Monday, June 20, 2011

Boston Archdiocese decides in favor of "Gay Pride" Mass.

The Boston Archdiocese has decided to allow a "Gay Pride" Mass at St. Cecilia's Parish in South Boston.  I learned of this just this morning from Michael Brown's Spirit Daily.  Michael had published a link to The Boston Globe article informing the public that the Mass will be held on July 10th.  And then I received a comment from a parishioner of St. Cecilia's which is very revealing.  The anonymous individual wrote, "It is happening in three weeks, on July 10 and there's nothing you can do about it. Yap, write letters, wring your hands, and spew forth your anti-Christian bile all you like, it's happening and the entire parish, as well as the Archdiocese, couldn't be more pleased. It will be prayerful, as are all liturgies at St Cecilia's, there will be good music, a packed church, and good preaching. Come by if you want to see a real community that gathers to worship God in action. Of course, you won't though. So, start writing to Rome, you have less than three weeks to keep showing the world how pathetic and uncharitable you all are."


It's easy to see that love is a strong suit in this person's brand of Catholicism.  Those of us who have the sheer unmitigated gall to accept the Church's teaching regarding homosexual acts and same-sex "marriage" are deemed to be "pathetic and uncharitable" characters who are spewing "anti-Christian bile." We have been accused of "bigotry, hate and injustice" and of fostering an atmosphere of "prejudice."

It shouldn't surprise us that the Boston Archdiocese would allow a "Gay Pride" Mass.  For the Boston Archdiocese has succumbed to the leaven of infidelity.  Why a pride Mass?  Cornelius a Lapide, a brilliant Scripture scholar, has explained that, "First among the vices of Sodom is pride.  Then the satiety of bread, or rather of food, delicacies, banquets.  Third, the abundance of goods, of luxury and pleasure.  Fourth, idleness.  Fifth, lack of mercy...

Hear St. Jerome: 'Haughtiness, satiety of bread, the abundance of all things, idleness, pleasures, such were the sins of Sodom.  Because of these, they forgot God, since the continual presence of riches seemed perennial and thus there was no need of recourse to God to obtain them.'  Therefore, we first encounter pride in the sins of Sodom.  Then God chastises the proud, permitting them to fall into a great and ignominious lust, as can be deduced from Rom 1:27.." (Commentaria in Scripturam Sacram, Commentaria in Ezechielem Prophetam, Paris: Vives, 1880; Vol. 12, pp. 618-619).

Pride.  Vanity.  Saint Paul so vividly describes this process of degradation in the first chapter of the book of Romans.  He explains how pride leads to idolatry and how God abandons such people to their own passions:

"Instead, they became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless minds were darkened.  While claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for the likeness of an image of mortal man or of birds or of four-legged animals or of snakes.  Therefore, God handed them over to impurity through the lusts of their hearts for the mutual degradation of their bodies." (Romans 1: 21-24).

And what does this mutual degradation consist of?  St. Paul (or more accurately the Holy Spirit through St. Paul) explains that this mutual degradation is the practice of homosexuality: "Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another.  Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their perversity." (Romans 1: 26-27).

St. Paul notes the unfortunate consequences which result from this process of degradation: "They are filled with every form of wickedness, evil, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and spite.  They are gossips and scandal-mongers and they hate God.  They are insolent, haughty, boastful, ingenious in their wickedness, and rebellious toward their parents.  They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless." (Romans 1: 25, 28-31).

Haughty and boastful.  Qualities which jump out of the anonymous comment left at this Blog.  By allowing a "Gay Pride" Mass, the Archdiocese of Boston has given the green light to celebrate the first sin of Sodom.  The darkness continues to spread.

When I read the following words from the anonymous commenter, I had to do a double-take: "There will be good music, a packed Church, and good preaching...Come by if you want to see a real community that gathers to worship God in action."   I say this because I remember years ago a Christian woman saying the very same thing about her church, the People's Temple. 

I'm not suggesting that the people of St. Cecilia's Parish are going to drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid.  But it would certainly seem to be the case that a Catholic parish is embracing something even worse than a Jim Jones.  Pastor Jones led his congregation to a physical death in French Guyana.  But the "Gospel of Sodom," the "Gay Pride Gospel," will lead souls to final impenitence and an eternity in Hell, all under the guise of advancing something "Christian."  It was Saint Cyprian of Carthage, writing against the Greco-Roman pagan world and its vices, who said: "That Jupiter of theirs is not more supreme in dominion than in vice, inflamed with earthly love in the midst of his own thunders...now breaking forth by the help of birds to violate the purity of boys. And now put the question: Can he who looks upon such things be healthy-minded or modest? Men imitate the gods whom they adore, and to such miserable beings their crimes become their religion." (Letters 1:8).

Pray for the people of St. Cecilia's, that they will come to understand that while it is noble and Christian to affirm people, there is nothing noble or Christian in affirming others in their sins or their dissent from Church teaching.
 
Photo above is of a "Gay Pride 2011" demonstrator.

Suggested reading: Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1867, which lists the "sins that cry to Heaven for vengeance."

12 comments:

Amanda said...

The teaching of the Magisterium is referred to by a parishioner as "bile"? Things are even worse than I thought in Boston.

It seems that not only prayer is called for, but exorcism.

Anonymous said...

Confirmed on the archdiocese's website:

June 19, 2011 - Archdiocese of Boston statement regarding prayer service at St. Cecilia Parish Boston

http://www.bostoncatholic.org/Utility/News-And-Press/Content.aspx?id=20754

“The Archdiocese of Boston is committed to evangelization and to being a welcoming Church for all of God’s people. St. Cecilia’s is a wonderful example of the exceptional parishes in the Archdiocese which seek to serve the Catholic faithful with grace, dignity, respect, compassion and love and being devoted to the Gospel and Christ’s saving ministry.

