Bishop ignores the serious problems within his diocese
This week, I would like to thank those of you who have written to Bishop Raymond Browne, the Bishop of Kerry, regarding the promotion of the LGBT agenda to the youth of his diocese. I would also like to encourage more of you to get in contact with him. Bishop Browne has responded by saying:
“Be assured that the diocese and I uphold fully the Church’s teaching on sexuality. We seek as best we can to share that teaching in the secular world that is both urban and rural Ireland today.”
Now look at the above picture that accompanies this week’s article. This picture comes from the Kerry Diocesan Youth Services Facebook page. It is from June of this year. The post is congratulating some young people for marching in Dublin’s Pride parade and encourages people to tune into a radio show that glorifies participants in the parade. The Dublin pride parade celebrates a disordered view of human sexuality which is contrary to Catholic Church teaching. The literature that accompanies the Dublin pride parade promotes erotic shows; mocks the Catholic faith in one of its adverts with a depiction of two naked men biting on an apple, and promotes organisations which encourage and condone disordered sexual relationships between people of the same sex.
When the Bishop of Kerry, Bishop Raymond Browne, assures us that both he and the Kerry Diocese “uphold fully the Church’s teaching on sexuality”, is he saying that this post on Facebook is in accordance with upholding Catholic church teaching on sexuality?
To anyone who knows what the Church teaches on human sexuality it will be clear that this Facebook post goes against Catholic Church teaching, so how can the bishop say that the diocese upholds Church teaching whilst at the same time this kind of post is permitted on the diocesan youth services Facebook page? There is a contradiction between what the bishop says on the one hand, and what happens within the diocesan youth services centre on the other.
The fact that the bishop does not admit that there are problems within his diocese regarding the LGBT issues that have been brought to his attention, and the fact that he does not seek to assure those who have contacted him that corrective action will be taken, is very worrying. Does the bishop have an incorrect understanding of Church teaching on human sexuality and church teaching on same-sex attraction? I would also ask you to pray for Bishop Browne and for any other of our bishops who may be making worldly compromises in this area of same-sex attraction.
Genuine compassion and pastoral care
In 1986, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, issued a letter to the bishops of the world on the pastoral care of homosexual persons. In these times, when those of us who seek to uphold Church teaching on this matter are often labelled as being homophobic or bigots, it will be well worth our while to quote extensively from this document. Catholics need to understand, that the promotion of the homosexual lifestyle, represents a huge attack on Catholic marriage and family life and it is dangerous for our society.
We need to be clear also, that those who suffer from same-sex attraction, need to be treated with compassion, and this genuine compassion will help them to live chaste lives if it is based on the truths of Catholic Church teaching.
We must firmly resist those, from all walks of life, who seek to impose the false ideological acceptance of homosexual behaviour on our society, and we must especially resist those who seek to foist this false ideology onto our children under the pretext of trying to prevent homophobic bullying. This is a dangerous ruse which is designed to make mortally sinful acts socially acceptable within our school age population.
The Congregation’s letter firstly looks at the Scriptural case against homosexual acts:
“In Genesis 3, we find that this truth about persons being an image of God has been obscured by original sin. There inevitably follows a loss of awareness of the covenantal character of the union these persons had with God and with each other. The human body retains its “spousal significance” but this is now clouded by sin. Thus, in Genesis 19:1-11, the deterioration due to sin continues in the story of the men of Sodom. There can be no doubt of the moral judgement made there against homosexual relations. In Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, in the course of describing the conditions necessary for belonging to the Chosen People, the author excludes from the People of God those who behave in a homosexual fashion.
Against the background of this exposition of theocratic law, an eschatological perspective is developed by St. Paul when, in I Cor 6:9, he proposes the same doctrine and lists those who behave in a homosexual fashion among those who shall not enter the Kingdom of God.
In Romans 1:18-32, still building on the moral traditions of his forebears, but in the new context of the confrontation between Christianity and the pagan society of his day, Paul uses homosexual behaviour as an example of the blindness which has overcome humankind. Instead of the original harmony between Creator and creatures, the acute distortion of idolatry has led to all kinds of moral excess. Paul is at a loss to find a clearer example of this disharmony than homosexual relations. Finally, 1 Tim. 1, in full continuity with the Biblical position, singles out those who spread wrong doctrine and in v. 10 explicitly names as sinners those who engage in homosexual acts.” (CDF Letter to Bishops October 1986).
In Romans 1, St Paul is quite explicit about the nature of the problem:
“Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonour their own bodies among themselves. Who changed the truth of God into a lie; and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error.” (Romans 1:24- 27)
There is not doubt that homosexual acts are contrary to Scripture. The congregation’s letter to the bishops then says this:
“Nevertheless, increasing numbers of people today, even within the Church, are bringing enormous pressure to bear on the Church to accept the homosexual condition as though it were not disordered and to condone homosexual activity. Those within the Church who argue in this fashion often have close ties with those with similar views outside it. These latter groups are guided by a vision opposed to the truth about the human person, which is fully disclosed in the mystery of Christ. They reflect, even if not entirely consciously, a materialistic ideology which denies the transcendent nature of the human person as well as the supernatural vocation of every individual.” (CDF Letter to Bishops October 1986 para 8)
This paragraph has particular relevance to the situation in the Kerry Diocese. The Kerry Diocesan Youth LGBT meetings are promoted by the very groups mentioned in the paragraph above. The Kerry Diocesan Youth LGBT meetings were started in 2011 in association with ‘Kerry Youth Pride’, a group that promotes and condones same-sex relationships. Here is an example of the close ties that existed within the Kerry diocese with groups who are opposed to the truth about human sexuality.
