Catholic Social Services splits from Illinois diocese, will offer same-sex adoptions [CWN]

[markomalley]

How is the Catholic life there?

caveat: I live in Metro DC. My mom and dad moved there from Mpls-St Paul. After my Dad passed away, my mom chose to stay down there.

I’ve been visiting down there a few times a year for almost 20 years.

FIrst of all, Catholics are DISTINCTLY in the minority there. But rather than dealing with a lot of seculars, you will be dealing with a lot of evangelicals and fundamentalists. I have NEVER personally run into any problems there with any sort of discrimination, though.

It is an area where, to my knowledge, most everybody goes to church every Sunday morning. That is refreshing.

There are 9 or 10 parishes in Greenville County. I am pretty familiar with two of them:

Prince of Peace (Taylors) – weekly Extraordinary Form mass @ 12 noon.
St Mary’s (Downtown G-ville) – at least a couple of years ago they celebrated the NO Mass Ad Orientem. I have heard there was some controversy with that, so I don’t know if they still do so or not.
They also have a Maronite mission there, if you’re interested in Eastern Catholicism.

Greenville is also the home to one of the top Catholic High Schools in the country: St Joseph’s.

They have had Catholic Radio for a few years (AM 1300).

The point being that, while you, as a Catholic, won’t be in the majority, you will have probably have fewer problems to deal with than many more quote Catholic end quote areas.

 

[irishpatrick]

caveat: I live in Metro DC. My mom and dad moved there from Mpls-St Paul. After my Dad passed away, my mom chose to stay down there.

I’ve been visiting down there a few times a year for almost 20 years.

FIrst of all, Catholics are DISTINCTLY in the minority there. But rather than dealing with a lot of seculars, you will be dealing with a lot of evangelicals and fundamentalists. I have NEVER personally run into any problems there with any sort of discrimination, though.

It is an area where, to my knowledge, most everybody goes to church every Sunday morning. That is refreshing.

There are 9 or 10 parishes in Greenville County. I am pretty familiar with two of them:

Prince of Peace (Taylors) – weekly Extraordinary Form mass @ 12 noon.
St Mary’s (Downtown G-ville) – at least a couple of years ago they celebrated the NO Mass Ad Orientem. I have heard there was some controversy with that, so I don’t know if they still do so or not.
They also have a Maronite mission there, if you’re interested in Eastern Catholicism.

Greenville is also the home to one of the top Catholic High Schools in the country: St Joseph’s.

They have had Catholic Radio for a few years (AM 1300).

The point being that, while you, as a Catholic, won’t be in the majority, you will have probably have fewer problems to deal with than many more quote Catholic end quote areas.

Interesting…thanks for the great information. I am glad to hear there are some parishes within reach.

Truthfully, it is not as if I am sorrounded by faithful Catholics now…far from it actually. Sadly.

 

[JimG]

That’s very sad news.

 

[Hokomai]

I understand what you are saying, yet I feel it is an unkindness to knowingly raise children under a spiritual lie. God’s truths apply to everyone, even if they are unaware. To raise child under a falsehood (by teaching that same sex relationships and unions are moral) does a terrible spiritual injustice to that child.

I can understand how you feel. I’m not entirely comfortable with gays, Catholics, unbelievers, communists, anyone raising their children to be like them, but I understand that as humans this must be what we want, and we will feel worried about children raised by those of other beliefs. I tried when raising my own children to not impose my own understandings on them, and tried to explain opposing points of view. I encouraged them to go to Church with believers in the family, and to investigate religion, for example. I am not sure if I am pleased or not that they grew up thinking a lot like me! They had several examples of same-sex couples in their lives and grew up thinking of this as perfectly normal. I understand your view of that, but I see it as a real step forward in human society, when I compare their attitudes to those of my parents’ generation. I must give some more thought to how it is possible to reconcile my view that there is nothing wrong with same-sex relationships and they should be able to adopt, with the view of those who seek adoption, but only within Christian marriages. Somehow I feel that this should not be an either/or situation.

