Shocking!
Posted on 03/19/2005 9:40:15 AM PST by It's me
Union-Tribune Editorial Intolerant bishop
Denial of funeral contradicts human dignity
UNION-TRIBUNE
March 19, 2005
Whatever happened to the age-old Christian precept, "Hate the sin and love the sinner."?
San Diego Bishop Robert Brom apparently rejects this maxim of charity and tolerance. His highly rare decision to deny a Catholic burial to a gay businessman who owned a gay-oriented nightclub sends a message that is the sheer antithesis of charity and tolerance.
To the bishop, a Catholic funeral for John McCusker, who died Sunday of congestive heart failure, would be a "public scandal" because the business he owned, Club Montage, was "inconsistent with Catholic moral teaching."
In our view, the real scandal is Bishop Brom's narrow-minded ostracism of McCusker after the family arranged for his funeral at the Immaculata Catholic Church at the University of San Diego, which McCusker had attended. Brom rescinded the arrangements and decreed that McCusker's funeral could not be held in any of the 98 Catholic churches in the diocese of San Diego and Imperial counties.
To our knowledge, McCusker never has been accused of doing anything illegal. If Bishop Brom has information to the contrary, he should step forward with it.
We respect the Catholic Church's denunciation of homosexual acts on moral grounds, just as we respect the church's denunciation of abortion on moral grounds. At the same time, we respect the many morally upright individuals who do not share the church's views on homosexuality and abortion. What should bind people on both sides of these divisive issues is a shared respect for the dignity of every human being. Bishop Brom's decree runs counter to the wisdom of St. Augustine, the 5th century bishop of Hippo, who wrote, Cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum: "With love for mankind and hatred for sins."
Really? Did God send a message of charity and tolerance when he didn't forgive the angels now commonly referred to as devils? How about all those that He allowed die during the Great Flood? How about all those who died during the destruction of Sodom and Gomorah?
Gee! God sure is intolerant and uncharitable!
Intolerance: the act of disagreeing with the extreme left.
Shocking!
A "maxim" of "tolerance?"
Helping people to abuse one another is neither charitable or tolerant.
It isn't really an age-old precept. And anyway, what this person really wants is for Christians to love the sin and be indifferent to the fate of the sinner. That's a distortion of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. People expect Satan to peddle evil sounding ideas, but that's not the way he usually works. He is a deceiver, and he distorts truth. It can look very similar to the real thing.
The man was clearly an unrepentant committer of mortal sin by Catholic standards. I think that the Bishop is on firm ground for rejecting his funeral. What a hoax it would have been to have a priest conduct a funeral Mass.
I appreciate the Bishop's moral stand, something inconceivable to the liberals.
Both cannot be respected at the same time. That's just ridiculous. There is no dignity in sin. When they say that individuals are morally upright who approve of abortion and homosexuality then they are saying there is no such thing as sin, so what are we to hate? Apparently, nothing but Bishops who are trying to honor our holy God by maintaining standards within the church.
"We respect the Catholic Church's denunciation of homosexual acts on moral grounds, just as we respect the church's denunciation of abortion on moral grounds. At the same time, we respect the many morally upright individuals who do not share the church's views on homosexuality and abortion. What should bind people on both sides of these divisive issues is a shared respect for the dignity of every human being."
"Both cannot be respected at the same time. That's just ridiculous. There is no dignity in sin. When they say that individuals are morally upright who approve of abortion and homosexuality then they are saying there is no such thing as sin, so what are we to hate? Apparently, nothing but Bishops who are trying to honor our holy God by maintaining standards within the church."
I have got myself into this arguement before (and I live on a college campus!). They say "well, I can't place my religious beliefs on my political beliefs", etc.... It's bull crap. Literally. These people claim to be "Catholic", but live un-Catholic lifestyles, then expect the Church to give them whatever they want.
Exactly. I'm glad to hear you're too smart to fall for that. It really goes beyond being smart into the realm of wisdom. Seemingly smart people can be very foolish sometimes.
An accurate definition.
Would you object to a Catholic funeral for John Gotti?
I don't know the particulars of Gotti's life. This is a different bishop in a different place-- he doesn't operate on NYC rules. I'm not interested in an argument, either.
Agreed! Nowhere in Scripture do I find a single reference
where one is commanded to provide all the chimera of
Christian tolerance to those who Hate God and mock the
church. As they choose in life -so they ought be buried--
Doesn't Scripture declare let the dead bury the dead.(Luke
9 verse 60) Were the Church to pretend they embraced the
man in death when he made a mockery of the church in life they would be declaring that they were a dead church.
He's a convicted Mafioso. Really, I was just wondering if certain sinful lifestyles are more deserving of a Catholic funeral than others.
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