Pope Francis addressed discrimination against the LGBT community, his own health and future plans, and the passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, among other things, in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press published Wednesday.
We are all children of God, and God loves us as we are.” Francis reiterated, however, church teaching that engaging in homosexual activity is sinful.”It’s a sin,” Francis said, adding: “Let’s make the distinction first between sin and crime.” The pope also clarified that discriminating against others was also sinful, saying: “It’s also a sin to lack charity with one another.
Francis said the church “must” work to get unjust laws abolished around the world.
Same-sex sexual acts are considered crimes in some 67 countries, mostly in Africa and the Middle East, according to the Human Dignity Trust organization. In 11 of those countries, punishment can include the death penalty.
The Catholic Church teaching says that gay people must be welcomed into the church and treated with respect and kindness, despite the fact that homosexual acts are considered “intrinsically disordered.”
A horrific display of homophobia took place in the town of Imotski, Croatia this past Sunday as an effigy, of two gay male parents with a child was paraded through it through the streets, and then burnt as the crowd which included children cheered and danced at its annual Carnival.
Effigies at the traditional carnival events in Croatia commonly draw on news stories and public events, and the doll bore the face of left-wing Social Democratic Party MP Nenad Stazić, who recently made news in the country by saying same-sex couples should be permitted to foster children.
The crowd, which included very young children in fancy dress, cheered and danced to music as the effigy burned.
An announcer told the braying crowds: “My head is spinning from this culture of death… This year, let’s set this grotesque family with baby Nenad Stazić on fire!”
“We are a conservative society, and follow tradition. Give a child to a mother, as the saying goes. We think it’s the right thing to do.” the festival organiser told theSlobodna Dalmacija newspaper.
Croatia does officially bans discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity the country imposed a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage via a referendum in 2013, with 66 per cent of voters backing the measure after an intense anti-gay lobbying campaign supported by the Catholic church.
A Roman Catholic archdiocese has severed ties with a Catholic Prep school in Indiana after it refused to fire a gay teacher for getting married.
According to a statement from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis it will no longer formally recognize Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School as a Catholic school. This comes after a “sincere and significant” disagreement between the archdiocese and the Jesuit religious order’s Midwest province over the church’s attempt to get involved in an employment matter. The school “respectfully declined” the archdiocese’s order to dismiss a “highly capable and qualified teacher” because of that teacher’s same-sex marriage.
“Regrettably, Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School has freely chosen not to enter into such agreements that protect the important ministry of communicating the fullness of Catholic teaching to students,” the archdiocese’s statement read. “Therefore, Brebeuf … will no longer be recognized as a Catholic institution by the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.”
“After long and prayerful consideration, we determined that following the Archdiocese’s directive would not only violate our informed conscience on this particular matter, but also set a concerning precedent for future interference in the school’s operations and other governance matters that Brebeuf Jesuit leadership has historically had the sole right and privilege to address and decide,” the school said.
The school is trying to figure out how to appeal the archdiocese’s directive but insisted that Brebeuf will remain a Catholic school despite not being recognized as one. The archdiocese will still allow Jesuit priests to serve at the school and celebrate the sacraments, according to administrators.
The priest who ignited controversy last week by burning an LGBT-friendly flag on church grounds against the orders of Cardinal Blase Cupich [photo] has been removed from his Avondale parish. Cupich sent two of his top deputies to Resurrection Catholic Church on Friday to notify the Rev. Paul Kalchik that he was being removed as pastor, according to two sources close to the priest.
In a letter to parishioners and staff released Saturday evening by the Archdiocese of Chicago, Cupich wrote that he has “become increasingly concerned about a number of issues at Resurrection Parish. “It has become clear to me that Fr. Kalchik must take time away from the parish to receive pastoral support so his needs can be assessed,” Cupich wrote.
“I have a responsibility to be supportive of our priests when they have difficulties, but I also have a duty to ensure that those who serve our faithful are fully able to minister to them in the way the Church expects,” Cupich wrote.
From the looks of his picture above of Rev. Paul Kalchik , that rainbow banner isn’t the only thing that was flaming
*** Help support Independent LGBT Media.
Back2Stonewall.com unlike many other LGBT websites’does not allow intrusive ads or a paywalls.
Please consider making a donation no matter how small to help with the upkeep and maintenance of our website and keep Independent LGBT news and history alive.
Our annual fundraiser will close December 31, 2018
The Vicar General Fr. James Bartyll (pictured above) of the The Catholic Diocese of Madison, WI has sent a directive to Priests stating that a Catholic funeral may be denied to LGBT people to avoid “public scandal of the faithful,”
The communication exposed by the Pray Tell blog from Bartylla isr titled “Consideration of Funeral Rites for a Person in a Homosexual Civil or Notorious Union” was sent to priests of the diocese as part of a weekly email.
