And today, it doesn't matter ...

Everything remains the same.

Respect for the earlier guidelines.

Advancement to religious vows and ordination should be barred to those who are afflicted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute serious dangers. - Source 1961 Criteria

An author at Crisis has a post contrasting the 'homosexualist' priest with the priest who may have homosexual tendencies.  Sorry - but that distinction may be difficult to ascertain these days.  Once again, an article such as this gives false hope to the homosexual man convinced he has a vocation, although he is unable to integrate his sexuality and live chastely.  

One would have to be blind not to have seen the results of ignoring the 1961 admonition I cite at the beginning of the post.  People have to wake up.  How many priests removed from ministry, how many in jail?  How many have been sponsored by bishops who shared the same tendencies?  How many candidates were given false hope and or assurances they have a vocation?  I have known men who searched for a bishop to sponsor and ordain them, convinced God told them they have a vocation.  So often we are deceived by our own opinion or the bad spiritual direction of another.

I'm reminded of something Fr. Geiger wrote several years ago, referencing private revelations, I think it works in regard to this post as well, again, I may be wrong.

[T]he autonomous personal conscience sometimes lays claim to a false discernment when it sets private revelation and presumed personal graces against the magisterium. The desire for union with God sometimes leads individuals to attach themselves to extraordinary manifestations of the “spirit,” but in such a way that weakens their attachment to the Church. Thus, Catholics continue to embrace New Age spirituality, or some dubious private revelation, or a personal insight even though they know that their conviction runs contrary to Church teaching or discipline. 

The discernment of spirits is so important today because there are many voices competing for our attention, and it is all so easy to assume that that what we hear, or even what we think and say comes from God. - Fr. Geiger

Again - I may be wrong. But just remember, "No one takes this honor upon himself but only when called by God."  Pope Francis emphasizes the need for discernment, humble discernment, and he too recommended against admitting homosexuals to seminary, saying: “if you have even the slightest doubt it's better not to let them enter."

Holy crap!  Read this!

And then comes anger ...

Fellini's Roma.

The stages of grief.

I guess there are stages.  Today I'm really pissed about the McCarrick story and the cover up.  The cover up!

How many years, how many decades have I been told, "I'm not aware of a problem of gay priests?"  "I'm not aware of gay priests in the diocese."  "It's a paedophilia problem NOT a homosexual problem!"  "He has SSA but he's not gay."  Whenever I posted on a gay priest caught doing something or arrested for his bad behavior, I'd hear from someone to take it down and have more compassion on the guy.  That's another form of cover up people.  These poor guys were told they were fine for ordination and then when the reality of celibate priesthood crushes them, they act out in strange ways.  Bishops and vocation directors lie to homosexuals and tell them they have a vocation.

The cover up.  The denial.  The hypocrisy.  The shaming of people who want to follow Catholic teaching.  The accusations of homophobia if you reject their new ways ministry of endorsing homosexual acts and marriage.  I am tired of it.

Gay ministries and those who lead them often say they would like gay priests and bishops to come out.  I wish they would too, and resign if they have anything on their record.  If they have lovers, call boys, or act out in parks or online.  Man up.  Stop lying.  Stop the cover up.

That's all.  Talk amongst yourselves.  Spare me the sermons though.

Is everybody gay?

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You traverse sea and land to make one convert, and when that happens you make him a child of Gehenna twice as much as yourselves. - Matthew 23:15

The McCarrick story doesn't bode well for 'building a bridge' ...

Unless of course people continue to ignore the facts.

Because of bishops like McCarrick, one can assume it is probably why seminary rectors and vocation directors never turned away gay candidates. Despite the fact the Holy See has always taught such men should not be admitted to seminary, something Pope Francis recently reiterated. Yet even the faithful - clergy and laity together - have pretty much made the exceptions to that rule their policy. (Three years of chaste celibacy is no guarantee - as recent cases clearly demonstrate.) People have to know that, especially former gay men who think they have a vocation, and those bishops who sponsor them. That is terribly unfair to the candidates, BTW.

The problem has always been a problem of homosexuality and NOT paedophilia. If you read prohibitions against admitting homosexuals or men troubled by temptations and falls against even solitary sins, you know the problem is not limited to paedophilia.  One must not forget that 'minor seminaries' were preparatory schools - high school boarding schools - a gay priest in charge might well be tempted to 'help a seminarian accept himself' - so to speak.

