The following comes from a Feb. 4 story on LifeSiteNews.
A pro-family organization has launched a petition asking Cardinal Roger Mahony, infamous for covering up child sexual abuse by his clergy, to withdraw as a speaker at the upcoming Los Angeles Religious Education Congress.
The retired archbishop is invited to speak at the Catholic conference that is taking place March 22-24. The topic of his March 23 address will be “Connecting Junior High and High School Students with the Volatile Immigration Issues.”
The Ruth Institute, an inter-faith pro-family organization combatting the Sexual Revolution and clerical sex abuse, launched the petition at CitizenGo. The petition currently has over 650 signatures.
Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse, the president of the Ruth Institute, told LifeSiteNews that Mahony represents what’s wrong with the church’s handling of the abuse crisis and should not be addressing Catholic conferences, no matter how pious his topic might be.
“I don’t care if he’s teaching children the Hail Mary. The subject of his talk is not the issue. He’s a symbol of all the wrong things and he shouldn’t be there,” she said.
Morse said the petition was inspired by a combination of issues.
“The clergy sex abuse issue has been gnawing at me all summer, and then there’s Mahony’s history, and the L.A. Religious Education Congress – all coming together,” she said.
Cardinal Mahony and the L.A. Archdiocese have been embroiled in a scandal for years surrounding the cover-up of clerical sexual abuse and transfer of abusers to other locations. The archdiocese has been forced to pay out $600 million in settlements.
Morse is concerned for the effect Cardinal Mahony’s appearance at the Conference will have on survivors of clerical sexual abuse.
“People who have suffered childhood sexual abuse are triggered,” she said. “They are triggered by a person like Mahony.”
“It is so utterly clueless to give such a guy a platform,” she continued. “It’s not like this Congress has to have him. What are they even thinking?”
Morse said that the immediate inspiration, however, was Catholic writer Joseph Sciambra’s article, which was republished by LifeSiteNews, about Mahony’s appearance at the 2019 conference.
“You know, this has got to stop,” said Morse.
The scandal arising from revelations of Mahoney’s bad management when he oversaw the archdiocese led Archbishop Jose Gomez to relieve the Cardinal of all administrative and public duties in 2013. Nevertheless, the cardinal has accepted invitations to speak – and then rescinded after vociferous protest from outraged Catholics.
“We all thought Archbishop Gomez asked him not to appear publicly,” Morse said. “This has happened on two other occasions, and he didn’t appear.”
The petition asking Cardinal Mahony to withdraw from the L.A. Congress can be found here.
Archbishop Gomez is just fine with having speakers such as Fr. James Martin, Fr. Daniel Horan, Fr. Brian Massengale, Fr. Greg Boyle, and other LGBT advocates including gay married people and an ex-priest return year after year despite well-documented and publicized information that such people are saying things contrary to Catholic faith at the conference and elsewhere. So why do people think he’s going to buckle to pressure to disinvite Cardinal Mahony? Mahony’s not even the most objectionable speaker. Gomez has had years to fix the RECongress but he has done NOTHING. In fact, it has worsened and liturgical abuses have increased. Understand this: Gomez doesn’t care. If he cared, he would have fixed it. Let that sink in.
Let’s jsut be clear. The Ruth Institute’s mission is to be anti-gay.
YFC,
Please note that being anti-gay shouldn’t be confused with being anti-homosexual.
Our Lord and our God is against is anti-sin and loves greater than we can. Remember it is written to love always but not the sin. The greatest commandment is love which mean to obey all of God’s commandments which include the sin of adultery.
Thete is a difference between being gay, while at the same time refraining from gay sexual acts and keeping continent on the one hand, and actively engaging in gay sexual activity on the other.
Same sex attraction is “inherently disordered”, but the person, like anyone else with a sickness can be cured through conversion. However, knowingly acting on the disordered nature is acting with “grave depravity.
Overcoming and resisting the temption is meritorious.
I appreciate your post Hippo, and mostly I agree with it, but I think we have to understand that when the Church says that homosexual acts are disordered, it doesn’t mean that it is a sickness. That’s the secular use of the word and it isn’t applicable here. And there is exceptional evidence that “conversion” cannot make someone not-gay. Even most so called conversion therapy outfits don’t claim to take away the sexual orientation. Thanks for allowing this friendly amendment.
