Praying to the god of anti-homophobia at Catholic school board

[Abyssinia]

The Toronto Catholic school board, the largest in Canada, opened a workshop to develop their policy on equity and inclusive education earlier this year with a prayer calling the homosexual inclination a “manifestation of [God’s] goodness.” The revelation has Catholic parents calling foul and pleading for the bishops of Ontario to have another look at the equity policy.

The prayer, read at the January 24th meeting, asked Christ to “give us all the grace to own our sexual identity, whatever its orientation, as another manifestation of your goodness.”

lifesitenews.com/news/praying-to-the-god-of-anti-homophobia-at-catholic-school-board

 

[stephe1987]

Wow… I guess people are still ignorant about homosexuality. It is not a “gift from God” it is a cross that people must carry.

New studies show that people are not born gay.
First of all, there has been no gay gene. The human genome has been mapped out and there is no such thing.
And more recently, homosexuality is caused by something in a person’s past.
For women, the woman was abused or neglected by her father, or had an abusive boyfriend in the past. Something has turned her off of men.
For men, a number of factors come into play. Most men studied did not have hand/eye coordination as kids. They were not the best at sports and their male peers would not play with them, so they went to play with the girls because they identified more with them. They grow up and become angry at men and take out their rage on their male partners. In fewer cases (but the numbers are still not to be ignored), it was an issue with their father or a close male relative. Maybe they didn’t have a dad growing up so nobody was there to show him how to be a man.
Either way, we need to pray for these people. They need to get counselling to overcome these issues. They need to leave their homosexual lifestyle, which, especially for males, is full of diseases and promiscuity… even if they are “married” or “committed” they almost never stay exclusive for more than 5-10 years. It is also dangerous to their souls.

 

[DexUK]

Stephe1987, I would like to know your sources for your statements of ‘fact’ about people with Same Sex Attraction, because I can tell you from my own experience of the world and encountering many people with SSA that these are most definitely not the causes of homosexuality. For the sake of accuracy it’s necessary to refute some of your claims of ‘fact’.

Nobody knows what the cause of homosexualty is.

What is known is that for the vast majority of homosexual persons, whatever its cause may be, their orientation is as unchangeable as the colour of their eyes.

What is known is that there are many sportsmen and women with excellent hand-eye coordination who are homosexual: think Martina Navratilova, a champion tennis player for one; Gareth Thomas, a championship rugby player as another example…

Your assertion that homosexual men detest other men because they’re good at sports and then grow up to be attracted to men is completely illogical! By your logic such a non-sporty male should be more heterosexual, not less!

The human genome has, indeed, been fully mapped. And scientists still have no idea what the vast majority of it does!

Your assertions are, I feel compelled to say, years out of date.

The Church accepts, as you may wish to look at in the Catechism, that a person’s sexual orientation is an innate part of themselves and that it is morally neutral in and of itself: it is a person’s acts - be they with the same or opposite gender - which carry a moral dimension. Such counselling that a homosexual person should need would be the same as a heterosexual: i.e. being aware of what constitutes sinful behaviour and how anyone, gay or straight, should be committed to a life of chastity if they’re not married and open to the idea of the procreative act.

 

[Gertabelle]

While I agree that stephe1987’s reasons are, well, not very compelling (having lived with SSA for many, many years), I don’t necessarily agree with all of your “facts” either.

The reasons for SSA are indeed unknown, and in my own case, far more complicated than even I can sort out.

As humans we love our categories – those tidy little boxes into which we can compartmentalize people’s characteristics and actions. If we are to help each other in this life, we have to take each other as the infinitely complex creation each of us is. There is no simple answer: this is what causes your difficulty in this or that area of your life; therefore, I have the simple solution. Puh-lease. If only it were that easy!

What is known is that for the vast majority of homosexual persons, whatever its cause may be, their orientation is as unchangeable as the colour of their eyes.

This “fact” always bothers me. Most of us “former practicing homosexuals” live in the closet, as it were, with regards to our pasts. I have never participated in a study, answered a questionairre, or even openly discussed my past even with my friends. Only one person at my school knows about my past SSA (and that I acted on it for over ten years), even though I am very close with some of my colleagues. No one at my parish knows about it.

So how can we say that even for most people that orientation is unchangeable? Nobody who creates these “facts” knows anything about me, or the fact that I was once the champion of their argument… but that I now have absolutely no SSA whatsoever. In other words, those of us who have changed may be, perhaps, mostly unaccounted. There’s not a registry for “current orientation” that I know of

The Church accepts, as you may wish to look at in the Catechism, that a person’s sexual orientation is an innate part of themselves and that it is morally neutral in and of itself: it is a person’s acts - be they with the same or opposite gender - which carry a moral dimension. Such counselling that a homosexual person should need would be the same as a heterosexual: i.e. being aware of what constitutes sinful behaviour and how anyone, gay or straight, should be committed to a life of chastity if they’re not married and open to the idea of the procreative act.

