In memoirs, ex Pope Benedict says Vatican 'gay lobby' tried to wield power: report

Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI waves before a mass in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican September 28, 2014. Reuters/Tony Gentile

By Philip Pullella

(Reuters) Former Pope Benedict says in his memoirs that no-one pressured him to resign but alleges that a "gay lobby" in the Vatican had tried to influence decisions, a leading Italian newspaper reported on Friday.

The book, called "The Last Conversations", is the first time in history that a former pope judges his own pontificate after it is over. It is due to be published on Sept. 9.

Citing health reasons, Benedict in 2013 became the first pope in six centuries to resign. He promised to remain "hidden to the world" and has been living in a former convent in the Vatican gardens.

Italy's Corriere della Sera daily, which has acquired the Italian newspaper rights for excerpts and has access to the book, ran a long article on Friday summarizing its key points.

In the book, Benedict says that he came to know of the presence of a "gay lobby" made up of four or five people who were seeking to influence Vatican decisions. The article says Benedict says he managed to "break up this power group".

Benedict resigned following a turbulent papacy that included the so-call "Vatileaks" case, in which his butler leaked some of his personal letters and other documents that alleged corruption and a power struggle in the Vatican.

Italian media at the time reported that a faction of prelates who wanted to discredit Benedict and pressure him to resign was behind the leaks. (continued..)

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• In memoirs, ex Pope Benedict says Vatican 'gay lobby' tried to wield power: report

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• Pope Benedict Dishes on Vatican’s ‘Powerful Gay Lobby’

Pope Benedict Dishes on Vatican’s ‘Powerful Gay Lobby’

By Barbie Latza Nadeau

(The Daily Beast) ROME—It’s a rare, and indeed, singularly unique opportunity to read what a pope really thinks of the job after it has finished. Pontificates generally end in funerals, not retirements. But in the case of Pope Benedict XVI, who spectacularly retired in 2013, we will soon get that rare glimpse of what it’s really like to be pope when his memoir, Benedict XVI: The Last Conversations, is published on September 9 in Italy and Germany...

Among what will be the most anticipated nuggets in the memoir are Benedict’s struggle with what he refers to as a “powerful gay lobby” of four or five key people who did all they could to influence key decision makers inside the Roman Curia, according to the paper. The existence of a gay lobby is not surprising since Francis admitted as much when he took the reigns of the Roman Catholic Church in March 2013. But what’s extraordinary is the admission by a pope how much power they truly had.

Benedict, who retired amid the Vatileaks scandal during which his butler was convicted of stealing papers from his desk, apparently writes in great detail how he struggled to “break up the group” but stops short of blaming them for his landmark decision to retire, which he says he did out of sheer exhaustion and his own admission that he was not such a good manager, or, as he puts it, lacked “resoluteness in governing.”

He denies long-held rumors that he was blackmailed and pressured to leave his post, and instead says he did it “freely.”

He also writes how surprised he was that he was elected pope in 2005 after John Paul II died. He describes the shock of finding out that high-ranking cardinals were holding a secret shadow conclave and had elected him before voting in the formal gathering in the Sistine Chapel. He also says he didn’t sleep for days and was incredibly anxious when he began his pontificate.

The retired pope will also shed light on just how difficult it was for him to combat the “filth that is in the church” and how many people tried to stop his attempts at reforms. All of that should provide a window into just how challenging it is for Pope Francis going forward... (continued)

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• In memoirs, ex Pope Benedict says Vatican 'gay lobby' tried to wield power: report

Catholic diocese ‘respects’ decision to host openly gay judge as St. Patrick’s Parade grand marshal

By Lisa Bourne

BRIDGEPORT, Connecticut, December 11, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Another U.S. city has officially introduced open homosexuality into its St. Patrick’s Day parade. And again, the Catholic diocese is continuing to stand by the parade.

The committee for the Stamford, Connecticut, parade announced its choice of state Supreme Court Justice Andrew McDonald as its 2016 grand marshal November 22.

McDonald is openly gay, his biography on the State of Connecticut Judicial Branch Website closing with the statement, “Justice McDonald and his husband, Charles, live in Stamford.”

The local Catholic diocese has indicated it has no issue with the move to have the openly homosexual judge lead the parade, according to the local news outlet the Stamford Advocate.

McDonald was at odds with the Catholic Church in Connecticut in 2009 when as a state senator he proposed controversial legislation along with another lawmaker to regulate the Church’s finances.

SB 1098 was specific to the Catholic Church, and would have removed parish priests and the bishop from their oversight positions, giving power to a lay board. The bill was ultimately tabled, but not before significant backlash for its apparent violation of the Fourteenth Amendment ban on discriminatory legislation.

“We are deeply concerned about statements made by elected officials suggesting that Connecticut's existing religious corporation statutes, including those applicable to the Roman Catholic Church, are unconstitutional and should be amended,” the Diocese of Bridgeport, under Bishop William Lori, said in a report from Catholic News Agency at the time. “These statements are misinformed.”

