Pope Francis criticizes gay marriage, backs ban on contraception

[gilliam]

In points he’s made before in other settings, Pope Francis on Friday criticized what he called the “ideological colonization of the family,” language that many took as a reference to gay marriage, and also defended a previous pope who upheld the Church’s ban on contraception.

“The family is threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage, by relativism, by the culture of the ephemeral, by a lack of openness to life,” Francis said.

A Vatican spokesman confirmed Friday evening that, at least in part, the pope had gay marriage in mind.

The remarks came in a session Francis held with more than 1,000 families in a downtown Manila arena, amid the pontiff’s Jan. 12-19 trip to Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

The pope also issued a strong defense of Pope Paul VI’s controversial 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which upheld the Church’s traditional ban on birth control.

cruxnow.com/church/2015/01/16/pope-francis-criticizes-gay-marriage-backs-contraception-ban/?s_campaign=crux:email:daily

 

[Joe_5859]

In points he’s made before in other settings, Pope Francis on Friday criticized what he called the “ideological colonization of the family,” language that many took as a reference to gay marriage, and also defended a previous pope who upheld the Church’s ban on contraception.

“The family is threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage, by relativism, by the culture of the ephemeral, by a lack of openness to life,” Francis said.

A Vatican spokesman confirmed Friday evening that, at least in part, the pope had gay marriage in mind.

The remarks came in a session Francis held with more than 1,000 families in a downtown Manila arena, amid the pontiff’s Jan. 12-19 trip to Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

The pope also issued a strong defense of Pope Paul VI’s controversial 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which upheld the Church’s traditional ban on birth control.

cruxnow.com/church/2015/01/16/pope-francis-criticizes-gay-marriage-backs-contraception-ban/?s_campaign=crux:email:daily

Also being discussed here:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?p=12668048

 

[johnnyc176]

‘the Church’s traditional ban on birth control’? That’s a weird way to put it. It is ultimately from Christ that the Church gets it’s teaching that contraception is grave sin

 

[FollowChrist34]

In points he’s made before in other settings, Pope Francis on Friday criticized what he called the “ideological colonization of the family,” language that many took as a reference to gay marriage, and also defended a previous pope who upheld the Church’s ban on contraception.

“The family is threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage, by relativism, by the culture of the ephemeral, by a lack of openness to life,” Francis said.

A Vatican spokesman confirmed Friday evening that, at least in part, the pope had gay marriage in mind.

The remarks came in a session Francis held with more than 1,000 families in a downtown Manila arena, amid the pontiff’s Jan. 12-19 trip to Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

The pope also issued a strong defense of Pope Paul VI’s controversial 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, which upheld the Church’s traditional ban on birth control.

cruxnow.com/church/2015/01/16/pope-francis-criticizes-gay-marriage-backs-contraception-ban/?s_campaign=crux:email:daily

Love it, love it, love it.

 

[CatholicWhovian]

It’s good to see the Pope clarifying himself.

I bet secular liberals out there would wake up and say “Hey! The Pope’s actually Catholic!” :whacky:

 

[Ron_Obvious]

The mainstream media most likely won’t even mention it. It goes against what they want the Holy Father to be saying.

 

[faithfulk]

I wonder if he is really being honest about opposing gay marriage? To begin with, he is the kind of pope now that in my opinion is a “people pleaser” and is doing his best to go against God’s teachings, the Holy Bible and the Church just to be loved, and approved off…he also condones having gay priests in the church…as a matter of fact, he is a little too liberal for me, chances are, he could also be a Democrat, not to get into politics, but this pope needs a lot of prayers, and I pray like Obama, he does not try to destroy from within…

 

[Shirtlifter]

