”….The effect of the tradition that all sexual acts outside of marriage constitute objectively grave sin has been to focus the Christian moral life disproportionately upon sexual activity. The heart of Christian discipleship is a relationship with God the Father, Son and Spirit rooted in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The church has a hierarchy of truths that flow from this fundamental kerygma. Sexual activity, while profound, does not lie at the heart of this hierarchy. Yet in pastoral practice we have placed it at the very center of our structures of exclusion from the Eucharist. This should change.
“It is important to note that the synodal dialogues have given substantial attention to the exclusions of L.G.B.T. Catholics beyond the issue of the Eucharist. There were widespread calls for greater inclusion of L.G.B.T. women and men in the life of the church, and shame and outrage that heinous acts of exclusion still exist.
“It is a demonic mystery of the human soul why so many men and women have a profound and visceral animus toward members of the L.G.B.T. communities. The church’s primary witness in the face of this bigotry must be one of embrace rather than distance or condemnation. The distinction between orientation and activity cannot be the principal focus for such a pastoral embrace because it inevitably suggests dividing the L.G.B.T. community into those who refrain from sexual activity and those who do not. Rather, the dignity of every person as a child of God struggling in this world, and the loving outreach of God, must be the heart, soul, face and substance of the church’s stance and pastoral action.”
Full story in America Magazine.
Yes, there really is a plot from within the Church to normalize homosexual relations. Evil abounds within the hierarchy, and it’s name is sodomy.
The real heinous act was creating you a cardinal
This is serious and that kind of snark really harms people who want to present truth.
OK. It’s not serious. Let’s ignore it.
Yes. This subversive, dishonest, corrupt, pro-LGBT prelate is not authentically Catholic nor Christian. Keep your kids far away from him.
Read the whole thing.
You cannot make this stuff up.
When I use your link here, I immediately hit a paywall.
If I use Google, I can read the article.
I think that they allow you a few articles per month.
Use private browsing mode, which avoids cookies, and then you can bypass the monthly limit.
Yes, Cardinal, there is a hierarchy of sin.
Dante recognized this is his Inferno, where sexual sinners are generally punished in the higher circles of Hell, while sinners of violence and fraud are punished more severely in the lower circles of Hell. In this Dante follows Aquinas.
But do you see the pattern?
All unrepentant sinners are in (wait for it) HELL.
Doesn’t Your Eminence think you should be warning all unrepentant sinners about Hell – especially those most likely to be deluded by the messages they receive from the present corrupt society?
Dante is not the Church. But I agree with you.
I looked at the examinations of conscience on the USCCB website. None of them are divided into grave and venial sin.
I never heard it was a sin to feel sorry for yourself. But when I think about it, that makes sense.
Can I receive communion before confessing or is it a venial sin?
Confession is not required before communion in the case of venial sins, if that is what you are asking.
No I am asking if feeling sorry for yourself is a mortal sin. Their examination of conscience does not say if a sin is grave or venial.
I think that Self-Pity is classified as a Venial Sin. But look in the Catechism, and ask a priest, to be sure. Self-pity is a sin, because it hardens your heart, deadens gratitude and your relationship with God, causes you to be selfish, bitter and angry, makes you feel hopeless about life, can cause you to feel jealous or envious of others who have good fortune and success, destroys your desire to love and serve God and others, and makes you selfish, angry, bitter, and self-destructive, focused only on your own misfortune. It chokes your faith in God. A Mortal Sin consists of three things: 1. Grave matter, a very serious offense against God
2. Full knowledge of the evil of the heinous act 3.To fully and freely consent to committing the evil act. We have to be careful, because committing Venial Sins over and over again, without Confession and repentance, can build up to the point where one has lost one’s relationship with God, is going down the wrong path in life, and may commit a serious Mortal Sin. I think that people who have undergone a serious trauma in life (sudden death or murder of a spouse or child, horrors of war, being a victim of a terrible accident, disease, terminal illness, etc.) and suffer from Self-Pity, probably need compassionate psychological help and care, as well as help from a good priest. Others who have Self-Pity may simply be “sore losers”– for example, if they lose at a sports game, or don’t get something they expected to receive, or got a bad grade on an exam, etc. etc. In these cases, the person suffering Self-Pity may need to simply grow up and mature.