The spokesman for the Diocese of Bridgeport said current Bishop Frank Caggiano was not asked about the St. Patrick’s Day parade committee’s choice of McDonald as grand marshal, saying as well it would not dispute the decision and calling the St. Patrick’s celebration a day of inclusiveness.

“The diocese respects the decision of the committee,“ Brian Wallace said. “It’s a day of inclusiveness. It’s a day people drop their differences. We hope people have a good day and enjoy the parade.”

The diocese did not respond to LifeSiteNews' request for comment by press time.

Stamford St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee Chair Michael Feighan told the Stamford Advocate that McDonald, who aside from being a judge, has served on municipal boards and already been involved with the parade, met all the criteria for grand marshal role.

He is thought to be the first openly gay grand marshal in the U.S. selected to lead a St. Patrick’s Day parade, the report said.

In 2013 McDonald was confirmed as the first openly gay justice to the Connecticut Supreme Court, according to the Connecticut Mirror.

St. Patrick’s Day is the feast day honoring Ireland’s leading patron saint, and the annual Catholic observance holds substantial cultural significance for the Irish community, with parades and countless other festivities across the U.S. each year.

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan upset Catholics earlier this year when he served as grand marshal for the 2015 New York City Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, after the parade committee allowed an openly homosexual activist group march in the parade with its identifying banner, breaking the event’s previous two-hundred-plus-year stance of only allowing Irish themed groups to participate in the parade honoring the Catholic saint.

The New York City parade committee’s agreement to allow the homosexual activist group after decades of pressure from gay activist groups was supposed to also mean a pro-life group would take part in the Catholic event, but no pro-life group has been allowed, and earlier this past fall the parade committee voted to allow a second homosexual group.

A Massachusetts Catholic school pulled out of its local St. Patrick’s Day parade this year after it learned a homosexual activist group would be allowed to march while openly identifying its homosexuality, its principal at the time citing Catholic Church teaching.

“Catholics are forbidden to sponsor or even participate in an event which openly promotes unnatural and immoral behavior,” Immaculate Heart of Mary School’s Brother Thomas Dalton said. “The Church will never accept nor condone same sex marriage and the homosexual lifestyle.”

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• Catholic diocese ‘respects’ decision to host openly gay judge as St. Patrick’s Parade grand marshal

Pope, ending synod, excoriates bishops with 'closed hearts'

By Philip Pullella

(Reuters) Pope Francis, ending a contentious bishops' meeting on family issues, on Saturday excoriated immovable Church leaders who "bury their heads in the sand" and hide behind rigid doctrine while families suffer...

In his final address, the pope appeared to criticize ultra-conservatives, saying Church leaders should confront difficult issues "fearlessly, without burying our heads in the sand."

He said the synod had "laid bare the closed hearts which frequently hide even behind the Church's teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families"...

The synod document did offer some hope for the full re-integration into the Church of some Catholics who divorce and remarry in civil ceremonies.

Under current Church doctrine they cannot receive communion unless they abstain from sex with their new partner, because their first marriage is still valid in the eyes of the Church and they are seen to be living in an adulterous state of sin.

They only way such Catholics can remarry is if they receive an annulment, a ruling that their first marriage never existed in the first place because of the lack of certain pre-requisites such as psychological maturity or free will.

The document spoke of a so-called "internal forum" in which a priest or a bishop may work with a Catholic who has divorced and remarried to decide jointly, privately and on a case-by-case basis if he or she can be fully re-integrated.

"In order for this happen, the necessary conditions of humility, discretion, love for the Church and her teachings must be guaranteed in a sincere search for God's will," the document said.
Tally sheets showed that the three articles on the divorced and re-married were the most fought-over, reaching the two-thirds majority needed to remain in the document by only a few votes each. One passed by only one vote... (continued)

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• Pope, ending synod, excoriates bishops with 'closed hearts'

Archbishop Cupich lays out pathway for gay couples to receive Communion at Vatican press scrum

By John-Henry Westen and Pete Baklinski

ROME, October 16, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) -- Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago — who is participating in the Synod of the Family at Pope Francis’ personal invitation — said at a press scrum in the Vatican press office this afternoon that the conscience is "inviolable" and that he believes divorced and remarried couples could be permitted to receive the sacraments, if they have "come to a decision" to do so "in good conscience" - theological reasoning that he indicated in response to a follow-up question would also apply to gay couples.

During the lengthy press briefing, the archbishop also spoke approvingly of the so-called "Kasper Proposal," which would permit divorced and remarried Catholics to receive Communion in some cases. Cupich explained that he had distributed Cardinal Walter Kasper's book, The Gospel of the Family, in which the cardinal had laid out this proposal, to all of the priests in his diocese.

“In Chicago I visit regularly with people who feel marginalized: the elderly, the divorced and remarried, gay and lesbian individuals and also couples. I think that we really need to get to know what their life is like if we’re going to accompany them,” he said.

When asked to give a concrete example of how he would accompany the divorced and remarried in their desire to receive the sacraments, Cupich replied: “If people come to a decision in good conscience then our job is to help them move forward and to respect that. The conscience is inviolable and we have to respect that when they make decisions, and I’ve always done that.”

