The following comes from a July 28 Church Militant article by Rodney Pelletier:
The diocese of San Jose is saying its LGBT ministry will not “elaborate” on Church teaching on “sexual morality, conscience, and personal sin,” while claiming that gay people can’t change their sexual orientation.
The document “Guidelines for the Catholic LGBT Ministry Council” bears the name of Bp. Patrick J. McGrath and is the guide by which Catholic parishes are to deal with LGBT people.
It maintains from the outset that the guidelines “do not presume any particular social or psychological analysis of sexuality in our society, except for a generally accepted premise that individuals do not choose and cannot change their sexual orientation but must understand it and integrate it into their life of faith and conscience.”
It continues, “The guidelines accept, without elaborating, the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church on sexual morality, conscience, and personal sin.”
In several locations it cautions against discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or violence against LGBT people, even accusing the Church of having made “homosexual orientation the basis for discrimination and rejection or isolation of individuals and groups.”
The document then calls for ministers to “respond without prejudice or condition to all who turn to the Church for support, counsel, reconciliation, solace or sacraments,” claiming that anybody who is baptized is entitled to the sacraments — without mention of whether a person is repentant of his sins. Instead, according to the guidelines, “the sacramental forum is above all a place of encounter,” and gays should “foster the wholesome integration of their sexuality into their human and Christian growth.”
The document makes no mention of Church teaching on homosexual acts “as acts of grave depravity,” “intrinsically disordered,” and “contrary to the natural law.”
Orthodox perhaps, but rather tepid. What happened to St. Peter’s call at Pentecost: “Leave this depraved generation”? Jesus accepted sinners, but didn’t leave them there. This isn’t what I teach my 7th graders, be sure of that.
God bless you, Tom Byrne. We need more teachers like you.
And do all you can to protect your reputation and not let any one take you down with false accusations.
In other words, the guidelines are useless while giving the appearance of providing something useful. If they are useful to anyone, they will be useful for LGBTs in continuing to obfuscate about Catholic faith.
Bishop McGrath has provided feckless leadership in San Jose.
But Bishop McGrath will be gone sometime this Fall, 2016 due to retirement. Can’t come fast enough. Our traditional parish has been prohibited from ringing the bells at the Consecration during the Mass for most of 2016. Truly sad the stafe the Catholic Church currently.
Rita G, OH OH…..have you heard the troubling news? AB. Capich (Chicago progressive) has been drafted by Pope Francis to help make appointments of Bishops in the USA? Pray that the B. McGrath won’t be replaced by someone even more troublesome. Really, get your entire church to PRAY. BTW, Why can’t the lovely bells ring at the consecration? Was it a B. McGrath order? If so, did he say why? That sounds very well, crazy.
Can you imagine in your nightmares a Bishop Jon Pedigo?
Oh my, you know about “Bp.” Jon Pedigo… PRAY to be delivered from that!..
Yes, I know that AB Cupich is in charge of appointing bishops and Yes, our parish is praying for a truly good more traditional bishop. Someone like AB Cordileone of SF, would be nice. He is not perfect (e.g., continuing problems at MHR) but has more positives than negatives. The prohibition against ringing the bells (and putting the paten under communicants) was a DIRECT ORDER from Bishop McGrath himself. He stated at a Theology on Tap meeting several months ago when asked why said that bells are a “distraction” and we should be focused on what is happening (the actual consecration) on the altar. A workaround this prohibition was devised and is used at some Masses. An altar boy incenses at the Consecration. At the same meeting,…
Rita, I have no information that Bp. McGrath is scheduled to retire this fall (2016), as you mention above (unless this is due to medical necessity: but I scan the SJ diocese newspaper and it hasn’t mentioned anythiing): he turned 71 last month and has 4 years to go until mandated retirement age. I think we are going to have him full the full remaining period; and sad to say, his replacement could be “not an improvement”.
Bishop McGrath announced at a Theolgy on Tap meeting several months ago that he would be retiring this Fall (2016). Supposedly he has medical problems.