Thank you. That was a good helpful comment.
Even Uncle Screwtape, a “senior member of the lowerarchy’ as Lewis explained him, did not have this level insight into depravity when he instructed his nephew on the art and techigues of temptation and twisting truths to trap humans.
Sorry but not Catholic and not real.
Great idea, to enrich your life, and read great works by many fanous classic Christian authors.
C.S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters,” and Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” mentioned by commenters, are both excellent works. Better to spend time reading good books, instead of engaging in social media poisoned garbage, watching lots of poisoned garbage on TV, or movies, or listening to lots of today’s harmful rock “music” poisoned garbage– or worse! (Dope, alcohol, smoking, pornography, promiscuity, etc. etc.) Poisoned garbage is not “real,” either– it is deranged, demented, immoral, filthy, Satanic-infested, low-class, “popular” trash– full of cheap, Satanic lies and deceptions, to harm people– to lead them by the nose into sin and destructive “lifestyles”– for money. Very stupid. destructive– and Evil.
Ouch! But point taken. For this bitter water, many thanks.
I was at daily Mass today, and the priest said in his homily that he had read a desipicable essay by a cardinal this week, in which the cardinal wrote against Church teaching. I knew exactly whom he meant. He referred to such clergy as wolves in the Church, referencing the Gospel about Jesus telling his followers that they were being sent like lambs among wolves.
Name calling and labeling just turns him into a victim.
We need to be measured in our response.
We need to respond intelligently, with the good of souls, including the Cardinal’s, as our goal.
was Jesus being measured when he called Herod a vicious predator, a “fox”. i do not think he was limiting Himself to a reference to calculating, devious intelligence. His family survived the vicious strike against the unborn at the time of His birth. Accurate description is not an unmeasured use of language
Don’t use Jesus as an excuse.
The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ.
Herod was not a part of it.
By being measured in our response, I meant holy, patient, virtuous.
We saw what happened with Fr. James Martin and the same thing will happen here.
They will focus on the worst of the responses to portray themselves as victims and pull the “They don’t hate me they hate you” BS.
There should not be anything but discussion of the ideas.
The Herod that he called a fox was not the same Herod that ordered his extermination. Not sure what you mean.
Jesus sometimes gave sharp reproofs that was more than an idea when he told Peter “get thee behind me Satan”. Don’t keep Jesus out of it. “here are two swords”…moderated response: “one is enough.”
true enough, there were several generations of Herods. i use the name as a type. seems the whole family was murder incorporated across all of them
“Yet in pastoral practice we have placed [sexuality] at the very center of our structures of exclusion from the Eucharist. This should change. Yes Eminence, I agree. Put pro-abortion politicians at the very center instead.
Reading this article, I wonders if beneath the verbiage the acceptance of homosexual acts is the end game for Cdl. McElroy. I am not sure. But consider this:
“The distinction between orientation and activity cannot be the principal focus for such a pastoral embrace because it inevitably suggests dividing the L.G.B.T. community into those who refrain from sexual activity and those who do not. Rather, the dignity of every person as a child of God struggling in this world, and the loving outreach of God, must be the heart, soul, face and substance of the church’s stance and pastoral action.”
Then what becomes of the distinction between those who refrain from sexuality and those who don’t? Does it become irrelevant under the loving outreach of God? Since McElroy declares shame and outrage that heinous acts of exclusion exist, and since he sees the profound and visceral animus toward members of the L.G.B.T. communities as a demonic mystery of the human soul, why would he in his embrace of LGBT people stop short of embracing them in their totality, including their sexual actions? It might help to know what his Eminence thinks are these “heinous acts of exclusion” actually are, and what steps he thinks are necessary to counter them.
