Did your priest bring up the homosexual marriage decisions during this weekend's homily?

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I’m curious if any of the priests brought this up at this weekend’s Mass.

At the Mass I attended, the priest had strong words condemning the ruling. The Mass my sister attended however, the ruling was not specifically brought up at all with a passing mention that we should love all those with differing viewpoints than our own.
 
Nah. Our priest homilized (not sure it’s a proper word, but I think it works) on the Gospel, and the readings, and on the importance and power of faith.

“Daughter, your faith has saved you. Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”

Thankfully.

The last thing I wanted to hear about, was gay marriage.

Had a belly full of gay marriage from the preceding 36 hours or so.

fwiw.
 
We had a visiting priest from a neighboring parish and he did talk about the ruling, asking us to fast and make other acts of penance for our country.
 
No. But I know one in a nearby parish did.

I can see both sides. On the one hand, the homily is for breaking open the Scriptures, not news briefs. But, on the other hand, it can be good when a priest will touch on current events in the light of our Catholic faith.

I suppose a really great homilist could manage to do both. 🙂
 
The homily is supposed to be preached on the subject matter of the Gospel, perhaps drawing on the other readings (which are deliberately chosen to tie-in with the Gospel).

It would be inappropriate for a priest to use his homily to discuss “current events” unless they were relevant to the Gospel.

Had the Gospel been about the wedding at Cana, perhaps it would have been appropriate.

But, since the Gospel had nothing to do with marriage, my priest did not bring it up. My priest is good about avoiding liturgical abuses.

Protestant sermons are often focused on “current events.” Protestants don’t have a prescribed cycle of readings. I’m sure the wedding at Cana was brought up in many protestant services last Sunday. But Catholic worship is not driven by current events. Priests don’t get to pick the readings each Sunday, and it would be a liturgical abuse to significantly deviate from the subject matter of the Gospel.
 
The priest who was praying the Mass I attended at my parish mentioned it and lots of other bad things going on in the world.

He started his homily with it by saying he sometimes feels like he’s living in the Twilight Zone due to the Supreme Court ruling, ISIS, terrorist attacks, church shootings, etc.

I don’t know what my pastor said or didn’t say.

Our Bishop (Archbishop Chaput) also released a statement shortly after the ruling was announced. Also our Archdiocese, which already had a Fortnight for Religious Freedom prayer session scheduled for Sunday night, sent and eMail discussing how important it is to pray for Religious Freedom especially in light for this disastrous ruling.
 
Goya said:
Nah. Our priest homilized (not sure it’s a proper word, but I think it works) on the Gospel, and the readings, and on the importance and power of faith.
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Same. Not even a mention in the petitions…

I kind of wish he did though. I just have the inkling that some of our parishioners are the kind of Catholics who think it’s okay to accept certain sins/heresies because they are never told otherwise. I hear this a lot from people in my area, “I’m a Catholic and I was never told __ was wrong.” The one time the homily was about the priesthood, and he (our other priest) mentioned briefly that it was not possible for a woman to be ordained, I heard a man behind me say, “Well it should be.” Yikes. That’s why sites like this are so important for apologetics. Some of us would never otherwise come across the actual teachings of the Church except perhaps in the media, where it’s almost always cast in a negative light.

Though lately our other priest has been a little more likely to mention more strongly orthodox topics. (Not that the other homilies have been unorthodox, just kind of vague compared to what they could be, and agreeable). The last two weeks were about the importance of the Eucharist and then the importance of not leaving the Church despite the “storms” that happen. It gives me hope.
 
It was not brought up at the mass I attended, not directly, though during the petitions there was a prayer for the fortnight for freedom, that civic leaders to make decisions respecting religious freedom.

I did listen to the homily given by Fr. Larry Richards, he posts an audio file to his website www.thereasonforourhope.org , and he brought it up.

He connected it to the gospel saying “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” God wins in the end.

Peace
 
Joe_5859 said:
…I suppose a really great homilist could manage to do both. 🙂
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This.

There is a need in the Church to integrate what’s going on in today’s world and make it relevant to the Gospel at hand.
 
Stylteralmaldo said:
This.

There is a need in the Church to integrate what’s going on in today’s world and make it relevant to the Gospel at hand.
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Right. The Gospel this week was about faith in the healing power of Christ. I don’t think it would be much of a stretch to connect the SCOTUS decision with that theme. Faith in Jesus and his ability to heal our brokenness certainly helps me not to totally flip out in light of the ruling.
 
