This article appeared in the National Catholic Register on January 27.
Boston Catholic schools will accept kids of same-sex ‘parents,’ but other dioceses take a different approach. The Archdiocese of Boston has decreed that children of same-sex couples can enroll in its parochial schools.
by STEVE WEATHERBE 01/27/2011
Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston is pictured during a press conference at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington Feb. 26, 2009.
BOSTON — The Archdiocese of Boston has decreed that children of same-sex couples can enroll in its parochial schools, reversing a controversial 2010 decision at the parish level refusing one such admission.
The decision, very different from one made by the Archdiocese of Denver last year, drew a mixed reaction from Catholics, but won the swift endorsement of Michael Reardon, executive director of Boston’s Catholic Education Foundation, an independent organization that funds school construction and repair as well as scholarships. The foundation had announced in the wake of last year’s rejection of a same-sex couple’s child that it would provide no scholarships to schools that discriminated in this way.
“From the perspective of the foundation, the key part of this is that it does not exclude any group of students, and it promotes what is essential to Catholic education, which is inclusivity,’’ Reardon said.
The Jan. 12 statement from the Catholic Schools Office of the archdiocese cited a statement made by Pope Benedict XVI to an assembly of American Catholic education officials in 2008 that said, “No child should be denied his or her right to an education in faith, which in turn nurtures the soul of the nation.” The schools office also states that “Parent(s)/guardian(s) of students in Catholic schools must accept and understand that the teachings of the Catholic Church are essential and are a required part of the curriculum.”
In contrast, Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput strongly supported Sacred Heart of Jesus School in Boulder, Colo., last March, when it told a lesbian couple their child could not enroll for first grade.
As the archbishop explained at that time, Catholic schools are committed to working with parents in teaching the Catholic faith. But “if parents don’t respect the beliefs of the Church, or live in a manner that openly rejects those beliefs, then partnering with those parents becomes very difficult, if not impossible. It also places unfair stress on the children, who find themselves caught in the middle, and on their teachers, who have an obligation to teach the authentic faith of the Church.”
Teachers Conflicted
Noting that “most parents who send their children to Catholic schools want an environment where the Catholic faith is fully taught and practiced,” Archbishop Chaput argued, “That simply can’t be done if teachers need to worry about wounding the feelings of their students or about alienating students from their parents. That isn’t fair to anyone — including the wider school community.”
The archbishop said that children of non-Catholics and of divorced parents are allowed to attend Catholic schools “as long as their parents support the Catholic mission of the school and do not offer a serious counter-witness to that mission in their actions.”
He also noted that Catholic parents pay twice for education, once through taxes supporting the public system and a second time through tuition for the Catholic schools. They should be able to count on getting what they paid for, he argued: a Catholic education and not the education they might expect elsewhere.
However, Archbishop Michael Miller of Vancouver, British Columbia, former secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education in Rome, said via e-mail that the children of same-sex couples would not automatically be excluded in his archdiocese: “A child of same-sex parents would not be treated any differently than any other child.”
He added, “All families must complete a ‘Family Statement of Commitment’ that they will work with school and parish to provide an environment where faith and learning go hand in hand.”
Archdiocesan spokesman Paul Schratz said that unmarried parents would face the same challenge as same-sex parents signing the commitment and convincing the school admissions committee, which includes the pastor, that they could honor the commitment. “It would be a teaching opportunity for the pastor with the parents.”
Schratz said several same-sex couples had been presented with the commitment document, but he was not aware of any children of same-sex couples presently enrolled.
Sending a Signal
Women for Faith and Family’s president, Helen Hitchcock, said she found Archbishop Chaput’s arguments compelling. She finds plausibility in an argument for inclusiveness — “that exposure to Catholic teaching would have a good effect even if the parents were 100% opposed to some elements of it.”
But given that many who call themselves Catholic openly disagree with the Church’s teaching on homosexuality, she said, admitting the children of homosexual couples “would send a signal that this behavior is all right. If the Church sees no problem with the children, then it looks like it doesn’t care about what the parents are up to.”
Hitchcock also raised the question of the parents’ motivation: “Why would they want to send their children to a Catholic school when they don’t agree with its teaching? Do they just want to make problems?”
Register correspondent Steve Weatherbe writes from Victoria, British Columbia.