When asked by LifeSiteNews if the notion of accompanying people to "the Sacrament" who had a clear indication of conscience to do so also applied to gay couples in the Church, Cupich indicated an affirmative answer... (continued)

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• Archbishop Cupich lays out pathway for gay couples to receive Communion at Vatican press scrum

Out of the Lobby

By Father Ray Blake

The Holy Father asked for forgiveness for the scandals in the Church, without mentioning which scandals, it could be the latest episode of Vatileaks or more likely the removal two Discalced Carmelites, one of whom accused the other of homosexual acts after a male prostitute spent several months in hospital after being beaten up, and of course the opening scandal of the Synod with that CDF Monsignor 'coming out'. Presumably what he is not asking for forgiveness for is the pro-Gay Fr Rosica fronting the English language section of the media briefings who seems to introduce at every opportunity or Abbot Jeremias Schröder who took part in this mornings briefings wants and the issue of homosexuality to be delegated to local bishops' conferences to decide, who has himself long called for the Church to bless homosexual unions, nor Archbishop Forte who added pro-gay clauses to the Relatio of the extra-ordinary Synod last year and is on committee that will oversea the final document - which may or may not be published.

Some have suggested this should be called the 'Gay Synod', rather than the Synod on the Family, what is more than apparent is that what was once a shadowy lobby is now front and centre out of the lobby and sitting in the drawing room. The Synod presenters, if not the discussions themselves, seem to be obsessed by the homosexual issue... (continued)

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• Out of the Lobby

Scott Walker backtracks on reaction to gay Boy Scout leaders

By Adam B. Lerner

(Politico) Scott Walker stumbled over his own prior comments Wednesday, saying that when he called on the Boy Scouts to reinstate a ban on gay leaders because it “protected children,” he meant the ban protected them from media scrutiny.

“The protection was not a physical protection,” Walker said Wednesday at an event in South Carolina, according to The New York Times. Rather, the Wisconsin governor continued, he was referring to “protecting them from being involved in the very thing you’re talking about right now, the political and media discussion about it, instead of just focusing on what Scouts is about, which is about camping and citizenship and things of that nature.”

The Wisconsin Republican added that, ultimately, whether or not to reinstate the ban is “up to the Boy Scouts.”

The comments came after the Independent Journal Review, in a report Tuesday, quoted Walker as saying he supported the Boy Scouts’ previous membership policy “because it protected children and advanced Scout values...” (continued)

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• Scott Walker backtracks on reaction to gay Boy Scout leaders

Catholic School Teacher Fired for Same-Sex Marriage Files Federal Lawsuit

(The Cardinal Newman Society) A Catholic school in Macon, Ga., is facing a federal discrimination lawsuit from a former teacher whose employment was terminated in 2014 after the school found that he would be legally marrying his same-sex partner.

“The argument being made in this suit—that a Catholic school’s commitment to upholding Catholic teaching on marriage is discriminatory toward homosexual employees—is a grave threat to Catholic education,” said Patrick Reilly, president of The Cardinal Newman Society.

“A Catholic school exists for the very purpose of teaching the faith and forming young people for God,” he continued. “The implication is that our religion itself, rooted in love and true concern for the good of the person and the common good, is discriminatory because it upholds standards of morality and natural law.”

The teacher, Flint Dollar, taught music at Mount de Sales Academy for three years before his termination on May 21, 2014. The Telegraph reported that Dollar informed the school of his upcoming same-sex marriage when he signed the contract for the 2014-2015 term on May 1, 2014.

According to Breitbart, Dollar argued that “he was fired because of his marriage plans and [because] he didn’t comport with the school’s ‘traditional gender stereotypes.’” An investigation by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reportedly determined “that ‘there is reasonable cause to conclude’ that Dollar had been discriminated against based on his sexual orientation.”

“The suit seeks a jury trial, saying that the school acted with malice or reckless indifference to Dollar’s federally protected rights. Dollar seeks back pay, reinstatement to his job, compensation for his emotional pain and suffering, and attorney’s fees,” reports Breitbart.. (continued)

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• Catholic School Teacher Fired for Same-Sex Marriage Files Federal Lawsuit

A “still small voice” that does not fade away

By Father George Rutler

A young city boy on his first camping trip awoke his father at dawn and said, as he gazed out of his tent, “Look, Dad, the sun is rising just like on TV.” Our present generation, of which we are privileged to be a laggard part, does not find it easy to distinguish actuality from artifice. In the background is a reluctance to acknowledge that an impression of reality is not the same as reality itself. This is symptomatic of what Pope Benedict XVI called the “dictatorship of relativism.”

By that he meant the notion absorbed by people bereft of logic, that what one wants something to be, comes to be simply by the wanting. This has immediate and desultory influence on moral conduct. So, like the little boy who thought that the real sun looked like the cartoon sun on television (or, like the nice woman who told me that the altar flowers were so lovely that she though they were artificial), people may reject the concrete facts of nature and posture that their desires are legitimate just because they are desired. A lurid example of this is the redefinition of marriage to make that organic and divine institution nothing more than a fantasy of one’s arrested emotional development, the product of a plebiscite, and the opinion of judges in solemn robes. Polls and parliaments are willing tyrants when the mob consents to be tyrannized by their opinions and decrees.

