Cardinal Estévez – “Homosexuality
Activity is Immoral”
Chile – The gay community in Chile is reacting with indignation to recent comments by 83-year-old Cardinal Jorge Medina Estévez, who led the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments from 1996 to 2002.
Habemus Papam
Reacting to Argentina’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage, the cardinal said that “the Church distinguishes the homosexual tendency and homosexual practice. If a person has a homosexual tendency it is a defect, as if one lacked an eye, a hand, a foot.” On the other hand, homosexual activity, he noted, is immoral.
“In my life as a priest, I have had [pastoral] care of many people with this problem,” he added. Some, like alcoholics, have overcome this tendency by “discipline, education, or reeducation,” he said, while others have heroically resisted this tendency for their entire lives.
Same-sex marriage, he added, “is something in opposition to the law of God, and no human law can go against the law of God. If a human law goes against the law of God, that human law does not exist.”
In a 2002 letter, Cardinal Medina Estévez, in his capacity as a Vatican prefect, had reiterated the Church’s discipline against ordaining men with homosexual inclinations.
“Ordination to the diaconate and the priesthood of homosexual men or men with homosexual tendencies is absolutely inadvisable and imprudent and, from the pastoral point of view, very risky,” he wrote. “A homosexual person, or one with a homosexual tendency is not, therefore, fit to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders.”
Please use the correct language. It is not the “gay” community. It is the homosexual community. There is nothing gay about leading a homosexual lifestyle. We must take back the language. Gay mean happy, carefree.
Done! The pro-life movement has taught you well.
I can change the title, but the article I did not write. Please excuse any future mistakes as I am sure this forgetful person will make more.
JMJ,
John
So true concerning the use of the word “gay” I have a family member who has the middle name of Gay, and I often think that calling a homosexual “gay” is an oxymoron. How can a person who is unhappy with the body and sex that God gave to him/her be “gay”? Such confussion about oneself can only be unsettling and sad.
How about the priest who raped and molested all the little boys? Were they Homosexuals, rapist or just monsters who are disguise as priest. And what would you call the Cardinal’s and priest’s who let it continue to happen?
Fidelty to chastity & celebacy is the key differance – whether a person is same sex attracted or heterosexual.
Various Protestant demoninations are ordaining noncelibate homosexual female and male bishops, priests and priestesses.
Please take a minute and count out the progressive steps that occured within a parish for a Christian to accept the “queering of the Bible”.
Children in public school are being taught that homosexual sex and bisexual desires are normal and that to deny that is “bullying” and “hate speech”.
The question for all of us Christians is whether or not we will be faithful to God when He asks us to be chaste in our respective relationships.
I have learned, that to do that, it required me to embrace the sanctity of life, the holiness of the family bond (one man-one women & their children), that there is theology that surrounds my body, and that as a single person I needed to see chastity as an integral part of my life.
News broke last week of two young same sex attracted Catholic priests in Rome who (after saying Mass in the morning) were videotaped performing homosexual sex acts and dancing bare chested in gay bars in the evening.
I viewed that news report on Youtube and was left wondering how void & blank those two priests’ relationships are with the Holy Spirit.
The lay faithful are calling them Father and asking their guidance in Confession. They read Sacred Scripture each day and people listen to these unfaithful priests’ understanding of Christ’s Word in their homilies.
Both, the unfaithful same- sex-attracted and the heterosexual priests are a deep concern for me.
I understand we are “clay vessels and human stones”.
It is a welcome relief to see the small numbers of widowed men with grown children who are becoming priests.
Fathers who are tried, tested and true examples of Christ.
Yvette – Your comment is germane of nothing. Pedophile priests have nothing to do with the topic under discussion. Straw men and red herrings such as yours are invalid.
Ted—i can see that when it comes to Yvette and many others like her, that everything that has to do with priest, they always bring up the negative, these people will never change, so just pray for them.they are on one track mind and can’t stop.
“How can a person who is unhappy with the body and sex that God gave to him/her be “gay”?”
This would imply that homosexuality is always a choice… as if all gay people are actually heterosexuals who happen to be unhappy with the gender they were born with. As the cardinal himself rightly noted, the current teachings of our Church view homsexuality (in many cases) as a condition that one is born with and not a choice each person makes. There is nothing inherently wrong or sinful in being a homosexual. A person only sins by actually engaging in homosexual activity. There are some gay people who choose to be celibate. Their abstinence however, doesn’t make them any less gay. There are also some gay people who try to avoid sinning in this way but sometimes fail…as do many heterosexual people, of course. Their failures may be sinful, but their effort not to enagage in sinful behavior should be seen as a good thing. Again, the Cardinal himself called these efforts “heroic.” The fact is that there isn’t ONE gay lifestyle any more than there is ONE single heterosexual lifestyle, and happy homosexuals (a.k.a. gay people) do in fact exist.
I generally find that people who insist on constantly labeling gay people as “homosexuals” and flatly refuse to use the term “gay” often do so as a way of passing judgement on them, condescending to them, or insulting them. So what if it’s technically correct to use that word? Why is it necessary to refuse to call someone what he or she calls him/herself and would prefer to be called by others? Technically, it would also be “correct” to refer to an African American person as a “negro,” but we all know that’s only done in a deliberate attempt to offend and/or degrade that person. When it comes to following Church doctrine, intentionally passing judgement, insulting, disrespecting, or obliquely chastising someone just for BEING gay violates both the letter and the spirit of the law. And it certainly doesn’t feel very Christlike to me. Rather than publicly assessing their level of sinfulness and trying to distance ourselves or make them feel locked-out of the Church, couldn’t we just pray for these people?