Finally the Cardinal displays incredible naivete over the issue of animus directed toward LGBT people, whose rejection of the Natural/Moral Law should have been a major concern of McElroy as well. It would seem that the cost of correct embrace of LGBT people is the overthrow of Catholic philosophy and dogma. If that is not a cause for concern, I don’t know that is.
It is important to stay within the boundaries of what the Cardinal actually said.
And not let him turn the concern of Catholics into “animus.”
This article reflects an extremely deficient view of the Church from paragraph one.
Exactly!
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in the battle.
Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the enemy.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O prince of the Heavenly Host,
by the power of God, cast into Hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
By insisting it’s not all about sex, Wordle champion McElroy makes it all about sex.
Now I know why they got rid of Fr. Pavone. I wonder what Mr McElroy will come up with next?
All Mortal Sinners are welcome to Commuion after Confession. That leaves no one out except those who do not want to repent of their sins.
Yes all mortal sinners are welcome to the Eucharist after confessing their sins. But they are obligated to avoid whatever leads them to sin. If a homosexual confesses his sins, he must change his llie style and try not to commit the sin of a homisexual
If a heterosexual confesses his sins, he must change his life style and try not to commit the sin of a heterosexual.
Of course.
And almost all people, whatever their sexuality, commit sexual sins, even if just in thought.
The difference is some try not to commit sin. Some try harder than others.
Some seek sacramental confession as they should.
Married people commit sexual sins to.
There are too many to mention.
Even if every person commits a sin, it does not make it less offensive to God.
Any sexual sin should be confessed.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20
Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price.
Therefore, glorify God in your body.
Love this passage from St. Paul! It should be taught and preached about, as often as possible.
In Romans 12:1, St. Paul urges us to “present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, this is our true worship.” And St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 6:15, “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ Himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and unite them with a harlot? Never!” And in 1 Cor. 18, St. Paul tells us to “Flee from sexual immorality!” We belong to Christ, not to ourselves. We are wholly, totally one in Christ, body and soul. We must avoid all sins that defile Christ, in body and soul. Our prelates must return to our true Catholic Faith, and teach it correctly, so that we all can hope for Salvation.
Here we have Cardinal McElroy using the phrases “heinous acts” and “profound and visceral animus” in a particularly reckless way to obfuscate and cloud the moral issues surrounding homosexual behavior and obliterate the classic distinction between person and act.To wit, excluding a practicing homosexual from certain civil or sacramental conventions such as Christian marriage is not heinous, and in fact, may sometimes be the correct moral position in order to help bring him or her back into the fold. Do you want your priest to celebrate mass while living as a practicing homosexual? Of course not. Do you think it morally justified for a married man to have side homosexual flings? Apparently, if you do, YOU (and not the homosexual) are in the wrong and have acted immorally and perhaps heinously, according to Cardinal McElroy. The truth is that at times there may be a “profound and visceral animus” against the act of homosexuality (not the person) because homosexual acts are by nature, in fact, profoundly disordered and a gross misuse of gifts of sexuality. Homosexual behavior is itself heinous to the Christian conscience. That said, people with homosexual tendencies often suffer greatly, and they are not evil, and no one in the Catholic Church teaches this. But, Cardinal McElroy apparently thinks that huge numbers of Catholics are ready to line gay people up and shoot them on the firing line (as does happen in Muslim countries). It’s a total straw man fallacy. This, my friends, is the textbook example of a merry-go-round of logical fallacies brought to you by academia. The language here is a deliberate attempt to pander to the radical gay community and place the onus of conscience not upon the sinner, but upon the morally righteous.
El Padre — You’re far too sensible. We need you to have a quiet talk with El Cardenal.
+Yes El Padre, beautifully said. You expressed what I was afraid to say but wanted to say, albeit I could not match the eloquence displayed in your post. Thank you!
Nobody is talking about the ordaining women to the diaconate thing he brought up.