Catholic Church or ‘walking church’?
I came across an interview on radio Kerry with Dr Anne Kelliher who was interviewed this November by the Kerry diocesan director of communications, Mary Fagan. In that interview Dr Kelliher said:
“…people who come from the LGBT community have been excluded by Church statements. And I say Church statements because certainly, in the vote there in the last few years, the walking church, men and women who are very committed to God voted ‘yes’. These are our people, and certainly God is bigger than any church and that’s where I’m coming from.”
Dr Kelliher approves of the ‘yes’ vote for same-sex “marriage”, claiming that this is the true voice of the Catholic church, the ‘walking church’ as she describes it, and she was not corrected or challenged by the Kerry diocesan director of communications? The bishop’s assurances are meaningless in light of this interview which was promoting Dr Kelliher’s erroneous talks on spirituality aimed at people who have same-sex attraction.
The next two paragraphs of the Congregation’s letter on the pastoral care of homosexual persons clearly shows that the problems they identified have not gone away but have intensified in recent years:
“The Church’s ministers must ensure that homosexual persons in their care will not be misled by this point of view, so profoundly opposed to the teaching of the Church. But the risk is great and there are many who seek to create confusion regarding the Church’s position, and then to use that confusion to their own advantage.
The movement within the Church, which takes the form of pressure groups of various names and sizes, attempts to give the impression that it represents all homosexual persons who are Catholics. As a matter of fact, its membership is by and large restricted to those who either ignore the teaching of the Church or seek somehow to undermine it. It brings together under the aegis of Catholicism homosexual persons who have no intention of abandoning their homosexual behaviour. One tactic used is to protest that any and all criticism of or reservations about homosexual people, their activity and lifestyle, are simply diverse forms of unjust discrimination.” (CDF Letter to Bishops October 1986, para 8-9)
Later on this letter addresses the bishops directly on their responsibility in this area:
“We encourage the Bishops, then, to provide pastoral care in full accord with the teaching of the Church for homosexual persons of their dioceses. No authentic pastoral programme will include organisations in which homosexual persons associate with each other without clearly stating that homosexual activity is immoral. A truly pastoral approach will appreciate the need for homosexual persons to avoid the near occasions of sin.” (CDF Letter to Bishops October 1986, para 15).
Situation in Kerry must be changed
Once again, we can see that what is happening in the Kerry diocese is not in accord with Catholic teaching and therefore it must be changed. I would encourage all of you to read this letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. We will post a copy of it to our website www.lumenfidei.ie. And I would encourage all of you to write to Bishop Browne, even if you have done so already.
What you must understand, is that the homosexual advocates seek to destroy marriage, family and children, in order for them to be able to pretend that their lifestyle is normal. In his book ‘Making Gay OK’, Robert R Reilly has a chapter titled ‘sodomy and education’ where he looks at how these people seek to infiltrate primary and secondary schools:
“The infiltration of higher education by LGBT studies is well known. Less attention seems to have been paid to the effort to spread LGBT propaganda in elementary schools and secondary schools. Because of the young ages of students in kindergarten through twelfth grade, the introduction of pro- homosexual materials has required a special sensitivity from those who are trying to get away with it. They must avoid the explicit nature of the LGBT courses offered at the college level and disguise the effort in terms of something other that what it really is. Therefore, they use a stealth approach under the cover of issues such as school safety, diversity, and bullying.”
Robert R Reilly then quotes the homosexualist organisation GLSEN’s founder, Kevin Jennings, as he explained how they managed to get their programmes into the primary and secondary schools of America. This should make the hairs on the back of your head stand up, because these self-same tactics have already made huge inroads into our own Catholic schools whilst our bishops remain largely silent in the face of this huge threat to our nation’s children. So much for child safety:
“We immediately seized upon the opponent’s calling card – safety – and explained how homophobia represents a threat to students’ safety by creating a climate where violence, name-calling, health problems, and suicide are common. Titling our report “Making Schools Safe for Gay and Lesbian Youth,” we automatically threw our opponents onto the defensive and stole their best line of attack. This framing short-circuited their arguments and left them back-pedalling from day one. Finding the effective frame for your community is the key to victory. It must be linked to universal values that everyone in the community has in common.” (Kevin Jennings, March 5th 1995).
In Ireland, this campaign has infiltrated our schools and is being promoted by the same group that promote the Kerry diocesan LGBT youth meetings, a group called ‘belongto’ They run an annual week-long school campaign called ‘Stand Up’. Their campaign is a textbook example and replicates the Kevin Jennings campaign above. They state:
“Stand Up! Week tackles homophobic and transphobic bullying by increasing awareness, friendship and support for LGBT students by other students.”
This year’s campaign was officially launched by our Minister for Education, Richard Bruton, and I read of one school where the chaplain, a Catholic priest, supported the initiative.
These campaigns and these LGBT groups are used to imply that young people who ‘come out’ as ‘LGBT’ are heroes. They are encouraging young people to publicly identify themselves as LGBT so as to groom them for sexual relationships with adults of the same-sex in later life. That the Kerry diocese is involved in hosting such meetings is nothing short of tragic. That the bishop cannot see the harm he is causing to children by his inaction and support of these meetings is scandalous.
Rise up Maccabbees. It is time to come to the defence of our nation’s children from the predators who seek their destruction.
