DOMINUS PARS HÆREDITATIS MEÆ

HumilisMeDominus: I hope this post doesn't offend the Homosexuals....

humilismedominus:

Our Lord speaking to St. Catherine of Siena regarding homosexual clergymen:

They [the homosexuals] not only fail from resisting the weakness [of fallen human nature] …. but they do even worse when they commit the cursed sin against nature. Like the blind and stupid, having dimmed the light of…

Joshua: I’m not offended by what you wrote, but I think we have to be very careful here for pastoral reasons. We also have to be careful to present the Catholic understanding of a contemporary moral challenge.

Catholic theology approaches the private revelations, even of a saint, with skepticism. Where do these messages of Our Lord, Our Lady, or the Saints come from? They come from voices in one’s head. Sometimes, but not often, there may be an apparition. 

The Deposit of Faith contained in public revelation is binding on Catholics. The private revelation which a saint has received is not, because there is no way to verify that the saint heard this message from Our Lord, or had a mental and psychological problem (a saint can have a problem with schizophrenia).

There is no way to verify, even if the saint heard a spiritual message, if this message was mixed with the thinking or outlook of the saint. We suspect this may have happened when Blessed Ann Catherine Emmerich says that Our Lord told her the “mark of Cain” was the dark skin which some people have.

In view of this Catholic skepticism of private revelation, I think it is important to qualify the words of St. Catherine with the present “mens Ecclesiae.” It is not the “mind of the Church” that gays and lesbians are “abominable” or that even the demonic spirits flee in disgust when they sin. It is also not the mind of the Church that clergy, just because they have this temptation, are rejected or unloved by Our Lord or His Church.

In my experience as a priest, I deal with parishioners who have the depression and inner turmoil/conflicts that come with being rejected because they are gay or lesbian (have same sex attraction). In some cases, they reveal to me their desire to take their life.

The Church does not want them to hate themselves, feel rejected, or worse, feel that God considers them an abomination. On the contrary, the Church wishes them to have a sense that they are loved by God, that they must confess and receive Communion, and persevere in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Anything we can say or do to keep them in the perseverance of faith will give glory to God and will bring honor to our Faith.