American Bishops Use “Welcome” Excuse To Encourage Sin & Sacrilege
SAN DIEGO, California, October 13, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — Two left-leaning Catholic bishops, along with “married” homosexual partners, celebrated a special Mass for “Families of the LGBT Community” in San Diego last weekend. The event commemorated the 20-year anniversary of a controversial U.S. bishops’ letter on homosexuality that was censured by the Vatican within a year of its release.
Bishop John Dolan, an auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of San Diego, presided over the October 7 mass commemorating the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) letter on homosexuality “Always Our Children.”
The mass, concelebrated with San Diego Archbishop Robert McElroy and 16 other clergy, took place at St. John The Evangelist Catholic Church, located in the heart of Hillcrest, the historic epicenter of homosexuality in San Diego.
Before the Mass, Dolan said: “This parish falls within the Hillcrest district and there are a number of people in our community here who want to participate in the life of the Church, and we want to make sure they have a welcome home in some fashion here within the Church.”
During his homily, Dolan praised the 1997 letter “Always Our Children” as offering “an outstretched hand” to parents and family members of homosexual Catholics.
“To you parents, there is no denying your own sons and daughters, whatever their walk in life,” he said.
“Married” homosexual partners Kyle and Snapper Escobar-Humphries said they attended the ‘LGBT’ Mass with their 8- and 9-year-old children to teach them about equality.
“It’s important because my kids have two gay dads and I would like for them to understand that this church is open for everybody,” said one of the “dads” to the San Diego Tribune. “I want them to understand how to treat each other equally.”
The USCCB’s letter Always our Children was addressed to Catholic parents with homosexual children. The letter was criticized by faithful Catholics for its language that originally called the homosexual orientation a “fundamental dimension of one’s personality.”
Less than a year after its release, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) demanded several changes to the text. One change included calling the homosexual orientation “a deep-seated dimension of one’s personality” so as to avoid the inference that if homosexuality is a “fundamental dimension of one’s personality,” it must be God-given and permanent.
Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, then bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska, said after the letter’s release that it was “very flawed and defective.” He asserted that it was “founded on bad advice, mistaken theology, erroneous science and skewed sociology.”
He added that the “document carries no weight or authority for Catholics, whom I would advise to ignore or oppose it.”
Ex-homosexual Catholic Joseph Sciambra has said the U.S. bishops should apologize to Catholics who struggle with same-sex attraction for releasing the letter, what he called a “travesty.”
“The text is still shocking for its gross generalizations and unwillingness to even briefly grasp the intrinsic desperation and depravity found in the modern ‘gay’ lifestyle,” he wrote in a 2016 article.
“The document also openly condemns those with same-sex attraction to a lifelong imprisonment within homosexuality,” he added.
Allyson Smith, who attended the event as a member of Ecclesia Militans San Diego, a group of concerned Catholics, called Bishop Dolan’s homily a “total capitulation to the homosexual activist agenda.”
“(There were) no calls for homosexuals to repent and convert included in his homily,” she [said].
The event was attended by various San Diego dignitaries, including Republican Mayor Kevin Faulconer, openly-homosexual California State Assembly member Todd Gloria, San Diego City Commissioner and male transvestite Nicole Murray-Ramirez, Democrat city attorney Mara Elliott, city council member Chris Ward, San Diego Unified School District board member Kevin Beiser, and city of San Diego Human Relations commissioner Bruce Abrams.
Laurence Greenbank, a Catholic who attended the event to pray a rosary for participants, called the LGBT Mass a “staged media event.”
“The ‘LGBT’ Mass was a media event, staged by the diocese. I believe the real story is how the bishop turned the celebration of the Holy Eucharist into a media event, not a place of worship. The whole event seemed to be choreographed, with the TV cameras, the VIPs, including the mayor and city council member, the imported rich gays (at least two of them were from Palm Springs), the Hillcrest elite gay men’s group with the matching T-shirts. There was an enormous amount of money and preparation spent on this event,” he told LifeSiteNews.
“It is absolutely disgusting to see the Holy Eucharist used for political agenda,” he added.
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Comments (20)
Sadly I fear we will continue to see a growth in this sort of thing, as the novus ordo Church increasingly unmasks itself as protestant and continues to turn away from the Gospel, seeking secular praise.
This from Ireland a few days ago:
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/gay-couples-must-be-made-welcome-at-world-meeting-of-families-insists-bishop-36222730.html
Of course everyone is “welcome” at Church, but on God’s terms not their own.
To be honest these news items are only the tip of the iceberg, as we all know the typical novus ordo parish is already pro-LGBT, as recently shown by Fr Paul Morton in Scotland.