Very wisely and kindly put. And here I agree with Stephe – SSA is most definitely a cross to carry.

MEANWHILE, back to the OP – words fail me! I would be on the phone with every parent of every Catholic school student, starting a campaign to storm the Bishop’s office with letters, calls, and prayers until a new board was put in place. Good heavens!

It’s always time to pray for one another, especially those in authority

Gert

 

[lynx]

New studies show that people are not born gay.
First of all, there has been no gay gene. The human genome has been mapped out and there is no such thing.

This is pretty unbelievable. Just about every reputable study will tell you that sexuality is a determination of many factors including biology and environment en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology_and_sexual_orientation . You say there is no gay gene as if you understand all of the genes in the human genome. The things is, there are gay genes foxnews.com/story/0,2933,316316,00.html The question is, is there a gay gene in humans? Well, if other animals are any indication, then probably. This however, is just one factor in the complexity that is human sexuality.

 

[DexUK]

The assertion that anyone might voluntarily choose to change their sexual orientation seems, to me, to be bizarre. In order to become better informed, over time I’ve asked people of both orientations whether they could voluntarily change who they feel sexually attracted to, and without exception not one of them has answered that they would be able to do so. It’s this that leads me to the conclusion that orientation is innate to a person (albeit that it is possible for some, as stated, to suppress one’s instincts by force of will, but not necessarily change them).

As regards the manifestation of God’s goodness… well, we’re fallen creatures. We frequently arrive broken in one way or another, from unsightly birthmarks to disability to medical incapacity, etc… God’s goodness is that we’re here at all. What counts then is how we live our lives with the lot that we have ended up with. It’s in that living that we then find the opportunity to reflect God’s goodness to the world. For the homosexual person that reflection is, as the Church teaches us, to live a life of honourable and honest chastity as a way of loving God. It should never need to be viewed as a torture or a trial but, with the help of Our Lady, perhaps those who have SSA can emulate her fiat with an open heart and gain joy in living as all who are unmarried are asked to live, knowing that they are doing something that is pleasing to God?

Leading from that, it’s possible for me to say that it’s rare that I perceive anything in terms of a trial or a difficulty. I much prefer to see things as an opportunity, even if there’s difficulty involved, because dealing with difficulties helps me grow as a better person. As I’ve come to realise this I’ve been able to see difficulties as a chance to achieve grace… so, with that in mind, perhaps we should encourage the school board in question to reappraise how they present homosexuality… not as a grace in and of itself, but as a unique opportunity for some people to find grace in a way not always presented to other people?

 

[Me1234]

I know gay people. One is my English teacher who used to be straight but after getting almost raped by a guy somewhere along the line turned gay. The other is a tall boy in my class who does have many close friends that are girls and I’ve heard him say to one of his friends that are girls that in 1st grade he had a major crush on her. So it might be caused my the environment. And give me a brake as unchangable as eye color? If that was true my teacher and that boy would still be straight.

Tell them they should follow this: Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter. (Isaiah 5:20) And remember that God called it an abomination in the bible so they have no right to call having to deal with being inclined to do that sin a gift of God. If they still deny it you can show them the evidence in the bible and the teaching of the Holy Roman Catholic Church says. Check out this site if you don’t know it off the top of your head. catholicapologetics.info/morality/sodomy/homality.htm

 

[unafraid]

The term “inclusion” is another one of those “code words” that are vague enough to allow for easy distortion and manipulation. All I know is that the mass “inclusion” of homosexuals into the priesthood has produced grave scandals that have rocked the very foundations of the Roman Catholic Church.

Does the wording of this prayer imply that homosexuals should still be welcomed into the priesthood? Clearly, the most patently obvious preventive measures regarding future instances of clerical sexual criminality is the exclusion of homosexuals from entering the clergy. If these scandals have tought us anything, it the fact that homosexuality and the priesthood are a toxic blend that should never again be permitted to infiltrate the Roman Catholic Church…ever.

The fact that homosexuality has become a cause celebre in the secular world should not blind the church to the fact that its own experience with the darker side of this mysterious phenomenon has wounded it deeply. Truth, no matter how ugly and dark it manifests itself, can never be trumped by the clever use of semantics. Truth is unequivocal.

 

[kozlosap]

The term “inclusion” is another one of those “code words” that are vague enough to allow for easy distortion and manipulation. All I know is that the mass “inclusion” of homosexuals into the priesthood has produced grave scandals that have rocked the very foundations of the Roman Catholic Church.

Does the wording of this prayer imply that homosexuals should still be welcomed into the priesthood? Clearly, the most patently obvious preventive measures regarding future instances of clerical sexual criminality is the exclusion of homosexuals from entering the clergy. If these scandals have tought us anything, it the fact that homosexuality and the priesthood are a toxic blend that should never again be permitted to infiltrate the Roman Catholic Church…ever.