The reader comments on the article are excellent. Please take the time to read them. We will repost selected ones here next time.
This is positively bizarre.
Thank goodness the queer phamilies will not have to worry about the sin of contraception.
Doik!
Can somebody ask Jack O’Malley to throw a party to celebrate the last nail in the coffin for once Catholic Boston?
The Cardinal and his team justify their stance using the words of Pope Benedict XVI, “No child should be denied his or her right to an education in faith, which in turn nurtures the soul of the nation.” Why then have children of military parents been excluded in the past under the pretense that they and their parents needed so many years in residency?
Hello? Why are the parents and children of a lesbian or homosexual household treated better than military families?
Cardinal?
This diocesan policy shows us what is at stake and what is coming down the road with respect to law and public policy. It highlights why the selection of the new MCC director will tell us the direction the hierarchy wants to take us. (Final interviews were supposedly taking place this week).
Without proper leadership, the state will continue to lose faithful Catholics and that is unacceptable (not just from a financial persepctive either).
To whom does the MCC search committee present its findings on the candidates for executive director? If the powers that be making the decision do not come through on this and hire someone solid, then it may be time for well motivated, organized Catholics to hire their own representative to meet with state legislators.
The question this might naturally invite is whether politicians would understand that there is just one Catholic Church or if they would see “two Catholic Churches” lobbying on Beacon Hill. Would they listen to the “official” Catholic Church lobbyist or the one who represents the most voters? If I were a politician, I know who I’d listen to.
This reminds me of John 21:15-17 in which the sheep need to be fed. I feel like many of us faithful are starving to be fed while the wolves snicker as they await to pounce.
Hi,
I think that Archbishop Chaput has it right.
However, it is not clear to me that the Vatican has spoken clearly and authoritatively on this matter. And until they do we should not be surprised to see Bishops implementing different policies in regards to children of homosexual couples.
David S.
David
Yes, one has to be concerned about the buffoonery the holy see is unable to project. The holy see has already spoken on the matter of excluding homosexuals from our seminaries. The last several years, I have been able to actually tell they were men without my glasses on. They walk like men, talk like men and look like men from 50 feet away.
Why is Cardinal Omalley discriminating in his seminary? Anyone checked to see if he has mandated that seminaries who have two daddies or two mommies be admitted at st johns? If not, why not?
“Why is Cardinal O’Malley discriminating in his seminary?”
Hi Anna,
Do you really think he keeps fems out of the seminary? Like you, my mom could pick them out at 50 ft. Have you had the chance to apply your 50-ft test on any cardinals?
Jerry,
About a year ago, I went to a local parish. I had forgotten my glasses that day. I sat about 10 rows from the front. The priest was a visitor from Mirimar. He walked like the Queen of England, had the same hairdo as the Queen of England and his maneurisms were like the Queen of England. The homily (about redemption) was scandalous.
That was enough to drive me back into the desert for months. It took a lot of strength to try again.
Guess who the Archdiocese uses for spiritual formation of her priests and deacons? Mirimar. The new age stuff at Mirimar includes Buddah, massages, labrynths – among other things.
I know for a fact that when Fr. Farren was there, nobody who walked like the queen of england was let into the seminary. I am fairly certain the now Bishop Kennedy was obeying the Holy See. What will happen now that the Cardinal has turned the diocese over to Jack Connors and Bryan Hehir is anyone’s guess.
I would like to know if the new admissions policy about the children who has two daddies or two mommies applies to the seminary. I think it’s a fair question to formally ask the Vicar General. If not, why not? What is good for the goose, is certainly good for the ganders.
LOL! I’ve been in the desert for 18 years, avoiding the Novus Ordo like the plague. Best move I’ve ever made.
“I am fairly certain the now Bishop Kennedy was obeying the Holy See.”
Well, that’s good and bad; good in that it may keep the flaming types out, but bad in that they may admit queers who say they’re not fooling around, so-called “celibate.” (It’s a crime to use the term celibate, a beautiful and virtuous state, to describe an absence of overt vice.) I’m afraid that Rome will do nothing about Boston because it is still very indulgent to the homo crowd with its seminary policy, and with the pope’s latest prophylactimania. I think of Rome’s attitude as a logical extension of its ecumania. In the latter, they overlook heresy and apostasy, and in the former, immorality and vice.