Consideration of Funeral Rites for a Person in a Homosexual Civil or Notorious Union – You may encounter the situation in which a person in a homosexual civil union (thereby in a public union gravely contrary to the natural law) or in an otherwise notorious homosexual relationship gravely contrary to the natural law dies, and the family wants Catholic funeral rites for the deceased. My short answer to pastors and parochial vicars in these cases is to think through the issue thoroughly and prudently and likely call the local ordinary early in the process to discuss the situation. The main issue centers around scandal and confusion (leading others into the occasion of sin or confusing or weakening people regarding the teachings of the Catholic Church in regards to sacred doctrine and the natural law), and thereby the pastoral task is to minimize the risk of scandal and confusion to others amidst the solicitude for the deceased and family.
If the situation warrants (see canon 1184 – specifically canon 1184.1.3), ecclesiastical funeral rites may be denied for manifest sinners in which public scandal of the faithful can’t be avoided. If there is a doubt, the local ordinary is to be consulted, and his judgment is to be followed (canon 1184.2). Here are some general considerations in such situations that may be of preliminary assistance to you:
· Was the deceased or the “partner” a promoter of the “gay” lifestyle? What is the attitude of the deceased’s family members, especially towards the Church?
· Did the deceased give some signs of repentance before death?
· If ecclesiastical funeral rites are allowed, should they occur without a Mass?
· *To minimize scandal, should there merely be a short scripture service at the funeral home? Or maybe merely a graveside service? Maybe a later “Mass for the Dead” with or without explicit mention of the name of the deceased or “partner” could alternatively or in addition be offered at the parish or even at another parish (to avoid scandal), with or without family members present.
· *Any surviving “partner” should not have any public or prominent role at any ecclesiastical funeral rite or service.
· A great risk for scandal and confusion is for the name of the celebrating priest and/or the parish to be listed in any public (e.g., newspaper) or semi-public obituary or notice that also lists the predeceased or surviving “partner” in some manner. This can’t happen for obvious reasons.
· There should be no mention of the “partner” either by name or by other reference (nor reference to the unnatural union) in any liturgical booklet, prayer card, homily, sermon, talk by the priest, deacon, etc…
· It may be wise to keep the priest or deacon involvement to the minimum (i.e., limited to one priest or deacon and at merely essential times of a service or rite, if one occurs).
Jesus weeps.
*************************
Since you’re here …
We have a small favor to ask. Unlike many other LGBT blogs and news sites, we haven’t put up a paywall or installed intrusive ads– we want to keep our journalism and historical reporting as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. Back2Stonewall’s independent voice takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters – because it might well be your perspective, too.
If you can please help us with a small donation to cover the sites expenses and evolution it would be greatly appreciated. Just clock on the GoFundMe picture on the right of the page or by CLICKING HERE.
Vatican police raided a drug-fueled gay sex party at the apartment of an aide to one of Pope Francis’ key advisers, according to reports from Vatican City.
Without revealing the name of the occupant of the apartment, police said that the person is believed to be a priest who serves as a secretary to cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, the head of the Pontifical Council for Legislative texts and a personal adviser to Pope Francis.
According to Italian daily Il Fatto Quotidiano which first published the news, police raided the apartment in June after complaints from neighbors who reported unusual behavior among people visiting the apartment.
The newspaper quoted the police as saying that they found drugs and a group of men engaged in sexual activity when they entered the apartment. Drugs can change you completely, drug rehab in Tampa FL can help you start over.
The police have arrested the priest and taken him for questioning, presumably on drugs charges. It is not a criminal offence to engage in private same-sex activity in Vatican City.
Ironically the apartment belongs to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, whose duties include investigating clerical sexual abuse.
The “gay-friendly”, “not gay-firendly”, and then “gay-friendly” again Pope Francis is back to being a homophobic bigot today as he has voiced his support for the anti-gay marriage protest that took place yesterday in Mexico and the Mexican bishops in their efforts to support the “family and life” in the national debate over gay marriage.
“I join willingly the Bishops of Mexico in supporting the efforts of the Church and civil society in favor of the family and of life, which at this time require special pastoral and cultural attention worldwide,” Francis said after the weekly Angelus prayer.
On Saturday, the streets of Mexico City were covered in white, as an estimated 215,000 people dressed in this color and carrying balloons participated in a rally in opposition to President Enrique Pena Nieto’s push to legalize same-sex marriage.
The marchers held banners warning against same-sex marriage and demanding parents’ right to control sex education in schools.
In May, Pena Nieto proposed legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide, since it’s currently only legal in some places such as Mexico City, the northern state of Coahuila and Quintana Roo state on the Caribbean coast.
Although many Christian denominations supported the rally, organized by the National Front for the Family, the Catholic Church and the local bishops have been one of the movement’s biggest supporters, inviting people to attend this march and ones organized around the country earlier in September, when almost a million people gathered in parks to “defend the family.”
Among those calling for those in the pews to go to the rally was Bishop Pedro Pablo Elizondo of Cancun, who said recently that he’s “willing to go to prison to defend the family,” should it come to that. – The Associated Press
In Pope Francis’ religious psychotic world fucking an altar boy gets you reassigned and supporting two adults love for each other gets you excommunicated.