I wish he had not linked all this to the synod. I will just have to bitter about that I guess.
It seems to me, as you said, pandering. Or people pleasing. As we are learning, people pleasing is lying.
He can say whatever he wants. Woman and gays will like him.
He has no power to do either thing so his opinion means no more than anyone else’s.
But he uses it to get readers for America magazine, who is ultimately responsible for putting this on the Internet where it can cause division and stress people out.
He’s not in favor of ordaining LGBT women to the diaconate.
I suppose a man already ordained could transition to female, and then she would be a female deacon or priest or bishop or even pope. Stranger things.
No because the church does not recognize transitions.
Yes it does. There are transitional deacons. They are in the church now. So all we’re talking about is expanding what transition means. The pieces for this to happen are all there.
McElroy is a de facto atheist.
The Catholic Church cannot long endure if disagreements about foundational matters of doctrine, truth, identity, worship, morality, and practice continue, especially not with such disagreements among high-ranking clergy.
We are witnessing the collapse of the Church before our eyes.
You witnessed a clickbait article on the Internet.
And I don’t think he is an atheist.
But you are right that the problem of his goes to foundational issues.
The Church will not collapse but we know that it is going to go through something like the Passion.
Remember, when Christ suffered his Passion, most of the apostles fled.
There was one, only one, who remained with Him under the Cross.
Stay with Christ.
Just wait until the Synod on Synodality comes out and they try to tell us that this is what Catholics want! Just wait…
Most Catholics won’t know and won’t care.
I am profoundly sorry for all the faithful priests in the Diocese of San Diego. The door has now been swung wide open to transsexual and cis-gendered marriages, transsexual and cis-gendered seminarians, lgbtq-ists, etc.
Meanwhile, McElroy, an effete academic, will retreat to his inner sanctum, leaving his priests in the impossible position of having to defend the faith and deal with this absurdity on a parish level. God help them.
IF any of the Francis defenders want to know why he is held in such low regard by many Faithful Catholics, look no further to elevation of this man to that of a Cardinal. They are creating a false Church they changed the liturgy, the sacraments, even the physical buildings, now they want to overturn the moral teachings. Heretics like McElory are perfect for that job. The 3 days of darkness cant come soon enough
People, Cardinal McElroy is a cardinal and a bishop — first and foremost — but he also has graduate degrees from the most prestigious schools on the planet: Stanford, Harvard and the Gregorianum. “He who hears you hears me,” is what Jesus told his apostles, of whom Cardinal McElroy is a successor, and upon whom has been conferred the fullness of Holy Orders with all its corresponding graces and charisms. He did not author his essay as “Robert McElroy”, private citizen; he authored it as Cardinal McElroy. He is part of the Church’s Magisterium, and when he speaks as bishop and cardinal, religious submission of intellect and will is owed.
You have no idea what you are talking about.
Academic degrees mean jack when they clash with the Magisterium.
No cardinal speaking by and for himself can claim “religious submission of intellect and will” from the laity.
No bishop is “the Magisterium”, unless he acts in union with the rest of the bishops and the Pope, which McElroy is not doing.
Sorry, hedonists out there: the Sixth and Ninth Commandments stand.
Ah was waiting for the defender of the corrupt hierarchy to weigh in on this “prince of apostles” desire to change the Church’s teaching on sexual morals. You can submit to liar like McElory jon, we wont. I know you will never admit that you wrong, that is your arrogance. Has ever occurred to you, as it has to many of us. that a great deal of the hierarchy simply DO NOT BELIEVE what the Church teaches. They are creating counterfeit Church
This is not a good imitation of the poster named “Jon.”
An essay in a magazine or blog is a big “nothing burger.”
It does not do anything.
He cannot ordain women to the diaconate.
He cannot change church teaching on sexuality or anything else.
I do not believe he can change the discipline of the Church, except in his diocese.
He has to cause a stir on the Internet because he does not have the power to change anything.
