There’s no shortage of Catholics that aren’t shy about saying that they will destroy the family and are damaging our society with their marriages. Are all priests welcoming of gay people? They tend to get fired from Catholic schools. You have people like the Lepanto Institute on a witch hunt to expose all the gay people working for Catholic orgs. That’s what persecution looks like.
So it is persecution to say that behaviors, the more widespread they become, will affect society? The open acceptance and normalization of homosexuality has harmed society. Homosexuality itself is harmful to the individual, morally, emotionally, and physically.
Now if saying so is persecution, then we also owe apologies to smokers, heavy drinkers, and the obese.
The word ‘welcoming’ has become meaningless. I would venture that almost every priest accepts any gay person just as they do anyone else. But if by ‘welcoming,’ we mean the modern ‘condone, approve, and celebrate,’ then no. And they should not be, any more than they should condone, approve, or celebrate cohabitation or masturbation.
Anyone who works for any group while living in stark opposition to its beliefs will be fired. How many pro-lifers are allowed to work the front desk at Planned Parenthood? Is a Ku Klux Klan member allowed to become a pastor at a black Baptist church? Will a soccer coach retain his job if he insists on teaching the kids to play football instead of soccer?
A Catholic school exists to teach the faith, along with education. How can it teach the faith when the very teachers are living are living in stark defiance of the faith? These teachers are undermining a major purpose of the school. This is not ‘persecution,’ it’s what every business and organization does and has a right to do–promote its own goals.
Indeed, “because of the bond which unites us to one another in the Mystical Body, all of us, though not personally responsible and without encroaching on the judgement of God who alone knows every heart, bear the burden of the errors and faults of those who have gone before us” (Incarnationis mysterium, n. 11).
/…/[/INDENT]
I am more intrigued by the closing statement of the Bishop.
He said all members of the Catholic community who will be struggling with the idea of apology and welcoming gay and lesbian Catholics will similarly require accompaniment and reflection.
As a priest, I am most interested to know his particular insights on how those with the *cura animarum *should seek to re-orient the thoughts of anyone who would hesitate to comply with what is being directed by the Successor of Peter and the Successors of the Apostles.
What I’m not seeing throughout this thread is what those ‘errors and faults of those who have gone before us’
are. Teaching what the Bible says? Teaching what every major world religion has taught for thousands of years?
And frankly, I find even the words ‘those who would hesitate to comply’ to be rather Orwellian and creepy.
Also, I’d like to know when anyone is going to start talking about Muslims perhaps apologizing for gays actually being thrown off rooftops and murdered. Or when is anyone going to start talking about some of the vicious, ugly things I see some gays saying about people like me? What about the gay supporters at a gay rally who beat two men severely for merely standing there?
I’d like to hear a discussion about the groups that have been attacking Catholic Churches in South America, and sexually and physically assaulting the men who stand prayerfully around those churches arm in arm, trying to protect the House of God–including fondling these men’s privates, shoving women’s underwear in their faces, and spraying them with pepper spray and paint, aiming for the eyes.
On a personal note, I recently had a friend jump to a number of conclusions and decide he would try to harm my livelihood, my very ability to feed and house my children. I find it just a bit hypocritical that someone would tell me to apologize, refuse to specify what exactly it is I have done, and ignore the fact that the so-called persecuted people are so very often the ones actually assaulting others, verbally, physically, and striking at their livelihood. And for what? For not approving of their sexual actions.