It will become impossible to stand with the Catholic church unless they end the discrimination and marginalization of gay people.
How will history judge us for staying with an institution that promotes such injustice to a specific group of people?
Do we want to stand with these sinners?
I do understand the desire to keep the doctrine “pure” and that the line in the sand for life must be unequivocal.
However, by insisting that Catholics discriminate against LGBT individuals, couples and families, the church is keeping the conversation on the wrong subject.
Our children–LGBT, straight–ALL children are in desperate need of guidance from the adults in matters of sexuality, intimacy, and family.
The “hook up” culture that begins as young as primary school should be addressed, and not with the “just say no” curriculum.
The human need for intimacy and love should be acknowledged and ways kids can seek real connection and intimacy must be modelled and taught.
To say that all LGBT relationships are “intrinsically disordered” or whatever horrific words are being used makes Catholic adults totally discredited sources in the minds of our youth.
The young people (and informed older people) know that LGBT people are just like everyone else.
They seek love, intimacy, and meaningful connection.
That is why they couple and form families.
We are losing the entire area of guiding young people because of a few in the hierarchy insisting on rigid and outdated dogma.
I do not want all of our children to be collateral damage in this ridiculous culture war.
All people deserve dignity.
All families deserve acknowledgment and support.
And all innocent babies deserve to be baptized.
Some Catholic priests will not baptize babies from LGBT families since they will not “raise the child in the church.”
How hateful.
How absurd.
The Holy Spirit has spoken to many on this issue.
But the collateral damage is too much.
What are the next steps?
Because it is certainly not Jesus Christ who is the problem.
It is the power hungry and controlling hierarchy.

 

[Havard]

It will become impossible to stand with the Catholic church unless they end the discrimination and marginalization of gay people.
How will history judge us for staying with an institution that promotes such injustice to a specific group of people?
Do we want to stand with these sinners?
I do understand the desire to keep the doctrine “pure” and that the line in the sand for life must be unequivocal.
However, by insisting that Catholics discriminate against LGBT individuals, couples and families, the church is keeping the conversation on the wrong subject.
Our children–LGBT, straight–ALL children are in desperate need of guidance from the adults in matters of sexuality, intimacy, and family.
The “hook up” culture that begins as young as primary school should be addressed, and not with the “just say no” curriculum.
The human need for intimacy and love should be acknowledged and ways kids can seek real connection and intimacy must be modelled and taught.
To say that all LGBT relationships are “intrinsically disordered” or whatever horrific words are being used makes Catholic adults totally discredited sources in the minds of our youth.
The young people (and informed older people) know that LGBT people are just like everyone else.
They seek love, intimacy, and meaningful connection.
That is why they couple and form families.
We are losing the entire area of guiding young people because of a few in the hierarchy insisting on rigid and outdated dogma.
I do not want all of our children to be collateral damage in this ridiculous culture war.
All people deserve dignity.
All families deserve acknowledgment and support.
And all innocent babies deserve to be baptized.
Some Catholic priests will not baptize babies from LGBT families since they will not “raise the child in the church.”
How hateful.
How absurd.
The Holy Spirit has spoken to many on this issue.
But the collateral damage is too much.
What are the next steps?
Because it is certainly not Jesus Christ who is the problem.
It is the power hungry and controlling hierarchy.

The ignorance and ill will of your comment saddens me. The Catholic teaching on chastity and love is rich and beautiful, is about much more than just gay or straight, and has absolutely nothing to do with hate. Perhaps you should spend some time trying to understand people’s beliefs and motivations, rather than jumping to judge them. “Who am I to judge” isn’t just a convenient soundbite for only when you feel like applying it.

 

[jokerswild180]

It will become impossible to stand with the Catholic church unless they end the discrimination and marginalization of gay people.

The Church does not discriminate and marginalize people with same sex attraction. She does specify that homosexual activity is intrinsically disordered, just as She says masturbation is intrinsically disordered (see Catechism paragraphs 2851-2859). Are people who masturbate unwelcome in the Church? Absolutely not. All She asks, as Jesus Christ required, is that we repent of disordered behavior in order to participate in the sacraments that bring us into covenantal union with God, who, by the way, defined marriage as one man and one woman (see Matthew 19).

How will history judge us for staying with an institution that promotes such injustice to a specific group of people?

