Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver pushed back on Cardinal Robert McElroy’s call to give Communion to homosexuals and adulterers in “objectively grave sin,” insisting that inclusion “cannot mean that we remain in our sins.”
McElroy sparked controversy with an essay last week in America Magazine explicitly rejecting “a theology of eucharistic coherence” and demanding “radical inclusion” of “LGBT persons,” including those who practice sodomy, without calling them to repentance.
Archbishop Aquila published a powerful response to the left-wing San Diego cardinal in Catholic World Report on Wednesday that detailed his reversion to Catholicism as a young man and took aim at bishops who fail to preach “the radicality of the Gospel.”
“Cardinal McElroy’s reflection paints the Church as an institution that harms due to its incapacity to welcome everyone into full participation in the life of the Church,” he observed. “According to His Eminence, the Church categorically discriminates, but did not Jesus himself put demands on his disciples which distinguished them from those who did not respond to the radical and costly call of the Gospel?”
The Denver archbishop pointed to Jesus’ encounter with the rich young man in St. Mark’s Gospel, in which He “demands radical discipleship from the young man” but allows him to refuse it. “Furthermore, Jesus lays out the cost of discipleship as denying oneself, and even family, for the sake of the Gospel (cf. Lk 9:23-26; Mt 16:24-25; Lk 14:25-27),” he noted.
“The Church recognizes that someone who lives a particular way, whether it be in willing violation of natural law or some other moral category, is not in communion with the Church,” he wrote. “This is not to condemn the person, but to recognize the truth of their situation and call their immortal soul to something greater.”
While the Eucharist is “not for the perfect,” he acknowledged, “it is for those who are in communion” and is “a sign of unity that belongs to those who are in a state of grace.”
“Yes, we are to invite and include, but not at the expense of leaving others and ourselves mired in sin that separates us from God. The laws of God are laws of a loving Father so his children may live in his joy.”
Full story at LifeSiteNews.
If you’d like to read the Archbishop’s remarks directly, they’re linked below:
https://denvercatholic.org/radical-inclusion-requires-radical-love/
As he reflects on the German Synodal Process and “inclusion” earlier this month, Archbishop Aquila acknowledges, “Cardinal McElroy and I have very different visions of the state of the Church.”
Deacon Craig, thank you for the link. I have noticed recently a creeping abnegation of people of good will, whether it’s those of us who love this wonderful country, or those who cling to the timeless truths of our beloved Catholic faith. This has manifested itself in the most hurtful way within our own Church leadership. Sadly, even our Pope has fallen into a depressive, accusatory state, and has elevated a bishop to the College of Cardinals who further heaps blame on the good people of San Diego and to people in every corner of this great country for their “culture of exclusion”, and more … and more. We are being assaulted from within our own Church by an insidious and divisive force. Is it any wonder that we are drawn to the enduring truth and light, so wonderfully expressed by Archbishop Aquila?
Thank you for posting the link to the essay.
The Archdiocese of Denver is also in the news for firing a lesbian Catholic school teacher last month. Now the lesbo is playing the victim.
Courage, Courage, Manly Courage! Thank you Bishop Aquila.
Archbishop Aquila’s article is outstanding. What a wonderful Catholic prelate we are blessed to have, with him. I was recently sickened, reading in the news, that SF Mayor London Breed is recruiting a Drag Laureate for San Francisco’s LGBTs, to plan events for them. The Drag Laureate will receive a huge amount of money in a grant, for the job. It should be illegal. Both Colorado and California suffer from the evil of the liberal-leftist plague. We must work hard, and pray hard, to get rid of this sinful and plague in our Church and society.
He calls the German Synodal Way or Path, the German Synodal Process. .
(It it not the same thing as the Synod of Synodality for people who are confused.)
I do not know what that has to do with this subject which is one of McElroy’s proposals (which he cannot implement) to open up communion to all of the baptized, whether they are in a state of grace or not.
It is not a matter of opinion.
You must be in a state of grace to receive Holy Communion.
Any Catholic who is aware of having committed a grave sin, must seek sacramental confession before approaching to receive the Eucharist.
LGBTQ people are not prevented from receiving Communion. There are no Communion police.
LGBTQ people are allowed to receive Communion, if they are in the state of grace. All homosexual activities are mortal sins and if unrepentant and unconfessed prohibits the reception of Communion.
Wrong is “Peggy”. The Church does not teach that all homosexual activities are mortal sins. Participating in a pride parade, for example, could be considered a “homosexual activity” but it is not a mortal sin. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that homosexual (genital) acts are grave matter and intrinsically disordered, but it does not teach that homosexual acts are mortal sins. The Catechism further teaches that mortal sins require three conditions: grave matter, sufficient reflection, and full consent of the will. If one of those three conditions is absent, an act is not mortally sinful. It might be venially sinful, but venial sins are not an impediment to receiving Communion. Cardinal McElroy and Pope Francis are reminding the Church that an unhealthy and prurient fixation on the sexual lives of people deemed unworthy as automatically mortally sinful is both flawed in its understanding of sin and uncharitable towards others whom we should love. Listen to the Magisterium. Listen to Christ, who counseled, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” If people would read the Catechism and listen to the Magisterium, I wouldn’t have to spend time correcting them.
ion, you have a contradiction in the following: “The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that homosexual (genital) acts are grave matter and intrinsically disordered, but it does not teach that homosexual acts are mortal sins. The Catechism further teaches that mortal sins require three conditions: grave matter, sufficient reflection, and full consent of the will.”