The reports that the Mass, originally scheduled for June 19th, was cancelled are not accurate. Rather the Mass was postponed. As indicated in the statement of the Archdiocese on June 10, a Mass welcoming the wider community of the faithful, including gays and lesbians, will be held. The Mass has been rescheduled to Sunday, July 10th at 11am.

We respect the desire of those individuals organizing and participating in the prayer service. We know that the postponement of the June 19th Mass has been disappointing to them. Our hope and prayer is that we can come together as one community of Catholics sharing in the Lord’s divine love for each of us.”

Wendy said...

Amanda I could not agree with you more. It is demonic to celebrate homosexuality. Homosexual acts are gravely sinful and should not be treated as virtuous by the Catholic community. What is going on with the Cardinal?

Anonymous said...

Wendy and Amanda, stop clutching your pearls and untie the knots in your undergarments. This is a Mass. These are gay Catholics...men and women who, despite the cruel rhetoric of people like the pair of you, have decided to remain as active members of the Church and to participate fully in the life of the parish that welcomes them and treats them with dignity and respect. You both need to go to confession.

John Ansley said...

I'll have to attribute this to paucity of intellect: thus far not one official of the Boston Archdiocese has been able to explain what "Gay Pride" means. Is it pride in homosexual acts which are "acts of grave depravity" (Catechism, 2357), the inclination which is "objectively disordered" (Catechism, 2358) or the fact that "the sin of Sodomites" is one of the "sins that cry to heaven"? (Catechism, 1867).

Come on Cardinal Sean, provide us with the theology behind "Gay Pride." We await your reply.

Ted Loiseau said...

Anonymous, Wendy and Amanda aren't the problem. You are. It's your rhetoric which is hateful and uncharitable. Answer John Ansley's challenge if you can rather than spewing bitter hate-filled commentary.

What does "gay pride" mean?

Peter said...

Anonymous, there is the universal call to holiness, to holy chastity and purity. Anyone who self-identifies as a 'gay Catholic' is one who has rejected the holiness and chastity to which Jesus Christ has called all men and women, by renouncing everything that would offend the Divine Lord. Those who self-identify as ''gay Catholics' have renounced chastity and further insult the Lord and destroy their own souls by receiving the Holy Eucharist in a state of mortal sin.

I recommend this background reading for you:

http://www.chastitysf.com/q_nice.htm

Paul Anthony Melanson said...

Well said Peter. And those of us who accept the Church's teaching are duty bound to oppose anything which falsely wears the face of truth.

Dissent in the Church leads to polarization and destroys peace within the Church. Faithful Catholics who refuse to accept a dissenting view must resist it for the sake of restoring an authentic peace, a peace which Pope John XXIII taught: "is not completely untroubled and serene; it is active, not calm and motionless. In short, this is a peace that is ever at war. It wars with every sort of error, including that which falsely wears the face of truth; it struggles against the enticements of vice, against those enemies of the soul, of whatever description, who can weaken, blemish, or destroy our innocence or Catholic faith." (Ad Petri cathedram, AAS 51 (1959) 517, PE, 263.93).

Anonymous said...

Paul,

I hope you will allow my participation in this conversation, however I am a gay Catholic.

It seems that there are a few misconceptions about what it is to be a gay Catholic. The most obvious one I see here is that you cannot be gay and chaste; I do not have sex in any form out of holy obligation.

In fact, there are many of us who live in the Boston Arch Diocese that identify our same sex attractions as our cross to bear, and we still honor the Church's teachings in all matters.

Why would having a mass meant to convert more people to His will be out of line? I suppose one could suggest the idea of the mass was to celebrate homosexuality, but that wouldn't be true. The truth matters, right?

Stewart said...

Anonymous writes, "I suppose one could suggest the idea of the mass was to celebrate homosexuality, but that wouldn't be true. The truth matters, right?"

Apparently it doesn't mater to anonymous as he engages in outright falsehood. A "gay pride" Mass is not appropriate. It is an attempt, as Mr. Melanson has shown, to politicize the Mass and to promote an ideology. In this case, gay sex and gay "marriage."

No one at this Blog ever said, "you cannot be gay and chaste." But "gay pride" isn't about being "chaste." Witness the simulated anal sex between two men on a float during Boston's "gay pride" event.

Fr. Unni has promoted gay "marriage" and no amount of smoke and mirrors can blind us to that.

Peter said...

Anonymous, a Catholic may struggle with same-sex attractions, but seeking to live a holy life in accordance to the teachings of Christ. It is an error to identify as a 'gay Catholic'. Gay is a loaded term used for a person who embraces the gay identity and rejects chastity, hence the use of the term 'gay Catholic' - a Catholic who rejects the teachings of the Church but still claims to be Catholic. If a person struggles with SSA but is fighting the good fight, then they are a Catholic. I can't see why a faithful Catholic would insist on identifying themselves with the gay lifestyle by adopting that identifier.

The idea of a gay pride Mass is scandalous and will leads souls astray, leading them to think that one can live the homosexual lifestyle and still be a good Catholic.

''Why would having a mass meant to convert more people to His will be out of line? I suppose one could suggest the idea of the mass was to celebrate homosexuality, but that wouldn't be true. The truth matters, right?''

- The Mass is for the gay pride celebrations. That's a fact. Isn't it?

jac said...

One may dream that during the homily of that purported "Gay Mass" the preacher will address the subject of the homosexual acts, how they contravene very seriously to the natural and Divine laws, and recall the many quotes frm the Bible and the Gospel which warn us against them.
One may dream that he will recall that only a strict chaste life is allowed by the catholic religion to those who are afflicted with such trends.
Of course with the presupposition that nobody is judging nobody.
Yes one may dream ...

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