As someone who spent many years in a benedictine institution and have seen Holy Mother Church from inside, I can assure all the persons who replied to this thread with almost 100% certainty that you have received the blessed sacrament from a gay man. Your children have been baptised, your parents buried, and your dearkest secrets and shame been related to the same persons that you wish to negate with your comments.
I do not think that anyone here has posted against gay people, but gay marriage. If you do no see the tremendous difference between a gay priest and a gay marriage, then I do not think anything can be said. It is not the gay attitude people are generally against here, it is the gay lifestyle. The priest is not living a gay lifestyle, he saw it as a calling.
My comfort after reading all that you have said is that you are decidedly losing. 25 years ago I when I was a young gay man I was beaten for simply existing. In another 25 years, gayness will be no more important than being left or right handed. If one looks at the polls, those under 30 support civil rights for gays by an astounding margin. The hearts of the young are always ahead of the curve.
I am deeply sorry for the wrong committed against you, as with anything, two wrongs do not make a right. I will not discuss the support you claim as this is not the time or place, but if popular trend is meant to support correct thinking, there are things that are popular and supported now that are most definitely not acceptable by any standard.
That being said, the church will always have the right to “marry” whomever it wishes. This fight is for SECULAR rights. Hosptial visitation, property inheritance, all the things that straight couples take for granted.
I hope and pray you are right, that this remains secular. It does not change my opinion that there can be a government solution that does not attempt to redefine marriage. Again, marriage is not the government’s or secular society’s to work with.
When all is said and done I always keep my eye on Christ and if he should by some miracle knock on my door and my partner and I are there to greet him I truly believe that my lord would see our love for what it is and bless us.
Can you imagine a God that would see two people who have stood by each other faithfully for a lifetime in sickness and health and mutual prayer being damned?
If that is so then we will carry our hearts and hand in hand fall into darkness together. I would not want to be anywhere near that God.
God does love you just as all of us here love you. We are all sinning in one way or another and God is just in punishing us for our sins. It does not mean we should continue to sin and hope that God’s love trumps his justice. I have my vices and my short comings that I continually struggle with every day. I cannot imagine what it is like to be gay, but we do all have our crosses to bear. Yours is more public than most and so you feel the brunt of a very heavy cross. It does not change the teachings of God and Christ that are put forth in the Bible and by the Church.
P.S. Maybe while we are there we will run into the odious little man who currently wears the Papal tiara.
Did you say you were Catholic? I question your motives and authenticity for being Catholic if you can make a comment like this.
I pray for you and for society in general that a true understanding of God’s plan may be made clear. I believe being gay may be a gift from God and a calling to a celibate, priestly lifestyle or the vocation of monk or nun. I cannot know God’s plan for everything, but this is how I feel. There is understanding of God’s plan in everything around us and everyone is a gift, gay or straight. It does not change what marriage is and should be according to God’s Word and I still believe a government answer should be found without demoralizing the sacrament of marriage.
God Bless.
