Gay Catholic and confused?

Why is it when someone doesn’t agree with the teachings of the Church or the Holy Father in particular, they insult him? Why must they resort to name calling and character assassinations? I find it to be rather juvenile and quite frankly it incenses me. Here is what Kevin Naff, managing editor of the Houston Voice said about Pope John Paul II when he didn’t agree with the pope’s statement on the institution of marriage, “Pope John Paul II, sounding more and more like an out-of-touch curmudgeon clinging to by-gone days of 1950s-style morality, again this week intoned against tampering with the ‘irreplaceable’ institution of marriage.”

1950s-style morality? Is this guy kidding? This statement is from an editorial titled, Gay Catholic and confused, and claims the pope is demonizing gay relationships. It further asserts the Church and the pope are saying that gays are not wanted in the Catholic Church.

Let’s be clear here, it is the act of fornication that the Church frowns upon, and this goes for heterosexual as well as homosexual couples. It’s the sex part that’s the sin, not the person. Moreover, the Church and the Holy Father embraces its gay brothers and sisters with the same love and compassion as any other Catholic.

Don’t give me this 1950s-style morality business, this will never be moral and it wasn’t moral before 1950 either. Sex outside of marriage is a sin, and that’s exactly what gay sex is – sex outside the sanctity of marriage.

I don’t know what Baltimore parish this writer is writing about here, but I can only assume it is a gay-friendly parish in the same manner my parish is. That is to say, it welcomes all into its arms, so long as those who enter are chaste, (if not yet married) regardless of ones attraction.

Same-sex marriage will never be accepted by the Catholic Church and rightly so. Must I remind my gay brothers and sisters that marriage is a sacrament in the Catholic Church? It’s quite clear they do not know why it is a sacrament, or they would never demand it be included in the Catholic Church. For the laity to not know, it is somewhat understandable, but for a parish priest or bishop to promote same-sex marriage is unacceptable.

Knaff further asserts, “THE PROBLEMS OF repression in the church go beyond the failure of church leaders to cope responsibly with the sex abuse scandal. That same culture of fear, silence and denial that enabled pedophile priests to shift around from parish to parish is restricting the ability of local pastors, priests and deacons to deal honestly and fairly with the question of how to welcome gay worshipers.”

Here’s the biggest problem I have with this editorial; the gay community is still calling the sex abuse scandal a pedophile problem, when it’s been largely a homosexual problem all along. No, this liberal notion of embracing the homosexual lifestyle amongst priest and religious and endorsing fornication and worse yet homosexual fornication is the wrong approach to Catholicism and not what Christianity needs now or ever. As a matter of fact, it is precisely 1950s-style morality that the Church needs to embrace right now, for it has a tremendous amount of ground to make up for the last four decades of constant decline. A constant decline not only in our culture but in our Church as well.

It is not the Vatican and the pope that is misguided and narrow-minded, but rather it is Kevin Naff that is misguided. He is misguided because he is not taking the time to understand that the Church is bound to the decision to not embrace same-sex marriage. If the Vatican and the pope wanted to allow same-sex marriage into the fold they couldn’t. The Church was founded by Jesus and ever guided by the Holy Spirit; men do not make Church dogma or doctrine. These are the things that are decided by a higher authority.

That is the splender of the Catholic Church; it’s a divine institution, not a human one. If you want to be a part of a human institution then the Catholic Church is not for you. When will some so-called Catholics learn this?

The Church does not demonize gay and lesbian parishioners, as Naff would have you believe. The Church continues to pray for them and embrace them, just don’t ask it to include same-sex couples in the sacrament of marriage.