 

[Rence]

Yes, for all Catholics in general all over the world. I have a solution, it is time to shake the dust of our feet and go somewhere else. Do as our Lord has told us to do.

But they don’t have all-Catholic communities, like the Amish…do they? And where are they located if they even do exsist?

Surely, we’d know about it if all-Catholic communties existed.

 

[comrade1789]

Yes, for all Catholics in general all over the world. I have a solution, it is time to shake the dust of our feet and go somewhere else. Do as our Lord has told us to do.

What is happening is that the gay agenda is forcing an impasse, and ultimately they will either make it impossible for faithful people to practice their faith and obey their conscience…or…the gays will lose everything they have been fighting for. It is an us or them situation, and that is exactly what they have been pushing for. Because of abortion and radical sodomy, there will be no place for a Christian to go but to arms. Someone on this thread linked to Fr. Hardon’s archives, and it was Fr. Hardon S.J. afterall who said over 30 years ago that these two issues were going to lead to civil war.

War is an awful, awful thing, innocents maimed and killed. Unfortunately, our separated Protestant brethern have been leaving most of the legal and spiritual battles to the Catholics, and the Catholics have fallen far short of fighting a good fight. We cannot violate our consciences, so if things don’t turn around, we could be seeing some very unfortunate events unfold.

Let us pray for real and lasting peace.

 

[Rence]

What is happening is that the gay agenda is forcing an impasse, and ultimately they will either make it impossible for faithful people to practice their faith and obey their conscience…or…the gays will lose everything they have been fighting for. It is an us or them situation, and that is exactly what they have been pushing for. Because of abortion and radical sodomy, there will be no place for a Christian to go but to arms. Someone on this thread linked to Fr. Hardon’s archives, and it was Fr. Hardon S.J. afterall who said over 30 years ago that these two issues were going to lead to civil war.

War is an awful, awful thing, innocents maimed and killed. Unfortunately, our separated Protestant brethern have been leaving most of the legal and spiritual battles to the Catholics, and the Catholics have fallen far short of fighting a good fight. We cannot violate our consciences, so if things don’t turn around, we could be seeing some very unfortunate events unfold.

Let us pray for real and lasting peace.

Civil war over people being gay and over abortion? Why do you think it will come to war? Why should it come to war?

 

[JimG]

It came to civil war over slavery. I suppose it could come to civil war over abortion, infanticide, and homosexual marriage. I hadn’t heard that prediction from Fr. John Hardon before. Still, it seems to me that most Christians, including most Catholics might have already surrendered.

 

[Rence]

It came to civil war over slavery. I suppose it could come to civil war over abortion, infanticide, and homosexual marriage. I hadn’t heard that prediction from Fr. John Hardon before. Still, it seems to me that most Christians, including most Catholics might have already surrendered.

No offense, but I am not willing to go to war over abortion or homosexual marriage.

 

[JimG]

No offense, but I am not willing to go to war over abortion or homosexual marriage.

I understand. We may end up simply as a repressed religion living like the underground Church in England and France during those periods when it was suppressed. But when the French Revolutionists attempted to forcibly eliminate religion, there were civil uprisings from the faithful leading to armed conflict. In the end, they didn’t roll back the revolution, but they did a lot to save the practice of the Faith from extinction. The same situation occurred in Mexico during the era of the Cristeros when the Church was outlawed.

 

[comrade1789]

No offense, but I am not willing to go to war over abortion or homosexual marriage.

Christian florists and wedding photographers are already losing court battles because they couldn’t violate their faith by lending their services to gay so-called marriages. The faithful are being stigmatized as bigots, and soon won’t be able to home school or have faith based schools, and because of mandated schooling will be forced to place their children in the government run schools who teach deviant sexuality.

As far as abortion is concerned, no offense, but if we had a chance of winning, it is a most just cause for war. Innocent life afterall, right?

It is not about going to war over abortion or same-sex “marriage,” it is about fighting to keep from violating your faith principles.