I think we could add that it is an undesirable condition. Why would a tendency contrary to human nature be considered desirable? So maybe not a sickness in the clinical sense, but not part of integral human nature.
Craig, I think we could add that being bald is an undersirable condition. Its contrary to mammalian nature to not be covered in fur. Where does baldness fit on your scale of disorderlieness and sickness? Maybe some people think Telly Sevalis is attractive?
Thanks. I believe that homosexuality is inhetently disordered, meaning a disordered state.of the person without actually acting on the urge.
The act, however, is “depraved” by ors very nature.
The Cathecism makes this distinction also.
I will, however, make sure, and get back to you.
PAX
YFC,
Sorry for not getting back to you sooner. The definitive Church teaching (in addition to what is contained in the Catechism) on the pastoral care of homosexual persons was elaborated upon by the then Cdl. Ratzinger in 1986 when he was head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. Here is the link to the Vatican document in its entirety:
https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html
I provided the link, because it is pretty exhaustive. Nevertheless, after reading it, there is a clear distinction made between a “disordered” state and what constitutes actual acts of “depravity.”
PAX
YFC, Let’s just be clear the entire LGBT movement (syndicate) mission is anti-Truth.
Let’s just be clear – it doesn’t matter what you think of the Ruth Institute. Fighting to remove Cardinal Mahony, in defence of victims of abuse, is noble. Good for the Ruth Institute! Shame on the LA-REC and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles for allowing a man who covered up four decades of abuse to speak to youth!
What do Morse and Ruth Institute see in Gomez’s odious Religious Education Congress that Mahoney could possibly taint?
….beat me to it…
Cardinal Mahony,
We respectively appeal to you to voluntarily step down from speaking at the ReliguEd Congress. Your speaking there deeply offends our Catholic conscious because of your past behavior of covering up priests’ immoral behavior. Do the RIGHT THING. Thank you in God’s Name and teaching.
I, too, signed the petition of the Ruth Institute. Cdl. Mahoney is no good. The Religious Ed. Congress is no good.
IS THERE A PETITION A PERSON COULD SIGN?
I THOUGH MAHONEY HAD ‘HIS WINGS CLIPPED’ AND WAS NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE PUBLIC?
OOPS!!!! READ THE ARTICLE TOO FAST AND MISSED THE PART ABOUT WHERE WE CAN SIGN A PETITION, SORRY!
Notice the subject of the Cardinal’s speech? Um, advocating for illegal aliens, and thus encouraging breaking the law, and jeopardize the Church’s tax-exempt status.
Mahoney doesn’t mind. He didn’t mind concelebrating Holy Mass with the Patriotic (Chinese-government sponsored) clergy during Saint John Paul II’s tenure as pope – though all clergy were forbidden to do so (of course, the Jesuits did it, too).
Bob, asylum seekers aren’t breaking the law, they are actually following it.
As an American citizen, I and other American citizens have to be fingerprinted whenever we work around children or even get a driver’s license. Even though I have never committed a crime, I have been fingerprinted several times. I have to show identification in many situations, yet people are allowed to come into this country who have never been fingerprinted and do as they please. It certainly makes it easier to molest of rape and flee without consequences.
“asylum seekers aren’t breaking the law”. This is true IF they are presenting themselves at the border and requesting asylum. Some however, illegally cross, and then if caught, request asylum as a defense to deportation. This defense is legal, but the initial crossing would be illegal.
Re the many other problems at the LA-REC and in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles:
One thing at a time, people. One thing at a time…
Here is the petition: https://citizengo.org/en-us/fm/168278-ask-cardinal-mahony-withdraw-participating-religious-education-congress?fbclid=IwAR0SqWfRB-zpHZOTMsbSU8kdRYZsxtMNXdAqAQE8s0rk_97D759Z11OWItY
The entire conference should be shut down. Its agenda has nothing to do with teaching the Catholic faith nor the teachings of Jesus Christ. If they want to continue it as it has been, they should be removing Catholic from its name and disallow any Mass or Sacraments to take place there.
Correction to the last line of my last post: It certainly makes it easier to molest or rape and flee without any consequences.
Here is someone who should appear at the REC to provide legitimacy:
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/mller-delivers-manifesto-on-catholic-teaching-11039
CARDINAL MULLER DOUBLES-DOWN ON TRADITIONAL AND ORTHODOX CATHOLIC TEACHING!!!!