Parish Dissent from Church Teaching

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

catholic03

Well-known member
Pax Christi:

This month is the so-called ‘Pride Month’, where homosexuality is ‘celebrated’. This is in complete contradiction to Church teaching.

Anyway, recently huge numbers of parishes in the United States (especially in the Archdiocese of Newark) have been having ‘Pride Masses’. I live in New Zealand and only know about this from the news. However, this is awful. Posters I have seen show rainbow flags encouraging people to go to the Pride Parade after mass. The altar linens often are rainbow coloured. After Bishop Tobin’s truthful comments, a priest in Rhode Island apparently asked parishioners who practice the homosexual lifestyle to ‘stay at the Church’ despite the lifestyle they lead. Celibate people who have same sex attraction I hold nothing against; they carry a hard cross but lay down joys for Christ which is so admirable and beautiful. I do of course think that CHASTE people who have same sex attraction should be able to be active parish members. But, priests such as this one encourage people to practice homosexuality.

There is also a parish in the Archdiocese of Newark that is run by an openly homosexual priest and has pride flags on the website home page. It also encourages participation in the pride parades and says that practicing the lifestyle is fine.

From what I can see, huge numbers of parishes and priests, sometimes with the approval of bishops, encourage and celebrate this lifestyle, pride masses and pride parades.

This is in total contradiction of Church doctrine and makes me very concerned. Why are these dioceses and parishes allowed to do this in contradiction of sacred doctrine. This is awful. What are we to do. Why are priests and bishops allowed to promote this?

Luckily, I am very happy to have such a wonderful bishop and our wonderful Holy Father Pope Francis.

What can we do about the promotion of this lifestyle by church leaders?

God Bless
 
Sin is always going to be with us. I live in Texas and have no idea what is going on. Except that the church is trying to be more welcoming to all sinners without condoning their sins.
 
Last edited:
I would have a hard time if I belonged to a
parish where the priest openly acknowledged gay pride on the church website or anywhere
in church. I guess I am old fashioned.
 
I don’t know. I am a convert. Maybe someone more knowledgable might be able to answer.
 
catholic03 said:
This is in complete contradiction to Church teaching.
Click to expand...
Yes. Of course you are absolutely right, unless the Church has changed its teaching. Recent polls show that large percentages of Roman Catholics have beliefs opposite to Church teaching and yet are warmly welcomed by high church officials. For example, Mr. J. Biden is firmly in the pro-choice group when it comes to abortion rights for women. Recent polls show that a large majority of U.S. Roman Catholics see nothing wrong with artificial contraception. A famous Roman Catholic college regularly publishes its congratulations to its graduates who enter into SS marriage. The congratulations are accompanied by full color photos of the happy Roman Catholic SS couple. The green environmental movements are out to reduce the number of births and are part of the reason for the push to endorse homosexual activity and abortion. There are Christian churches who have ministers and bishops who are openly homosexual. It is also present in the Roman Catholic Church as discussed in a recent book: " In the Closet of the Vatican: Power, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy "
by Frederic Martel and Shaun Whiteside
 
We don’t throw people out of the Church for sinning. They can’t receive Communion unless and until they repent and confess, but they’re perfectly free to attend every Mass, prayer service etc. You have no idea of individual people’s chastity struggles or issues. This would apply whether it was a congregation of gays, hookers, adulterers, or priests who might be breaking their vows in private.
catholic03 said:
Do we have a duty as Catholics to report these actions to Rome, or to dioceses if it happens on a parish level?
Click to expand...
We don’t have a duty to report on our clergy. You can if you want. Don’t be surprised if your report is ignored.
 
Last edited:
Tis_Bearself said:
We don’t throw people out of the Church for sinning. They can’t receive Communion unless and until they repent and confess, but they’re perfectly free to attend every Mass, prayer service etc. You have no idea of individual people’s chastity struggles or issues. This would apply whether it was a congregation of gays, hookers, adulterers, or priests who might be breaking their vows in private.
Click to expand...
To be fair, I don’t think OP is troubled because gay people are attending Mass. I think the issue is that individual priests are sending the message that active homosexuality is a-ok, go ahead and do it.
 
I would be very uncomfortable if this happened at my parish. When I hear news stories like this I try to consider that whatever is going on culturally with pride month and pride parades doesn’t have an agreed upon meaning (though certainly there is an agreed upon theme).