Anyway - don't tell anyone I said that.

Again, despite his good intentions, Fr. Martin's, S.J. bridge building effort maybe should be looked at a bit closer by superiors and vocation directors.  His teaching on the subject of homosexuality is what gay-friendly priests and bishops have always taught, albeit privately.  It is exactly what all the documents since 1961 have warned against when it comes to admitting homosexuals to seminary and religious life.

I'm repeating myself here, but I really want people to pay attention now that the McCarrick story is public.  The corruption in the Church because of this problem has to be worse than we can imagine.  I'm reminded of the 2013 Vanity Fair article, The Vatican's Secret Life, (Despite headlines about a powerful “gay lobby” within the Vatican, and a new Pope promising reform, the Catholic Church’s gay cardinals, monks, and other clergy inhabit a hidden nether world.) - an in depth look at the homosexual influences among clergy in Rome.  What is particularly disgusting about the story is how it remained an open secret among clergy and religious in Rome, as well as among many of those who studied in Rome.  Once again, it's front page news with the McCarrick scandal.

I'm pretty sure this is the filth and the corruption that Popes Benedict and Francis.

Do yourself a favor and read, Religiosorum institutio - Instruction on the Careful Selection And Training Of Candidates For The States Of Perfection And Sacred Orders, Pope John XXIII - 1961.  It might help people understand the decline of vocations in our day.

Have at it Catholics.

The most loving thing to do is is to share your bed with someone. - Michael Jackson

Cardinal McCarrick's in trouble.

I thought of the Michael Jackson quote only after I was told about the story - which broke today -  about Cardinal McCarrick and an alleged sexual abuse incident.  Embedded in the story are anecdotes revealing accusations that years ago the Cardinal used to have seminarians sleep with him - not for sex, but to cuddle.  As Mame would say, "now what could be more wholesome or natural than that?"  Just kidding.

Seriously, the rumors about the Cardinal's homosexuality are spreading online like wild fire.  I have heard the rumors for years and ended up disliking the gossips who repeated it to me.  Many who delight in repeating these stories are reformed gays who tried their vocation in numerous outfits which accept men with ssa and or former gays.  In such environs, gossip about gay priests, bishops, and cardinals is shared with delight and scorn - especially if they themselves have been somehow rebuffed or passed over.  I know that sounds bitchy - because it is bitchy.  Gay stuff is bitchy.  So the bitches are out slandering Cardinal McCarrick - and if the claims are all true - then it's outright detraction - to the extent those ordinary Catholics who do not follow 'court gossip' wouldn't have known about it.  Without real documentation - it seems to me these stories also verge on calumny.  I may be wrong, but there is something wrong with how eager 'devout' people are to spread scandal.

Anyway.  As everyone now knows, Cardinal Dolan announced that McCarrick is under suspension from ministry while a credible allegation that as a priest McCarrick abused a minor - a boy - is investigated.  That's SOP for credible allegations, priests have come through that untainted and resumed ministry.  It can spark other allegations - but they remain allegations and will be investigated.  Unfortunately it appears the Cardinal has had similar allegations against him by adults - 3 cases - two were apparently settled out of court.

I'm not defending McCarrick or gay priests and bishops, but I'm also not going after them the way some people online are in the process of doing.  Catholics who read Randy Engel's book, The Rite of Sodomy are intent upon exposing the dark history of homosexuals in the priesthood.  Good bye good men and all of that.  Truth be told, bishops like McCarrick is probably why no one paid attention to these rumors and books in the first place.  Because of bishops like him, one can assume it is probably why seminary rectors and vocation directors never turned away gay candidates.  Despite the fact the Holy See has always taught such men should not be admitted to seminary, something Pope Francis recently reiterated.  Yet even the faithful - clergy and laity - have pretty much made the exceptions to that rule their policy.  (Three years of chaste celibacy is no guarantee - as recent cases clearly demonstrate.) People have to know that, especially former gay men who think they have a vocation, and those bishops who sponsor them.  That is terribly unfair to the candidates, BTW.

The problem has always been a problem of homosexuality and NOT paedophilia.  Don't tell anyone I said that though.  Oh.  And the stuff Fr. Martin, S.J. is teaching is what gay-friendly priests and bishops have always taught, albeit privately.  How many times I was told to just accept myself and see Jesus in the eyes and limbs of my lovers.  Just look and see what has happened in the last 50 years.