What will Cardinal O’Malley of Boston and Archbishop Miller of Vancouver do when they are confronted with the same situation that has just occurred in Canada and is being confronted by the Bishops of Ontario? On Jan.18, the Catholic schools in the Halton District Catholic Schools in Ontario
were forced to establish, in each Catholic school whenever a student requests it,a Gay-Straight Alliance(GSA) Club-the same kind of GSA that Kevin Jennings and his homosexual partner,Bob Parlin,developed here in Massachusetts and disguises under the umbrella of “Safe Schools”. (“Teaching Tolerance:Meet the Teacher Who Started Gay-Straight Alliances” by Ann Banks.,2/26/10.Source URL:http:// http://www.edutopia.org/teaching-tolerance-gay-straight-alliance
(http://www.edutopia.org/print/node/15486)
To get an idea of how Gay-Straight Alliance clubs advocate for same-sex sex behaviors and activities take a look at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education web site for Gay/Straight Alliances:A student guide-Other Activities(http://www.doe.mass.edu/cnp/GSA/OutAbout.html
Or go to the Gay,Lesbian and Straight Education Network GLSEN websites and see their Training Workshops for Educators.
Life Site News,com article “Canadian Catholic school board ‘bullied’ into scraping pro-family policy” by Patrick B Crain, Jan.19,2011, describes how the Catholic school board in Ontario was “spearheaded by trustee Paul Marai, a 22-year-old homosexual activist elected to the school board in Oct.,(and)was supported by a contingent of groups such as the Canadian Civil Liberties Association(CCLA), Queer Ontario, and Heterosexuals for Same-Sex Equality” . They were successful in overturning the Catholic school ban on GSA clubs. Now that the ban is lifted, “Several activists vowed after the meeting to monitor the policy development closely, and CCLA representative Noa Mendelsohn Aviv threatened to act if any high school attempts to block a student from starting a gay-straight alliance.”
Now that same-sex sex promoters and practitioners who decide to send a child they are raising to our Catholic schools in the Boston Archdiocese, these activists can get elected to the school board and do the same thing that Paul Marai did and you can be sure that all of the same-sex sex supporting organizations including New Ways Ministry, Dignity, PFLAG, GLAD, GLSEN, Gay Pride, etc. will be sure to demand that GSA clubs be established in Catholic schools. Marianne Duddy-Burke,leader of Dignity, as much as said so in the Globe article in which she praised Cardinal O’Malley for what she termed “diversity” in Catholic schools in the Archdiocese but she wants to make sure that there are support systems in place for same-sex sex supporting students. Inevitably that means establishing GSA clubs .
Bingo, Alice. GSA clubs are the next step.
They already have “gay” promotion in the student paper at Sacred Heart in Kingston:
http://throwthebumsoutin2010.blogspot.com/2010/09/follow-up-on-catholic-education.html
Carol exposed their pervert promotion, and was immediately attacked, by screaming students who threatened her with harm and drove in her lawn, by screaming parents who said unrepeatable vile things about her. What support has Carol received from the archdiocese? You guessed it. Even the police got rebuffed by the school. There are no good men to stand up! Carol is forced to choose between accepting the current detente or pressing charges and suffering greater vilification.
The screaming homos have drawn the line in the sand, and we must realize the stakes: it’s us or them. No in between. And the Cardinal is one of them.
It appears that the teachers at Sacred Heart School in Kingston are in dire need of engaging in real diversity training for their students by inviting members of the Ugandan Catholic Community in the Archdiocese of Boston so that they can learn about true courage when confronted by people who practice and promote same-sex sex acts by trying to impose their beliefs upon Catholic students. Through the Archdiocesan office of Outreach and Cultural Diversity in liaison with Fr. Michael Nolan,pastor of St. Mary’s Church in Waltham, the martyrdom of of Charles Lwanga ,and his 21 young companions in the court of King Mwanga, is brought to light each year. Henry M. Ndawula,Chairman, Fr. David Martin Ssentamu, members of the organizing committee ,and the Ugandan Martyrs Choir presented an outstanding,memorable celebration commemorating their martyrdom on June 20,2010 at St. Mary’s Church in Waltham. As reported in the Catholic Insights article:”St. Charles Lwanga and his Ugandan companions: martyrs in the face of homosexuality” by Janice Glover(Catholic Insights,Sep.1,2006,ISSN: 1192-5671):”In 1886, Charles Lwanga and twenty-one other young Catholic Ugandan men, including court pages between the ages of 13 qnd 30, were killed by the order of King Mwanga, a homosexual who preyed on the boys of his court to satisfy his lustful urgings. Led by Charles , these young martyrs resisted the king’s homosexual advances, and for that, joyfully exclaimed as the fires consumed their bodies,”You can burn our bodies, but you cannot harm our souls.” “Charles Lwanga was canonized in 1964, with his companions; he is the patron of black African youth and an inspiration for all those battling the homosexual lifestyle.” These martyrs are also the patron saints of Courage/EnCourage.