My priest said nothing about the gay marriage ruling and I was very disappointed. I asked the deacon after mass if the Bishop would be sending out a letter and he said yes. We are in dire need of leadership now. What is going to happen to churches? What can we expect?
 
Stephen_says said:
It was not brought up at the mass I attended, not directly, though during the petitions there was a prayer for the fortnight for freedom, that civic leaders to make decisions respecting religious freedom.

I did listen to the homily given by Fr. Larry Richards, he posts an audio file to his website www.thereasonforourhope.org , and he brought it up.

He connected it to the gospel saying “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” God wins in the end.

Peace
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Thank you!! I’m listening to the homily now. Very hopeful and very good!!!
 
DavidFilmer said:
The homily is supposed to be preached on the subject matter of the Gospel, perhaps drawing on the other readings (which are deliberately chosen to tie-in with the Gospel).

It would be inappropriate for a priest to use his homily to discuss “current events” unless they were relevant to the Gospel.

Had the Gospel been about the wedding at Cana, perhaps it would have been appropriate.

But, since the Gospel had nothing to do with marriage, my priest did not bring it up. My priest is good about avoiding liturgical abuses.

Protestant sermons are often focused on “current events.” Protestants don’t have a prescribed cycle of readings. I’m sure the wedding at Cana was brought up in many protestant services last Sunday. But Catholic worship is not driven by current events. Priests don’t get to pick the readings each Sunday, and it would be a liturgical abuse to significantly deviate from the subject matter of the Gospel.
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My pastor discussed the ruling at length, and he tied it in quite nicely to the Gospel, and also reminded us of last week’s Gospel, which was highly relevant to the current events. You could say that the theme of the homily was “Do not be afraid! Trust in Christ Jesus!”

My bishop also spoke at length about the ruling, at the Mass of Priestly Ordination on Saturday. The single priest being ordained has the privilege to be the first man to confront a new world of intolerance and persecution brought on us by liberals and secularists. He will see our religious freedom infringed like never before, and strengthened by faith in Christ and his anointing, he will be prepared to lay down his life as a sacrifice for the people of God.
 
DavidFilmer said:
The homily is supposed to be preached on the subject matter of the Gospel, perhaps drawing on the other readings (which are deliberately chosen to tie-in with the Gospel).

It would be inappropriate for a priest to use his homily to discuss “current events” unless they were relevant to the Gospel.

Had the Gospel been about the wedding at Cana, perhaps it would have been appropriate.

But, since the Gospel had nothing to do with marriage, my priest did not bring it up. My priest is good about avoiding liturgical abuses.

Protestant sermons are often focused on “current events.” Protestants don’t have a prescribed cycle of readings. I’m sure the wedding at Cana was brought up in many protestant services last Sunday. But Catholic worship is not driven by current events. Priests don’t get to pick the readings each Sunday, and it would be a liturgical abuse to significantly deviate from the subject matter of the Gospel.
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The homily is not a Bible study. The homily is also supposed to give instruction in applying the message of the Gospel to our lives. Given that this Sunday’s Gospel was about having strong faith, a tie in to the tragedies of last week would have been entirely appropriate.

The First Reading also had relevant material.
For God formed man to be imperishable;
the image of his own nature he made him.
But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world,
and they who belong to his company experience it.
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Hello.

Yes. He read a letter from all the bishops in our state then made some comments in keeping with Catholic doctrine.

I’m quite worried about the coming persecution as I’m not a brave person.

Please pray for me.
 
No. He focused on the Gospel. I think there was something vague in the petitions though.
 
I was actually quite surprised that our pastor took this on because despite his superb gifts for wonderful preaching and orthodoxy, he is not a “culture warrior” type who would routinely touch on hot-button topics such as abortion, contraception, and homosexuality. Our parish is remarkably homogeneous, made up of many orthodox, conservative, faithful people. So I think there is a tacit understanding that we accept pretty much all the Church teaches, and our pastor has an easy enough job in that he merely calls us always to go deeper in love and prayer.

I really think that the reason the SCOTUS ruling came up this weekend is that he sensed fear and panic among us. There are some parishioners who become quite anxious about the way things are going in the culture and society, and that fear threatened to reach a fever pitch as this ruling was handed down. So his homily, “Do not be afraid! Trust in Christ Jesus” was a stern admonition to us, to remember Who is in control, and where we are really headed in this ship of Church.
 
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