Well, thank you for info. You can always learn something at Cal-Catholic!
Once again, I will say it: Stop being shocked by what the Novus Ordo Church says and does, Vatican II destroyed the Roman Catholic Church 50 years ago folks its gone gone gone!
Wow. “Novus Ordo Church.” Are we in sedevacantist/SSPX territory or are we? There is only one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, Janek. If you don’t believe that because you don’t want to be part of what’s going on in the Church today, then can you really call yourself Catholic? I daresay you CAN’T!
Jon, I cant speak for Janek but what I believe she is saying is this. The Catholic Church of today isn’t even what Vatican 2 documents state. Prior to this, “Pastoral Event”, the church was just fine and then march in the protestants then as do the sodomites of today changing the minds of many including from and those in the Religious life. To wear the Roman Color even some in the Vatican need to publicize world wide, and WYD would be a great place for this to happen, that people are changing the church and not the church and this needs to stop. Wolves in Sheeps clothing need to be called out by name, order and diocese. I pray for a sinod.
Any synod would initiate a death spiral. Same goes for those political conservatives calling for a Constitutional Convention. Don’t go there. As long as the liberals have the numbers, don’t hand them the reins.
You daresay a lot, jon, most of it smearing nonsense. You must really fear the awakening of the sheep.
It is not gone. There are pockets of orthodoxy which are growing, that actually follow the true teaching of VII, not how it was mis-interpreted and mis-implemented.
Sadly, the true meaning is obfuscated by the pastoral language that, by its very nature, gives rise to multiple interpretations. Vatican II was a Band-Aid which, when combined with the abrogation of the Oath Against Modernism, produced the anticipated fruit of heterodoxy.
That’s why we’re here today, Stevo.
Those with an advertised mind to “misinterpret” were right there at the council pushing for that which would allow “official” implementation of their supposed confused interpretations.
Thanks, Janek. These people rightly criticize the apostate episcopacy, but simultaneously support the NO. They fail to see the connection between the NO and the leaders it spawned.
Riiiight. So it was the sacraments of the Church that did it for McGrath, eh? You probably don’t hear how heretical you sound because you’ve been used to denigrating the Ordinary Form of the Mass. So, just to let you know Ralph, if you remove yourself from this little bubble, this little cocoon of disobedient folks enamored by their beloved SSPX, you will sound loony. I’m just being frank here.
You don’t seem to know how paranoid you sound, jon. Why are you forever bringing up the SSPX? They didn’t invent Catholic doctrine. They just teach it clearly.
Why you have such a problem with clarity is concerning.
We are obligated to obey in all matters outside of sin. And the occasion of sin demonstrated by decades of ambiguity is rotting all over. The flies are out, jon. You cannot hide the buzzing with your fetid pretense that obedience for obedience sake is pleasing to God. It isn’t.
I’m just being frank here. But frankness is what you cannot bear.
Mrs. Malley, one wonders how holy jon will reconcile his holy zeal for the destruction of the SSPX with his own well-established animosity, now that Archbp. Guido Pozzo has indicated the Vatican and Monsignor Fellay of the SSPX have agreed on the general conditions for a personal prelature of the SSPX within the Catholic Church (such as, e.g. Opus Dei):
https://sunesispress.com/2016/07/29/sspx-will-get-personal-prelature/
He will probably fly into a rage and form his own church, as Monsgr. Dale Fushek did in Diocese of Phoenix, a few years ago.
Steve Phoenix: A personal prelature is a proposal on the table, but the basic reason for the schism still exists. From the article you linked to;”It is clear that the solution of the canonical form requires the solution of the doctrinal questions.”
There you are wrong Steve Phoenix. If the status of your beloved SSPX is regularized by the Holy See, then I am all for that. What I am against is their disobedience, their attitude of contempt against the Holy See, which is being perpetuated by many disobedient poor souls who lurk in this here blog. If your beloved SSPX were to become legal because they agree to be in compliance with what the Holy See requires, THEN I AM ALL FOR THAT. It effectively ends their disobedience, and I daresay as well as the disobedience of many poor souls who inhabit this here blog. So Steve Phoenix you’re WRONG!