You call homosexual acts “grave matter” but not mortal sins. Then you cite the 3 conditions for mortal sin: grave matter, sufficient reflection, and full consent of the will. So two homosexuals engaging in sex with full willful reflection, by your own words, are engaging in mortal sin. Please clarify so others don’t have to correct you.
Splitting hairs. Sexual act is what I meant but marching in a Pride Parade is giving approval to a disorder.
Being an escort in an abortion center is showing approval of an intrinsic evil, even though she may not have had an abortion herself.
ion, you are misrepresenting the teaching of the Church.
Mortal sin requires full knowledge and complete consent. It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God’s law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice. Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart do not diminish, but rather increase, the voluntary character of a sin.
ion, the Church teaches that all grave sins must be absolved in Sacramental Confession before receiving Holy Communion.
They do not say mortal sins. Grave sins.
If you commit a grave sin, don’t play the mind game of “Is it really mortal or just venial?”
Make a resolution that you will confess at the next opportunity. That means the next confession before Sunday Mass. If you cannot get to it, call your priest and make an appointment.
In your confession, confess the ones you are most ashamed of first. Do not make any excuses for it. Just say your sin and how many times. (If you have a backlog, ask the Holy Spirit to tell you how many times-He knows.)
We are supposed to be ashamed of our sins. All of them. So just go get clean.
If you fall back into sin, go back to Confession. It will help. Knowing you are going to have to go confess that sin will help you not commit it.
ion, all sex acts outside of a Sacramental Marriage are grave sins. There are some sex acts that need to confessed even if you do them with a married partner. They are degrading and they harm the people who do them.
I’m tired of references to LGBTQ people as if they are an objective subset of human beings to whom everyone should bow.
As a protest, we should start saying that LGBT people are Liars, Gamblers, Busybodies, and Thieves. Those are sins too.
Will the alphabet people like Jimmy Martin affirm that liars who think there’s nothing wrong with lying should be accepted in Church as liars because that’s who they are? Or that Thieves who think there’s nothing wrong with stealing should be accepted in Church as thieves who don’t have to change who they are?
That’s essentially what McElroy and Jimmy Martin are arguing for about homosexuals: that they are a special class of sinners who ought to get a pass on their sins, which they don’t actually believe are sins.
Doesn’t work that way.
Indeed, in the encounter with the rich young man (cf. Mk 10:17–22), Jesus demands radical discipleship from the young man, and he lets him refuse and walk away.
That is not how the story goes. He told him to go sell his possessions.
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to [the] poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.
At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”
Errors in faith and in bad reasoning to justify ideologies have risen once again. Pope Pius X listed 65 of them back in 1907. I hear them today from clerics at all levels in the church as well as from lay people, all of whom try to justify their lives rather than to conform lives to Jesus. https://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius10/p10lamen.htm
Do they know?
I have had to call out priests numerous times and I honestly think they did not know. I actually had to correct one on polygenesis.
Catholics are taught their Communion and Confession catechism in 2nd grade. You get a review at Confirmation. Then, if you are a layperson, some in Marriage prep.
I learned from private reading.
I was in my mid-twenties when I found out (through private prayer and reading) about the Real Presence. I am sure they told us in 2nd grade but I didn’t get it.
When I was being confirmed, my sponsor asked me to pray the Hail Mary. I did not know it.
A lot of what I knew came from reading the Bible. I also read OSV and Catholic Digest. And some private revelations.
Most Catholics don’t read the Bible or the Catechism or Catholic magazines.
All know they know is what they read in the headlines.
You are 100% correct. There are far too many Catholics who do not know the Catechism and many other things that make a fully faithful Catholic. The fact that we have a Pope now who does not follow the Catechism and gets far too involved in matters that are NOT his concern makes me question the selection of him in the first place. I live in Cardinal McElroy’s diocese and I have personally clashed with him. He has his own personal agenda and the fact that he was selected to be a cardinal leads me to question Pope Francis’ motives even more.
Pray. Correct error.
However, saying that the Pope does not follow the Catechism makes me think you might need a refresher.
Watch your sources of information too.
If one of them criticizes the Pope, better to leave that one.
Catholics are easily led astray by trusting someone more than the Pope.
“I think the best way to understand demons is by analogy to intellectuals. You may deal with them; listen to their advice; imagine the consequences. But you would be a fool to actually do what you have been told by an intellectual. Note, that this is not because the intellectual is stupid. The truth is, he may actually have a higher IQ than the average, or have mastered vocabulary that will make him shine. … For that ‘smart’ characteristic is all mere display, and the more one tries to display it, the more its absence is revealed.” — David Warren in The Catholic Thing February 10, 2023
Chillingly true, Fr. Perozich.
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/248994/full-text-pope-francis-in-flight-press-conference-from-slovakia
This is the in-flight interview that Archbishop Aquila is referencing. He truncated what Pope Francis said. The meaning is the same though.