pastoral activities with regular faithful had put them at odds with their leaders, he said. "Our contact with people influenced our action and way of thinking. We wish that, within the Church, Christians lend an ear to people who live their homosexual orientation. That they live with the people rather than just with books."
Disputing the Vatican's position that homosexual acts are "intrinsically immoral and contrary to the natural law," the letter notes that humans have endlessly strived throughout history to redefine what is natural to them.
The letter also criticizes the Canadian bishops' presentation to Parliament that opposed Bill C-38 on same-sex marriage. "Was there any trace of the compassion that marked Jesus's passage on Earth? Not a paragraph, not a sentence in your brief that takes into account the historical discrimination against homosexuals and the tragedy of their social and ecclesial exclusion."
Analysts said it has been decades since Catholic priests in Quebec have disagreed so widely and so publicly with their church leadership.
"I wouldn't call this unprecedented but I'd be at a loss to come up with a precedent," said Christophe Potworowski, the Kennedy-Smith Chair in Catholic Studies at McGill University. "It points to a serious crisis in the Quebec church and the lack of communion between priests in pastoral positions and their bishops."
Prof. Potworowski and another expert, Guy Ménard, a professor of religious studies at the University of Quebec in Montreal, agreed there hasn't been such a broad, open protest in Quebec since the 1968 Humanae Vitae encyclical that declared contraception immoral.
Yesterday's letter was signed by priests from five dioceses across the province, in Montreal, Joliette, Longueuil, Gaspé and Gatineau.
The authors say they were prompted to write because of two recent developments: the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops' criticism of the new law on same-sex marriage, and the release in November of guidelines from the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education that restated the church's ban on ordaining priests who are "actively homosexual."
The signatories include the maverick, outspoken Father Raymond Gravel. Father Gravel -- who had a rough-and-tumble youth as a prostitute and barman in a leather bar before he entered the priesthood -- has often criticized the church's views on gays in the past.
The 19 who signed the letter could be gambling on the fact that there is a shortage of priests in Quebec to avoid disciplinary measures from their bishops, Prof. Potworowski said.
Why do I have the sick feeling that these priests are going to be named as defendants in some ugly legal proceedings?
Interesting. It's rare for the connection between contraception and homosexuality to be openly acknowledged.
True. Homosexuality and contraception both stem from the Leg-o view of sex: the idea that you can take it apart, throw away the bits you don't like, and then reassemble it in any shape you want. Which reaches deeper, into the Leg-o view of human nature (also alluded to in the article): that there IS no (created) nature, just whatever we want to make of ourselves.
Which in turn is fueled by a resentment that one is a creature at all: that there is a God Who made you, whose commandments are loving and wise and utterly fit for your nature, the way your Creator has created you to be.
Excellent summary of the fundamental issues!
I was thinking the same thing.
Pride and disobedience precipitated the fall of Satan. Our souls are in peril when we attempt to live by our own perceived power, and not by the grace of God. And the grace of God is found in the divine ordination of things created by Him. Homosexuality is a grave disorder. It's evil in the sense that it lacks the reproductive capability assigned to intercourse by God. It's further insipid by virtue of its presence in popular culture (fueled by the media), leading otherwise heterosexual men and women down the path of "experimentation", and leading impressionable children into confusion and deceit (hallmarks of demonic activity) by enticing them to a worldview based on moral relativism instead of moral absoluteness.
Oh well...Great post on your part. More of these episodes of heresy to come, I'm sure.
What we have here is... a failure... to excommunicate.
If homosexual acts are right, the bible and church has always been wrong, and there's no point in having a church and believing in the Christian religion. We may as well worship nature.
Can you say, latae sententiae?
See Can. 1364
Doesn't matter. Show a little backbone and suspend all of them. They think they are independent agents anyway so send them packing. There are dioceses in this world where the faithful might see a priest only once a month. Better an actual priest than a pretender.
It should be interesting to read the response from Marc Cardinal Ouellet. He was amongst the top 12 cardinals to be considered 'papabile'.
I think several bishops will soon be identified as either orthodox or otherwise. My bet: otherwise.
All these priests have shown themselves to be unfit for ther ministry. Let the ax fall and the heads roll where they may.
Also fits the way too many have viewed the Catholic Church, don't you think?
To them I say:
"Does the church "have the last word on the mysteries of political, social, family and sexual life?" "
Ah, well, yes.
Nineteen priests is a "broad" protest? How many priests are there in Quebec? Twenty seven?
Looks like they've learned nothing from the 1968 protests, either. The effect on Church teaching will be the same as the effect of the 1968 protests. Zero.
The faithful Catholic should be grateful to the protestors for performing a public service. This letter identifies priests and parishes which will be avoided by those not wishing to fulfill their Sunday obligation at parishes infected with the homosexual subculture and propaganda.
The province of Quebec has over 4,000 priests. Time to invoke rule #5 on this group of 19.
Rome pulled back from a hard line on rebellious priests in 1968. The didn't call Paul VI "Hamlet: for nothing.
Issues of sexual morality are part of the core teachings of the deposit of faith as reflected in Scripture and Sacred Tradition from the beginning of the Church. They are not merely prudential matters as are many socio-political issues on which the Church voices its views.
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