Nicolas Coppola, gay catholic who married, is banned from church duties, was this right?

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Technically, he shouldn’t really be taking the sacrament.
 
In absence of repentence and rejection of same sex sexual activity and same sex “marriage”, which seems to be the case, absolutely he is to be removed from parish leadership and catechetical positions.

The disturbing part is that the pastor has apparently been looking the other way indefinitely and is trying to blame the bishop. The pastor was clearly not doing his job.
 
I’d be tempted to tell him to not come to church at all for this. Maybe the priest was trying to be more “accepting” of this situation. This kind of reminds me of the sex scandle a few years ago. Then, Bishop’s were looking the other way when child sex abuse was happening. For that, seeing as how the charges were, I had to say that maybe the Bishops weren’t aware of the consequences. Now they are quicker about addressing these issue. I don’t recommend excommunication unless this man keeps on the path he is on. He knew that same sex marriage was/is wrong. But he went ahead and did it. If this isn’t a mortal sin, I don’t know what is.
 
No simply it is not the right decision. Although, I’m more disconcerned about all the hate that is thrown at our shared faith. Fighting intolerance with intolerance is simply not a good way to move forward.
 
After reading the article, I’d say that the Bishop was right to remove him from teaching CCD. Especially since 5th grade deals with Family Life issues. His public “marriage” is incompatible with Catholic teaching on marriage. However, he should have been allowed to remain in the other ministry for visiting the homebound.
 
Corki said:
Yes, it was the right thing to do. Whether he is homosexual or not, he sacreligiously attempted a Sacrament. That alone should result in his being removed from any duties he may have had or positions held at the parish.
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Has he since passed himself off to people as married?
 
Absolutely it was right, 100%. If that man can’t live in accordance with the Church’s guidelines, he has no business teaching them to anyone.
 
Dakota_Roberts said:
Has he since passed himself off to people as married?
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Several parishoners attended his “wedding” so yes I would say he passed himself off to people as married. It was public knowledge, hence why a letter was sent anonymously to the Bishop.

Yes it was the right thing to do, but it should have never gotten to the point that it did. As soon as he entered into the “marriage”, he should have resigned his positions in the ministry voluntarily. One can’t live a lifestyle in the public that is against Church teachings and not expect some consequences. We recently had a thread on CAF about a couple that liked to engage in sexual activities with other couples, not much different than a gay man that makes his lifestyle public knowledge. As soon as such sin becomes public, those people should not be in ministry positions, especially any program that involves children.
 
stlcatholic86 said:
No simply it is not the right decision. Although, I’m more disconcerned about all the hate that is thrown at our shared faith. Fighting intolerance with intolerance is simply not a good way to move forward.
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I don’t know what you mean here. By “intolerant” do you mean that the bishop should have permitted an act that is clearly against Church rules and teaching?

As someone in another thread eloquently put, all Catholics, whether they are attracted to the opposite or the same sex, is called to follow God’s natural order and law. Specifically, they must respect His established rules as defined by natural law and through His Church on sexual behavior, which requires a marriage before any activity.

Since same-sex unions as described in the article are not marriage but an attempt to redefine it, and because the parties involved (including the pastor) willfully knew Church rules and conducted the services anyway, it’s not at all surprising to see these results.

We are all called to chastity until married. For our Catholic brothers and sisters with same-sex attraction, they are called to chastity indefinitely. It’s a heavy cross to bear, but we cannot follow our will based on our feelings and desires but must try to align ourselves to what we know is better for us, even if we don’t feel good about it. That’s God’s will.

That said, I hope the person involved will seek counsel and confession and understand the truth in what occurred.
 
PatriceA said:
Several parishoners attended his “wedding” so yes I would say he passed himself off to people as married. It was public knowledge, hence why a letter was sent anonymously to the Bishop.
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You have to love the convictions of a person who seems a letter complaining about gays to the Bishop annoynomously. It’s a shame he’s being kept out of leadership roles of the church.
 
stlcatholic86 said:
No simply it is not the right decision. Although, I’m more disconcerned about all the hate that is thrown at our shared faith. Fighting intolerance with intolerance is simply not a good way to move forward.
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It’s not ‘hateful’ or ‘intolerant’ to say that somebody who is openly and publicly going against Church teaching should not serve in official duties – like teaching – in the Church.

This isn’t a homosexual issue. I teach RCIA classes at my parish, and if I **publicly **declared that I didn’t believe in the trinity, or that I thought abortion was a-okay, or that the Eucharist is just a symbol, I would also be removed from my teaching duties…because in that role, I have a responsibility to live as an example of the faith that I’m teaching. Disagreeing privately is one thing, but proclaiming it is another.