G.K. Chesterton gently slapped his readers back to reality from egoistic comas when he wrote in his A Short History of England: “To have the right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.” So when someone says, “I am free to do what I want with my body,” you may be impelled by charity and justice to reply that he is indeed so free, but if he defies the law of gravity, the pavement quickly will be of a different opinion, and if he says there is no difference between a man and a woman, two shades named Adam and Eve will rise up with mocking smiles.

Those who have long sipped the intoxicating nectar of false perception may hesitate to draw a line between desire and dogma, fabrication and fact. If reality is nothing more than the visible costume of an impression, impressive tyrants will orchestrate that fantasy from their balconies, with rhetoric to mold malleable minds. The long legacy of demagoguery attests that weak points persuade people if the points are shouted loudly enough to overwhelm reason. Opinion polls shout, and network “talking heads” shout, and Internet pundits shout, but then there is a “still small voice” that does not fade away: the long and logical echo of “Fiat Lux” uttered by the real Creator of the real universe.

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• Most Recent Column from Fr. Rutler

Belfast bakery discriminated by refusing gay cake order, court rules

By Ian Graham

BELFAST (Reuters) - A Northern Ireland bakery owned by devout Christians who refused to bake a cake with a pro-gay marriage slogan was found guilty of discrimination in Belfast on Tuesday and fined.

The case has become heavily politicized in Northern Ireland with members of the province's largest political party, the Democratic Unionist Party, proposing the introduction of a Conscience Clause Bill to allow the withholding of services on grounds of religious belief.

Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, a member of the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, welcomed the judgment as "a good result for equality".

Gay rights activist Gareth Lee took Ashers Baking Company in Belfast to court in a civil action after it canceled his order for a cake with the slogan "Support Gay Marriage" on it. The case was funded by the British province's Equality Commission.

The firm initially accepted the order but later contacted Lee to cancel it and refund his money. Lee told a court hearing over three days in March that the bakery's refusal made him feel "unworthy" and "a lesser person".

Speaking outside the court just before the judgment on Tuesday, bakery owner Daniel McArthur said: "We happily serve everyone but we cannot promote a cause that goes against what the Bible says about marriage."

In her judgment, District Judge Isobel Brownlie said that while the defendants had a right to religious beliefs "they are limited as to how they manifest them".

For it to be otherwise "would be to allow religious belief to dictate what the law is," she added.

The court found that Ashers had discriminated against Lee on the grounds of his sexual orientation as well as his political beliefs and ordered the bakery to pay £500 ($776).

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• Belfast bakery discriminated by refusing gay cake order, court rules

Navy Chaplain Censored: ‘Don’t pray in the name of Jesus’

Lt. Cmdr. Wes Modder (Courtesy Liberty Institute)

By Todd Starnes

(Fox News) A Navy chaplain who faces the end of a stellar 19-year career because of his faith-based views on marriage and human sexuality was told by a base commander to refrain from offering a prayer in the name of Jesus, according to attorneys representing the chaplain.

That allegation was tucked away in an 18-page letter written to the commander of Navy Region Southeast by Liberty Institute attorneys representing Chaplain Wesley Modder. Liberty Institute is a law firm that specializes in religious liberty cases.

Liberty Institute asserts that Chaplain Modder’s fate could have a significant impact on every Christian military chaplain.

The letter included the results of Liberty Institute’s investigation of allegations levied against the chaplain by Captain John Fahs.

I’ll tackle that newest allegation later – but first here’s a recap of what I believe to be the LGBT-inspired witch hunt against Chaplain Modder:

Last December, an openly gay officer at the Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in South Carolina, took offense at Modder’s take on homosexuality. The chaplain, who is endorsed by the Assemblies of God, was accused of discrimination and failing to show tolerance and respect – among other things.

Just a few months earlier, Modder’s commander had called him the “best of the best” and a consummate professional leader.” But now he’s on the verge of being kicked out of the military.
“After our investigation, it is clear that the facts and law are on Chaplain Modder’s side,” Liberty Institute attorney Michael Berry said. “He has done nothing more than provide ministerial services in accordance with the precepts of his faith – which is completely consistent with Navy rules and federal law.”

Their letter is a point by point repudiation of the allegations against the highly respected chaplain – a man who once led chaplains who ministered to Navy SEALs.

“We believe the Navy will exonerate Chaplain Modder and restore him to continue his true calling of ministering to sailors and Marines as he has done for the past 15 years,” Berry said.

Liberty Institute maintains that Modder’s private counseling on issues involving human sexuality and same-sex marriage were consistent with the beliefs of his endorsing agency – the Assemblies of God.

“As a result of honoring the tenets of his endorsing denomination, he now faces the loss of his employment and removal from the Navy,” Liberty Institute wrote.

While Chaplain Modder specifically denies accusations that he used inappropriate language or gestures, he does admit to providing answers to questions from a Biblical world view.