What evidence do you have against the Church for promoting injustice? Saying that all children need and deserve a mother and a father? Teaching chastity to all people? Promoting relationships that are ordered toward creating, accepting, and loving new life?

Do we want to stand with these sinners?

Since we are ALL sinners, no matter who you stand with you’ll be standing with sinners. The difference, once again, is whether or not the sinners you’re standing with are moving in the direction of God through repentance, sacraments, and striving to be saints or moving away from Him.

Our children–LGBT, straight–ALL children are in desperate need of guidance from the adults in matters of sexuality, intimacy, and family.

YES, we are all in need of guidance on these matters, whether 9 y/o or 90, because no one has perfect knowledge except God.

The “hook up” culture that begins as young as primary school should be addressed, and not with the “just say no” curriculum.

YES! That’s why teaching chastity works better than abstinence.

The human need for intimacy and love should be acknowledged and ways kids can seek real connection and intimacy must be modelled and taught.

YES! Where does that authentic modeling happen? The Trinity, family, mother and father, and the Holy Family.

To say that all LGBT relationships are “intrinsically disordered” or whatever horrific words are being used makes Catholic adults totally discredited sources in the minds of our youth.

It appears that you probably don’t have a grasp on what the phrase “intrinsically disordered” means. The simple fact of anatomical nature is that man is ordered toward woman and woman toward man. To act against order is disorder.

The young people (and informed older people) know that LGBT people are just like everyone else.
They seek love, intimacy, and meaningful connection.

Yes, we all seek love. Here, I defer to the apostolate Courage to teach how that best happens for people who sexually desire others of the same sex. It’s not an easy lifestyle to undertake by oneself but it is with God. www.couragerc.org

That is why they couple and form families.

If by “they” you mean people of the same sex, then I and everyone who’s ever been on a farm could tell you that same sex members of any sexually reproductive species can not “couple and form families.” This is not discrimination. It is fact. Let’s stop living in the Paleoproterozoic Era.

We are losing the entire area of guiding young people because of a few in the hierarchy insisting on rigid and outdated dogma.

Outdated dogma? Did I miss the news that some shift occurred in nature that allows the “coupling” of same sex humans to reproduce? Sorry to burst your bubble but it’s not just “a few in the hierarchy” but the entire hierarchy that insist on nature’s order and that children need and deserve a father and a mother.

I do not want all of our children to be collateral damage in this ridiculous culture war.

Neither do I or anyone else.

All people deserve dignity.
All families deserve acknowledgment and support.

YES and YES!! What is a family?

And all innocent babies deserve to be baptized.
Some Catholic priests will not baptize babies from LGBT families since they will not “raise the child in the church.”

Seeing as how the sacrament of baptism is an initiation rite into the Church, She does intend that initiated members live according the standards God commanded of us. To be mislead from the start by disordered modeling is a grave injustice for the child.

The Holy Spirit has spoken to many on this issue.

Yes, in particular the popes, apostles, and bishops.

What are the next steps?
Because it is certainly not Jesus Christ who is the problem.
It is the power hungry and controlling hierarchy.

It is not Jesus Christ who is the problem. It is us for attempting to make God in our image instead of the other way around. Read what God, through the Father’s creation, the Son’s word and the Holy Spirit’s revelation, actually had to say about sexuality. Saint Pope John Paul II covered all of these issues in Theology of the Body and I can assure you he was not power hungry or controlling but humble and freeing.
Also, I suggest you watch this movie to listen to three Catholics who experience same-sex attraction about their experience with the Church but mostly without Her. It contains no preaching, unlike my rebuttals above, but is simply three examples of lives converted by God’s graces to chastity, which we are all called to live: everlastinghills.org/movie/

 

[jokerswild180]

I wonder if he is really being honest about opposing gay marriage? To begin with, he is the kind of pope now that in my opinion is a “people pleaser” and is doing his best to go against God’s teachings, the Holy Bible and the Church just to be loved, and approved off…he also condones having gay priests in the church…as a matter of fact, he is a little too liberal for me, chances are, he could also be a Democrat, not to get into politics, but this pope needs a lot of prayers, and I pray like Obama, he does not try to destroy from within…

Quit following Pope Francis only through the major media. They are distorting, misquoting, de-context-ualizing his impromptu interviews and those of Cardinal Burke in a divisive manner to sew seeds of conflict. Always, always, always seek the original interview and read it in context. Also, read his sermons, you’d be surprised how orthodox he actually is, contrary to the leftist media’s portrayal.