Before inviting the students at Sacred Heart in Kingston to learn about the lives of these courageous youth, it would be interesting to give them a pre-test to find out how much they know about what has happened in the past to anyone who dared to speak up with courage when confronted with those in authority who tried to bully them into acting in a sinful way.
More information can be found in Women for Faith and Family(http/www.wf-f.org/StCharlesLwanga.html), and America Magazinearticle “The feast of the Ugandan Martyrs” by james martin,S.J. (http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?entry_id=2961)
I would also worry about the students at Fontbonne Academy, run by the Sisters of St. Joseph, Boston. Those nuns recently held an Advent service at their chapel. They invited a liturgical dance group to perform. The director of the group is a woman, a self-proclaimed “priest” associated with WomenChurch and is married to another woman. How can the Sisters of St. Joseph oversee a school that teaches the Catholic faith with integrity?
Chris,
Thanks for bringing up the teaching orders of sisters who are infecting our children with deviant morality and mind-warping pop-psychology to cement in the former. This is likewise the case at Sacred Heart in Kingston, run by the Sisters of Divine Providence. These sisters are victims of Jungian psychology, a method of divorcing oneself from all reality. See
http://www.ewtn.com/library/NEWAGE/JUNGCUL2.TXT
for an overview of the Jung cult in the Church. There’s more info in my posts at Carol’s site (link above); just search on “Jung.”
The Jung cult has infected the LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious), and hence, I’m sure the Sisters of St. Joseph are infected as well. Jung gets one to release her inner self, recognizing her “archetype,” which can be the goddess within. This introduces occult practices such as the enneagram. Then there is gnosticism, Isis (Diana) worship, priestesses, and lesbianism.
It’s the lesbo goddess infection that is so dangerous in the school. Their hatred of masculinity can dominate the environment and stifle the normal development of boys, as well as cow most priests into submission. Having kids with deviant pseudo-parents will provide them opportunity to further subvert normalcy and glorify deviancy. You’ll be sure to see Heather at Mass, with her moms in leotards, prancing up the aisle with the gifts.
Jerry, I don’t know about Jung and the Sisters of St. Joseph in Boston. Whatever the cause, they certainly seem to have gone off the rails. You may want to look up the CREDO liturgical dancers, who performed at the convent chapel. Their director/”priest” is Kathleen M. Henry. (She wrote a book on the enneagram, as it happens.) She is also involved with the Massachusetts Youth Pride Committee. I see a problem here. That sounds like an unhealthy influence in that teaching community.
Hopefully the Leadership Conference of Women Religious have not taken a position in support of GLAD,GLSEN,PFLAG,etc.. However, in the Ontario,Ottawa, situation, the Ontario Catholic Teachers’ Union did give money and support to Egale Canada which is a gay-rights movement involved in the right to legalize same-sex marriage, as well as promoting gay-straight alliance clubs in the schools.(“Catholic teachers’ union supports gay lobby group” by Brian Lilley, Canoe.ca,Dec. 22,2010). This certainly was a factor in the Halton School Board decision to overturn the ban on Gay-Straight Alliance Clubs.
While I expect that most of our Boston Archdiocese nuns and students are familiar with the tragic case of the murder of Matthew Shephard and the Laramie Project which have been featured to a great extent in the popular press , I wonder if the Religious Sisters who are administrators in Catholic schools in the Boston Archdiocese have ever heard of the hardly ever reported case of the tragic murder of Mary Stachowicz on Nov. 13,2002? I doubt any students ever heard about her murder.
