The following “open letter” to Cardinals Hollerich and Marx was written by Father Philip Bochanski, executive director of Courage International, a Catholic apostolate for those who experience same-sex attraction and are seeking to live chaste and faithful lives.
As a priest engaged for many years in pastoral ministry to people who experience same-sex attractions, I read your recent public comments about Catholic teaching on homosexual acts with serious concern.
You suggested, Cardinal Hollerich, that “the sociological-scientific foundation of” the Catholic doctrine that homosexual acts are immoral “is no longer correct,” and you called for “a fundamental revision of Church teaching” and “a change in doctrine.” You took the same stance on this issue, Cardinal Marx, and justified your position by remarking that “the Catechism is not set in stone” and that “one may also question what it says” on this important moral teaching.
Yet the paragraph of the Catechism to which you refer presents this teaching in a remarkably firm way. That is, it notes that the teaching is clearly based on Sacred Scripture and consistently taught by the tradition of the Church (2357). This invocation of Scripture and Tradition is unusual in the Catechism, but appears often when the Church explains the charism of infallibility. Its use here clearly means that this teaching, which flows from the anthropological fact of the nature of sexed human bodies, is an infallible teaching of the ordinary universal magisterium.
When each of us was preparing for ordination, like all of our brother deacons, priests and bishops, we made a public Profession of Faith and swore an Oath of Fidelity. When we took that oath, we swore in regard to such teachings that we would “hold fast to” the Church’s doctrine, “faithfully hand it on and explain it, and … avoid any teachings contrary to it.” We invoked the Holy Trinity and the holy Gospels to witness to our honesty and sincerity.
Your Eminences, I beg you, please be faithful to your oath.
With sincere respect,
Father Philip G. Bochanski
Executive Director, Courage International
The above comes from an April 6 posting in the National Catholic Register.
I’m so tired of this internal battle. If God won’t do something to fix his own church, don’t count me in for the fight for much longer. It’s bad enough we have to fight the world. But having to oppose our own prelates? If God seems not to care by keeping them in their influential positions, why should I go out of my way?
People, the above is a ridiculously laughable (or is it laughably ridiculous) comment by “tired”: “Well God if you don’t do something to fix your Church, count me out.” Talk about having a “Napoleon complex”, people. Talk about a false sense of moral indignation. Who do you think you are, “tired”? God’s judge? Ridiculously threatening God? (And guess what, some people here call me arrogant when all I do is defend the Church vigorously; now do I have to defend God too with these people?) I honestly doubt that “tired” here has “gone out of his/her way?” I mean, “tired”, you haven’t “gone out of your way” unless you die on the Cross. Ok? People, whatever faults you may justifiably see in the Church (how’s that for a novel idea), never adopt “tired’s” attitude of false and misguided moral indignation. And folks, before y’all attack me for “rudeness” and “uncharitableness,” I am actually being charitable here by calling “tired’s” comment ridiculous and laughable, rather than blasphemy which it might very well be.
jon, perhaps you are taking too seriously, the weary words of the commenter, “tired.” He sounds weary and fatigued, with a Church that has too many problems right now. Many Catholics are fatigued and exhausted, right now, with the problems of the Catholic Church– including many priests that I have talked to! They may also quote passages from the Psalms, in which the Psalmist expresses his feelings of hurt, discouragement, and exhaustion with life circumstances, and with God– asking of God, why He lets His people suffer so much! “How long, O Lord? How long?” The words of the “tired” commenter are not meant to be a serious, academically and theologically “perfect” essay. They are just words used to express emotions, feelings. You know, the Saints, too, expressed their discouragement and despair, even asking of God, why He let His people suffer so much, and why He seems to have “abandoned” them– and why He “won’t fix things.” I doubt if this weary commenter has a “Napoleon complex.” Haven’t you ever felt this way, too??
Yeah, so all you’re saying, “Ever” is that if a person is tired that person has an excuse to attack God and commit blasphemy. The saints of the Church, and neither did the Psalmist of the Old Testament, and neither did Job would not have committed blasphemy and reverence towards God Almighty. Amazing what these people say to excuse their sins. Pathetic.
I think, too, that since God has entered into a covenant with us, we have a right to expect him to be true to his promises.
Mother Theresa complained about God and to God. She’s a saint.
Life is too short to spend your precious time trying to convince a person who wants to live in gloom and doom otherwise. Give lifting that person your best shot, but don’t hang around long enough for his or her bad attitude to pull you down. Instead, surround yourself with optimistic people.