I certainly don’t want to see things end up in a war. Maybe it won’t, maybe the grace of white ane red martyrdom will be given instead, and rather than fight back, we go before the courts and endure the prisons and the persecutions. And with the influx of Muslims immigrants and spread of Islam in the West, the wars will be fought, and won by them, while the Christians remain a small whisper of what they once were, because unlike the Muslims in their midst, they wouldn’t go to war over things like abortion and same sex “marriage.”

 

[comrade1789]

I understand. We may end up simply as a repressed religion living like the underground Church in England and France during those periods when it was suppressed. But when the French Revolutionists attempted to forcibly eliminate religion, there were civil uprisings from the faithful leading to armed conflict. In the end, they didn’t roll back the revolution, but they did a lot to save the practice of the Faith from extinction. The same situation occurred in Mexico during the era of the Cristeros when the Church was outlawed.

And in Spain, where it took a heavy-handed brute like Franco to rescue Christians from radical secularists who were murdering them. You see, so long as we proclaim the truths of sin and salvation, we will be repugnant to those who wish to dwell in decadence. Like John the Baptist, we are called to proclaim the truths of marriage, and perhaps like John the Baptist, we will suffer for it. I for one don’t want things to get so bad they we feel like we have to throw our weight behind another Franco.

 

[Befink]

The unfortunate reality is that until we fix the root social cause of unwanted pregnancy they will continue to be rampant. If we want to keep them from ending in abortion then adoption must be a viable option. Again an unfortunate reality is that there simply aren’t enough straight couples to meet the supply of unwanted babies out there. Since so many gay couples want children, there are now more than enough couples out there. It’s not ideal but it’s much better than no home at all. After all, is there such thing as perfect parents?

It’s easy to judge from afar but the charity in Illinois who’s in the trenches doing this noble work (God bless them) came to realize that they would better accomplish the goal of finding loving homes for unwanted children if they were not limited to straight couples.

The way things have gone, the rights of gays will come to pass since opponents time again fails to prove that their lifestyle violates the freedoms of others. They can’t even show that children of gays are more likely to be gay themselves or be worse off in any other way. The supreme court could take it up next year which means equal rights for gays would be a nationwide reality. This is true no matter whom you vote for (for most of you, that will be a Mormon). You don’t have to love it but you do have to learn to coexist with it. It’s the way God created the world and it certainly challenges us.

Cheers

 

[wisdomseeker]

The unfortunate reality is that until we fix the root social cause of unwanted pregnancy they will continue to be rampant. If we want to keep them from ending in abortion then adoption must be a viable option. Again an unfortunate reality is that there simply aren’t enough straight couples to meet the supply of unwanted babies out there. Since so many gay couples want children, there are now more than enough couples out there. It’s not ideal but it’s much better than no home at all. After all, is there such thing as perfect parents?

It’s easy to judge from afar but the charity in Illinois who’s in the trenches doing this noble work (God bless them) came to realize that they would better accomplish the goal of finding loving homes for unwanted children if they were not limited to straight couples.

The way things have gone, the rights of gays will come to pass since opponents time again fails to prove that their lifestyle violates the freedoms of others. They can’t even show that children of gays are more likely to be gay themselves or be worse off in any other way. The supreme court could take it up next year which means equal rights for gays would be a nationwide reality. This is true no matter whom you vote for (for most of you, that will be a Mormon). You don’t have to love it but you do have to learn to coexist with it. It’s the way God created the world and it certainly challenges us.

Cheers

 

[Teelynn]

Yes–it is becoming increasingly difficult to live in Illinois.

Tell me about it! Ugh!!! One of the Deacons at our Parish just said yesterday that the times we are living in are very challenging, and will become even more so as time goes on. Illinois is indeed hard to live in but some of us keep on fighting the good fight. My full trust is in the Lord to hold us up with his mighty hand. I can see that a core of us will die with our boots on.

 

[ANNE_2]

Ahh, but go where?
I feel the same with many family members (siblings)–I have tried and prayed for years for them and feel that it might be time to knock the dust off my feet, but I fear that just leaves them without anyone praying for them.
I am thinking Nebraska–maybe Lincoln.
But, if I move, maybe to a warmer climate. How is Catholic life in North Carolina?