Pope Francis is definitely culpable as his “dog whistling” on this subject, as with so many others, has given dissenters the courage to be so publicly.
Its amazing these idiots fall into the same errors as their earlier protestant brethren, thinking that having no ideals and accepting anything will equal popularity. In fact, it equals have no message and having nothing to offer and so ultimately equals oblivion.
I think that the whole hierarchy is responsible
Lionel
Agreed, those who sit back in silence (ie the vast majority) are also to blame!
Gabriel Syme,
the question needing answering is why are the majority of bishops silent? Is it because they are afraid to say they disagree with the dissenters or is it because they actually agree and feel no need to speak out.
Personally, I favour the second possibility.
So do I – I actually think the bishops keeping silent when other bishops support homosexual activity must think there is nothing wrong with it. It’s just logic.
Lily,
You think the bishops keeping silent over homosexual activity means they think there is nothing wrong with it? Well, here’s what I think…
I think they’re – more likely than not – guilty of that same grave sin themselves. For years we more or less said exactly that about our own Cardinal O’Brien of very unhappy memory and in the end, voila, we were, tragically, proven to be right.
Further to the link about Ireland above, this below from the Irish Episcopal document regarding the “World Meeting of Families”:
A program to prepare families for the upcoming World Meeting of Families has already been released under the oversight of Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.
The six-part program titled “Amoris: Let’s talk Family! Let’s be Family!” contains explicit promotion of homosexual relationships as a form of family, saying that such relationships provide “mutual support” for active homosexuals.
Page 24 of the document, under the section “The Christian Vision for the Family,” contains a picture of two lesbians on a bridge clinging intimately to one another.
The photo shows a young woman in a sleeveless top being embraced by another young woman who is standing behind her. Tattooed onto one of the woman’s hands is an eye-catching “gay-pride” rainbow flag.
The text immediately above the photo reads: “While the Church upholds the ideal of marriage as a permanent commitment between a man and a woman, other unions exist which provide mutual support to the couple. Pope Francis encourages us never to exclude but to accompany these couples also, with love, care and support.”
Getty Images has the full photo of the two women embracing. Tags used for the photo include “lesbian,” “homosexual couple,” and “gay rights.”
LifeSiteNews reached out to Archbishop Martin, who is overseeing the World Meeting of Families, and asked if the homosexual image and text was inserted into the program by mistake. No response was given.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bishops-use-popes-teaching-to-push-homosexuality-at-2018-world-meeting-of-f
In the wake of the irish vote to introduce same sex “marriage” I remember Diarmuid Martin being interviewed and saying the Church would need to reflect on this result etc.
I hoped he would response with a renewed vigor in Catholic education (ha!) but it seems the Bishops in Ireland are simply re-aligning themselves to match the erroneous views of lay people. Its pathetic to see them running after public opinion in this way. But then, they are protestants I suppose.
This is simply absurd, the Church is making it up as it goes along in each country – all contrary to established teaching, of course.
The next step will be to allow Church blessings of these “other unions” no doubt.
Gabriel Syme,
This is very shocking indeed. It’s like a blindfold has been placed over the eyes of these bishops.
I just watched a bit of this video and listened to the bishop giving the reason for choosing a “picnic” – because of the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Are they really this dense? https://amoris.ie/programme/#
Gabriel Syme,
I am totally scandalised by this report about the Archbishop of Dublin. I knew he was bad, but to actually promote homosexuality and to say the Catholic bishops should avoid producing a definition of family, just beggars belief.
What I am puzzled about, though, is why all the reports on Catholics sites are calling him “heterodox” – I call him a heretic.
The headline to this thread could be Irish Bishops Use “Welcome” Excuse To Encourage Sin & Sacrilege, just as easily as “American Bishops” and after reading about Fr Morton in Cambuslang, it could also be “Scots Bishops etc” because they didn’t speak out either, when Fr Morton was plastered all over the newspapers saying LGBT people welcome at his church.
It’s just astounding, to watch bishops of the Catholic Church actually encouraging people to commit grave sin. I’m truly stunned.
Gabriel Syme,
The Awful Archbishop of Dublin (AAD) has said openly that the Church must change. He said this in the context of “learning” from the referendum vote that brought same-sex “marriage” to once Catholic Ireland. It could not be clearer that he means Catholic teaching on the evil of homosexual activity must change, i.e. we must all accept it as “normal” and not sinful. What else could he possibly mean?
As for your final sentence, wouldn’t be surprised since there have already been public funerals for well known partnered Catholic “gays” – including the funeral of Stephen Gately in Dublin. Here’s one interpretation of his untimely death from homosexual David Furnish….
