This man was an altar boy until age 18, he went to mass every Sunday, he talks about having “good will”, he believes in the sacraments he says, so he probably was a regular confession-goer. It sounds like he was very much “searching” within the Catholic framework.
That’s a gigantic leap of logic. I too was an altar boy. In high school, if you asked me, I would probably say I believed in the sacraments. Yet for decades I hardly went to confession, and I received the Eucharist unworthily all the time. I was poorly catechized and nobody ever told me of the importance thereof. This man is of the correct age to be similarly catechized, so why should we expect him to frequent confession? It probably was hardly offered in the parishes where he went.
Where in the articles does he “persist” in defending some sort of “lifestyle”?
Being homosexual is not a “lifestyle” fyi. According to the CC…it is a “deep seated tendency”.
We are applying some measure of speculation here, we don’t know that he persists in obstinate sin, but this is legal language. We might infer that if he was denied the sacraments, that the priest determined he was persisting in a lifestyle. Being homosexual is a lifestyle, just ask any homosexual. It’s popularly termed an “alternative lifestyle”. Having same-sex attraction is not the same thing, it’s a mere precursor. SSA is intrinsically disordered while persisting in a lifestyle is obstinate grave sin.
I thought the moment of “judging” was up to God and happened between the dying person and God.
.
The moment of judging comes in the confessional when the priest acts
in persona Christi. The Sacrament of Penance is a juridical act involving Christ, the Church, and the penitent. The priest sits as judge of the penitent’s sins and actions. The priest is able to give counsel and make decisions based on his knowledge of this person’s confession. It is privileged knowledge and it is a privileged position given by the Church by virtue of his ordination. The priest is entirely within his rights to withhold absolution and withhold the other sacraments (except possibly not in the Archdiocese of Washington, DC as has been pointed out). Jesus is the final and ultimate Judge of mankind and priests do not have the power to condemn anyone to Hell, but they do have the power to forgive and absolve or withhold those graces, by virtue of the authority of the Keys of the Kingdom given to Peter and the Apostles.
This is a uniquely hypocritical thing emerging in the media these days. The homosexualists hate the Church and what she stands for. They want nothing more than to tear her down and watch her doctrines crumble. Yet at the same time they demand the Holy Mysteries from the anointed hands of priests. They covet that which they cannot have in their sin. They recognize that everyone needs the sacraments in this life. They are an abusive husband who cannot live without his wife. When the wife shows a little backbone and denies him the love he craves, she suffers abuse and hatred. In our misogynistic culture, it is the wife who will be persecuted for her behavior. It is the wife who will be blamed and denigrated, thrown in prison and tortured for not giving the husband what he wants. But it is the wife who is without sin, and the wife who will prevail in the end. Justice is coming, and not a moment too soon.