“On occasion and only when asked, he expressed his sincerely held religious belief that sexual acts outside of marriage are contrary to biblical teaching; homosexual conduct is contrary to biblical teaching and homosexual orientation or temptation as distinct from conduct is not a sin,” Liberty Institute wrote.

They also reminded the Navy that Department of Defense regulations allow Chaplain Modder to hold religious beliefs.

“Navy chaplains are never required to compromise the standards of their religious organization, but are required to perform in a pluralistic environment,” they wrote.

That brings me back to the moment when Chaplain Modder was told he could not pray in the name of Jesus Christ.

Liberty Institute alleges it happened shortly after Modder assumed chaplaincy responsibilities at the training command. He was asked to deliver an invocation at a ceremony.

As he was walking to the lectern, Fahs is alleged to have told him to deep-six the Jesus talk – “counsel that Chaplain Modder accepted and with which he complied.”

Chaplain Modder’s fate could have a significant impact on every Christian military chaplain, asserts Liberty Institute.

Taking action, they argue, “Would send a dangerous message that other chaplains who share his beliefs – the vast majority of military chaplains – may also suffer adverse personnel actions and would have a profound chilling effect on any chaplain who seeks to provide biblical care.”

And if the Navy silences chaplains – they could certainly silence sailors.

“If the Navy can remove a chaplain who expresses his religious beliefs, then service members who share those beliefs will believe that they, too, are unwelcome in the Navy,” Liberty Institute wrote.

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• Navy Chaplain Censored: ‘Don’t pray in the name of Jesus’

Rick Santorum: I would not attend a gay wedding

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• Marco Rubio: "I’d attend a gay wedding"

Marco Rubio: "I’d attend a gay wedding"

From Brett LoGiurato and AMERICA with Jorge Ramos at Fusion:

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), the newest and youngest official Republican candidate for president, has said he believes marriage should be “traditional”—between a man and a woman.

 So Fusion’s Jorge Ramos asked him: If someone in his family or on his staff were gay and getting married, would he attend the wedding? “If it’s somebody in my life that I care for, of course I would,” Rubio told Ramos in an interview on Wednesday.

“I’m not going to hurt them simply because I disagree with a choice they’ve made or because I disagree with a decision they’ve made, or whatever it may be,” he added. “Ultimately, if someone that you care for and is part of your family has decided to move in one direction or another or feels that way because of who they love, you respect that because you love them...” (continued)

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• Marco Rubio: I’d attend a gay wedding

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• Rick Santorum: I would not attend a gay wedding
• Marco Rubio - Nice guy, but a little too slick.

Cardinal Dolan leads NYC St. Patrick’s Parade as first-ever gay activist group joins

By Kirsten Andersen 

NEW YORK, March 17, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan led Manhattan’s St. Patrick’s Day parade on Tuesday as grand marshal, despite backlash from faithful Catholics unhappy with the organizers’ decision to allow an openly homosexual activist group to march in the event.

“I’m as radiant as the sun, so thanks be to God for the honor and the joy,” said Cardinal Dolan on Tuesday morning, as he led 250,000 marchers down Fifth Avenue – including a delegation from “Out @ NBC Universal,” a group of gay activists who work for NBC, the network that televises the parade.

Catholic commentator Michael Voris and his team from ChurchMilitant.TV were present at the parade and were able to question Dolan on his decision during a press scrum. “Your Eminence, do you have anything to say to the loyal Catholics who find what you’re doing here a great scandal to the faith?” Voris asked.

“No, come on in. We’d love to have you,” Dolan replied.

Voris reports that he and his cameraman were then removed from the press scrum, providing video of an official telling them to leave, and then calling police over to escort them out of the area.


Both the parade’s organizers and Cardinal Dolan drew criticism from faithful Catholics last year by approving Out@NBC Universal’s request to march in this year’s parade, under a banner that makes reference to their homosexuality.  The controversial decision prompted the Catholic League and at least one Catholic school to pull out of the parade, while nearly 5,000 people signed a petition urging Cardinal Dolan to withdraw from the event as a show of support for Catholic teaching forbidding homosexual behavior.

New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan responds to a question about his decision to serve as grand marshal at the St. Patrick's Day Parade. ChurchMilitant.tv

But the cardinal refused to back down, expressing support for the group’s inclusion.  “I have no trouble with the decision at all,” Cardinal Dolan said at a press conference announcing his appointment as grand marshal. “I think the decision is a wise one.”

Meanwhile, the parade’s organizers further upset rank-and-file Catholics by refusing to let a pro-life group march, saying they didn’t want to risk taking attention away from the gay group.

“That won’t be happening,” parade committee vice chairman John Lahey said of the pro-life group’s request to march. “What we want to do is keep 2015 focused on the gesture of goodwill we made towards the gay community with the inclusion of OUT@NBCUniversal.”

For the second year in a row, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio refused to attend, saying that despite all the controversy, the organizers behind the celebration of Ireland’s patron saint haven’t done enough to make the event gay-friendly.

According to the mayor, while he saw the inclusion of a single homosexual group as “progress,” he won’t participate in the parade until it is “open to [homosexual groups] who would like to participate who don't happen to work for NBC."