We need to walk a careful line, loving the individual but condemning sin. It’s hard to do, because some times people want wrap them up together. This gentleman says he’s concerned about the message this sends to young LGBT folks, well, the message is that choosing to ‘marry’ somebody of the same sex is immoral. It says nothing about homosexuality/same sex attraction, which is usually beyond somebody’s control, but about what they choose to do with those inclinations.

In other words, we must be intolerant of sin, but not of the individuals. The Church didn’t make this gentleman decide to wrap up his identity in sinful behavior; he did.
 
Rose74 said:
After reading the article, I’d say that the Bishop was right to remove him from teaching CCD. Especially since 5th grade deals with Family Life issues. His public “marriage” is incompatible with Catholic teaching on marriage. However, he should have been allowed to remain in the other ministry for visiting the homebound.
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Hi Rose,
I have a different perspective. I don’t know about this particular parish, but in my parish, those who visit the homebound also bring and distribute Holy Communion. In order to do this, one must “be an active practicing Catholic in good standing.” If a person does not follow the teaching of the Church, then he is not in good standing. Since administering the real, living presence of Christ is the most Sacred responsibility The Church has, I think it’s important that we have people in place to do so who are at least trying to live lives that are in line with Catholic teaching and belief. Sadly, Mr. Coppola is not in good standing. Please note, this does NOT in any way involve judging someone or judging the state of someone’s soul – just evaluating if the person fits specific criteria. It is not a sin for a person to have same-sex attraction - it’s only a problem when one acts on it. And this case is further complicated by his attempt at “marriage” to another man that is not in line with the Church’s teaching on marriage. Therefore, I believe the parish acted appropriately in removing him from public ministry and leadership, but of course in still welcoming him to be part of the parish and attend services.
 
I suppose I will put it simple the Catholic teaching on homosexuality is cruel. Those aren’t my words but rather a Priest in the church. I agree with that assessment.

Comparing this to abortion, or other church doctrines just doesn’t have the same equivelant. I also really hate that we relegate the issue to abortion, because its not about abortion it’s about life. Hence why as Catholics we should be just as morally opposed to abortion as we are the death penalty unfortunately we don’t remark as much on the subject of the death penalty as we do on abortion.
 
Spencerian said:
Since same-sex unions as described in the article are not marriage but an attempt to redefine it, and because the parties involved (including the pastor) willfully knew Church rules and conducted the services anyway, it’s not at all surprising to see these results.

.
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I agreed with everything you posted but wanted to clarify - the article from HuffPost does not say the pastor conducted the services or was in attendance specifically - just that there was "a ceremony attended by several members of St. Anthony’s . . . " I got confused :confused: so I thought maybe I could save someone else from having to go double check 😉
 
stlcatholic86 said:
I suppose I will put it simple the Catholic teaching on homosexuality is cruel. Those aren’t my words but rather a Priest in the church. I agree with that assessment.

Comparing this to abortion, or other church doctrines just doesn’t have the same equivelant. I also really hate that we relegate the issue to abortion, because its not about abortion it’s about life. Hence why as Catholics we should be just as morally opposed to abortion as we are the death penalty unfortunately we don’t remark as much on the subject of the death penalty as we do on abortion.
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It isn’t so much the Church’s teaching as how the uppity, insolence, disobedient, poorly taught laity try to enforce things they don’t understand like a bunch of brownshirts.
 
stlcatholic86 said:
No simply it is not the right decision. Although, I’m more disconcerned about all the hate that is thrown at our shared faith. Fighting intolerance with intolerance is simply not a good way to move forward.
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I disagree, it was absolutely right, and a shame that it took an “anonymous” letter for it to happen.

This priest sounds at best cowardly. Instead of telling him the Truth of why he should not hold these positions, he takes the “hands tied” route, further “victimizing” the man. The priest could have taken this moment to talk about the Teachings of the Church and how the lifestyle he is publicly embracing is not compatible with these. Instead he is furthering the idea that this man is just being a victim of discrimination. Gay marriage is an attack against the Sacramental marriage, it does have negative repercussions that are not plain to see… I think explaining the harms of gay marriage is a lot more difficult than explaining, for example, what is wrong with abortion or even having an affair. It doesn’t mean there is no harm, in means the harm is more disguised.

This isn’t fighting intolerance with intolerance… How so? No one is telling this man that he cannot come to Church, all are welcome! But that doesn’t change that people that are in authoritative positions need to embrace and understand the Church teachings, especially when educating the youth in our Faith!

If you have a Math teacher that goes around telling everyone that 2+2=9, and applies this to her everyday life, and insists as well that the area of a circle is pidiameterradius*circumference, would you be ok with having that teacher as your kids’ Math teacher?
How about an English teacher that insists that ain’t is a correct word, and uses it in front of her students all of the time, and says that punctuation is unnecessary?
Would it be discriminatory to not allow these people to teach these subjects to children?
 
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