‘I think sometimes God wants the good pure souls early and that’s the way I think of it. I can’t make sense of it any other way because he was such a good man,’ he said. Read more here
So, yes, I believe you are right. Some “caring” priest somewhere will provide a “blessing” (in the name of pastoral concern, of course, what else?) and thereafter we’ll hear about more and more “gay weddings” in Catholic churches.
Oh yes, Pope Francis is doing a great job… of demolishing Catholicism.
PS I wrote to the AAD at the time to protest at the scandalous public endorsement of Stephen Gately’s partnered homosexual lifestyle at his funeral and, of course, typically, received no reply.
There is an interesting correlation between the state of Jewry when Our Lord began His public ministry, and the current degenerated state of the Church as we wait for the Consecration. This from “Laying the Foundation: A Handbook of Catholic Apologetics and Fundamental Theology,” by Fr. Joseph C. Fenton, p. 148ff:
“14. The rabbinical concept of the Messiah. Those rabbis who constituted the school of the Pharisees and whose doctrine was to become the official teaching of Judaism after the fall of Jerusalem…had constructed and proposed a definite messianic concept. Colored and motivated by an intense nationalism, this concept utilized some of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the promised deliverer, but took these promises altogether apart from their context…The deliverance of Juda was to be accomplished in the mathematically accountable fidelity of the Jewish nation to [the Mosaic Law]. It would be brought about through a condition of things in which the balance sheet of the activities of this nation would show a definite preponderance in favor of those works which were prescribed by the law. Only after this state of things had been established was the Messiah Himself to arrive…these promises included the dominance of Juda over all the other kingdoms and peoples of this world. Palestine itself was to become a land of incredible fertility and pleasure. The other peoples of the earth were to be allowed access to it merely for the purpose of paying tribute and in order to glorify the perfection and felicity of its inhabitants.
15. Jesus rejected the rabbinical concept of the Messiah. Such a racial, political, and material concept of the messianic office was evidently in direct opposition to the implications of that teaching which Jesus of Nazareth presented to the world..He rejected that rabbinical concept several times during the course of His preaching…He assured His enemies that their traditions which included this rabbinical concept of the Messiah were contrary to the divine doctrine itself.”
In other words, the Church has adopted a perverted (literally) and secularized concept of her mission, thanks to the diabolically disoriented mentality of her hierarchy, esp. during the last 50 years.Just like the false rabbinical concept of Judaism, this re-engineered mission is based on human respect and defiance of God, Tradition, Scripture and the Magisterium. Human respect has replaced the divine doctrine, and Catholics are now accountable only to those who promulgate this false doctrine. In fact, they are not only accountable, but they are condemned or belittled or insulted or marginalized if they attempt to cling to the true divine doctrine, in opposition to the false doctrine.
Now, though, it will be Our Lady who will apparently correct this, in perfect union with Our Lord, but not, as before, Our Lord Himself – in order to give more honor and glory to His Mother.
San Diego is experiencing a crisis. A local health emergency was declared. Hepatitis A is spreading like the fires in California. Since November 2016 15 people have died and hundreds hospitalized.
Currently plans are underway to install portable hand washing stations to be followed by street cleaning crews shooting high pressure water spiked with bleach to remove “all feces, blood, on contaminated surfaces.”
The homeless population is being blamed for their “unsanitary living conditions”
San Diego Tribune
Adding the website for San Diego outbreak of hepatitis A
http://www.sandiegotribune.com/news/hepatitis-crisis/sd-me-hepatitis-emergency20170901-story.html
One can’t help thinking that, rather than the poor homeless situation, some blame can be shifted to Hillcrest and the LGBTers whose families attended the special Mass.
I meant to say thank you for the beautiful high flying American flag. Gorgeous!
I read somewhere that this bishop John Tobin is being touted as a replacement for Cardinal Blaze Cupich since the two are so alike in attitude. Apparently Cardinal Cupich is 76 and he is due for replacement. The prospect of this bishop Tobin replacing him sends shivers down my spine. The mess that the Church is in, looks set to continue.
Gosh…This is a nasty mess. All I can really say is that I’m disgusted over it.
The two bishops together with all clergy who participated in this sacrilege should be excommunicated. There has to be a very public Vatican response to this very public act of treachery and sacrilege. This is when the Church needs leadership at the top.
Athanasius,
I don’t think the Vatican has ever responded to any of these terrible scandals for many years now, so I wouldn’t hold my breath to be honest.
Athanasius,
You DO surprise me – I’m sure the Vatican would respond to any very public acts of treachery and sacrilege and that in double quick time; the problem is precisely that the Vatican does not SEE any treachery and sacrilege in such behaviour. Where you see treachery and sacrifice, the Vatican sees…. MERCY!
Fidelis & Editor
Good points. I’m slipping!
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