"Having only one delegation associated with one company that allows members of the LGBT community is, obviously, a pretty narrow concession," said de Blasio, after marching in the gay-oriented “St. Pat's for All” parade in Queens on Sunday. "We'd like to see something that's more inclusive."

"I will not be marching [in Tuesday’s parade], but I look forward to progress in the future," de Blasio stated, at an unrelated press conference the following day. "I do think the first step was taken this year and I'm hopeful that soon there'll be others taken."

It seems likely that de Blasio’s hopes will be realized.  While at least one homosexual group was turned away from participating in this year’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, organizers were quick to note that it was simply a matter of the available slots having been filled prior to the group’s application to march, and said homosexual groups were “welcome” to apply for slots in 2016’s parade.

Meanwhile, a number of Catholics disillusioned by the organizers’ actions offered an alternative event on Tuesday at Church of the Holy Innocents, not far from the festivities on Fifth Avenue.

Proudly on display was the Children First Foundation’s “Choose Life” banner – the same one that was rejected by parade organizers.  The event, dubbed the “St. Patrick’s Day Lenten Pilgrimage,” included four Masses, the opportunity for Confession, and a prayer vigil for unborn children.

Link:

• Cardinal Dolan leads NYC St. Patrick’s Parade as first-ever gay activist group joins 

Texas AG: Same-sex marriage is void

 By Katey Psencik and Ashley Goudeau, KVUE

(KVUE) AUSTIN -- Hours after the Travis County clerk issued the state's first same-sex marriage license, Texas' attorney general said the marriage is void.

Attorney General Ken Paxton said Thursday the Texas Supreme Court granted his request to stay two court rulings declaring Texas' ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.

"The Court's action upholds our state constitution and stays these rulings by activist judges in Travis County," Paxton said in a statement. "The same-sex marriage license issued by the Travis County Clerk is void, just as any license issued in violation of state law would be. I will continue to defend the will of the people of Texas, who have defined marriage as between one man and one woman, against any judicial activism or overreach."

According to the Travis County Clerk's office, Judge David Wahlberg signed a state court order from the 167th District Court to Travis County Clerk Dana Debeauvoir on Thursday, commanding Debeauvoir to "cease and desist relying on the unconstitutional Texas prohibitions against same-sex marriage as a basis for not issuing a marriage license specifically to Plaintiffs Sarah Goodfriend and Suzanne Bryant," due to the fact that Goodfriend has ovarian cancer... (continued)

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• Texas AG: Same-sex marriage is void

American gay Catholic group welcomed to Vatican

By Corky Siemaszko

(NY Daily News) Their group was the elephant in the room.

For the first time ever, a delegation of American gay and lesbian Catholics were in the VIP seats at a public papal audience in the Vatican.

Pope Francis did not mention New Ways Ministry in his remarks Wednesday.

They were identified on the list of attendees only as a “group of lay people accompanied by a Sister of Loreto.”

And when a Vatican official read out the list of the groups that made the pilgrimage to St. Peter’s Square, he skipped over them altogether.

But they were there. And veteran Vatican watcher David Gibson says that is a very big deal.
“It’s a substantial change of direction for the Catholic Church, not just a symbolic move,” Gibson, of the Religion News Service, told The Daily News.

“In the past, such groups or individuals would never be formally acknowledged in any way — not even a response to a letter — for fear that some could view such an attitude as approval,” he said. “Now Francis is saying the Church must cast aside such fears...”

New Ways honcho Francis DeBernardo said they were thrilled to have been invited.

“We didn’t get the shout-out, but we were very, very close,” DeBernardo told The Associated Press.

New Ways co-founder Sister Jeannine Gramick said, “Pope Francis gives me hope.

“To me, this is an example of the kind of willingness he has to welcome those on the fringes of the church back to the center of the church,” she said.

Gramick would know.

Back in 1999, she defied an order to stop ministering to gay Catholics from the Vatican’s chief liturgical watchdog, who concluded that she didn’t sufficiently adhere to church teaching on the “intrinsic evil” of homosexual acts.

That watchdog was the future Pope Benedict.

DeBernardo told the AP he had tried twice before to get his group VIP seats to a papal audience — and each time he was turned down.

This time, both the Vatican ambassador in Washington and the archbishop of San Francisco forwarded the group’s request to Rome.

And in another sign that the Vatican might be shifting course, the bigwig who invited New Ways to sit up front was none other than Benedict’s right-hand man, Msgr. Georg Gaenswein.

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• American gay Catholic group welcomed to Vatican

Alabama chief justice: Don't issue gay marriage licenses

By KIM CHANDLER

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama's chief justice, who famously refused to remove a Ten Commandments monument from a state judicial building, has urged probate judges to refuse marriage licenses to gay couples even though a federal judge ruled the state's same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional. Related Stories

Roy Moore sent a letter to Alabama probate judges on Tuesday saying they are not bound by the ruling because they were not defendants in the lawsuit and have not been directly ordered to issue the licenses. He said the federal court did not have the authority to allow same-sex marriages.

"No federal judge, or court, should redefine marriage," Moore said in an interview Wednesday.