“ion” (jon?) has beeen profoundly lied to, tricked and deceived by the Devil. Fancy degrees and honors have absolutely nothing to do with Christianity. McElroy is a dishonest “Judas,” a deceiver, a fake, an imposter– a wolf in sheep’s clothing, whose true Master is Satan– not Christ.
“ion” is not the same poster named “Jon.”
“Jon” pointed that out in a different article,
where “ion” attempted to mimic him.
I think ion was just confused about who and what in the Church one owes submission of faith and intellect to.
and it can be really confusing.
Which is one of the reasons I think all the blogging and interviews and articles written by clergy should not be expressing their own opinions but only those things of the Church which are sure.
Unless they make it crystal clear, as with Pope Benedict’s Jesus books, that it is not from the Church. (And I really thought that should not have been done, either. I would not buy them because I knew I would get confused by it.)
“The fury of the circles opposed to me in Germany is so strong that the appearance of any word from me immediately provokes a murderous clamour on their part. I want to spare myself and Christendom this.” Pope Benedict XVI
Because Satan wants more people attending Mass?
ion, actually, the more often I read it, the more I understand and as I do background research I understand more.
I still disagree with his view of the Church as a community and I think it served no purpose to stir up more problems among those of us who read Catholic material on the Internet.
I do not have to submit to this and no one else does either.
There is nothing in this that calls for submission.
If the Church changes it’s discipline to allow those in mortal sin to take communion, it does not mean that you can’t go to confession to confess your mortal sin first or even that you should not. I do not think that will change since it is based on the Scriptures to which we do owe submission.
If he thinks women deacons are a good idea, I don’t have to agree with that. I have to accept it if the Church does it, but as of right now, the Church has not done that and that is what we owe submission to.
Has this Cardinal never read the Scriptures, the teachings of the Church or writings from the Doctors and other Saints of the Church?
This is a matter of Divine revelation and the truth about the human person. Sin is destructive to people, all people; straight, gay or otherwise.
“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
1 Corinthians 6:18-20
Is the new motto of this diocese “Minimize sexual sins, maximize social sins (for which no one is responsible)”?
Like “global warming, ” I mean “climate change.”
Or, “Forget justice, ‘social justice’ is the morality de jour.”
Maybe we’re supposed to obey all 10 Commandments.
They’re not the Ten Suggestions. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His Son as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep His commands.”
1 John 5:1-3
Everybody realizes that this is an article in America magazine, right?
The editor of America magazine is Fr. James Martin, you know that, right?
A lot of you and even Catholic news outlets are mis-reporting this.
He proposes women deacons.
He proposes admitting all the baptized to Holy Communion, without regard to marital status or sexual behavior. (He did not mention those who have aborted or killed someone, who have committed other mortal sins, but he does say “all the baptized.”
He did not try to change the teaching on sexuality. He never goes that far. He shifts before he does that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordination_of_women_and_the_Catholic_Church#:~:text=No%20woman%20under%20forty%20years,anathematised%20along%20with%20her%20spouse.
Sorry, hon: read Canon 19 from the Council of Nicea (325). “And we mean by deaconesses such as have assumed the habit, but who, since they have no imposition of hands, are to be numbered only among the laity.”
Women did not receive Holy Orders. Never have, never can, never will.
They were non-sacramentally “ordained” for a specific service to the church, not sacramentally ordained.
Not the issue.
The issue is not whether they were, but whether they can be.
The Church was supposed to be looking at it.
I oppose it but it is not my decision.
[…] Cardinal McElroy cites ‘heinous acts’ of LGBT exclusion […]
Congratulations on your record-breakingly long moniker. I didn’t know that was possible.
Your moniker is longer than your comment.
It’s a pingback.
The acts that are truly heinous are those that dominate the LGBTUQRS….whatever….syndicate
An article explaining the hierarchy of truths
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2022/02/22/understanding-the-hierarchy-of-truths/
For anyone above the maturity level of calling people names
1 Corinthians 11:27- 32 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord.
A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup.
For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.
