Free Republic

After being put through hell years ago, Aaron Bianco fights for — and finds — peace h2 class="art-title">Taunted and harassed for being a gay Catholic, he resigned his post at a local church when his life was threatened. Now, he’s still a devout Catholic and ‘life is good’Three years ago, Aaron Bianco was going through hell.Homophobic notes were being left on his car. His tires were slashed.Someone broke into the church where he worked and painted an anti-gay slur on a wall.The front doors to that church were set on fire.He was getting death threats.Conservative websites published lengthy diatribes...

Bishop McElroy defends pro-abortion polsSan Diego prelate uses racism as foilA California bishop defended President Joe Biden receiving Holy Eucharist, arguing that those who would deny pro-abortion politicians Communion are overlooking racism.Bishop Robert McElroy of the Diocese of San Diego decried calls to deny Communion to abortion promoters in an essay at the Jesuit publication America on Wednesday. “The proposal to exclude pro-choice Catholic political leaders from the Eucharist is the wrong step,” McElroy wrote. “It will bring tremendously destructive consequences.”McElroy suggested denying Communion to all Catholic politicians who reject Church teaching on grave moral matters would exclude far too...

San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy: ‘God Has Brought Us Vaccines’San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy said this week “God has brought us vaccines,” insisting it is “vitally important that all of us receive the Covid Vaccine.”In a pastoral letter to the people of San Diego, Bishop McElroy said the “Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson vaccines are safe and effective” and are “fully approved for use at this moment by the teachings of our Church.”

Bishop McElroy: Some bishops making abortion a political 'litmus test'Washington D.C., Feb 1, 2021 / 01:30 pm MT (CNA).- The bishop of San Diego on Monday accused “some bishops” of making the issue of abortion a “litmus test” for Catholic politicians during the Biden presidency. With the inauguration of Joe Biden as just the second Catholic president in United States history, “some bishops want to recast the presence and tone of the conference in the public order,” said Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego at an online event on Monday.These bishops, he said, “argue that abortion is not merely a...

Bishops for Biden San Diego’s Robert McElroy emerges as another one. Should Biden win the presidency, he will be the “second practicing Catholic” to hold that office, the media informs us without irony. Neither John F. Kennedy, with his prodigious womanizing, nor Biden, with his open hostility to Church teaching, justify that label. If anything, Biden has promised not to practice his faith. Like JFK, Biden believes in the strict separation of church and state, though not in the separation of religion from campaigning. Needing to win the Catholic vote, Biden has been playing up his Catholic roots, tattered as...

McElroy’s Milquetoast Musings Bishop equates abortion with climate change SAN DIEGO (ChurchMilitant.com) - Bishop Robert McElroy is again going to bat for the Democratic Party. Bp. Robert McElroy (Photo: Chris Stone) During a webinar hosted Tuesday by St. Mary's College — located near the University of Notre Dame — the San Diego prelate equated pro-life issues with saving the ozone. "Catholic social teaching," Bp. McElroy claimed, "calls us to protect both the life of unborn children and the sustainability of our planet that is the prerequisite for all human life." The full text of McElroy's remarks was published by theologically dissident National Catholic Reporter....

[Barf Alert] Homily for ordination of Aux. Bishop Bejarano: ‘Our mission  must not be one of recovery but of transformation’ SAN DIEGO — Bishop Robert W. McElroy delivered the following Homily at today’s ordination of the Most. Rev. Ramón Bejarano as Auxiliary Bishop of San Diego, at The Immaculata. The theme of the Good Shepherd lies at the heart of today’s Gospel. There is no image more captivating in all of the Gospels, so demanding in its utter surrender of self to the good of God’s people, so human in its expression of a care which is permanent, nurturing and...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop McElroy re-closes Imperial County churches San Diego Catholic Bishop Robert W. McElroy issued the following statement today after Gov. Gavin Newsom recommended that Imperial County re-institute stay-at-home orders because of the high rate of infection of COVID-19 there:“We are pausing our plans to re-open our parishes for public Masses in Imperial County starting today given the current health conditions.“I thank our priests, church personnel and volunteers who had prepared for weeks to welcome our brothers and sisters back to Mass, but the community’s and our parishioners’ safety comes first.“We will keep our faithful informed about when we...

[Barf Alert] San Diego Bishop: Climate Change Death Toll ‘Larger’ Than Abortion Bp. Robert McElroy seeking to influence Catholic vote SAN DIEGO (ChurchMilitant.com) - Abortion and climate change were compared several times in a recent speech by San Diego Bp. Robert McElroy, who insisted Catholics must not be single-issue voters. Playing his part to influence the Catholic vote in the upcoming California presidential primaries, McElroy claimed both abortion and climate change are "core life issues" — while alleging the latter ends more human beings' lives.  Abortion kills "more than 750,000 unborn children" but "the long-term death toll from unchecked climate change is...

[Barf Alert] The moral voter: Bishop offers guidance to faithful Catholic voters Abandoning the Paris Climate Accords, the bishop said, “is a far greater moral evil” than federal health centers providing contraceptive devices “It does little good to elect a saint who echoes Catholic social teaching on every issue,” he said, “if that candidate does not have the competence to carry out his duties effectively and thereby enhance the common good.” ... And while he called contraception “intrinsically evil ... it is a far greater moral evil for our country to abandon the Paris Climate Accord than to provide...

