26 May 2006

Spucatum tauri: Elton John

Elton John (pictured at left in what is undoubtedly one of his favorite recreational gestures) blasted the Catholic Church recently for it stance on condom use. This according to the Irish Examiner.

Speaking at a business awards ceremony in London, the pop star and avowedly bisexual/homosexual (it matters not which one, because let's face it, there's no real moral difference there) mentioned his numerous friends who have died of AIDS.

Apparently Elton believes that condoms, rather than virtue and self control, would have saved his 60 (that's right, sixty) friends.

As egregious and utterly absurd as his assault on the Catholic Church is, still more worrisome are his associations. The picture at right says it all.

25 May 2006

Nota bene: Ben Kessler

Ben Kessler set of a firestorm of controversy when he lambasted the selfishness of modern culture in his speech during commencement at Minnesota's University of St. Thomas.

Kessler is a Roman Catholic seminarian and student at the university. You can see part of his speech here, in which he criticized the culture of selfishness. Specifically he targeted the issues of contraception, cohabitation, and some sort of mischievous food fight that took place at the university.

Having spent several years eating in college cafeterias, I can say with verity that such food often makes for better projectiles and amusement than nourishment. I see little harm in a good ol' fashioned food fight once in a while.

The real issue is Kessler's attacking a culture of selfishness, and where better to start than in academia? College students too often spend more time exploring and indulging vices than they do learning. Heaven forbid one of their own point out that fact.

The most amusing critique of Kessler's speech came from a faculty member:

"Jill Manske, a professor of biology and former director of women's studies at St. Thomas, said that she worried that non-Catholics would 'perceive a shift to the right' at the university and might not feel welcome teaching or studying there."
-"A Commencement Turns Ugly," Inside Higher Ed, 5/24/06

Translation: she's afraid some would perceive the Catholic university is making a shift towards actual Catholicism. Forgive me, but I've no sympathy for folks who attend or teach at a Catholic university yet are confounded by the Catholic values it's supposed to espouse.

Some who are inclined to agree with the substance of Kessler's speech criticize its prudence. We're not among them. Prudence is overrated, and too often is the excuse that milquetoast bishops, priests, and lay leaders use to cover their cowardice. The time for half-measures and softspeak is over.

Kessler is studying for the CATHOLIC priesthood at a CATHOLIC university, and he stood up and spoke for CATHOLIC values (notice a theme here?). Facing criticism from a sackless clergy and university leadership, Kessler apologized for offending people. The real tragedy here is his apology, not his speech. Nonetheless, Ben Kessler earns a nota bene for his commendable stand for virtue and selflessness.

Various news sources ran stories on the event.

24 May 2006

Chronicle of the Damned, part 11





Their Mission:

"The Rainbow Sash Movement is an organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender Catholics, with their families and friends, who are publicly calling the Catholic Church to conversion of heart around issues of human sexuality."

Translation:


It is an organization of very confused people who are publicly defying the teachings of the Church to which they claim allegiance. They are calling on that Church to reverse teachings and beliefs on homosexuality that pre-date Christianity itself.

Their Mission:


"Members of the movement are committed to bringing the gifts, the witness and the challenge of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people into the heart of the church. Through our public, prayerful, visible presence at the Eucharist and in the ongoing life of God's People, through our work for justice, through speaking the truth of our lives and our loving, we call the whole church to build with us a future of liberation, reconciliation and joy for all people."

Translation:


They are committed to flaunting their deviant behavior and lifestyle choice to the Church's flock by insisting that their grave sin is no sin at all. They are committed to using sacred worship as a setting to advance their own cultural agenda. Through their public defiance of Church teaching, presence at the Eucharist made visibly scandalous by wearing "rainbow sashes" as symbols of that defiance, their public encouragement of others to join their activities, and through their public dissent and advancement of moral relativism, they are calling on the Church to defy the teachings of Christ and build a "future of liberation" from Truth and the Gospel.

Their
webpage contains links to other shameful groups such as Dignity USA and the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries, and even comes with a listing of "Lesbian and Gay-Friendly Parishes."