Moore said state courts, including probate courts, have the authority to interpret the U.S. Constitution independently, just like lower federal courts do, and the U.S. Supreme Court will resolve disputes over those interpretations.

The fiery Republican judge is no stranger to controversial remarks about homosexuality and the decisions of federal judges. Moore was removed as Alabama chief justice in 2003 after he refused to obey what he called an "unlawful" federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the state judicial building. Moore in 2002 called homosexuality "an inherent evil" in ruling against a lesbian mother in a child custody case.

Moore, who was re-elected in 2012, said he sent the letter to offer advice to probate judges because of confusion over the federal ruling. However, a legal group that has clashed with Moore in the past says he is the one trying to incite chaos. And Moore's advice is contrary to that of the Alabama Probate Judges Association, which said last week that the decision is binding on the state's probate judges.

U.S. District Judge Callie Granade's order striking down the state's ban on gay marriage will go into effect Monday unless the U.S. Supreme Court grants Alabama's request for a delay. Gay couples are expected to apply for marriage licenses across Alabama that day.

Granade clarified her first order, saying the judges have a constitutional duty to issue the licenses. But she stopped short of ordering them to do so.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, the group that filed the complaint that led to Moore's ouster in 2003, filed a new judicial ethics complaint over his comments about the gay marriage ruling.

"Justice Moore is, I think, a dangerous person. He's created a crisis in the state before. He just seems hell-bent determined to do it again," said Richard Cohen, president of the SPLC.

Cohen said judges who refuse to issue licenses risk being sued and were being led into "very, very hot water by suggesting they ignore Judge Granade's order."

But Moore said it was his duty as head of the court system to try to help judges sort out the issues.

"I can't tell them how to think. I can't tell them how to interpret the Constitution. I can say that they are obliged to follow the Alabama Constitution and nothing prevents that," Moore said. "To disobey the Alabama Constitution would be to ignore the 81 percent of the people in this state that adopted the Sanctity of Marriage Amendment."

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• Alabama chief justice: Don't issue gay marriage licenses

Michael Sam

By Fr. Paul Nicholson 

A guilty conscience demands confession. So what does it do? it goes to the Cathedral of the Confession of St. Peter, and makes a gigantic public confession.

Unable to "get" absolution, it accepts that public approval is a kind of absolution. But it never satisfies.

A guilty conscience is a terrible and merciless punisher ... revealing, rather than concealing.

Link:

• Fr. Paul Nicholson on Facebook
• fatherpaulnicholson.com 

Scottish monk arrested for distributing leaflets promoting sexual morality

By Thaddeus Baklinski

(LifeSiteNews.com) A Scottish monk has been arrested for distributing a series of leaflets in the Cambridgeshire area critical of homosexuality, fornication, contraception, euthanasia, abortion, and divorce.

Brother Damon Jonah Kelly, head of the Glasgow based charity the Black Hermits, was arrested by Cambridgeshire Police on December 8 on suspicion of a Section 5 (religious/racial) public order offence after he wrote a letter to the homosexual news publication, Pink News, claiming responsibility for the distribution of leaflets in the city of Ely, as well as in Cambridge, King’s Lynn and several other Cambridgeshire towns and cities.

Initially police declined to take any action following a number of complaints about the leaflets, saying that neither the distribution of the leaflets nor the messages they contain were a crime, and in fact protected by free speech laws.

A spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire Police said in a statement to Ely News, "Leaflets of a homophobic nature were distributed in Cambridge earlier this year. Additionally, similar material has been distributed in other areas of the county and indeed, the country.”

"While the material being distributed earlier this week will in many cases offend, irritate, shock or disturb, the content, context and actions of the male concerned fall short of any criminality at this time,” the spokeswoman added.

However, once the source of the leaflets identified himself, the police arrested him. They then released him on bail with a promise to appear on January 20.

The leaflets in question have titles such as "The Works of Darkness," "Homosexuality," and "Christmas, Christ and AntiChrist."

"Homosexuality" states that "God created man and woman for their mutual compatibility and for the procreation of children," and that, "all sexual activity outside of matrimonial union of one man and one woman is sin, and therefore immoral."

Warning that "through the sin of lust the Devil tempts man to sexual impurity, excess and perversion," the leaflet states that homosexuality is in reality a mental illness, but has become a cult that belongs to the culture of death.

“Homosexuality, as well as being a sin and a vice, is essentially a neurosis, a pathological condition; the result of several factors including childhood experiences. It is a dangerous temptation rather than a healthy orientation,” it reads.

“If the practice of homosexuality is acceptable, then in time any form of sexual deviation, perversion and experimentation will be acceptable, including the progressive lowering of the age of consent, taking it below the age of puberty and thus legalizing paedophilia. A common form of homosexuality is pederasty."

The leaflet goes on to say, “The condition of homosexuality can be treated and healed, as all distorted sexuality can be healed, and as many cases in recent years have proved," adding that homosexual people should not be persecuted but that homosexual inclinations should “not be encouraged."

“They need healing, not approval,” the leaflet says.