Just saying.

Prayers for the Church and her ministers for purification and fidelity to the Gospel.

Song for this post here.

The business of slander and revenge.

One more thing on the gay-ssa-Catholic problem.

I noted Church Militant seems to have ramped up their attack on U.S. Bishops and priests insisting they are promoters of the gay/homosexualist agenda.  Many Catholics like to identify this person or that as a homosexualist.  Recently I commented that some of those who seem to accept a lot of the gay-Catholic thinking 'mystify' me.  To be sure, I don't always get it when it comes to ministry to LGBTQ persons and or groups in parishes.  But it doesn't mean I am free to accuse and slander those who minister to these groups.  I just want that to be clear.  I can't control what happens nor can I account for how priests and bishops evangelize and direct an apostolate.

My sense is that there is a sort of vendetta against priests and bishops who seem to be more sympathetic to LGBTQ concerns.  Every now and then, I like to do a post as I did yesterday, on how pervasive 'queer ideology' has become in culture, saturating film and television and pop culture.  It is what it is, right?  Therefore, is it any wonder priests and religious are looking for ways to evangelize this group of people whom God loves?

I have always said, Courage Apostolate is not for everyone.  In my opinion, it is the best and the only apostolate approved by the Catholic Church, but not everyone is interested in a sort of self-help-religious-style-confraternity, if you will.  Especially since the organization has been associated with conversion therapy, or becoming an ex-gay.  True, that is not the founding premise, but it is often discussed and it freaks some people out.  Likewise, having a life-long recovery group to be part of isn't appealing to an otherwise well-balanced, stable person who simply identifies as gay or ssa.  There are healthy, mentally stable, deeply moral people who have homosexual inclination who have successfully integrated their sexuality and found a greater purpose in life, who also have a deep spiritual life and are faithful Catholics.  Whew!  That's a long sentence!

Anyway - if and when a Catholic organization shames and slanders a priest or a bishop as a homo-heretic, stay away from that organization.  Don't engage them, don't support them.  I recently just explained why I feel this way to a friend, telling him: "The revenge business and smearing the reputations of bishops and priests always plays into the hands of the enemies of the Church."  They are doing the devil's work.  I think the devil loves it when they can be so smug about exposing lies and falsehoods for a business.  I know that because I once or twice jumped on that band-wagon, and I found that out the hard way - how self-righteous anger and zeal masquerades as virtue.  Don't get sucked into Savonarola-style fanaticism.

Just saying.

Men kissing men.

Man In the Orange Shirt...

I watched the film on PBS last night.  I had some difficulty following it because I was doing something else while it was on.  I looked away at the sex scenes because they were soft porn.  I hate that.  But at least it shows that gay sex is not just kissing and hugging and ... it is what it is.

This isn't about the film however.  Oh - I didn't like the film, BTW.  Gay films are all over television on the re-run channels this month, because it's Pride month.  They are fairly superficial comedic-love-stories with sad parts - but wholesome gay stories.  Men kissing looks normal within that context.

However.

I have noticed over the past few years that men kissing and playing around with man-crush jokes is very common on television and in film.  What's up with that?  When I was little and one of my abusers tried to kiss me I pushed him away and said, 'Boys don't kiss!'  If I had been exposed to what kids are exposed to today, I probably wouldn't have said that.

Obviously I don't get out much, but it seems to me that this whole men-kissing stuff is an attempt to normalize sexual fluidity between same sex friends.

We claim to be a country concerned about the protection of children, and look at what we show them, look what we do to them.

Man In the Orange Shirt

soft porn scene.

Happy Father's Day!

Someone needs to write a book debunking those 'queer' saints stories.

Joseph Sciambra posted an article on Catholic LGBT ministry “Out at St. Paul” in NYC.

Joe says that St. Paul's is one of Fr. James Martin's favorite churches, and he is very supportive of the LGBTQ outreach in that parish.  Joe posted artwork and quotes from the church which give a really twisted view of Jesus - not the Christ, but 'queer Jesus'. 