This is a difficult issue, since each Diocese seems to be as Faithful as its Bishop (Bishops change over time).

The Diocese of Venice in FL is good.
Look at Ave Maria FL which is in the Venice Diocese.
avemaria.com/
Mass is offered in both English and Latin.

If you prefer the Latin Mass, these are good locations in the Venice Diocese.
fssp.com/press/locations/diocese-of-venice-florida/

No matter where you live, keep praying for your family and friends. God will do his job.

 

[ANNE_2]

I think the root of the problem is the lack of proper catechesis in the USA.
Does your Parish Priest and Diocese Bishop actively and openly promote the reading of the - “Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition” by all Catholics over age 15?

Knowledge comes first, obedience will follow from those who believe.

Another root is the proliferation of permitted Scandal -
therealpresence.org/eucharst/holycom/denial.htm

 

[L_piperatus]

The supreme court could take it up next year which means equal rights for gays would be a nationwide reality. You don’t have to love it but you do have to learn to coexist with it.

I speculate that this is how it could come to civil war. If a conservative state refuses to comply with some immoral Supreme Court decision and chooses to secede from the Union.

If I understand it correctly, the Civil War was also linked to an immoral Supreme Court decision upholding slavery. Once that happened, the only way to fix the injustice was civil war.

If there won’t be civil war, I also see tough persecution and imprisonment of Christians as another possibility. But even before imprisonment, Christians are already loosing their jobs and seeing their businesses destroyed (see the photographers sued because they wouldn’t lend their services to a gay “wedding”).

Again, the other possibility is that some conservative state will flat out refuse to comply with any Supreme Court decisions and Federal laws forcing the gay agenda, and then civil war does become a real possibility.

 

[Wolseley]

What is happening is that the gay agenda is forcing an impasse, and ultimately they will either make it impossible for faithful people to practice their faith and obey their conscience…or…the gays will lose everything they have been fighting for. It is an us or them situation, and that is exactly what they have been pushing for. Because of abortion and radical sodomy, there will be no place for a Christian to go but to arms. Someone on this thread linked to Fr. Hardon’s archives, and it was Fr. Hardon S.J. afterall who said over 30 years ago that these two issues were going to lead to civil war.

War is an awful, awful thing, innocents maimed and killed. Unfortunately, our separated Protestant brethern have been leaving most of the legal and spiritual battles to the Catholics, and the Catholics have fallen far short of fighting a good fight. We cannot violate our consciences, so if things don’t turn around, we could be seeing some very unfortunate events unfold.

Let us pray for real and lasting peace.

Excellent post, right on target. In fact, every one of your posts in this thread have been excellent and right on target. I couldn’t agree more.

No offense, but I am not willing to go to war over abortion or homosexual marriage.

Are you willing to go to war to preserve your right to worship God and practice your faith as you believe? Because that’s what this will basically come down to. In 1861, the North and South didn’t go to war over slavery. For the South, the issue was whether they could govern their own affairs; for the North, the issue was a reaction to the rebellion, to preserve the Union.

This time, if it comes to that, the Right and the Left won’t be going to war over abortion or homosexual “marriage”, as you seem to think. For the Left, the issue will be whether they can transform the country into something resembling a combination of the Mustang Ranch and a Burning Man festival crossed with Mardi Gras; for the Right, it will be to preserve the right to manage their own religious, legal, political, entrepenurial, and moral affairs without meddling from the Left.

And as with all civil wars, this one will be to the complete destruction of one side or the other; the two will not be able to coexist. We have been in the first stages of this for fifteen years or better now: you can have freedom of speech, or you can have political correctness. The two cannot exist side-by-side; eventually, one of them will have to go.

 

[Wolseley]

A news article that deals with the exact thing we’re talking about here: catholicnewsagency.com/news/bishop-lori-reveals-details-of-religious-liberty-committee/