 

[CatholicWhovian]

The ignorance and ill will of your comment saddens me. The Catholic teaching on chastity and love is rich and beautiful, is about much more than just gay or straight, and has absolutely nothing to do with hate. Perhaps you should spend some time trying to understand people’s beliefs and motivations, rather than jumping to judge them. “Who am I to judge” isn’t just a convenient soundbite for only when you feel like applying it.

His comment got me thinking: do people like him have the right to tell the Church what to do and what not to do, like some teacher or parent disciplining their kids? Isn’t that a bit self-righteous, like they seem to know better than the Church? Honestly I get really irritated when people act like that.

 

[pnewton]

Some Catholic priests will not baptize babies from LGBT families since they will not “raise the child in the church.”
How hateful.

If there is anything that makes me want to spew it is this tired old trick of calling traditional morality “hateful”. This tactic is the bread and butter of the Southern Poverty Law Center and has resulted in their becoming a tool of polemics.

 

[pnewton]

‘the Church’s traditional ban on birth control’? That’s a weird way to put it. It is ultimately from Christ that the Church gets it’s teaching that contraception is grave sin

That is because Jesus never taught on the subject. This really only became a significant issue under Pope Paul VI.

 

[chrisb]

The Church does not discriminate and marginalize people with same sex attraction. She does specify that homosexual activity is intrinsically disordered, just as She says masturbation is intrinsically disordered (see Catechism paragraphs 2851-2859). Are people who masturbate unwelcome in the Church? Absolutely not. All She asks, as Jesus Christ required, is that we repent of disordered behavior in order to participate in the sacraments that bring us into covenantal union with God, who, by the way, defined marriage as one man and one woman (see Matthew 19).

What evidence do you have against the Church for promoting injustice? Saying that all children need and deserve a mother and a father? Teaching chastity to all people? Promoting relationships that are ordered toward creating, accepting, and loving new life?

Since we are ALL sinners, no matter who you stand with you’ll be standing with sinners. The difference, once again, is whether or not the sinners you’re standing with are moving in the direction of God through repentance, sacraments, and striving to be saints or moving away from Him.

YES, we are all in need of guidance on these matters, whether 9 y/o or 90, because no one has perfect knowledge except God.

YES! That’s why teaching chastity works better than abstinence.

YES! Where does that authentic modeling happen? The Trinity, family, mother and father, and the Holy Family.

It appears that you probably don’t have a grasp on what the phrase “intrinsically disordered” means. The simple fact of anatomical nature is that man is ordered toward woman and woman toward man. To act against order is disorder.

Yes, we all seek love. Here, I defer to the apostolate Courage to teach how that best happens for people who sexually desire others of the same sex. It’s not an easy lifestyle to undertake by oneself but it is with God. www.couragerc.org

If by “they” you mean people of the same sex, then I and everyone who’s ever been on a farm could tell you that same sex members of any sexually reproductive species can not “couple and form families.” This is not discrimination. It is fact. Let’s stop living in the Paleoproterozoic Era.

Outdated dogma? Did I miss the news that some shift occurred in nature that allows the “coupling” of same sex humans to reproduce? Sorry to burst your bubble but it’s not just “a few in the hierarchy” but the entire hierarchy that insist on nature’s order and that children need and deserve a father and a mother.

Neither do I or anyone else.

YES and YES!! What is a family?

Seeing as how the sacrament of baptism is an initiation rite into the Church, She does intend that initiated members live according the standards God commanded of us. To be mislead from the start by disordered modeling is a grave injustice for the child.

Yes, in particular the popes, apostles, and bishops.