Mary was a Polish American translator,devout Catholic and mother of four, who was murdered by her co-worker,Nicholas Gutierrez, in Chicago,ILlinois, after she implored him to give up his sinful lifestyle and live a chaste life.” When Mary urged Nicholas to give up his gay life style,he became infuriated by this,as he later told police, and he beat ,stabbed and strangled her to death and then stuffed her body into a crawl space in his apartment ,which was located above a Chicago funeral home where they both worked”.( from article adapted from remarks presented at Loyola Univ. Chicago Law Journal Conference,”Marriage,Same-Sex Relationships and the Catholic Church” by Thomas J. Poprocki, Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago and an Adjunct Professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law,Apr. 1,2006)
Bishop Poprocki, who is now Bishop of Springfield,Illinois, knew Mary Stachowicz personally when she was his part-time secretary as well as part-time worker at the funeral home before he became a bishop. He is presently proposing that Mary Stachowicz be considered as a worthy candidate for official canonization as a martyr for the faith.” She demonstrated courage in bearing witness to the faith to the point of shedding her blood and giving up her life for the truth.”(Homily for the Courage/EnCourage Conference,July 30,2010 at the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception at the University of St. Mary of the Lake,Mundelein,Illinois)
Will the religious sisters pray for her canonization and tell the story of her tragic death to the students in our Catholic schools? In fact, perhaps they can prevail upon Cardinal O’Malley to invite Bishop Poprocki to come to talk about Mary Stachowicz to our Catholic youth and to parishioners in our Boston Archdiocese. If it is left up to the secular press her tragic death would remain hidden. The murder of Matthew Shepherd was classified as a “Hate Crime”. Mary Stachowicz’s murder was not. If the same thing happened to a student, do you think anyone would consider her/him as having been “bullied” to death?
Alice, that’s a marvelous but sad story of Mary Stachowicz. She should be raised to the altars and be an example for our times, much like St. Maria Goretti.
The LCWR is friendly to New Ways Ministry, a group so queer is got condemned by the USCCB; I found a letter of support online. Bigger, though, is LCWR’s coverup of nuns sexually abusing children:
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2010/06/lcwrs-long-standing-coverup-of-sexual-abuse-of-children-by-nuns/
Bottom line: if a school has sisters affiliated with LCWR in any way, pull your kids. They’re better off at a government school, i.e., it’s easy for kids to understand that government brainwashers are bad, but not that sisters are bad.
Alice and all,
The queers in Canada keep pushing the agenda, as Alice noted above. Here’s an update:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/catholic-safe-schools-policy-recommends-homosexual-youth-line
“The Catholic board in Chatham, Ontario has implemented a controversial “safe schools” policy that could see students given counseling that affirms homosexuality behind their parents’ backs. At the same time, gay activists are targeting the St. Clair Catholic District School Board in an effort to launch a gay-straight alliance at one of the board’s schools.”
If you want to avoid being seen as hateful or lacking in charity, you might want to avoid the word “queers.” You will not win Boston church officials with language like that. How about simply homosexuals or homosexual persons.
Hate the sin, love the sinner. True?
Nah. Queer is a word with stigma and a name acceptable to them – just Google “queer nation” and prepare to vomit. The stigma must be restored. It should be shameful to be in that vice, and not just some technical condition called homosexuality. Stigma will go further in keeping weak teens from vice than will some paragraph in the catechism.
How about sodomite?
Thank you for acknowledging that your hatred isn’t just for the sin but for the sinner as well. Tell me, how does one reconcile 2358 of the Catechism: “The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition” with the use of the word “queer”?
I fully agree that those who engage in homosexual acts should be ashamed of those acts. But read the paragraph above. Does the word “queer” fit in with “respect, compassion, and sensitivity”?
Hate the sin, love the sinner. True?
My version of 2358 says, “The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. They do not choose their homosexual condition; for most of them it is a trial.” Funny, my CCC says they’re born that way. I guess it’s not really a sin then. Your CCC is different. Do you have the infallible version?