Zig Ziglar
jon, even the Saints got deeply hurt, exhausted, angry, worn out, and miserable, with terrible experiences in life, at times. And they cried out to God. Some had times of such grief and anguish, that for brief moments, they even doubted the existence of God, and thought there was nothing after death, too. They felt like God had abandoned them. Have you ever felt like that, jon? The Saints bore many torments. God is right with you, when you express your deep emotional pain, grief, hurt, anger, exhaustion, and misery, even if you say, “Why Lord, why?” And “why can’t You do something to fix things?” It is a very humbling experience, our walk with God. I know the Ukrainians must at times feel similar feelings of deep anguish, hurt, betrayal, anger, exhaustion with life, and “abandonment by God.” Bless them all. They badly need our love, prayers, and support.
The self-righteous never have such doubts and never admit to such experiences of darkness. Their self-image and public persona depend on presenting a false front.
“false”: you present a false dichotomy. Experiencing darkness is one thing; but committing blasphemy is another. The former is to experience the Cross; but the latter is sinful.
John, many, many faithful laity who give their time and their money to the church are fed up with clergy corruption. Do you expect them to just grin and bear it? I sense that the church is reaching a second breaking point. The first in our lives was the clergy sex scandal. That still has not been satisfactorily addressed after over 20 years. We still hear about priest abusers and groomers even among the recently ordained. Now we hear about top cardinals and media priests openly and flagrantly defying the church’s moral doctrines? We see clown and LGBT Masses on video. All of that is wrong, and the church does not fix it. And “tired” laments that God is too slow to act. I think he has a poetic point. Saying grin and bear it is not going to satisfy those many Catholics who are at the breaking point with church leadership and are wondering how much longer they have to endure this situation through no fault of their own and despite their efforts and sacrifices in their local parishes.
hurrah to you, grin-bear. jon is a pompous fool pretending to be part of the teaching authority of the Church. we’re all on to him now. what jon should attacking is the ever-growing practice of those who DO hold the teaching office of the Church rejecting, by sleight-of-hands, the truths which the Church has held binding for centuries. instead, he bypasses correcting them to tear down those Catholics who call then to return to the truth. and, by the way, is it an accident that most of these faith-deniers are either Jesuits, or if not, influencers of the German Church? in this particular case, the faith destroyers are BOTH. shoot at the right targets, jon.
There is never an excuse to commit blasphemy, people; no matter what’s going on in the Church or in the world. Never. That is sinful. It must be called out. Mother Teresa never committed blasphemy, regardless of the trials she went through.
And to your point, “frequently,” I am shooting at the correct targets: among them are those who’d attack and blaspheme against God Almighty for the sake of the religion called “traditionalism.” “Traditionalism” folks is a religion that is only marginally related to Catholicism, but is really verging into heresy. “Traditionalism” holds that only a certain bishop (namely Lefebvre) and only certain people (those who attend illegal chapels of the beloved SSPX and other traditionalist apostolates) are the true guardians of tradition. That’s heresy. Rather, it is the Pope with the rest of the Magisterium united with him that is the true and only guardians of tradition.
The more I consider the words of these commenters who make excuses for their blasphemy, the more appalled I am–and rightly so. I mean, the gall of these people. They justify their blasphemy because “Mother Teresa also complained”?? Really?? That’s egregiously false. “Tired” laughably threatening God Almighty is nothing similar to anything the saints have written nor said.
Whoever gave you the idea that saints were sinless? That they were somehow incapable of blasphemy. All of the saints were sinners, except for Mary. Every last one. And some blasphemed. Not justifying blasphemy and many here do blaspheme. But let’s put it in the context of a Lord who loves, who forgives, and isn’t a pretty little snowflake.
And who said that saints were sinless? Go ahead and prove your point: quote a canonized saint who published for all to read a blatant blasphemy, putting God to the test, and telling God, “Hey God, ‘non serviam’, I will not serve.”
” Talk about having a “Napoleon complex…” Jon, Tired does not have such a complex; but an all-too-familiar frustration with dissident clerics that Father Philip Bochanski probably shares as well.
Frustration does not have to lead to blasphemy and sin; it doesn’t have to lead to putting God to the test as “tired” has done.
j.o.n. – Showing compassion and kindness to another person during a possible crisis of faith is what our merciful God would want YOU to do. Pride really does come before a fall, and those same people that you belittle for their moral weaknesses would be the ones to comfort you, should you ever experience some human failings.
