“Very active in pastoral ministry to LGBTQ Catholics”

[Bubba_Switzler]

On March 22, Santa Clara University announced that Fr. Michael Zampelli, S.J., had been named the new rector to the Jesuit community of Santa Clara University. Zampelli was appointed by Fr. General Adolfo Nicolás, S.J., the superior general of the Society of Jesus in Rome.

…

In 2004, Fr. Zampelli directed the play “Stop Kiss” at the university. The drama is about two women who start out as friends and end up being lovers, and are attacked when they share their first kiss in public, injuring one so seriously she falls into a coma. “The play is timely in terms of the human issues that it raises,” said Fr. Zampelli. “How does a person discover who she is? How does a person learn to love? How does a person come to understand how she is to live her life? … In the current cultural climate that problematizes particular kinds of relationships, ‘Stop Kiss’ gives us a place to think about ‘the things that really matter.’”

On October 26, 2005, at an SCU seminar titled “Is Tolerance Enough: Catholic Universities and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Issues,” Fr. Zampelli expanded on the theme of “problematizing particular kinds of relationships.” He said, “Those of us who identify as lgbtq have a particular fix on the world, and what we have come to understand about ourselves, our society, our religions, our scholarly disciplines, from this particular perspective makes an invaluable contribution to the store of knowledge.”

…

The appointment of homosexual-friendly priests into positions of religious authority is a developing trend in the Jesuit California Province. Fr. Zampelli’s appointment follows that of Fr. Donal Godfrey, who in 2007 was named executive director of university ministry at the Jesuit University of San Francisco. Like Fr. Zampelli, Fr. Godfrey is active with “Dignity.” Last year, Fr. Godfrey led a workshop at the July 2009 Dignity USA convention in San Francisco. Fr. Godfrey also has been a fixture at San Francisco’s Most Holy Redeemer, a parish deeply involved in homosexual activism, including participation in the city’s yearly Gay Pride parade. In October 2007, Fr. Godfrey presided at a prayer service (later broadcast by the BBC) celebrating homosexuality.

calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=58203019-d5c7-4e15-bae9-b756160f5fca

 

[Barbkw]

Like Fr. Zampelli, Fr. Godfrey is active with “Dignity.” Last year, Fr. Godfrey led a workshop at the July 2009 Dignity USA convention in San Francisco. Fr. Godfrey also has been a fixture at San Francisco’s Most Holy Redeemer, a parish deeply involved in homosexual activism, including participation in the city’s yearly Gay Pride parade. In October 2007, Fr. Godfrey presided at a prayer service (later broadcast by the BBC) celebrating homosexuality.

Dignity is an anti-Catholic organization.

 

[anp1215]

Why is a Catholic parish participating in the annual gay pride parade?

Normally when I see posts like this, I dismiss them because they usually involve so-called “Catholic” organizations that are not endorsed by the Church, but this is disturbing. I looked up the parish, and to my chagrin, it is, as far as I can see, in full communion, listed on the Archdiocese of San Francisco’s website.

sanfrancisco-catholic.com/most_holy_redeemer.htm
lifesitenews.com/news/archive/ldn/2006/nov/06111709

Why isn’t this being stopped? How can a parish be involved in such blatantly anti-Catholic activities with seemingly no repercussions?

 

[Dale_M]

In October 2007, Fr. Godfrey presided at a prayer service (later broadcast by the BBC) celebrating homosexuality.

:ehh:

Bubba, I know you didn’t make that claim. It was the claim of Gibbons Cooney, the author of the CalCatholic article.

I was surprised to read that statement and, I admit, somewhat disbelieving. So I did a bit of digging around on the internet. The prayer service was recorded on October 22, 2006 at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in San Francisco. Long time members of CAF will recognize MHR as being the Catholic church which is located in the Castro neighborhood, which is “the gay neighborhood.” The church has come up for discussion here a few times.

Anyways, the prayer service was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on April 27, 2007. It is no longer available to listen to, however a transcript is available.
bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/sunday_worship/documents/20070429.shtml

I think calling that prayer service “a celebration of homosexuality” to be inaccurate.

 

[anp1215]

:ehh:

Bubba, I know you didn’t make that claim. It was the claim of Gibbons Cooney, the author of the CalCatholic article.

I was surprised to read that statement and, I admit, somewhat disbelieving. So I did a bit of digging around on the internet. The prayer service was recorded on October 22, 2006 at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in San Francisco. Long time members of CAF will recognize MHR as being the Catholic church which is located in the Castro neighborhood, which is “the gay neighborhood.” The church has come up for discussion here a few times.

Anyways, the prayer service was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on April 27, 2007. It is no longer available to listen to, however a transcript is available.
bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/sunday_worship/documents/20070429.shtml

I think calling that prayer service “a celebration of homosexuality” to be inaccurate.

I have to admit that it sounded fairly celebratory to me.

 

[AcolyteLector]

I think that the official Catholic ministries reaching out to homosexuals would be much more effective if they were headed and staffed by compassionate, but thoroughly heterosexual priests.

I’m not saying that homosexual or dubiously heterosexual priests shouldn’t take part, only that it would look a great deal more credible if the priests meeting with these people and advocating for their human rights weren’t personally interested in the group as a whole.