[Catholic Caucus] Pro-Homosexual Retreats Coming to Diocese of San Diego The dissonance is met by silence and acceptance SAN DIEGO (ChurchMilitant.com) - A pro-homosexual retreat led by a dissonant group is scheduled for two parishes in the diocese of San Diego. The diocese is once again in the news for allowing its churches to be used to convey a message contradictory to the spirit of Christian anthropology and essential Church doctrine on sexuality. The event, called "Nothing Can Separate Us From the Love of God," is being billed as "a Catholic LGBTQ+ retreat and a Day of Ministry Discernment & Visioning." It will...

Leftist San Diego Bishop to Counsel Catholics on How to Vote Bp. Robert McElroy to deliver lecture on 'Candidates, Consciences' Feb. 6 SAN DIEGO (ChurchMilitant.com) - Bishop Robert McElroy, who once called faithful Catholics opposing homosexual behavior a "cancer" in the Church, will be presenting a lecture on how Catholics should vote. McElroy will present his address, titled "Candidates, Consciences and Faithful Voting" on Thursday, Feb. 6, little more than two weeks after Pope Francis exhorted U.S. bishops to teach Catholic voters how to properly discern how they should vote.  But, with an eye to McElroy's liberal record, faithful San Diego Catholics are bracing...

[Catholic Caucus] US bishop chosen by Francis to attend Amazon Synod has ultra-liberal track record September 27, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Robert McElroy has been selected by Pope Francis to attend the upcoming Amazonian Synod, where it is believed that many of the long established teachings and traditions of the Church may be thrown out.  McElroy, who oversees the Diocese of San Diego, has a concerning history of straying from the Church’s perennial teachings. Throughout his time in the episcopacy as well as before his elevation to bishop, His Excellency has proven quite radical in matters ranging from abortion...

Bp. McElroy Defends Diocesan Employee in Same-Sex “Marriage” On October 10, LifeSiteNews reported on one of the listening sessions held by Bp. McElroy at Our Lady of Grace Church in San Diego.  During this session, one attendee was removed because of the concern she expressed over “an openly homosexual man ‘running the show’” at St. John the Evangelist parish.  According to LifeSite:After the woman alleged that the parish of St John the Evangelist had an openly homosexual man “running the show,” the Bishop cut her off, saying, “Alright, you’ve gone far enough now. You’re not going to stand here and...

EL CAJON, California, October 9, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – On October 4th, San Diego's Bishop Robert McElroy held the third in a series of eight "listening sessions" that he said would “focus on seeking input from people in the pews" regarding the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church and the actions required to heal from the scandal. A crowd of roughly 300 people filled the parish hall of Our Lady of Grace in El Cajon. The hall was renamed last week after being originally named in honor of Monsignor Thomas Moloney, a former pastor at Our Lady of Grace who was named...

San Diego Bishop Kicks Out Young Orthodox Catholics SAN DIEGO (ChurchMilitant.com) - Some San Diego Catholics are complaining that the diocese had them removed from a question and answer session on the Catholic clerical sex abuse scandal. Bishop Robert McElroy of the San Diego diocese announced in August that there would be a series of eight "listening sessions" throughout October and into early November. One of the things that happen at these events is the bishop fields questions from the laity about the clerical sex abuse crisis.  The second listening session, on Wednesday, was a packed house. Some lay Catholics who...

San Diego bishop greeted by angry questions Catholic Bishop Robert McElroy speaks with the congregation at Our Mother of Confidence in University City. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)Bishop Robert McElroy may have thought he was bringing good news Monday to 330 Roman Catholics attending his first “listening session” on pedophile priests. McElroy outlined the sensitive way the San Diego diocese responds to sex-abuse reports. He said the “history of abuse is in the past” with no credible accusations against living priests since 2002.But in the parish hall of Our Mother of Confidence Catholic Church in University City, dozens demanded McElroy explain what...

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (ChurchMilitant.com) - San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy was told of Abp. Theodore McCarrick's sexual predation as early as July 2016, but remained silent. Richard Sipe, the renowned expert in clerical sex abuse who passed away Friday, published his private correspondence with McElroy proving that the bishop was made aware of McCarrick's sexual harassment of seminarians. The 13-page letter, dated July 28, 2016 — which Sipe notes was "hand delivered" on August 30 — began: "It was clear to me during our last meeting in your office, although cordial, that you had no interest in any further personal contact. It was only...

CHICAGO, Illinois, April 23, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy called last week for the U.S. bishops to shift from focusing on Catholic principles and moral issues in the political arena to a “deep-level conscience formation” inspired by Pope Francis. “As bishops, we tend to teach from principles and moral norms,” McElroy said. “Our approach is cognitive and exhortational, not affective and inspiring.” “There are, of course, moments and purposes for which cognitive and exhortational treatments are essential in expressing the Church's legacy of teaching that spring from Revelation and the tradition of reason,” he said. “But breaking through the hyper-partisan...

In an effort to promote the so-called new paradigm surrounding the interpretation of Pope Francis’ 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), three seminars were held last month for invited bishops and select theologians at three Catholic universities around the country. The group of theologians invited is noteworthy not because of their expertise on the topics of marriage and family, but because of their public opposition to some of the Church’s long-taught traditions. Called “New Momentum Conferences on Amoris Laetitia,” the seminars were spearheaded by Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, fresh from his February speech on Amoris Laetitia at Cambridge University in England,...