It is not Jesus Christ who is the problem. It is us for attempting to make God in our image instead of the other way around. Read what God, through the Father’s creation, the Son’s word and the Holy Spirit’s revelation, actually had to say about sexuality. Saint Pope John Paul II covered all of these issues in Theology of the Body and I can assure you he was not power hungry or controlling but humble and freeing.
Also, I suggest you watch this movie to listen to three Catholics who experience same-sex attraction about their experience with the Church but mostly without Her. It contains no preaching, unlike my rebuttals above, but is simply three examples of lives converted by God’s graces to chastity, which we are all called to live: everlastinghills.org/movie/

Thank you for sharing such a thoughtful post. It took a lot of effort to put that all together.

Much to consider.

 

[boar2roar]

It will become impossible to stand with the Catholic church unless they end the discrimination and marginalization of gay people.
How will history judge us for staying with an institution that promotes such injustice to a specific group of people?
Do we want to stand with these sinners?
I do understand the desire to keep the doctrine “pure” and that the line in the sand for life must be unequivocal.
However, by insisting that Catholics discriminate against LGBT individuals, couples and families, the church is keeping the conversation on the wrong subject.
Our children–LGBT, straight–ALL children are in desperate need of guidance from the adults in matters of sexuality, intimacy, and family.
The “hook up” culture that begins as young as primary school should be addressed, and not with the “just say no” curriculum.
The human need for intimacy and love should be acknowledged and ways kids can seek real connection and intimacy must be modelled and taught.
To say that all LGBT relationships are “intrinsically disordered” or whatever horrific words are being used makes Catholic adults totally discredited sources in the minds of our youth.
The young people (and informed older people) know that LGBT people are just like everyone else.
They seek love, intimacy, and meaningful connection.
That is why they couple and form families.
We are losing the entire area of guiding young people because of a few in the hierarchy insisting on rigid and outdated dogma.
I do not want all of our children to be collateral damage in this ridiculous culture war.
All people deserve dignity.
All families deserve acknowledgment and support.
And all innocent babies deserve to be baptized.
Some Catholic priests will not baptize babies from LGBT families since they will not “raise the child in the church.”
How hateful.
How absurd.
The Holy Spirit has spoken to many on this issue.
But the collateral damage is too much.
What are the next steps?
Because it is certainly not Jesus Christ who is the problem.
It is the power hungry and controlling hierarchy.

The homosexual denigration of marraige and stealing from kids a natural childhood with natural parents is really hateful. They sould not be allowed to damage children and confuse them for life.

 

[zamyrabyrd]

The homosexual denigration of marraige and stealing from kids a natural childhood with natural parents is really hateful. They sould not be allowed to damage children and confuse them for life.

