From St. Frances Cabrini Parish website and their statement on reconciliation.
With this history in mind we commit ourselves and our community to:
* Reach out to the gay/lesbian community, encouraging them to join our parish;
* Regularly publish our welcome in the gay press;
* Promise to educate ourselves about gay/lesbian issues and work to overcome stereotypes;
* Include a gay/lesbian perspective in catechesis at all levels, including elementary school age;
* Support lesbians and gay men in ways that promote stable, healthy relationships;
* Publicly bless the relationships of a same sex couple after the couple completes a process of discernment similar to that completed by heterosexual couples before marriage; *
* Stand willing to accept qualified, openly gay or lesbian priests or lay ministers;
* Zealously work for and guard the civil rights of lesbians and gay men, knowing that all of our civil rights are compromised when theirs are;
* Pray for greater understanding and acceptance of gay, and lesbian people in official Church teaching;
* Encourage other parishes to become publicly reconciled with the gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual community.
* Not being implemented at this time.
As you might expect they start with St. Paul statement about their being neither "Jew nor Greek" to set the tone. Apparently there is neither sin nor scandal either.
Now I have a question? What would they call their discernment process that would be similar to pre-Cana for heterosexual couples? Pre-Sodom doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Okay that’s a cheap shot, but this glorification of homosexual acts and the promotion of a phony equality with marriage between a man and a women deserves ones. They also rob those who struggle with same-sex attraction from the truth. The problem with liberal churches is that their is no call for repentance unless of course you are a homophobe. The saying is that the greatest trick of the Devil is that he gets people to not believe in him. Likewise the greatest trick of liberal Christianity is to get people to not believe in sin or consequences.
Now since they put an asterisk on blessing gay marriages I guess "Not being implemented at this time." makes it just fine. Previously the Vatican intervened to have gay pride pages removed from another Minneapolis parish St. Joan of Arc. Most likely we will have to wait for Bishop John C. Nienstedt to become the Archbishop before these problems are rectified.
Lifesite had previously reported on Fr. Leo Tibesar leadership activities in the group dissident group Dignity. Yet it is after that that Fr. Tibesar was made the pastor of this parish. Nobody can say they were surprised. Even stranger is that for years Fr. Tibesar has been involved in the diocese programs for preparing couples for marriage – especially since he seems to have no idea what marriage is in the first place.
Speaking of his Excellency Most Reverend John Nienstedt, Coadjutor Archbp. of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Last week Nick Coleman had a critical article on him regarding a column he wrote. As somewhere quite aware of Nick Coleman and the fact that his columns are routinely fisked for their inaccuracies I knew exactly what to expect before I read the column.
This week though the Coadjutor Archbishop has responded to his column.
In a Nov. 28 column, Nick Coleman accuses me of not being compassionate toward friends and relatives of persons with same-sex attractions. I vigorously deny the charge. For 13 years I prepared priesthood candidates for celebrating the Sacrament of Penance by counseling them to welcome persons with warmth, compassion and understanding. Anyone who has celebrated that same sacrament with me knows I follow my own advice.
What Coleman wants is for the church I represent to be accepting and compassionate toward homosexual acts and lifestyles. And that can never be.
Coleman further claims the Catechism of the Catholic Church does not say that homosexual acts are a “grave evil.” What it does say is the following: “Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity (Genesis 19: 1-29, Romans 1: 24-27, 1 Corinthians 6: 10, 1 Timothy 1:10), tradition has always declared that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered. … Under no circumstances can they be approved.”
As a priest and bishop, I have the responsibility before God and in the name of Jesus Christ to call all men and women to conversion, the first step of which is recognizing sinful activity for what it is. Sometimes that is not a comfortable thing to do, but it is always the compassionate thing to do.
JOHN C. NIENSTEDT, ST. PAUL;
COADJUTOR ARCHBISHOP,
ARCHDIOCESE OF ST. PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS
After the original column I saw an email exchange between Leon Suprenant and Nick Coleman that was quite instructive. It was a very civil discourse, but Coleman’s reading of Nienstedt statement was that it was his intention to make a political statement, that he was telegraphing the diocese that he was a conservative. It is understandable how Nick Coleman sees it this way since he sees everything with political lenses. That opposition to homosexual acts is a conservative thing and not a specifically moral one for him and for many others. The one thing they can’t accept is that people can oppose homosexual acts out of love for the person with same-sex attraction.
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Why do people always think that it is we the public that needs to be reconciled to the homosexuals? Is it to much to think that they need to be reconciled to the public and to God?