That is why many among you are ill and infirm, and a considerable number are dying.
If we discerned ourselves, we would not be under judgment;
but since we are judged by [the] Lord, we are being disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.
https://www.catholic.com/tract/who-can-receive-communion
The 1983 Code of Canon Law indicates that the same requirement applies today. “A person who is conscious of a grave sin is not to . . . receive the body of the Lord without prior sacramental confession unless a grave reason is present and there is no opportunity of confessing; in this case the person is to be mindful of the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition, including the intention of confessing as soon as possible” (CIC 916).
The destruction of sexual morality in the Catholic Church and destruction of the family go hand-in-hand. These issues are the core of Catholic principles. Quite simply, if you can’t follow them, adherer them and “live them”, please leave The Church. I would rather see a much smaller Church filled with true believers than the current crop of drive-thru and holiday worshipers.
Faith is a journey, And it can be a challenging one at that. But, you can’t dedicate yourself to Catholic guidelines then …. find another path.
The Ten Commandments are interchangeable in being spiritual guidelines and social guidelines; i.e, they guide your inner spiritual journey and also your journey thru your family, social and civic lives.
So, each of us has to decide what we aspire to and how we want to live our lives, so pick a road and see where it leads to. I, for one, believe that God, through His Infinite Love, put me here to grow spiritually, to help others and better ways everyday and to give glory to God. It is not easy in our modern world filled with so much evil and temptation, to keep a steady hand on the wheel with all the sinful distractions abounding.
Bottom line, is we need a great Pope … now …. more than ever in helping us grow spiritually while we have a human experience.
The cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests have a huge responsibility in their vocation situation. Our priest chooses not to pay attention to all the in fighting and politics in Rome. I can’t blame him. He has his responsibility with his parish and obeys the Bishop as he should. It’s disheartening to read about the unending pettiness and of the gang of boys with Church titles that fight and argue about what is Church magesterial teaching and who should enterpret what it actually means. Everyone has his reason why it should mean this or that, however I’m of a mind to believe that there is no arguement available to discredit what it says. All of this sexual nonsense is just that . No matter how hard you try, your sex is determined at conception not after birth. The Scriptures have already eliminated any arguement there. God says no or yes. That ends that. We all have a cross some more than others. No matter what a person may be drawn to, with same sex you carry the burden of not acting on it. If you are born deaf or blind, you live with the challenge and accept it. Now those who wish to continue on the journey to Heaven must discern what is happening in their Church to be sure the priest is doing a legitimate Mass. How do our bishops react to these questions? That puts pressure on the laity. I love the Church. I pray, do adoration, pray rosaries and pray for the Church and the man made problems. The next few years will continue to weed out those who continue to try and destroy the Church. Place all in Jesus hands. I’m confident after the smoke settles there will be a better Church and world. The virtues should be the top concern. Too much pride, envy, greed, and evil among the heirarchy. Makes it hard for the common man to watch the grownups behave like laity. They behave like secular governments espicially the USA. Disgusting.
t
You are advising people to commit mortal sin.
https://www.pillarcatholic.com/cardinal-mcelroy-pope-francis-and-the-synod/
Very much worth reading.
The Pillar is becoming the best resource on the Internet.
Needed.
Your eminence, is this a heinous act to “hate the LGBT sins” ???
“Hate the sin, not the sinner” !
I have wondered why so little emphasis is put on other mortal sins on the Internet.
I also feel like people became “parent-deaf” to the Church and their parents on sexual sins.
Probably because these sins start at the time of life when peers are more important to people.
So many lives have been altered or even ruined because of not obeying the Lord on controlling sexual appetites.
Also, I never saw “animus” toward LGBTQ people until I saw some comments on this website. I saw them made fun of a lot.
I do not know why. It did coincide with a push to normalize and accept homosexuality. Maybe that is why.
Just like there was no real animus toward transgender people until it started up in schools and libraries.
Maybe it is not the sin or the people but the change in values that gets people so upset.