I haven’t acknowledged hatred for sinners as you want to make me say. But here’s what I’ll acknowledge:
“Have I not hated them, O Lord, that hated you: and pined away because of your enemies? I have hated them with a perfect hatred: and they have become enemies to me. Prove me, O God, and know my heart: examine me, and know my paths. And see if there be in me the way of iniquity: and lead me in the eternal way.”
And you know with certainty that EVERY homosexual person HATES God? So now you are judging souls, something which we are forbidden to do.
I guess you have set yourself up as Supreme Judge of each and every person’s interior dispositions.
I would ask that readers focus on the issue of the post–namely the admission of children of gay parents, and please keep away from the personal attacks.
As for people thinking certain other people are commenting under multiple names, let me just clarify a few things–in this thread and this thread alone.
“Jerry” is a man whose real name is “Jerry.”
“Carol McKinley” is a woman whose real name is “Carol McKinley.”
As for “David,” the blog does not know who he is, but there is no reason to believe he is Paul, and based on the nature of his comments, it very much sounds like he is a different individual.
Make it easy on the blog and please drop the identity accusations from this thread and instead focus on the problems with the policy.
“God alone is the judge and searcher of hearts, for that reason He forbids us to make judgments about the internal guilt of anyone.” (Gaudium et Spes, 28).
Oh yeah, I forgot, you reject Vatican II because you’re a Feeneyite and place yourself above the Magisterium.
Just like Fr. Hehir.
I just wanted to get across that many homosexual persons are attempting to live chaste lives according to the teaching of the Church’s Magisterium. Groups such as this one: http://www.couragerc.net/ are trying to help them do so.
To suggest that all homosexual persons “hate God” is just plain wrong. And it will harm what I consider to be a very good blog.
I’m not sure what this means “Sweet. I found a photo online and distributed it in Still River. Here’s lookin’ at you, kid” but it comes across as internet harassment.
Shame on you.
There is no need to reject Vatican II. It contains no dogma.
Chaste homosexual is an oxymoron. If they quit they no longer need label themselves as homosexual. It’s like my neighbors wife, she had a girlfriend in college now she is a has-bein.
The whole queer, homo, gay discourse at this point is like 8th grade toilet talk. Get over it OK?
Cool, you can sleep with whomever you want and do the nasty unsanitary things your parents should have told you not to do when you were 3 years old.
…If Dear Fr. Feeney were to reject queer couples from Catholic schools it would go something like this…
You are WHAT? What in God’s name is wrong with you? Would you like the sacrament of confession right now? No?
Then get the hell off the property and don’t come back until you’ve made a good confession and mended your ways.
Oh, do I long for righteous Catholic clergy!
And Fr. Harvey, the Founder of Courage, was not “righteous”? Most people in the Church would disagree with you. Chaste homosexual is an oxymoron? Wrong. Homosexual persons are called to chastity. There are many who remain in that orientation but who do not engage in homosexual acts. Such people strive to live out the Church’s teaching.
Hate the sin, love the sinner. True?
I disagree with TheLastCatholicinBoston and agree with David on the point about people with homosexual attractions who live a chaste life. The reality is that some people have same-sex attractions or may have engaged in a gay lifestyle and are now living as chaste single people. That chastity is what the organization, Courage, encourages for people who are “homosexuals” and what the Church encourages. LastCatholicinBoston, do you feel there is no place for this ministry? How would you describe the people who may have this unwanted attraction who are living chaste lives? Here is their website and I copied what they say on there home page.
http://www.couragerc.net/
“Are you or a loved one experiencing homosexual attractions and looking for answers?
Courage, an apostolate of the Roman Catholic Church, ministers to those with same-sex attractions and their loved ones. We have been endorsed by the Pontifical Council for the Family and our beloved John Paul II said of this ministry, “COURAGE is doing the work of God!” We also have an outreach called Encourage which ministers to relatives and friends of persons with same-sex attractions.
From our website you will learn about homosexuality and chastity. By developing an interior life of chastity, which
which is the universal call to all Christians, one can move beyond the confines of the homosexual identity to a more complete one in Christ.
An interesting thesis regarding chastity, homosexuality and religious life:
http://pblosser.blogspot.com/2010/04/validity-of-homosexual-vows-of-chastity.html
If only we could all treat those persons who suffer from same-sex sexual attraction the way Fr. John Harvey treated them, there would be a true revolution in the problem of how to bring enlightenment into the present scene. Fr. Harvey was deeply charitable, insightful through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
constantly seeking a better way to help those who desired to live according to God’s plan for human love. He was deeply devoted to the way of St. Francis DeSales. He himself was a saint and I hope someday he will be recognized as such.