"The Works of Darkness" leaflet states that, "The deliberate killing of the baby in the womb is infanticide, is homicide, and those who perpetrate such an act are guilty of murder," and that, "Divorce wreaks havoc in society and is part and parcel of the plague of the 'one-parent family' which is a great evil."

It states that, "Homosexuality is not inborn, it is a development disorder, a traumatized condition arising out of a dysfunctional family, or it is a lifestyle choice. It is utterly opposed to the law of God and to nature, and should in no way be condoned or promoted."

This leaflet also comments on fornication, contraception, assisted fertilization, pornography, transgenderism, euthanasia, and atheism as serious societal problems.

"Christmas, Christ and AntiChrist," which was delivered in Cambridge last week, states that, “Christmas is the invasion by God into the world He created out of pure love; which through man’s evil has become a polluted landscape of de-humanized people, debasing themselves with their false gods and fetishes."

In his letter to Pink News, Brother Damon claims to have been arrested on nine occasions for leafleting, and despite this has brought his 2014 campaign to a “satisfactory conclusion.”

He closed the letter saying, "I wouldn’t be a good monk if I didn’t exhort you to repentance and conversion to Christ."

Link:

• Scottish monk arrested for distributing leaflets promoting sexual morality 

Pope Benedict’s private secretary speaks on Synod, divorce, same-sex relations

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, left, waits for Pope Francis, second from right, at the beatification of Pope Paul VI and a mass for the closing of a two-week synod on family issues. (Gregorio Borgia / Associated Press)

By John-Henry Westen

(LifeSiteNews) Pope Benedict’s private secretary has given a surprise interview on some of the hot-button issues at the Vatican’s Extraordinary Synod on the Family, advancing views aligned with those expressed by Pope Benedict during his time as cardinal and pope.

In the interview published in the print edition of Chi magazine last week, Archbishop Georg Gänswein said, "The Church has always declared, based on the Scriptures and tradition, that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.”  The acts, he said, “are contrary to natural law, because they prevent the gift of life, the purpose of the sexual act.”

Gänswein went on to acknowledge that for people experiencing same-sex attraction the inclination can be a trial. “These people,” he said, “are called to live the will of God in their life and if they are Christians, to unite their sacrifice to the cross of the Lord, with the difficulties they meet because of their condition.”

The remarks echo the language of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which was published in 1992, when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger headed the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF). They also bear marked similarity to the language of the 1986 Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, published by the CDF and signed by Cardinal Ratzinger.

“Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered,’” says the Catechism. “They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life.”

In the 1986 letter on the pastoral care of homosexuals, Cardinal Ratzinger had written, “What, then, are homosexual persons to do who seek to follow the Lord? Fundamentally, they are called to enact the will of God in their life by joining whatever sufferings and difficulties they experience in virtue of their condition to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross.”

While Archbishop Gänswein did not directly address Cardinal Walter Kasper’s much-discussed proposal to allow divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion in some circumstances, he left a clear impression that he opposed it. Even if a married couple separates, he said, "starting a new union contradicts what the Lord has indicated."

When asked directly if Catholics who have been divorced and subsequently entered a second marriage should be permitted to receive Holy Communion, Archbishop Ganswein said, "This is a very delicate question. According to Catholic doctrine, the sacrament of marriage is indissoluble, just like God's love for man.”

"The Church doesn't close Her eyes  to the difficulties of the Faithful who live in delicate and thorny situations," Ganswein added. "Nevertheless, the Church must offer sincere answers which directs, not towards the spirit of the times, but to the Gospel, to the word of Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God.
"The evangelical message takes much effort but it is worthwhile to live it," he said. "God welcomes, forgives, this is true, but it  is also true He asks for conversion."

Vatican watchers told LifeSiteNews this would not be the first time that Pope Emeritus Benedict's private secretary has hinted at Benedict's own thoughts. Most notably, in an interview on German television in March of this year, Archbishop Ganswein revealed that Pope Benedict had written a 4-page critique of Pope Francis’ controversial interview with a Jesuit magazine wherein the pope had said the Church, “cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods.”

The release of the interview with Archbishop Georg Gänswein came on the heels of the surprise publication of an interview with Pope Francis, which was unknown to the Vatican press office prior to its release, by the Argentine newspaper La Nacion on the opening day of the Synod.

In the interview, published October 5, Pope Francis was asked about the cardinals who have criticized Cardinal Kasper’s proposal to allow Communion for divorced-and-remarried Catholics. In response, he indicated that he is not in agreement with the “very conservative” bishops, but said he still enjoys “debating” them as long as they are “intellectually well-formed.”

The pope also said that the Church must not “stigmatize” and “impugn” those who are living together in what the Church calls “irregular” situations outside of marriage.

“We have to approach social conflicts, new and old, and try to give a hand of comfort, not to stigmatize and not to just impugn,” Pope Francis said.

“So many young people prefer to live together without marrying,” he added. “What should the Church do? Expel them from its breast? Or, instead, approach them, embrace them and try to bring them the word of God? I’m with the latter position.”

Link:

• Pope Benedict’s private secretary speaks on Synod, divorce, same-sex relations