I’ve said this a number of places, I give it ten years. Companies are clamoring over eachother to see who can commercially show the most support this month. Widespread acceptance doesn’t really fit the desired narrative. Commercialism and popularity will see that it fades.

If I’m wrong, what an opportunity! What an opportunity to amidst a dialogue of sexual diversity, find a way to lovingly promote the beauty of sexuality as taught by the church. Maybe we can understand eachother better in June. Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.
 
catholic03 said:
What can we do about the promotion of this lifestyle by church leaders?
Click to expand...
Pray, and if you wish, speak privately and charitably with the priest, and listen to what he says.
 
Last edited:
Your parish, my parish, is not a museum of saints but a field hospital for sinners. I am thankful that sinners are allowed to be “active members” or I’d be wandering around without a spiritual home.
 
OP suggested that gay people shouldn’t be allowed to be “active members” of a parish because they are presumably not “CHASTE” (his word). That’s going way beyond “my priest flew a rainbow flag and gave a homily I think is against Church teaching.” (Never mind that it’s not even his priest or a parish near him, but he is several continents away from US but complaining about parishes here based on stuff he read.)

I’ve never had a gay sexual encounter in my life, but if unchaste people weren’t allowed to be members of a parish then I myself wouldn’t have been allowed to attend church for about 25 years and I’m sure not the only one.
 
Last edited:
TheLittleLady said:
Your parish, my parish, is not a museum of saints but a field hospital for sinners. I am thankful that sinners are allowed to be “active members” or I’d be wandering around without a spiritual home.
Click to expand...
While I agree with this, I don’t think this is the issue here. The OP (and myself) would agree that sinners need to be accepted in the Church (because aren’t we all sinners?). I think the issue is when parishes go beyond accepting sinners and begin to openly celebrate and promote sin. What good does that do anyone, spiritually?
 
Again, the OP’s post went well beyond a parish allegedly “promoting sin” (allegedly because he’s not in or near the parishes he’s complaining about and is clearly getting the info from some news source which may have a big bias) and went on to say that people who are not “chaste” shouldn’t be allowed to be members of a parish. He also seems to be forgetting that a huge number of heterosexuals of all ages and statuses struggle hard with chastity and commit sins of impurity, and some gay people probably manage to stay chaste.

I don’t know how everybody is missing that part of the post when he even put CHASTE in all caps. I saw it and Little Lady saw it, and it’s against Church teaching to exclude people from the Church on that ground. Even if they were excommunicated they would be welcome at Mass, just don’t receive.
 
Last edited:
catholic03 said:
Celibate people who have same sex attraction I hold nothing against; they carry a hard cross but lay down joys for Christ which is so admirable and beautiful. I do of course think that CHASTE people who have same sex attraction should be able to be active parish members.
Click to expand...
Given the rate of unchaste teens and divorced adults, this would cut out a number of people.

Do you think sexually active heterosexual people should be able to be active parish members?
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I’ve never had a gay sexual encounter in my life, but if unchaste people weren’t allowed to be members of a parish then I myself wouldn’t have been allowed to attend church for about 25 years and I’m sure not the only one.
Click to expand...
Oh, of course. Gay people aren’t some special class of sinners, and if we kicked everyone out who had ever been unchaste there would be literally no one in the pews.

I agree some of the OPs post is less than ideal (like stating the gay people shouldn’t be parishioners unless they can somehow prove chastity), but a lot of it seems like valid concerns to me. If a priest is indeed telling people that living the “gay lifestyle” (presumably meaning dating/sleeping with people of the same sex, not just experiencing sexual desire for the same sex) then yeah, that’s troubling in the same way as if a priest were telling an unmarried straight couple that it was okay for them to be having sex before marriage. Even a priest isn’t directly saying it, decorating the parish webpage with rainbows and encouraging people to go to Pride Parades is obviously going to be seen as an endorsement of active homosexuality, not just a recognition that people with a gay orientation are as welcome as anyone else.
 
Last edited:
No one will be standing at the door to ask anyone about their sexual activity.
 
edwest211 said:
No one will be standing at the door to ask anyone about their sexual activity.
Click to expand...
True, although I don’t think there is anything wrong with a parish making explicit the idea that gay people are as welcome as anyone else and will not be treated as pariahs, provided that this message doesn’t veer into endorsing homosexual sex (which, again, is the same standard I would apply to anyone else).
 
Not old fashioned… Just faithful to Christ and His bride—the Catholic Church…
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top