There are facts and truths that "sexual libertarians" don't want society or public opinion to know, that even they don't want to know. To sum up those facts - accumulated in different human cultures and societies - we don't need sex to live a full life and be content. To define one's identity on the basis of our sexuality alone is to reduce our human value and dignity. I am a lot more than just my genitalia, and so are you. G.S.
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My purpose in these posts is to bring together significant and, where possible, representative echoes of our best human efforts to make sense of our lives - and of our human sexuality in particular - also including the voice of Jesus Christ, the one Saviour of the world, and testimonies from his Church, such as through her teaching voice, the Magisterium. The Church has been accumulating much valuable wisdom granted her by Almighty God since her foundation at Pentecost. In this way, wherever there is darkness in our human understanding, it will serve to highlight the bright and radiant truth, which is Jesus Christ: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also." John's Gospel 14:6-7
Father Gilles Surprenant, priest & poustinik
There are facts and truths that the "Gay Lobby" doesn't want society or public opinion to know, that even IT doesn't want to know. To sum up those facts - accumulated in different human cultures and societies - is that we don't need sex to live a full life and be content. To identify oneself on the basis of just the one element of our sexuality is to reduce our human value and dignity. I am a lot more than just my genitalia, and so are you.
Father Gilles Surprenant, priest & poustinik
For each, go to the link for the complete article.
JD Flynn Washington D.C., Nov 20, 2017 Catholic author Mary Eberstadt is a senior fellow of the Faith & Reason Institute, and the author of several best-selling books, including Adam and Eve After the Pill and How the West Really Lost God.
In the Nov. 6 issue of The Weekly Standard, Eberstadt published “The Primal Scream of Identity Politics,” an essay exploring the contours of contemporary American politics, our search for identity, and the importance of the family. In an interview with CNA editor-in-chief JD Flynn, Eberstadt offers important insights for all Catholic Americans.
It outlines strategies and techniques for a successful widespread propaganda campaign to confuse and deceive the American people and demonize opponents. Like all propaganda, their methods are based not on solid intellectual arguments, but instead upon emotional manipulation of the public in an attempt to gain widespread sympathy and approval for homosexual behavior.
Austin Ruse May 6, 2016 It is quite remarkable that we are fighting the same battle from before the French Revolution, the fight between sexual license and sexual morality. The fight has been non-stop. Sometimes we are winning, other times, like now, we are losing. On the one side are the radicals who genuinely believe traditional morality as espoused by the Catholic Church and expressed in a monogamous man-woman marriage open to life is a prison where freedom goes to die. It is
👉 “Homosexuality ... provokes, in those who suffer it, physical, psychological, moral, and spiritual damage.”
Editorial published Sunday, Mary 29, 2016, in the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Mexico City, Desde la Fe - Translation by Matthew Cullinan Hoffman of LifeSiteNews.com
Years ago, people with homosexual preferences were regarded as mentally ill. Today, there are “gay pride” marches. How did things pass from one extreme to another? It’s owing to a plan that was carefully studied, elaborated, and financed by international lobbies that seek to destroy the family because they see it as an archaic and repressive institution. That’s how they induced the World Health Organization to take homosexuality off the list of psychiatric illnesses. They then promoted the idea that it was very normal to be attracted to the same sex: on television and in the movies “gay” characters appeared who provoked sympathy, and little by little people were becoming accustomed to see them as normal, and to tar-brush those who wouldn’t accept it as “homophobic.”
👉 IN CANADA, SAME-SEX MARRIAGE IS DESTROYING ALL OTHER RIGHTS
Marriage Alliance Australia To see the real effects of redefining marriage, look no further than Canada. Regardless of whether one is for or against redefining the traditional definition of marriage in Australia, it is impossible to deny that the majority of Canadians have lost their fundamental rights as a result marriage being redefined. According to an online post featured in The Chronicle: In Canada, freedoms of speech, press and religion have suffered greatly. If one says or writes anything considered "homophobic", anything questioning same sex marriage, one could face discipline, termination of employment, and/or prosecution by the government.
First and foremost, it drastically changed the way in which parenthood was defined, and tacitly states that children have no right to their biological roots: Canada's gay marriage law, Bill C-38, included a provision to erase the term "natural parent" and replace it across the board with gender-neutral "legal parent" in federal law. Now all children only have "legal parents", as defined by the state.
In effect, same-sex marriage not only deprives children of their own rights to natural parentage, it gives the state the power to override the autonomy of biological parents, which means parental rights are usurped by the government.
Second, fair business is all but obliterated, as companies and organizations which refuse to side with the LGBTI lobby continue to being taken to court for ‘discrimination’.