It will be interesting to observe, Mr. Phoenix.To be sure.
But perhaps YFC has already demonstrated the “official” reaction, that of branding that which is unprecedented as “schism” for the hoped for shock vlue.
Indeed, YFC, the doctrinal questions remain as in the requisite need to be clear that Catholic doctrine is still required teaching within the Church. Not the obfuscation that would mandate smoke and mirrors and untold tattle tale gray as the new truth.
The Church is infused with liberalism from top to bottom. An attitude, which can be traced to the Masonic designs to infiltrate the Church going back 300 years. And, yes, I’ve done the reading. You haven’t. The principle author of the NO was a Freemason. McGrath and his ilk arrived in droves as these influences became the norm. There are no bright lines, Show me a person demanding mathematical proof, I’ll show you a liberal.
See the Masonic influence in a pictorial:
https://www.realnews247.com/altar_comparison_pictorial.htm
Yes, I thought so: sympathizers of the SSPX or sedevacantists here, folks. Hey, folks, if going to their chapel is ok for you go right ahead, just be informed that their services are ILLICIT, meaning UNLAWFUL, a sign of disobedience certainly if there are other Masses you can go to, and that includes Masses in the Ordinary Form.
I know my comments are hitting the right notes because of your comments which are tangential, still accusative of the Magisterium, non-repentant. THIS IS YOUR PROBLEM: Your failure to believe that it is the Holy Father and the bishops who are THE REAL teachers and guardians of the faith. This is NOT two Churches, but ONE. Calling it Novus Ordo Church is contemptuous, un-Catholic, and most likely sinful…
You’re utterly clueless. My parish is run by the FSSP. There is one Church. Pope Leo XIII told us it was infiltrated: “Even in the holy place where the See of Blessed Peter and the Chair of Truth was set up to enlighten the whole world, they have raised the abominable throne of their impiety with the iniquitous hope that the Shepherd may be stricken and the flock scattered abroad.” From his prayer to St. Michael (1888) four years after Humanum Genus.
The Holy Father and the bishops are supposed to be teachers and guardians of the Faith, jon. That’s just it! What does one do when one discerns quite rightly that they are deviating from that cause and preaching and defending opinion, agenda, and globalism?
Indeed, there is one Church. That is why when those in authority feign that they can change that one Church into a 7 headed gila monster, well, then those who know the truth must cleave to the truth. The bad management is a time of persecution. That’s where we are, jon.
And apparently you’re on the side of beating the sheep for seeking out edible grass. The green stuff minus the pesticide that makes the grass look green but cause seizures and premature death.
The FSSP? So, they at least adhere and support ALL of the documents of the Second Vatican Council, unlike the beloved SSPX. But that’s the point, the FSSP SUPPORT Vatican II, unlike the disobedient lot here who not only castigate today’s bishops scandalously but also disavow the Council. Pitiful. Pray for the disobedient.
I am sorry to have to say this, but this document bearing the name of Bishop Patrick J McGrath is good only to use as toilet tissue, or to line the bottom of a bird cage. My first instinct was to cry for the people of San Jose, but then I became filled with righteous indignation. If you live in the Diocese of San Jose pray for your Bishop who has sold out – along with many of our Bishops – to the LGBT lies and untruths that seek to remake morality to make their depraved lifestyle appear to be morally good. I am afraid that with the recent appointments of P. Francis to the Cong. For Bishops the United States is going to see more weak, misguided, men appointed as Bishops like McGrath, McElroy, and Cupich. The message of Akita, Japan…
No longer a sin crying to heaven for vengeance.
This is infuriating especially for those trying to live faithfully ALL the church’s teachings. I’ve just returned from the 2016 Courage Conference as part of the Encourage group and must say that those living chastely are some of the holiest people I’ve ever met. They have a heavy cross to carry.