Please, “Silent.” There is nothing whatsoever in “tired’s” comment that evinces a “crisis of faith” nor a “moral weakness.” Nothing. What you and other commenters are doing is called “projecting”: projecting into a short and terse comment by “tired” all sorts of complexes and syndromes which may or may not be applicable to the original commentator’s real experience. Why? Because it’s a short comment. You speak of “pride.” You should address the subject of pride to commentators like “tired” who would ridiculously dare to threaten God.
Because God gifted all of us with free will.
Our differences are many, but as the saying goes, God writes straight with crooked lines.
God draws all of us to Him.
We do have the choice not to go.
We cannot always have it just like we envision it should be.
Keep Faith.
Jeff Bezos would never tolerate dissension from Amazon principles. Amazon is a powerhouse. The Church is flailing.
God should take management lessons from Mr. Bezos.
Saying “free will” is a cop-out. God gave everyone free will, but we don’t use that as an excuse to keep criminals out of jail nor bad employees on the payroll. Clerics who use their free will in ways that contradict Catholic faith need to be given the boot. The pope can use his free will to make heads roll, yet he doesn’t. He’s making a decision to accept what some cardinals are saying without disciplining or correcting them. Free will. Yeah, right. Don’t give me that line.
The Pope did correct them.
This is the main error that I see. You are not supposed to fight the world.
In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world. John 16:33
Read all of the 16th Chapter of John.
As Christians, our job is to show people how be in the world but not of the world.
God is building his Church with living stones. Stones need to be hewed.
Don’t let flawed faulty human beings come between you and God.
Human nature is fallen.
The higher you are in Christ’s Church the more the devil tempts you.
Support those you see falling with your prayer.
Here are examples of saints in the Bible — yes the Bible, God’s word — getting angry at God:
http://www.net-burst.net/god/examples.htm
Nice try “angry” but these verses from the Bible, are not blasphemous, they are not irreverent towards God, they do not put Him to the test, they are not insulting towards Him. For instance if you read carefully the words of the Psalms of lamentations, and put them in context with the rest the book, there is a poetry and a beauty in the words of the Psalms, in Lamentations, in Jeremiah, and others. The words in the Bible are clearly inspired by the Holy Spirit, and people of faith can recognize that. However (and this is a big however), there is nothing in “tired’s” words that would lead one to think that it’s inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Just wait, jon– looks like you suffer with a terrible temper and deep anger at humanity– “unloveable,” “imperfect” and “worthless.” Your turn will come, jon, someday. It’s all very human. And God loves us all, anyway.
“Just wait”: you’re wrong in your interpretation of me. I suffer from no terrible anger. You write “God loves us all anyway.” Well, yeah, but where–among the people who comment here such as you –is your love for God Almighty? Commenters here feel free to blaspheme and insult God. They love the rubrics of the TLM, they love their “traditionalism” rather than love God, it seems. And, get this, you excuse yourselves of this sin of blasphemy by saying you are trying to sound like Mother Teresa, or Jeremiah, or the saints.
jon, you will never get anywhere, with bombastic pride, and constant nasty insults, misunderstanding the motives of your fellow human beings. The doorway to Heaven is tiny, and you have to bend real low, to enter it. Big, fat Pride always blocks the tiny doorway to Heaven.
“Just wait,” that is such a funny remark. You read, what “tired” wrote up there? That’s pride, with a capital “P”. If upholding the Second Commandment is “prideful” as you seem to believe, then so be it.
jon, there is a big difference between a nasty person who has no faith in God, and goes around insulting God– and a really good religious person, who has had lots of bad things happen to them, and is upset with life, exhausted, hurt, tired, burned-out, frustrated, mad, out-of-sorts, and expresses their pain and frustration. During St. Therese, the Little Flower’s long illness of TB, she related in her autobiography, that she at times had fears that after death, there might be nothing, and no God. She was not serious– just hurting a lot, in terrible suffering, and exhausted. Abp. Fulton J. Sheen related in his autobiography, that in one of his hospital stays, after open heart surgery, near life’s end, he suddenly collapsed emotionally, had a breakdown, crying and saying he didn’t want to live any more, and also feared death– is there anything after death?? A Jesuit psychologist was called in, to try to help Abp. Sheen, and calm him down, emotionally. He was a “basket case!” Pretty soon, Abp. Sheen was feeling better. There are always those times, in the lives of believers, when everything goes wrong, and you get very upset! But it’s not forever. People of Faith need compassion and understanding, when that happens.