Maybe Melody just answered my question:
Is this “statement of reconciliation” supposed to be one particular entry in a larger catechetical series on forgiveness and not being judgmental, where last week they might have talked about racism and next week they might talk about poverty; or are they just fixated on being trendy and overcoming the next great imagined social injustice?
The mindset of the liberal “Catholics” is so bizarre – when will someone stand up for my “opposite sex” attraction and give me a pass to cheat on my wife? Or tell me that it was not a sin to have had premarital sex?
One thing we can count on is their consistent inconsistency….
Everyone who supports Archbishop Nienestedt should send a letter or e-mail thanking him for standing up for church teaching.
I saw the coverage of the “vigil” at the Cathedral yesterday, and one sign said “Jesus came to remove my sins, not my sexuality.” Hmmmm. What if your sexuality is sinful to act upon–nd I’m not just thinking of homosexuals–but also about rapists and people who prefer animal partners?
I blame the weak-kneed hierarchy for letting things get to the point that a large portion of the population thinks any expression of sexuality is a God-given right, and it all started with their cowardice in supporting Humanae Vitae.
This might shed some light on this parish’s view of reconciliation. I checked out their website, and under the “Sacraments” section, there is no information on when children can or ought to have their First Confession. There are no regularly scheduled confession times – only two Communal Services a year, in Advent and Lent (and you can only find this out by clicking on the “Contact Us” link and opening the FAQ). So, given that, it would seem that no one should be made to ever feel guilty about any sinful behaviour – or that the only sinful behaviour is talking about sinful behaviour. How sad.
There is NO truth nor true love of God or souls in the actions of this ‘parish’ which should be shut down.
Heresy!
It is not love to confirm people in their mortal sins; it is leading souls to hell with the one who does it at the helm.
Sheesh…and folks wonder how anyone finds solace in Islam. This stuff almost makes one long for Sharia…(-*
Why is it that the majority must bow to the minority especially when the minority is wrong? Just look at Christmas. Christians make up 75% of the USA! And yet the 13% of Agnostic/Atheists cause the majority to give in. We cannot have anything that even hints at God because we are the majority. The same is true with the gay issue. In my sister’s high school they have now made it an offence worthy of detention when people of the same gender hug each other. So if girls get giddy and hug each other they can land in detention for it. This is yet another example of how the majority must bow to the minority and it is WRONG! I would say that one of the few places that the majority should bow to the minority is in the Church because it is the minority that knows about the teachings of the Church and the majority that knows next to nothing. We the minority in the Church know what she teaches, know the beauty that was once hers, and know what is best for her future. The majority has been dumbed down and so the minority must lead in this battle. We should learn from our liberal brothers and refuse to give up, but rather fight all the harder because we are right even though we are the minority.
We get the Sunday only Star-Trib (also lovingly referred to as the Red Star in some circles), mostly for the coupon inserts and ads. In all the years we’ve subscribed, I have yet to agree with anything Coleman has written. Sometimes the only way I can look at the metro section’s front page is to literally black out his face with a marker. On the other hand, I’m a huge fan of Archbishop Nienstedt. I can’t wait for him to take the reins in May. He’s a holy man of God who doesn’t believe in watering down the truth. We in the Twin Cities area have truly been blessed by his assignment here.
I wonder how many hours it will be before the Coadjutor Archbishop is “punished” for standing up by someone excavating and publishing old abuse allegations. Am I being paranoid, or does every bishop’s stance against gay “marriage” SNAP its fingers and produce a flurry of abuse and cover-up stories? Hmmmmm?
If I squint, I can almost see blackmail on its way whenever a bishop or priest defends life or marriage. Perhaps the HISSING in my ear by a PP staff member when a priest showed up to visit our pro-life vigil has something to do with my vision, as well as my hearing.
The hissing threat was consistent with the “How’s your mother?” soft question put to me by a PP “suit” (who was rather comically covered in a belted raincoat and hat at the time.) The man didn’t know me, or my mother, and didn’t know she was deceased until I told him.
From what I’ve seen lately, I’m pretty sure that if no abuse allegations existed, ready-made, people with certain agendas would have invented them. Which is why I suspect that another foot will fall in Minnesota.
If we stand publicly for the truth and give up the spotless outward image, letting our opponents sling their mud at us, we will be in the BEST of company. As it is, the promoters of sin and death (especially from within our gates) grow more blatant every day, and manage to push us, on the whole, into silence for fear of their accusations.
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