Monday, January 29, 2018

The truth hurts, but silence is worse

Save the date: On January 31, 2018, the Catholic LGBT ministry, Out at St. Paul, located at the Paulist Fathers motherhouse of St. Paul the Apostle Parish in New York City, will host their Winter Social at the Rise gay bar in Hell’s Kitchen. The Rise bar is a well-known gay bar in Manhattan that, as reported in LifeSite News, is "best known for its weekly drag shows and the bartenders who wear nothing but a jock-strap."

Another Catholic "LGBT outreach" ministry in the Archdiocese of New York, from St. Francis of Assisi Church, also hosted their annual “Mardi Gras” party at Rise bar last year.

There are actually several gay-affirmative LGBT ministries in New York City, including St. Francis de Sales, St. Francis Xavier, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and the Church of the Blessed Sacrament.

The pastors of these parishes support these LGBT ministries' outings, but are they doing any favors to their congregation members who struggle with same-sex attraction? While the saying, “hate the sin, love the sinner” triggers eye-rolls by those who don’t want to hear it in the first place, it is, nonetheless, true, and to support actions clearly condemned in the Bible and Church teachings is a dereliction of duty on the part of clergy charged with shepherding their flocks.

In his book, “Homosexuality and the Catholic Church,” Fr. John Harvey, the founder of Courage, wrote, “A person with same-sex attraction must avoid gay bars, magazines, and Internet websites, just as a heterosexual person should not go to movies and night clubs which hold chastity in contempt.”

Does anyone think Jesus would initiate a meeting in a sordid gay bar, or suggest people go to a place where the bartenders are half naked and where debauchery is obviously taking place everywhere? I don’t think so.

We do know, however, that Jesus encountered people dealing with sins of the flesh. But He encountered them right where they were, instructing them to go and sin no more. He did not say go to a vile bar where you can be exposed to and tempted by more sin.  He led them out of, not into, their "sordid places".

As the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Robert Sarah, has said, "To omit the ‘hard sayings’ of Christ and His Church is not charity" - because, simply put, such silence endangers the salvation of souls. Will the clergy embracing these “outings” at gay bars be professing any of the Bible passages that clearly condemn homosexual activity, or will they be led by the mistaken idea that silence is the more loving path? Somehow, I don’t feel very hopeful that those who need to hear the truth the most will be hearing any part of it.

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