Loving in the Truth at St. Cecilia's - What Would Jesus Do?

If you go to the Mass today, please, be wise and gentle.

All who come to an event that is pitched as an open invitation from the Church are bruised reeds. Above all else, our desire is to bring them to conversion.

It is true that some will come to make this some kind of territorial and cultural victory over the Deposit of Faith. But God can even use our stupid ideas to see if He can get us on the hook. He has the ability to soften the hardest of hearts.

I am living proof.

We don't want to engage in any battle in the cultural war waged by anyone, because souls rebelling are so far from a state of Grace, clonking them on the head on way into the door could cause them to rebel further - and perhaps they will never approach the Deposit of Faith.

The goal is to drive out the false teaching and bring in Courage. There is a time and place to continue with these goals. The people coming to Church today, they are not the parties that will help us achieve this goal. That battle is at 66 Brooks Drive and the Holy See.

Let's welcome, pray and see if Unni has been kicked onto the right trajectory. If he is not, we pick up that battle tomorrow.

These are my thoughts, for what they are worth.

As promised, here's the link to Fr. Landry's theological follow-up on the dung Fr. Unni is feeding the flock at St. Cecilia's. It is magnificent.

Last week we began a look at the controversy at St. Cecilia’s Church in Boston over the scheduling of a Mass originally advertised to celebrate “gay pride” and then after criticism postponed and relabeled to a “welcoming Mass,” which while perhaps no longer explicitly extolling gay pride still seems poised to give no-questions-asked hospitality to those who believe that gay pride should be glorified, including within the context of a Catholic Mass.

We noted that the controversy raises several concerns that extend beyond a particular parish or archdiocese with regard to the authentic pastoral care the Church owes those immersed in a gay lifestyle or in any lifestyle that exalts practices that are incompatible with the Gospel. The only adequate Christian response to anyone is love, but this love can never remain a shallow hospitality that fails to help the person recognize and respond to the rather conspicuous ways Christ is challenging him to turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel. Particularly with those ensconced in a gay lifestyle — which is a way of life built on regarding several basic truths of anthropology, sexual morality, marriage, Scriptural inspiration, and magisterial authority as antiquated and repressive “hang-ups” from which people need to be liberated — the Church’s charity must always be bound to the compassionate, clear and compelling presentation of the fullness of the truth that alone can set them free (Jn 8:32). The stakes of the Church’s failure to carry out this service to the truth are huge, not only for those presently involved in a gay lifestyle, but also for the conscience formation of all in the Church and society....

With that in mind, we will examine three common falsehoods that have come to the surface in the St. Cecilia’s controversy to which the Church must respond with the truth.

Read his brilliant examination and thesis.

It is a masterpiece on answering the question "What would Jesus do".

Not to undermine the theology, so lovingly and gracefully delivered, I wanted, especially for today, to point out the following:

The third falsehood relates to the common calumny that any opposition to the gay agenda, or any criticism of a “gay pride Mass,” comes exclusively from “homophobia” or “hatred” for those with same-sex attractions, as a few members of St. Cecilia’s alleged in interviews with the media. While there’s no dispute that, sadly, in some places real homophobia does exist, ministers to the gay community have a duty not only not to abet this confusion but to disabuse those entrusted to their care from thinking the Church’s teachings on same-sex activities are based on hatred rather than love grounded in truth; they also have the responsibility to remind them that judging others or mendaciously bullying others with epithets about their character are grave sins that those with same-sex attractions are not exempt from committing.

These false accusations, however, lead to a larger point about how much the tide has turned with regard to the direction of bullying between those with same-sex attractions and others in society. Whereas in the past, those with same sex attractions were often subject to ill-treatment and ridicule on account of their attractions, including sadly by those who claimed to be Christian, now it’s Christians who are often subjected to ridicule and, in a growing number of cases, discrimination. If anyone doubts this point, they should just ponder what Constance Cervone of Jamaica Plain said in a June 28 Boston Globe article on St. Cecilia’s: “It was harder for me … to come out as a Catholic than as a gay person.” This is an indication that, at least for her, “Christianophobia” is presently more menacing than “homophobia.” The Church as a whole, and those who minister to the gay community in particular, must have the courage to address this.

These things should be pondered today - and every day going forward when dealing with Fr. Unni and the souls being led by his chaotic spiritual leadership.

The third in Fr. Landry's series comes next week.

Prayers today for all.