Father Gordon Mann, the pastor of St. Mary parish in Evansville, Indiana, told Rainbow Catholics in Christ (RCC) they could no longer hold their monthly meetings at the parish in which they have held them for 12 years unless they change their teaching to encourage chastity and the dedication to “genuine Catholic spirituality”.
In a letter sent to the group by Mann, the Priest indicated the group could stay but only if they conform to the approved Catholic model used by the group Courage/Encourage.
Courage “helps” people who “struggle” with same-sex attraction (SSA) to live according to Catholic moral teaching. It encourages chastity, dedication to genuine Catholic spirituality and the frequent reception of the sacraments of confession and the Holy Eucharist. It also inspires members to help others struggling with SSA and to give a good example.
Rainbow Catholics in Christ (RCC) group’s leader, Wally Paynter, maintains “spiritual and psychological harm” would be done to members if they followed the Church-approved Courage/Encourage guidelines.
The RCC has been pushing for people to accept homosexuality, which the Catholic Church teaches is “intrinsically disordered.” People who speak at RCC functions include members of New Ways Ministry, a dissident Catholic group that has been censured by several American bishops and the Vatican. Among other things, they support Catholic acceptance of homosexual activity.
A parishioner and member of RCC complained that up to now, St. Mary’s “has been known as a safe space for all people, including LGBT+ Catholics. This is no longer the case.” She also maintains the group has operated “openly for 12 years with the knowledge and consent of multiple pastors”
Please free to contact Father Mann at the address/phone below and let your feelings be known.
Rev. Gordon Mann St Mary’s Catholic Church 613 Cherry St Evansville, Indiana 47713
The Vatican confirmed on Wednesday that religious extremist anti-gay bigot Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis met with Pope Francis in secret last Thursday during his U.S. visit.
“I never thought I would meet the pope,” she said. “Who am I to have this rare opportunity? I am just a county clerk who loves Jesus and desires with all my heart to serve him. Pope Francis was kind, genuinely caring and very personable.”
Pope Francis was also two-faced, sneaky, and is now proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be anti-gay.
The Vatican specifically reached out to Davis through and contacted Mat Staver the head of the anti-gay hate group the Liberty Counsel which is representing Davis. And after setting up the secretl meeting and asked Staver and Davis to wait until the Pope left America to make any announcement of the meeting.
And despite all this offensiveness some Catholics are still trying to explain away the Pope’s hateful meeting.
Some are going as far as saying that the Pope himself was “set-up” by anti-gay Cardinals and Bishops in the Vatican. And others like Alberto Melloni, a liberal Vatican historian in Italy, are grasping at straws sating that in meeting with Ms. Davis, Francis was staking out ground as a defender of conscientious objection more than seeking to escalate his relatively muted opposition to same-sex marriage.
And well HRC is as lame as ever.
“We will continue to push to meet with the pope,” said Lisbeth Melendez Rivera, head of Latino and Catholic initiatives at Human Rights Campaign, which works for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality. “We are part and parcel of the church and we’re not going anywhere.”
And that is the problem and part of the problem You are not going anywhere.
Why in the world would any gay or lesbian individual stay a member of the Catholic Church and why do they crave the approval of of a religion that has hated homosexuals for thousands of years and refuses to change it dogma?
Perhaps if those who are truly offended by the actions of the Pope and the Catholic church actually left the religion it would force them to change .
Lesbian and Gay Catholics come to your senses. The church will not change. And now with the Pope showing his true colors its time for you to leave the Catholic church and find a more supportive and loving religion.
Its at the point that there is little difference between a Gay Catholic and a Gay Republic. They are both rich pompous anti-gay groups that would burn gays and lesbians at the stake (again) if given half the chance.
From Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council hate group via email blast:
Dear XXXX,We can’t take for granted our freedom of religion; the freedom to believe and to live according to those beliefs. Given to us by God, and recognized by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, religious freedom is crucial to the life of our democracy. If the government punishes people for living their faith, there are no limits to what government can control.
If religious freedom falls in one state, it is endangered everywhere. Where states and leaders advance religious liberty, we need to encourage them to stand. Please read the following petition in support of Indiana Governor Mike Pence, and if you agree, please join me in signing it. Those who stand for freedom need others to stand with them.
Indiana Governor Mike Pence recently signed into law a Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) that protects people who live their daily lives according to their faith against government discrimination. This law reflects polling that shows 81% of Americans support the freedom to live out one’s beliefs. The Indiana law is like the federal RFRA that was signed by President Bill Clinton in 1993, and RFRAs in 19 other states.
Now, a leftist-driven movement has spread misinformation about the law, threatened boycotts and fomented false rhetoric in the media and online. Even in our day, the price of freedom is steep, and Governor Pence is standing strong for freedom despite the cost. Efforts are about to pressure Governor Pence to support changing or amending the law to weaken it. All Americans who live according to their religious beliefs should be free from fear of government punishment. I stand with Governor Pence in his support of religious freedom as stated in the Indiana RFRA, and urge him to oppose all efforts to change the law.