The "Rainbow Sash Movement" is one of sundry dissent groups that openly challenges the Church's authority on matters of faith and morals, yet bizarrely insists on calling themselves Catholic. Chock another batch of souls lost to poor or nonexistent catechesis (way to go "Spirit of Vatican II"!).

Tradition, Scripture, and natural law are unequivocally clear on the immorality of homosexual acts. Yet this group of miscreants would ask us to overturn all that and embrace their twisted notion of tolerance and charity. It is a tired song, sung in every age. In the good ol' days we called it heresy, but now so many milquetoast bishops and priests refuse to confront this group and call it for what it is.

It should come as no surprise that the Rainbow Sash Movement has
another spectacle in store for Pentecost. They plan to present themselves for Holy Communion at cathedrals across the nation, and by the way they'll be wearing their rainbow sashes to make sure everyone knows what they're doing. That's rather amusing, considering they oppose bishops denying Holy Communion to various dissenters on the grounds that doing so constitutes using the sacrament to make a political/cultural statement.

Let's take a look at some quotes from Joe Murray, "U.S. Convener" (whatever the hell that is) of the Rainbow Sash Movement.


"It is our hope that you will welcome the gifts and insights we offer to the Church. If you don't accept these gifts and insights, than [sic] the Church will suffer; the Church will lack something that is very important."
-From a 2004
letter to Bishop Wilton Gregory, then president of the USCCB

"Gifts"...You mean a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature and the Christian vocation? Yeah, that's something the Church should promote. "Insights"...You mean different ways to sodomize and defile? The Church will suffer if we don't accept these gifts and insights? That's like saying a garden isn't thriving unless there are weeds growing in it.
"We wish to belong to Church, and you have to open the doors, not only physically, but in every other way so that we will have a tremendous sense of belonging. It's our Church as much as yours."
-Ibid.

It's not 'your' Church, and it's not 'my' Church, IT'S JESUS CHRISTS'S CHURCH. It's not about following my beliefs and my ways of doing things. The same applies to you. If you want play-doh religion, try the Episcopalians. If you want to belong to the Catholic Church, then obey her teachings and act in communion with her.
"January 17 through the 25 of 2005, is the week when various Catholic and Christian denominations pray for Christian Unity nationally and internationally. We are puzzled why Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender (GLBT) Catholics and Christians GLBT Churches and organizations are being excluded?"
-From a 2005 Rainbow Sash Movement
press release

You're puzzled? What !#$%& planet do you live on? This isn't exactly rocket science. You were excluded because you are an organization in open defiance of the Church, in open defiance of teachings that virtually every Christian church holds. Unity isn't about pretending that we're all in the same boat. It's about actually being united in core beliefs. Christ taught a lot of things, but he did not say that it's ok to bat for the other team.
"The Church has been well served by gay priests for centuries. Who can cast the first stone when it comes to gay priests?"
-From a 2005 Rainbow Sash Movement
press release

Umm, let me see, an independent group found that 80% of clergy sex abuse cases were situations where a priest had a sexual encounter with an adolescent/early teen boy. They're not pederasts, they're homosexual predators. Need someone to cast the first stone? Where do we sign up? I'm sure there have been some priests who served the flock well while they struggled with homosexual sickness. But the point is they struggled with it, knowing it's a grave disorder. The foul ones embraced it and led lives of scandal. That's why there's a clergy abuse crisis in the Church.

Like many of the Damned, those donning rainbow sashes will be spread throughout the Inferno. Their primary and obvious place of repose will be Circle Seven, home of sodomites. Their odious acts also merit a lower place in Circle Eight, where their fraudulent rhetoric, divisiveness, and falsification will surely be rewarded in the fire that dieth not. Rainbow Sashers will also be splattered across Circle Six, home of heretics, and Circle Two, dwelling place of those ensnared by lust. Their final resting places are far and wide, as befits their crimes against God, nature, and man.

In somma sappi che tutti fur cherci e litterati grandi e di gran fama, d'un peccato medesmo al mondo lerci. Know, in a word, that they were scholars all, great men of letters, clerks of wide renown, made filthy in the world by the same fall (Inferno, Canto 15, 106-108).