“People,” there’s nothing that you have written that justifies the grave sin of blasphemy. Nothing. Because of your stubbornness and hardness of heart you are finding yourself in the unenviable position of defending a grave and serious sin–that of blasphemy. Nobody envies your position.
Well, jon, good priests have always said, that it is your true intentions that count– what’s truly in your heart. Are your sins truly intended, are they repeated, habitual, do you have a character fault to work on, needing God’s help? I recall, many long years ago, in high school (in a totally different era, much nicer!) a good priest telling kids, “don’t evaluate yourself, when things are not going well, and you’re hitting low”– you won’t get an accurate sense of how you’re really doing. You need a balanced picture. Same with evaluating (judging) others– listen, and be compassionate. You always need a broad, balanced picture of things in life. I always found that kind of practical advice to be very helpful.
“A Good’s” comment up there is an endorsement of the morality of situationalism, another modernist line of thinking.
No, jon. It is an example of a good immigrant priest from a foreign country, at an immigrant parish church and school, of an era long ago– probably long before your time. He knew people, and knew how to work with them and help them. Long before Vatican II, long before TV, or the era of psychology and going to see psychologists– priests also did social work, psychology, counseling, helped families in trouble, helped kids in trouble, and worked with other agencies and authorities in the community, to help people. They were well-respected. Priests attended ball games even at public high schools, heard confessions there, talked to folks, counseled them, brought troubled souls back to the Church. This priest was a good listener, very compassionate, knew human nature, was trustworthy, always had a bit of “horse sense” good advice to offer. And had a good sense of humor, too! Very down-to-earth! He knew how to inspire people, help them with natural self-acceptance and confidence, help them to improve spiritually, and help them improve in life, generally. He is now long gone, bless him!
“A Good”: you had the opportunity to denounce blasphemy, and you didn’t. Shameful.
No, jon. Compassionate people are not “shameful.” They are good followers of Our Lord.
“No jon” is mistaken. There is nothing in “tired’s” comment that calls for our compassion. In fact, we are all subjected to whatever “internal conflict” he/she is writing about, yet not all of us are committing blasphemy.
Angry Saints–The Saints did have times when they got frustrated, hurt, discouraged, tired, depressed, exhausted, and angry with God. In the modern era, it may also be called burnout. We all have read these Biblical passages. I bet many of the poor Ukrainians feel this way. May God bless them all. They need lots of love, care, and support.
The Lord is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him. It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord
From the page you listed.
None of them are saying Non serviam like the poster that started this.
That’s a zinger if I ever saw one
“Your Eminences, I beg you, please be faithful to your oath.”
May God bless Fr. Bochanski and his fine work!
We have been with Fr.Phillip on many occasions. He is uncompromising in his commitment to the Church’s teaching and to teach the reality of same sex attraction and the healing power of the Cross. Thank you Father, for your call to the saving power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
LGBTQ is a choice. More people are choosing it now because it’s become fashionable and because they are being groomed to choose it. Satan is behind it.
No it’s actually not a choice. Did you choose to be straight?
It is a definite “choice,” to keep a good, chaste life– or to ruin your life, by committing deviant gay pervert sex acts.
As wrong as acting out on same-sex attraction is, so is blasphemy against God which you have failed to denounce.
Wow you seem to know a lot about deviant sex acts.
You can control yourself, your choices are in your hands.
What are the gene sequences that determine homosexual behavior?
I quote Ben Shapiro: “The enormous increase in minors suddenly identifying as non-gender-conforming or transgender has nothing to do with actual gender dysphoria, which is a diagnosable and rare condition, and everything to do with social contagion and Munchausen by proxy.”
Have you tried praying a Rosary novena for them?
When God makes you aware of a problem like this, it is so you can help the Church by prayer.
To you O Blessed Joseph…prayer after the Rosary. Add another Sub Tuum Praesidium. (We are already supposed to be doing one for the Church.)
Prayers to the Holy Spirit who is the infallible Guide of the Church are good, too.
I don’t want a rainbow Mass and I don’t want a Latin Mass. I just want a faithful, good Mass in a language I speak.
You want a cafeteria?
Ever Felt Like That – you are very wise.
A Disney heir just came out as trans.
I am glad to see that Fr. John F. Harvey, OSFS has a worthy heir in Fr. Philip G. Bochanski