The books and articles he has written can be found on the Courage website:
http://couragerc.net/index.htm . A sidebar gives access to the books and articles he wrote. He claimed that the most difficult habit that interfered with the progress of those who wanted to change was the habit of masturbation. He has an excellent article about that major problem. If only the school teachers who are responsible for implementing the “health” curriculum in our schools would read that work, they would no longer set our children into this thorn-ridden path of seeking self-pleasure and distorting their God-given prayer-filled out-going social life based on true charity. Fr. John Harvey possessed this true charity par excellence!
Excellent, Alice. The point is that Father’s love was to cure the vice, to actually make the person to be no longer homosexual. Attractions and temptations aren’t sinful, and it is not right to call such a person a homosexual, even if he has residual sinful habits to shed. All other ways leave the poor soul in the trap of thinking himself a homosexual. That’s not natural but innately shameful, and cannot free the individual to heal in God’s grace.
Amen Alice and Not a Fan. Well said!
You miss the point entirely Jerry. Some people go their whole lives struggling with the homosexual orientation. But they live chaste lives. Such people ARE homosexuals in their inclination. But with the help of God’s grace, they do not act on that inclination.
But you said that homosexuals hate God. And this does not apply to ALL homosexuals. Only to those who are impenitent, who mock God by living a lifestyle which goes against His will.
[comment edited]
Queers (those proud to be homos) want to own same-sex attraction, and you play into their hands. In other words, they turn the old Jimmy Carter “lust in my heart” back at weak boys, telling them basically, “if you find another boy attractive, then that makes you one of us.” That doesn’t cut the mustard. For example, if I get an attraction toward some woman other than my wife, does that make me an adulterer? No. Likewise, a same-sex attraction does not make a homo. But you want to keep such a person thinking himself a homo.
A man who identifies himself as homosexual will never enter Heaven because he harbors an identity which is at odds with the natural law. But if he renounces it, he can receive forgiveness and be saved. But then he is no longer in that perverse vice, and it is wrong to categorize him as such. It’s like calling a man an adulterer long after his fall and repentance; it’s an injustice.
Even if a man has, through this vice, rendered himself incapable of having a normal marriage, that does not entitle one to label him homosexual. He has a severe penance to serve due to having damaged his own nature, but by grace he will serve that penance to the end and enter Heaven.
So, what I see as true charity is 1) to place a public stigma (a horror, actually) on being a homo, a queer, to keep a barrier up that will save souls, and 2) to accept one who repents of the vice as a brother in Christ and never again refer to him as a homosexual.
The comments have strayed rather far from the main topic of the post–namely the issue of admitting children of gay parents to Catholic schools, and the personal attacks have not stopped, so we are turning off comments on this thread.
It seems to me that someone who identifies him or herself as “gay” or “lesbian” or “homosexual” is in a different situation than someone who has an undersired same-sex attraction but is living a chaste life. The issue of how to define a person who has same-sex attractions or homosexual tendencies but is living a chaste life is NOT one we believe can be resolved on this blog. We can’t find any references in any Vatican documents which objectively define persons with same-sex attractions (often undesired) who are chaste as being “homosexual,” “not homosexual,” or some other label. If someone has a reference to a Vatican document that covers this, please email us and we will post the link. There is a ministry dedicated to working with these persons called, “Courage,” formerly based in New York City and now in Connecticut. Several readers have cited the website of Courage. http://www.couragerc.net/
If you want more definitive opinions on the matter of Catholics dealing with homosexual tendencies or same-sex attraction, we suggest you go there and read some of the writings of Fr. Harvey.
Lastly, some of you seem to still have difficulty keeping Fr. Feeney or Feeneyism out of your comments. Fr. Feeney has never been mentioned in any of our posts, that’s not the focus of this blog, and it has never been a a focus. Can I ask you to self-moderate there, bite your tongue, and just not go there? Otherwise we will have to moderate all comments and it could take a day to have your comments go live.
Sorry folks, we are closing comments on this thread.