👉 HOW THE CONCEPT OF /SEXUAL ORIENTATION THREATENS RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Robert H. Knight - Liberty University Law Review: Vol. 4 : Iss. 3 , Article 5. Available at: https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/lu_law_review/vol4/iss3/5
I. INTRODUCTION Sexual orientation laws are not about the preservation of civil rights or even the creation of civil protections that are necessary to ensure the liberty of all citizens. Instead, they are about hijacking civil rights in order to empower homosexual groups with the ability to threaten lawsuits against any institution that will not go along with the idea that homosexuality is normal, healthy, and should be promoted. It is important to understand that people who engage in homosexual behavior have the same basic rights as other citizens, no more, no less. But they should not be given additional rights based on their willingness to perform peculiar and often medically dangerous sex acts.
👉 The Homosexual Agenda: Exposing the Principal Threat to Religious Freedom Today
“The homosexual rights movement is built on a foundation of lies, deception, and factual disinformation. In spite of the flood of data on the destructive nature of homosexual practices, homosexuality is being normalized and promoted in movies, television, music, and to children and young people in our public schools and universities. Contrary to the common wisdom, we do not exhibit true compassion when we remain silent about the true nature of homosexuality. Genuine compassion requires cold honesty and brutal frankness about the popular mythologies that surround the gay and lesbian lifestyle. It is this structure of lies, deception, and factual disinformation that Americans must understand if we are to save our civilization. I commend Alan Sears and Craig Osten for having the courage to tell the truth about this highly destructive movement.”
—Marlin Maddoux, USA Radio
👉 We Told You So: The Homosexual Network Twenty Years Later
Free Congress Foundation | February 8, 2002 | Connie Marshner - Posted on 4/17/2002, by Slyfox
Don't you hate people who say "I told you so"? Well, with apologies in advance, hold your horses. Here at Free Congress Foundation, we told you so. The year was 1982; the book was The Homosexual Network: Private Lives and Public Policy. The author was Enrique Rueda, a Catholic priest then in the diocese of Rochester, New York. The book had 522 footnoted pages of text, with another 160 pages of appendices and indexes. It not only analyzed the ideology of homosexuality, but it documented the spread of that ideology through religious organizations, including the Catholic Church, and traced the funding of it.
👉 U.S. church wrestles with changing attitudes, pastoral practice toward L.G.B.T. Catholics - By Michael J. O'Loughlin May 18, 2017
Last month, the bishop of Lexington, Ky., addressed hundreds of L.G.B.T. Catholics and their supporters who were meeting in Chicago at a New Ways Ministry national symposium, telling them, “Your presence and your persistence in the church is an inspiration for me and for many.” Bishop John Stowe, O.F.M.Conv., told America that he accepted the group’s invitation because of a desire to engage in dialogue with Catholics who do not always feel welcome in the church. “Pope Francis talks about a culture of encounter, and that requires a lot of listening,” he said. “What I’ve seen among gay Catholics in my own diocese is a real desire to live their faith and the challenge to do so within a church that is not always accepting or labels them as disordered.”
Bishop Stowe is certainly not the first bishop to address a gathering of gay and lesbian Catholics, but his insights are emblematic of recent shifts in the relationship between the church and the L.G.B.T. community. Support for pro-L.G.B.T. causes, including same-sex marriage, has risen sharply among lay Catholics in recent years. Support for same-sex marriage among U.S. Catholics closely tracks support among the country at large. Part of that support, several L.G.B.T. advocates said, stems from the increased visibility of gay and lesbian Americans. More people know a family member or friend who identifies as gay or lesbian and are thus more sympathetic to causes they support.
👉 How Catholics Can Welcome LGBT Believers
By Cardinal Robert Sarah Aug. 31, 2017 It’s possible to stay faithful to the church’s teachings without turning away millions. The Catholic Church has been criticized by many, including some of its own followers, for its pastoral response to the LGBT community. This criticism deserves a reply—not to defend the Church’s practices reflexively, but to determine whether we, as the Lord’s disciples, are reaching out effectively to a group in need. Christians must always strive to follow the new commandment Jesus gave at the Last Supper: “Love one another, even as I have loved you.”
To love someone as Christ loves us means to love that person in the truth. “For this I was born,” Jesus told Pontius Pilate, “to bear witness to the truth.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church reflects this insistence on honesty, stating that the church’s message to the world must “reveal in all clarity the joy and demands of the way of Christ.”
Those who speak on behalf of the church must be faithful to the unchanging teachings of Christ, because only through living in harmony with God’s creative design do people find deep and lasting fulfillment. Jesus described his own message in these terms, saying in the Gospel of John: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Catholics believe that, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the church draws its teachings upon the truths of Christ’s message.