On June 5, 2018, the official Facebook page for the Catholic LGBT ministry “Out at St. Paul,” located at the parish of St. Paul the Apostle in New York City, posted an image created by dissident former Presbyterian minsiter, now “Independent,” David Hayward, who goes by his blogger name – NakedPastor. Hayward is an author, cartoonist and life-coach; one of the titles of his books is: “The Art of Coming Out.” Many of his cartoons feature LGBT themes, including: “Gay? He Knew Before He Did” and “Making Paradise Fabulous.” The picture from Hayward that Out at St, Paul posted the day after the Supreme Court’s “Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission” decision depicts Christ with a rainbow-halo eating a layered cake comprised of the multi-colors from the gay “Pride” flag. Along with the picture, Out at St. Paul wrote: “I believe this means that we can be Catholic and eat our gay cake, too.” In addition, on June 5, Out at St. Paul posted an article from Cherry Kittredge that also featured the same image from the NakedPastor. In her article, Kittredge wrote: 

There is even a medieval European tradition that Jesus and his Beloved Disciple John were the bridal couple at the Cana wedding feast.

Kittredge is a longtime gay rights activist who advocates for ecumenical LGBT-inclusion within Christianity. A major focus of her work has been the exploration of so-called “Queer Saints.” She is also the author of “Art That Dares: Gay Jesus, Woman Christ, and More,” a collection of mostly homoerotic themed Christian-inspired images from various artists including Franciscan iconographer and Jesuit James Martin favorite Robert Lentz as well as gay Catholic priest William Hart McNichols. - Joseph Sciambra

Someone needs to intervene here.

This treatment of the saints has been going on far too long, without few, if any acredited hagiographer stepping in to correct - or debunk - the mythology which has been invented to recast saints and Biblical figures as gay heroes.  It is absolutely anti-Christ to suggest Jesus and the Beloved Disciple were a 'couple'.  It's absurd.  The Litany of the Holy Name venerates the chastity of Jesus, "Jesus, lover of chastity, have mercy on us."  "Jesus, purity of Virgins, have mercy on us."  Today virginity is mocked and only celebrated by hedonists as an erotic thrill to 'deflower', while chastity is often redefined permissively to include some degree of self-pleasure. 

I have written about the revisionist problem many times, go here.

That said, one of the advantages of being around for a long time is that I've read just about everything that is being regurgitated today as serious studies on same-sex relationships and evidence such unions were approved and accepted by the early Church right up to Medieval times. Swallowing that, one must accept the conspiracy theory that the Church destroyed all the evidence, suppressed by the wretched hierarchy over time, just as they did away with women priests and deacons. Gay conspiracy theorists know it all - and then they write their books. When the books are published, they are immediately accepted as absolute truth while scripture and doctrine are thrown by the wayside, only to be rewritten according to the newly discovered data. These days when everyone is a philosopher and theologian, we prefer to depend upon our own scholarship and academic expertise, rather than trust what the Church teaches.  It's anti-Christ.

I think we can pretty much blame this contemporary phenomenon on one scholar.

The late Yale professor John Boswell wrote extensively claiming the Early Church somehow approved of gay unions - even blessing them. He also tried to refute most Biblical condemnations of homosexuality. His 'research, studies, and conclusions have been repeated and expanded upon by gay advocates and academics ever since Boswell published them. It continues to be taught in gay studies programs in liberal church basements and elsewhere. It resurfaces periodically, as it did in 2012 here. Rumors and falsehoods never seem to die; they soon become myth, which somehow manages to be promoted and even accepted as truth. It is happening right before our eyes these days. 

Many people have refuted this research in Catholic literature on the homosexual person, but there is nothing comprehensive compiled debunking the myths and writing updated biographies of the saints lives, with references as to how the stories have become distorted.  For instance, the idea that Sebastian was gay pretty much developed because Western artists portraying him as a handsome youth, naked or nearly naked, in suggestive poses.  

Even the 'chaste', same sex attracted Catholic entertains the idea of a gay saint, a possible committed gay couple like Ss. Bacchus and Sergius.  Even though they know it to be revisionist - they adopt the devotion, influenced by the popular myth.  How they reconcile that with their otherwise orthodoxy in faith and morals and traditional liturgy is a mystery to me.  Just as much as Fr. Martin's, S.J. proposals for new Catholic teaching on gay relationships mystifies me.  

Be that as it may, one needs not follow their lead, but I do think it would be good for some academic to write a book on the lives of the saints debunking the gay myths which have developed around their cult - as well as the bad art that has been made celebrating these false histories.  

Let this be a call for artists and writers to debunk the revisionists corruption of the lives of the saints and Biblical figures.