Make sense to anyone else?

 

[manualman]

Ministering to folks with same sex attraction (SSA) is merely obedience to Christ. But it DOES help to properly define “ministering to.” Nobody flinches when a parish offers a ministry to alcoholics. Everybody knows what that means and nobody suspects that the ministry to alcoholics includes a message of “let’s celebrate who we are: bottoms up!”

Sadly, there is often good reason to suspect that certain “ministries” to those with SSA DOES include a certain amount of encouragement to “be who we are” (gay liefstyle) in terms of behaviors. The inter-religious group “Dignity” is like this. The catholic ministry “Courage”, on the other hand provides those with SSA a support system that encourages and enables members to avoid sin and still live a joyful christian life.

 

[Timothy17]

For Heaven’s sake people,*** really ?***

Fire burns you whether you like it or not. That is truth. Being “sensitive” about it is dangerous, because you might come across as pandering to a misconceived notion that fire does not actually burn you. No person in their right-mind would ever tell anyone to play with fire, yet we have all been duped into thinking we need to be sensitive when it comes to the truth about homosexuality. It will burn you. It is dangerous. Would you tolerate someone teaching your children in school that most drugs do not kill them ? Would you tolerate a teacher who taught your children doing drugs a little - just to see if they were “meant” to be drug users, or were drugs-users “by nature,” - would you think that’s just being sensitive to your children’s feelings ? Hogposh. They are exposing your children to dangers of life and death, and you would have their heads if you could.

Would civilization have ever occured if mankind held a superstitious notion of fire, and refused to deal with its truth and reality ? No. We would not be able to teach our children the truth of such things : it (sexuality) is dangerous but, if it used wisely and properly, it is beneficial and good for our happiness and well-being. If used badly, it consumes and destroys everything, leaving nothing but ashes in its wake.

 

[barb_finnegan]

For Heaven’s sake people,*** really ?***

Fire burns you whether you like it or not. That is truth. Being “sensitive” about it is dangerous, because you might come across as pandering to a misconceived notion that fire does not actually burn you. No person in their right-mind would ever tell anyone to play with fire, yet we have all been duped into thinking we need to be sensitive when it comes to the truth about homosexuality. It will burn you. It is dangerous. Would you tolerate someone teaching your children in school that most drugs do not kill them ? Would you tolerate a teacher who taught your children doing drugs a little - just to see if they were “meant” to be drug users, or were drugs-users “by nature,” - would you think that’s just being sensitive to your children’s feelings ? Hogposh. They are exposing your children to dangers of life and death, and you would have their heads if you could.

Would civilization have ever occured if mankind held a superstitious notion of fire, and refused to deal with its truth and reality ? No. We would not be able to teach our children the truth of such things : it (sexuality) is dangerous but, if it used wisely and properly, it is beneficial and good for our happiness and well-being. If used badly, it consumes and destroys everything, leaving nothing but ashes in its wake.

BINGO! THANK YOU!!!

 

[chrysostim83]

Hi Timothy17,

The reason this issue needs to be approached with sensitivity is that sexual orientation is an ingredient of personal identity, at least for most people. So if you say homosexual acts are intrinsically evil without placing any limits on the consequences of that statement, people are very likely to get the idea that homosexuals are evil. It may be illogical, I’ll grant you, but since when were people very logical?

If you don’t buy the identity line, however, there are still a couple reasons to strive to be sensitive about this issue. First, take a look at this passage from With Listening Hearts, p 43f, where the US Bishops point out that homosexuals cannot generally look forward to marriage. This illustrates the general fact that sexual orientation makes a huge difference to kind of life that is open to one, and it usually seems like the difference is not for the better. So to approach this issue without sensitivity would set you up for adding insult to injury, as they say. Second, and this should be itself be enough, the Church teaches that gay men and lesbian women must be accepted with sensitivity.

 

[manualman]

For Heaven’s sake people,*** really ?***

Fire burns you whether you like it or not. That is truth. Being “sensitive” about it is dangerous, because you might come across as pandering to a misconceived notion that fire does not actually burn you.

The reason that a christian MUST be “sensitive” on issues like this is our ever present inclination towards sin. Humans simply LOVE to demonize those inclined to sins committed by OTHERS. We feel nice and smug and secure denouncing sinful behavior we personally aren’t guilty of. It’s a manifestation of pride, one of the capital sins, last I checked.

Left unchecked, this attitude is the first impression non-christians and anti-christians will get of us. NOT good for the mission of life (evangelization).

As I mentioned above, we need to treat homosexuality more like alcoholism. Nobody hates alcoholics, beats them up when they fall back into drinking or drags them to death behind a pickup truck. And yet we still manage to disapprove of the behavior while loving the PERSON. Sometimes tough love is required in that you CAN’T support the behavior even when the person takes it personally and is hurt by what he feels is your ‘rejection.’ But when he hits rock bottom, he MUST know that you’ll be there for him when he wants to commit to CHANGING that behavior.

Long ago, acoholics were just called ‘drunks’, ‘bums’ and worse. They WERE hated (in the form of utter contempt), ignored and cast out of family and society. We’ve matured in our understanding and ability to help them. We can do the same for those with SSA without compromising our convictions.