👉 Fr James Martin: “Respect, compassion & sensitivity” for gay Catholics
Christopher White June 7, 2017 In his much anticipated new book, Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity, Father James Martin, SJ, seeks to end the “us” versus “them” mentality that has long divided LGBT Catholics and the institutional Church. Martin, a popular spiritual writer and editor-at-large of America, has long been engaged in ministry with LGBT Catholics, however, last year’s Orlando nightclub massacre prompted him to want to do and say more.
👉 We need a bridge between LGBT community & the Catholic Church
James Martin, SJ October 30, 2016 Demonstrators take part in a protest for gay rights in late February outside Italy's Milan Cathedral. The Italian government's approval of a controversial bill that grants legal recognition to non-married heterosexual and homosexual couples is a defeat for democracy and family life, an Italian bishop said. (CNS photo/Matteo Bazzi, EPA) The relationship between the L.G.B.T. Catholic community and the Catholic Church in the United States has been at times contentious and combative, and at times warm and welcoming. Much of the tension characterizing this complicated relationship results from a lack of communication and, sadly, a good deal of mistrust, between L.G.B.T. Catholics and the hierarchy.
What is needed is a bridge between that community and the church. I invite you to walk with me on that important bridge. To that end, I would like to reflect on both the church’s outreach to the L.G.B.T. community and the L.G.B.T. community’s outreach to the church. Because good bridges take people in both directions. As you know, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says that Catholics are called to treat the homosexual person with “respect, compassion and sensitivity” (No. 2358). What might that mean? Let’s meditate on that, and on a second question as well:
What might it mean for the L.G.B.T. community to treat the church with “respect, sensitivity and compassion”? Of course, L.G.B.T. Catholics are part of the church, so, in a sense, those questions imply a false dichotomy. The church is the entire people of God, and it is strange to discuss how the people of God can relate to a part of the people of God. So, in good Jesuit fashion, let me refine our terms. When I refer to the church in this discussion I mean the institutional church—that is, the Vatican, the hierarchy, church officials and the clergy.
CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH - 👉 CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING PROPOSALS TO GIVE LEGAL RECOGNITION TO UNIONS BETWEEN HOMOSEXUAL PERSONS - INTRODUCTION
1. In recent years, various questions relating to homosexuality have been addressed with some frequency by Pope John Paul II and by the relevant Dicasteries of the Holy See.(1) Homosexuality is a troubling moral and social phenomenon, even in those countries where it does not present significant legal issues. It gives rise to greater concern in those countries that have granted or intend to grant – legal recognition to homosexual unions, which may include the possibility of adopting children.
The present Considerations do not contain new doctrinal elements; they seek rather to reiterate the essential points on this question and provide arguments drawn from reason which could be used by Bishops in preparing more specific interventions, appropriate to the different situations throughout the world, aimed at protecting and promoting the dignity of marriage, the foundation of the family, and the stability of society, of which this institution is a constitutive element.
The present Considerations are also intended to give direction to Catholic politicians by indicating the approaches to proposed legislation in this area which would be consistent with Christian conscience.(2) Since this question relates to the natural moral law, the arguments that follow are addressed not only to those who believe in Christ, but to all persons committed to promoting and defending the common good of society.
👉 Resource List: Homosexuality
The resources listed below align with Focus on the Family’s philosophy and mission. We trust you will find them helpful. If you would like to obtain any of these items, call us toll free at 1-800-A-FAMILY, or visit our online store at store.focusonthefamily.com.
(The information is regularly updated, but there is still the possibility that an item originally available from Focus on the Family might now be unavailable.) You may also be interested in the content posted on our website at focusonthefamily.com. REVISED 11-2-2017
Focus on the Family is committed to upholding God’s design for the expression of human sexuality: a husband and wife in a marriage relationship. We also hold to the scriptural truth that a relationship with God through Jesus Christ brings transformation and power over sin. We reach out with compassion and respect to individuals, families, and churches affected by homosexuality. With that in mind, the following resources may be helpful as a starting point for those looking for hope and healing.
3- WOMAN
👉 A thought for the Christian Woman’s conscience - page 81 of 207
By Nancy Dias - August 12, 2008 I would love to share with you my thoughts on modesty in view of the Christian faith. Born and brought up as a Catholic and a mother of two lovely sons, I'm not ashamed of the Gospel, it is therefore imperative for me to witness to you.To the secular liberalist or to the Christian liberalist,or to the immodest, this may sound legalistic. But the Word of God calls it VIRTUE!I was a regular Church attendee and everything was going on well and yet I did not discover the nakedness within me. I must thank my Lord Jesus for not giving up on me for living a “double standard” Christian life by being a slave to the worldly desires.