The fact that homosexuality has become a cause celebre in the secular world should not blind the church to the fact that its own experience with the darker side of this mysterious phenomenon has wounded it deeply. Truth, no matter how ugly and dark it manifests itself, can never be trumped by the clever use of semantics. Truth is unequivocal.

Pedophiles and gay people are not the same! Pedophiles are both straight and gay.

 

[unafraid]

I never mentioned the term pedophile. I’ll leave that distorted and false depiction of the clerical abuse crisis to the secular media, a biased and agenda driven group which is in direct opposition to the Roman Catholic Church.

My comments were directed solely to the fact that the vast majority of these crimes were homosexual in nature, perpetrated by homosexuals, who had gained access to the church through the clergy.

Those are the facts. No one can dispute them. The clerical abuse crisis is a complex, multifaceted tragedy that finds its root and culmination in homosexuality. To look away from that stark reality is to invite this abomination to occur again…and again.

 

[Hboggs]

Homosexuality is a sin. As the old song says, “because the Bible tells me so”. But, then so is adultry in any form.

Politically correct, hopefully not, nor never.

 

[JaredM]

It’s very hard to teach your kids to not bully gays while at the same time saying they are an abomination who will burn in hell for all entirety and try to isolate them from anyone who is gay.

 

[Elizabeth502]

Jared, I think you will find that wise parents, including wise Catholic parents, do not give children TMI for their respective ages. My children, in Catholic school, were not instructed in homosexuality (its immorality). It simply was not mentioned in formal instruction. I saw no reason to bring it up explicitly before a proper time. Nor did any schoolmate, teacher, or parent identify as homosexual. So it was a non-issue in terms of their encounters or value-formation. (Yes, while they were young, you could say they were sheltered.)

Thus, that means that they were incidentally (not deliberately) isolated.

Catholic schools do not tolerate bullying – at least no school I’m aware of. I’m aware of some 8th grade boys in one school who tried to intimidate a shorter boy (who was not gay), because the bigger boys were jerks. The parent brought it to the administration’s attention, and a stop was put to it. Where you tend to see much more bullying (in my experience) is in public schools which have a very hands-off policy and/or are understaffed due to budgets. Private schools have rules in place which allow for some kinds of enforcement (suspensions and other consequences) which are no longer allowed in public schools. I have very strong opinions about the dysfunctional discipline (lack thereof) in publics these days. These are essentially rudderless institutions, for the most part. Yes, it’s important to have campaigns and public awareness about bullying in general (not limited to sexuality questions; often it’s just smaller people or disabled people who get singled out), but those campaigns will have no teeth unless adults enforce consequences, and potential violators are aware of that.

I never taught my children that “gays were an abomination who will burn in hell for all eternity.” They know what the Catholic doctrine is on sexuality. One of my children does not happen to have gay friends. Another is very kind to the one gay friend she has; they have a mutually respectful and kind relationship. I have gay relatives & acquaintances and I have excellent relationships with all of them. We don’t discuss their sexual activities: Why should we? They don’t discuss mine, either. My relationship with them is acceptance of them as persons. I relate to them as persons, not to some “orientation,” which after all is an abstraction. We don’t have relationships with orientations. We have relationships with persons, with human beings, and those relationships have value inasmuch as we recognize commonality with each other.

 

[Havard]

It’s very hard to teach your kids to not bully gays while at the same time saying they are an abomination who will burn in hell for all entirety and try to isolate them from anyone who is gay.

Lol, talk about an overdramatized false dilemma.

The Church also recognizes re-married (i.e., no annulment) parents as adulterers. But guess what, parents don’t say to their kids: “Joey’s daddy is an adulterer.” They teach their kids about the sanctity of marriage in a positive way, and then simply inform their kids that not everyone agrees with the Church’s teaching.

 

[mdgspencer]

I presume this prayer is the aberration of the person who made it rather coming from the school board. But because this prayer has become publicly known, the school board should disassociate themselves from it with a public statement, at the least.
To say the homosexual inclination is a manifestation of God’s goodness goes against Catholic belief. The Catechism of the Catholic Church" says the homosexual inclination is objectively disordered. (Though it also says that simply because a person has this inclination, he should not be discriminated against.) (Section 2358)

 

[heart4home]

Part of the problem in Ontario Canada, is that Catholic School is funded the same way Public School is funded, by tax dollars.

You get to choose where your tax dollars go to, and send your kids to whichever.

So basically, you get a bunch of people who feel the Catholic Schools are better for whatever reason and yet are not really “Catholic”. Many Non-Catholics send their kids to these schools and also many “Catholic” in name only. There is no added expense to send your kids to these schools, so even if you just sort of see yourself as Catholic you would probably choose to send them there.

The Public schools in Toronto, regularly have “gay” days etc… They color gay flags and promote “same sex parenting” as being completely typical.

It does not surprise me in the least that there would be pressure from parents etc. to be accepting of “all kinds of families”