One thing they should not be teaching people is that they cannot change their orientation. They do not know that. Some claim they have and even gotten married to women and say they have never gone back to the lifestyle. Everyone is different.
Pray for them, pray for our Church! How are we actively responding? Are we reactive or proactive? Perhaps, we need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and keep proclaiming the Gospel message of salvation. There are those faithful priests within that Diocese who will continue to preach the Good News, which means what is sinful, how to avoid sin, and making sure the flock is well tended. Remember, the ship of the Church may rock, and may seem to capsize, but it will NEVER sink! God be with us!!!
Regarding my last post, I meant men who say they had been into the homosexual lifestyle, but later married women and say they never went back to their previous behavior nor desired to do so.
Readership must be down at Cal Catholic, so the editors had to throw some meat to the dogs. By creating a made up and untrue headline, they knew they could get attention. If the editors had bothered to actually read the article, they would have read, “The guidelines [of the San Jose Diocese] accept, without elaborating, the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church on sexual morality, conscience, and personal sin.” You can’t both accept the perennial teachings, and at the same be the subject of a headline stating, “San Jose diocese says gay is ok.” The two statements are so irreconcilable that any fair reader must conclude that Cal Catholic has born false witness against its neighbors, & owes them a retraction and an apology.
This statement expresses the “gay is ok” mindset:
It maintains from the outset that the guidelines “do not presume any particular social or psychological analysis of sexuality in our society, except for a generally accepted premise that individuals do not choose and cannot change their sexual orientation but must understand it and integrate it into their life of faith and conscience.”
So the article’s title is justifiable in the sense that the diocese is claiming it is okay to be gay while not ok to act gay.
The diocese’s “generally accepted” anthropological premise is flawed, however. Gay is not ok.
Wrong. IT never says gay is ok, and what it said about sexual oreintation not being chosen is absolutely correct and in keeping with church teaching.
The activity is objectively gravely sinful whether or not its genus is “chosen.” The problem with the article, is that there is no mention of the grave moral dangers. Under Rule 10b-5 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the article omits to state a fact necessary to make the statements made, not misleading. Too bad this wasn’t a securities offering, the investors could sue the diocese out of existence.
YFC, to claim that a homosexual tendency must be “integrated” into a life of faith and conscience is to strongly imply that gay is okay. A disordered tendency cannot be integrated into an ordered life because you cannot integrate disorder into order. You should dry to rectify the disorder; if that is not possible, at best you can suffer with the disorder. To claim that homosexuality can be integrated into faith is to say that it is okay to be gay rather than to say that homosexuality is a disordered tendency that is not okay.
The Church does not teach that sexual orientation isn’t chosen. It doesn’t speak about sexual orientation at all: it speaks about human sexuality, which has only one orientation. Anything apart from that…
“You cannot integrate disorder into order.” That comment by Sawyer hints still at a faulty understanding of the Church’s use of the phrase “intrinsically disordered.” Folks, by calling the homosexual act and inclination “disordered,” the Church is judging that they do not lead to—are not “ordered to”, are not “oriented towards”— the goods of marriage which are procreation and the loving union between husband and wife. The word “disordered” therefore is NOT a clinical psychiatric nor a psychological diagnosis, but rather is a moral and philosophical judgment by the Church. As I have written before, the Church has NO competence in the clinical sciences and therefore cannot mean that phrase to be used in a clinical…
way, psychiatrically nor psychologically. Stop distorting the way the Church uses this word; stop misusing the word by utilizing it almost as a derisive put-down, because that is not how the Church is truthfully using the word. Stop using the word irresponsibly and wrongly!
Frequent readers know I gave up on the jontificator.
“You cannot integrate disorder into order” is philosophically true.
“You cannot integrate homosexuality into human sexuality” is also true, and is a specific case of the more general principle above.
“You cannot integrate homosexuality into Catholic faith” is also true. Homosexuality is part of fallen human nature, which cannot be integrated with new creation in Christ.
That will be my last word on the topic.
