Los Angeles: Lesbian-gay ministry celebrates 20th anniversary in archdiocese

Lesbian-gay ministry celebrates 20th anniversary in archdiocese

The L.A. archdiocese is certainly "gay" friendly.

Cardinal Roger Mahony Welcomes the Rainbow Sash Movement:

Joe Murray the US Convener of the Rainbow Sash Movement was contacted by Tod M. Tamberg, Director of Media Relations, Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The following is that communication:

"May 13, 2005

Dear Joe,

Just a note to say that, as in the past, members of the Rainbow Sash Movement who come to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels this Sunday will be most welcome to attend any of our Masses. Over the years, Cardinal Roger Mahony has consistently spoken to the faithful in Los Angeles about being respectful and inclusive of our Catholic brothers and sisters who are gay and lesbian. All of us struggle to be better Christians, but I think a good number of our parishes in the archdiocese are places where people feel welcome and included, regardless of their sexual orientation.

Tod M. Tamberg
Director of Media Relations
Archdiocese of Los Angeles."

Homosexual Friendly Archdiocese:

In 1993, the Cardinal helped to fund and produce the video A Journey for Understanding Gays and Lesbians in the Church. The video affirmed that there was nothing wrong with any “gay” or lesbian person whatsoever, that “being gay was a blessing and a gift,” and had “something prophetic toward remodeling the Church”.

(Source unknown) In 1996, the L.A. Archdiocese celebrated a Mass for its “lesbian and gay Catholics” during “Gay and Lesbian Pride Week” in West Hollywood, and sponsored a booth at its “Pride Festival.”

In 1997, Cardinal Mahony himself said the Mass and delivered the homily for The National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries at its annual convention in Long Beach.

The same open tolerance for homosexuality prevailed at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, where seminarians spend the first four of their seven years of priestly training. A Newsweek article (May 20, 2002) reported 30-70 percent of the seminarians at St. John’s were “gay and bisexual.”

In an April 27, 2002 interview on Fox News (10), Mahony boasted about the warm and wonderful relationship of the Archdiocese with its “very large gay, lesbian community.” He also affirmed that homosexuals should be allowed to be ordained priests, that a homosexual or heterosexual inclination was irrelevant so long as the person was able to commit himself to a lifelong life of celibacy.

Cardinal Mahony Welcomes the Rainbow Sash Movement to Communion:

(PRNewswire, 26 May 2004) The Rainbow Sash Movement (RSM) is deeply saddened by the response of Francis Cardinal George to the presence of gay and lesbian Catholics at the Cathedral for Pentecost Sunday, May 30, 2004 at 12:30PM. In wearing the Rainbow Sash we call Cardinal George to honor our experience, we continue to call on him to honor his commitment to Rainbow Sash Movement for ongoing public dialogue, and to work with us for justice and understanding.

Cardinal Mahony of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has notified the Rainbow Sash Movement that his Cathedral will welcome Rainbow Sash Members as part of the Catholic Family to his Cathedral, and when RSM members present themselves for Communion they will receive It.

It saddens us to have to say Cardinal George no more understands us, than he does the gay and lesbian Catholic Community, as is exampled by his letter to all his pastors to promote Discrimination of Gay and Lesbian Catholics at the Eucharistic table. To instruct his parish pastors to judge people at the alter rail, and deny them Communion lacks pastoral awareness, as is emphasized by the Church's Teaching on the "Primacy of Conscience." Going to church and receiving Communion is a personal act of faith and we don't think it is good judgment to turn it into a tool of confrontation at the altar rail.

Cardinals George and Mahony both support the Teaching of the Catholic Church, however, one promotes discrimination at the Eucharistic table, and the other does not.

The Rainbow Sash Movement will be entering Churches and Cathedrals around the country on Pentecost as a sign of the universality of the Church. This universality includes gays and lesbians, and gay and lesbian families. We thank Cardinal Mahony for welcoming us.

So is all this good? What do you think?

Comments

[Denver Catholic]

What will it take for the Vatican to act against the heterodoxy, syncretism and outright heresy of Mahoney?

Forget the smoke of Satan! the sanctuary's on fire! Complacency is collusion with Satan. Catholics, stop supporting this evil! Get on your knees and pray as never before, then stand up, proclaim the Truth of Jesus Christ, and claim our Church!

[Friend of Fatima]

Diabolical Disorientation from Los Angeles, to Orange County, and across the whole nation. Pray the Rosary!

[Anne]

I can tell you from personal experience that gay activists protest Cardinal George's house from time to time and they are nasty. They are interested in public dialogue - the obnoxious kind. This is what I love: "In wearing the Rainbow Sash we call Cardinal George to honor our experience . . ."
Let's be honest, they want Cardinal George to honor gay sex. Hell is going to have a ski resort before that happens.
And as far as the Church's Teaching on the "Primacy of Conscience" goes you have to properly form you conscience - you don't get to believe whatever you want, make stuff up as you go along, say you’re following your 'conscience' and then accuse others of being bigots because they don't go along with your sin against nature.
Can’t they just go to another church and leave us alone? Is it wrong of me to think that?

[joseph]

A true Christian is one who first strives
for personal holiness, then labors in that
holiness to love his/her neighbor. Personal
holiness necessarily includes chastity for
all believers, married or single. Sodomy and
chastity have always been, and always will
be patently contradictory terms in the eyes of
His Church. Any bishop who doesn't love the
soul of his homosexual neighbors enough to
openly call them to genuine personal holiness will answer to Almighty God for each and every poor soul he has misled by his perversion of Truth, or silence
in the face of peer pressure. Would it be too caustic to call them 'brokeback bishops'?

[Nathan Hicks]

Communion is not a private thing, it's a communal thing. Liberal Catholics...

[john chrysostom]

Reception of Holy Communion signifies:

1) belief in the Real Presence of Jesus, body, blood, soul, and divinity in the Holy Eucharist

2) union with the Church, including submission of mind and heart with all of the Church's teachings on matters of faith and morals (i.e., communion with the community) and especially that a person's conscience is primarily formed by what the Church teaches

3) that the communicant is not conscious of unconfessed/unabsolved mortal sin

Rainbow Sash wearers oppose Church teaching on homosexuality (among other things). They are at odds with the community.

They are also at odds with Sacred Scripture, which is the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

So they are at odds with God, the Church, and faithful Catholics.

Such people should never approach the Blessed Sacrament; especially if they are living in unrepentant mortal sin.

In the early Church, such people would have been expelled from the congregation before the Eucharistic prayers began.

[sosthenes]

Derdego forte laures is auro.
Demisnot laures, demis trux.
Fulav causan an hensan dux.

[Denver Catholic]

Sosthenes, is that the University of Texas Latin 101 final exam? I always heard it this way:

O Civili, Si Ergo.
Fortibus Es In Ero.
O Novili, Doser Nobus, Doser Trux.
Vadis Inem, Causen Dux.

Oh see Willy, see her go
40 busses in a row
Oh no Billy, those are no bus those are trucks
What is in them?cows and ducks