I am going to go one further and claim the LGBT agenda is a malicious cult with a bad spirit. How do I know? Well, when this kind of behavior was still in the closet more than 40 years ago, I had the misfortune to be a music student of a very disturbed person.
One of the first things he did was tell me how much he hated his father and that he left the Catholic Church. This kind of talk is very influential on young adolescents who are questioning just about everything. The fact I was not enjoying the Catholic girls’ school I was going to and some of its nastier clergy, plus the fact that my own home life was screwed up, I regarded it as more than OK to diss one’s family and religion, that one could still leave and the whole world wouldn’t crashing down if I said or did anything against.
Something happened about the 2nd year into the lessons, a complaint to the local police that he had talked dirty to a 9 year old pupil, about masturbation and even wanted him to show him how to do it! I had to testify at the police station if anything was going on with me, to which the answer was no, except for all his inappropriate choice of subjects and his being drunk frequently, the most probable reason why he was fired from the school he was teaching in. Supposedly he did have a relationship with a woman at that time but it was clear by inference that he was more attracted to men. Also he talked about the number of times he tried to commit suicide and actually he really did succeed at the age of 44 by continuous drinking.
Why do I mention all this? I did not realize the damage he did to me that was buried for so long. An astute Catholic priest 10 years ago intimated there was abuse. His saying so was balm to my soul. In actuality, this person played with my head, a kind of pernicious seduction that would never end in consummation. This was really despicable.
I have had discussions with people on the net, saying that his was an extreme example and many are not as disturbed. Well, even if they are not trying to commit suicide or hitting on younger kids, it is not rocket science to see how these behaviors have subtly invaded society. I am not sure that he would be charged today if masturbation is taught in public schools and men/boy relationships are touted by rock stars like Michael Jackson as being “loving”. When debating with others, I cite statistics that if male homosexuals are less than 2% of the population, they are committing 1/3 of ALL pederasty cases. This alone is enough to cause concern.
There are also the exhibitionism and promiscuity. There was a complaint against him for sunbathing au naturel in the back of his house that wouldn’t raise an eyelash today when they can march down the streets of big cities naked. And the revolving door of different partners is one of the best kept secret of this so-called community. They never wanted to commit to anyone. When they have a chance to marry, comparatively few take up the opportunity. This is highly marked in men but also similar in women. With men it is the urge to prowl that is not satisfied by the demands of family. Same sexes are not complimentary psychologically as well. They just want to destroy something they can’t really have - marriage. and they are doing just that!
Now, I understand that nice people have been sucked into sympathy for their alleged marginalization and buy the story of finally extending civil rights to that group of society that had been forced to live in the shadows. There is a real problem here since not every gay person is a radical homosexualist. The truth is though they are among the wealthiest in society, not to have to provide for children and as for rights they can do anything they like except destroy the very institutions that are keeping civil society together.
But I want to return to the bad spirit. Unfortunately, I did not rebuke the influence of that person right away and drifted away into some really weird territory. This couple was heavily into spiritualism, having Ouija board sessions. There was also violence, promiscuity and sexual obsession, like the whole world is sex. I just want to say that when my own life was beginning to clean up, I started to smell the flowers and discover all kinds of wonderful innocent things I was missing out on. Sorry, folks but this is what is being done to children, filling their heads with sex when they should be learning about noble and beautiful things.
After the 4 decades of that first encounter, I have found the SAME behaviors operating in practically EVERY gay couple I have known in various degrees. I have NEVER met a monogamous couple. I have never met anyone who was not without deep regret for being into this lifestyle, as much as they want YOU to celebrate and accept it.
So many disturbed individuals and social movements were done by those who had some measure of sexual dysfunction. It cannot be otherwise. We are all of one piece. The Nazi movement was heavily infested with homosexualism and the glorification of the body. The “Pink Swastika” is an eye-opener if one was about to sympathize with alleged persecution of gays during the Third Reich. It was something else entirely.
I am more inclined to believe that book since I have seen this world from the inside. I really regret what was done to my emotionally and psychologically, not to mention spiritually. If there were any benefit at all from my skewed experience from early adolescence is to warn those who would take these wolves in sheep’s clothing as little lambs.

 

[zamyrabyrd]

Part II since my original post was too long:
This is a pernicious, evil movement. Like Jesus, I do not condemn the sinners but the sin but it is also necessary to to stop these addled individuals from corrupting others. As much as I do not like some of Russia’s policy, they surely have it right with the insidious homosexualist agenda. All credit to them for the Duma for legislating unanimously against this corroding movement. Over the next decade or so, we will see what countries will have the necessary internal hygiene to survive and those that were corrupted from within.
I am SO happy that Pope Francis is openly speaking out against the social values price tag that wealthier countries demand from poorer ones. I really do hope that Africa, the Philippines and countries in South America not already blind-sided by the inverted values they already get from Western TV and movies, will stand up to the bullies and keep the Faith.

 

[paperwight66]

‘the Church’s traditional ban on birth control’? That’s a weird way to put it. It is ultimately from Christ that the Church gets it’s teaching that contraception is grave sin

Gospel references, please?

 

[JimG]

I am hoping that the Crux website is not becoming another incarnation of the National Catholic Reporter. I notice that their ‘spirituality’ columnist, Margery Eagan has expressed her devastation and disappointment that this pope somehow remains Catholic.