YFC, in 2005 the Diocese of San Jose hosted the 12 Annual National Association of ”Catholic” Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries. Patrick McGrath gave the opening welcome session. The first workshop was titled “Are You a Good Witch or a Bad Witch?” X-rated gay pornography was sold and promoted at exhibits during the conference. The following statement is completely bogus: “The guidelines [of the San Jose Diocese] accept, without elaborating, the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church on sexual morality, conscience, and personal sin.” This conference was all about promoting the gay lifestyle under the auspices of the San Jose Dioceses.
Bow wow, arf, arf, woof, woof. Dogs are man’s best friend.
My last reply was in answer to YFC’s post July 30 at 11:15 am.
What’s amazing to me is that homosexuality is so obviously wrong and sinful, yet Bishops are telling us it’s ok? Anyone with half a brain knows this, even young kids instinctively know it is wrong. What the he#l is going on!!!!
Those who seek pleasure over the teachings of the Church and ignore the examples from the Holy Bible will end up in hell regardless of the opinion of the Bishop and those who support sex perverts.
There is gonna be a lot of explaining to do on judgement day. Those souls (bishops, priests, lax parents/family etc…..) misdirecting other poor souls when they should be helping lead them out of the depths of SSA. Them poor souls that follow the misdirection because it is what they may prefer to hear. (Like in don’t bite the apple.) Who will you blame? The bishop said! (Or Eve?) Does not work with God who knows everything. Nothing is worth losing your lovely immortal soul listening to anybody that doesn’t recommend a disciplined chaste life. PS We are all called to a disciplined, chaste life. God’s rule rocks. Rebellion, not good. Be smarter than that & look forward to a lovely ETERNITY.
Remember the current ARGENTINE that sits in Rome is only making this more possible each and every day.
Janek: You most likely are not aware of Canon 1373 which prohibits inciting animosity and hatred against the Holy See and bishops which would include the Holy Father? So, I encourage you to read that Canon. I am sure it will do a lot of good for your mental health because I heard that the Devil is very legalistic, so if you read that Canon, he might flee and you get peace and thereby stop denigrating the anointed Bishop of Rome? Maybe I should print the Canon here for your convenience? Good idea:
“A person who publicly incites among subjects animosities or hatred against the Apostolic See or an ordinary because of some act of power or ecclesiastical ministry or provokes subjects to disobey them is to be punished by an interdict…
or other just penalties.”
Fr. Z has a great article on his website. I recommend it. It is called “Sedevacantism is the other side of the coin of ultrapapalism”.
Once again, jon the mullah, aka jon the pious, twists Catholic Canon Law and attempts to impose his own fatwa on those who dare to self-expression and fact-based criticism of Catholic leadership.
Claiming an absolute exemption for episcopal and papal leadership, he tries to silence free speech and especially anyone who disagrees with him, because he cannot argue the facts, as he has shown several times (ex. claiming to Sawyer that the Catholic Church has prohibited the death penalty, or being caught in a massive prevarication about a Novus Ordo US vocations “BOOM” (he likes to capitalize things)—when CARA Georgetown recently showed a 4% decline in 2015-2016 major seminarian numbers (May, 2015 report). All fatwa, no facts,…
Methinks Campion that you perhaps are in a state of disbelief if not shock at the realization that the Church does call us to unity in under the guidance of the Magisterium, the Pope and the bishops. This heresy of “americanism” so pervasive in the commentariat here should be called out. The Church Campion is a not a mere social club from which you can pick-and-choose what to believe. No, it is unity, complete unity, that the God is calling forth from the Church, staying close to the shepherds who represents Christ.
“…It is unity, complete unity, that the God is calling forth from the Church..” —according to jon the pious pontificator’s understanding, being a pious mullah, and if one doesn’t conform with his of course perfect understanding, a fatal fatwa on you!
Utter ignorance, by the way, of jon the pious on display: “americanism”, the heresy, is (def.) “the denial of the influence of the Church’s social doctrine in the civil domain”: it is not as jon mistakenly thinks to insist, as I do and as the Catholic Church does, on the right of Catholics to free speech, free exchange of ideas, and to self-expression—And that is because jon is a dictatorial authoritarian who longs for the power to punitively impose his twisted beliefs on others.
Bingo. The heresy of americanism comprises of several related beliefs one of which is the thinking that YOU can hold social beliefs contrary to the Church. And behold, you condemn yourself, based on the definition you present here.
Catholic Relief Services Employees Stand With Planned Parenthood
Contact: Michael Hichborn (540.847.5501)
https://www.lepantoinstitute.org/catholic-relief-services/catholic-relief-services-employees-stand-with-planned-parenthood/
A new report by the Lepanto Institute reveals more internal corruption at Catholic Relief Services (CRS). The report shows images of CRS employees expressing support for Planned Parenthood, the worlds largest abortion chain.
CRS’s Program Quality & Business Development coordinator in Mali, Jessica Garrels, stated that she “stands with Planned Parenthood” on Facebook, and was supported in this statement by at least three other CRS employees. This was one of several public statements supporting Planned…
That this is developing openly now—namely that anyone who even criticizes the homosexual lifestyle will be censured, removed from any position, and punished in San Jose diocese—for some time. One must be very careful.
Back in 2009 (mentioned then in CCD) our own dear Fr. Jon Pedigo commented freely, “according to a cover story in the Silicon Valley alternative weekly MetroActive published in November 2009, “Secretly, San Jose is the most gay-friendly diocese in the nation.”
“In a lengthy interview that was part of the MetroActive story, Fr. Pedigo said, “I believe that as the upper echelons of ecclesial power worry themselves with the window dressings of Christian tradition and thus fade into irrelevance, there will be a…
… a renaissance of a more ‘radical’ or ‘root’ Christian faith.”
https://catholic-caveman.blogspot.com/2010/04/today-miami.html
There are active, openly same-sex “married” teachers at the San Jose Diocese high school, Archbishop Mitty, even in campus ministry. When my friends’ kids attended school there the religion teachers openly endorsed same-sex “marriage”, and the administration retaliated against those who supported the Church’s true doctrine. Probably still that way. The school has a secret gay club listed publicly under the code name “Shepherd”. Guess what kind of person moderates that club.
Yes, the Diocese of San Jose is very gay friendly.
Gay-sex scandal hits Irish seminary | News , World | THE DAILY STAR
“It is believed whistleblowers are reluctant to come forward because others have been expelled for making such allegations.”
https://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/World/2016/Aug-02/365220-gay-sex-scandal-hits-irish-seminary.ashx
“It is better that scandals arise than the truth be suppressed.” – Pope St. Gregory the Great
“But, when necessity compels, not those only who are invested with power of rule are bound to safeguard the integrity of faith, but, as St. Thomas maintains: ‘Each one is under obligation to show forth his faith, either to instruct and encourage others of the faithful, or to repel the attacks of unbelievers.’” – Pope Leo XIII
“The idea of putting Magisterial teaching in a beautiful display case while separating it from pastoral practice, which then could evolve along with circumstances, fashions, and passions, is a sort of heresy, a dangerous schizophrenic pathology. I therefore solemnly state that the Church in Africa is staunchly opposed to any rebellion against the teaching of Jesus and of the Magisterium. . . . The Church of Africa is committed in the name of the Lord Jesus to keeping unchanged the teaching of God and of the Church.”
― Cardinal Robert Sarah, God or Nothing
“God is still calling as many men as in the past; it is the men whose hearing is not what it used to be.”
―
Cardinal Robert Sarah, God or Nothing
This diocesan position is counter to ancient/traditional Roman Catholic Church teaching, in other words it is heresy! How much more are you willing to endure? When will you draw a line in the sand and say enough is enough? I have and prayed about it. I have found a true Roman Catholic Parish practicing traditional ways, the TLM and 7 Holy Sacraments in Latin. I will never go back on Holy Mother the Church as a novus ordoan again!