👉 Mod – Modern or Modest? (Part I & II) - page 82-85 of 207
By Flavia Fernandes, Mumbai, July 2009 Scandals can come through various sources, e.g. profane paintings and sculptures, immodest dresses, loose lifestyles and even toys. All these may cause the loss of many souls. Immodesty in dress, apparent in everyday life, is the most common source of scandal. It is not only a major problem in our own times, but it is also one of the greatest stumbling blocks to our own salvation and to the salvation of others. Though modesty or immodesty is usually attributed to women, this is not entirely true, for even men may dress immodestly.The heart of a person can be seen by how he/she attires his/her body. We have only to go back in time and reflect on how Satan duped our First Parents Adam & Eve, to see where we stand today.
👉 Women's Liberation and Feminism
By Jutta Burggraf - October 30, 1991 Women are playing more and more active roles in the political, economic, and cultural life of our times. Their voices are being listened to with greater respect, and they are making important decisions affecting major portions of society. Inferior intellect and dependency have largely ceased to be diagnosed as deficiencies of their nature. It hasn’t always been so. Women in the past have too often been looked down upon. Today this may tend to be exaggerated for ideological reasons, but history shows us it is true enough.
👉 Le temps de la femme : pas sans les hommes !
Marie Brintet | 30 juin 2018 - Est-ce le temps de la femme ? Durant trois jours, philosophes, théologiens, médecins et historiens réunis par l’Institut catholique de Toulouse ont exploré le mystère de la femme dans le temps de l’humanité. Que dire de la relation de la femme au temps ? Le temps a une dimension finie, la femme est dans l’immortalité. Pourtant, un rythme est inscrit dans le corps de la femme, pendant le temps de la fertilité, sur celui de la lune et sans doute de bien d’autres lunes. Quelque chose en elle lui rappelle qu’elle est partie de l’univers et qu’elle lui donne son sens. Dieu a créé la terre pour la donner aux hommes et non le contraire. Cette dimension cosmique est à étudier pour entrer dans le mystère de la femme, ce cosmos qui commence tout juste à être compris des physiciens. Cette réflexion autour de la femme (et non de la féminité), autour de sa vocation si particulière de gardienne de la vie, sentinelle de l’invisible, est centrale dans un monde qui ne sait plus où il va. À force de combattre l’indétermination, il n’y a plus de place pour la liberté et la responsabilité. Le transhumanisme et le post-humanisme sont des domaines exclusivement masculins. Le génie féminin doit retrouver sa place.
👉 The Experiment on Our Children: Doctors Don’t Know Who the Real Trans Kids Are
By Walt Heyer - within Healthcare, Science, Sexuality June 12th, 2017
Doctors currently have no way of predicting which gender dysphoric children will persist in their gender dysphoria, and yet they are pushing the minimum age for irreversible hormone therapy and surgery as low as possible. According to the wisdom of the day, kids experiencing gender dysphoria need to be treated affirmingly as early—and as radically—as possible. For the time being, surgery and hormone therapy have to wait until age sixteen. But before that, adolescents can be prescribed puberty blockers, and even younger children are encouraged to transition “socially,” by adopting the name, dress, and mannerisms of their preferred gender.
All of this is in spite of the fact that gender dysphoria in children sees very low rates of persistence—ranging from 2.2% to 30% in males and from 12% to 50% in females, according to the DSM-5. As Dr. Kristina Olson, a research psychologist at the University of Washington, put it, “We just don’t have definitive data one way or another.” The truth is that no one can predict whether a gender dysphoric kid will feel the same way years later. That’s why Olson is leading a study of 300 trans kids that will track outcomes over twenty years. “To be able to, hopefully, answer which children should or should not transition,” she said. In the meantime, many of those children will be encouraged to go ahead and make life-altering medical decisions in light of scientific ignorance.
👉 Johns Hopkins Psychiatrist: Support of Transgenderism and Sex-Change Surgery Is ‘Collaborating With Madness’
By Michael W. Chapman | June 2, 2016 - Dr. Paul R. McHugh, the Distinguished Service Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, and former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital who has studied transgenderism and sex-reassignment surgery for 40 years, said the condition is a “mental illness” and to enable it is equal to “collaborating with madness.” A transgender person is someone whose biological sex at birth is different than who they think they are sexually on the inside; for example, an anatomical male who believes he is a woman.
Sex-reassignment surgery is an operation where a person’s genitalia is changed from what it was biologically at birth; for example, a man’s penis and testes are removed and a faux-vagina is created by surgeons. The man may also receive breast implants and hormone treatments. The gay-rights activist group Human Rights Campaign includes sexually reassigned people in its definition of transgender, as well as those who have not undergone the operation. The HRC defines “gender identity” as “one’s internal concept of self as male, female, a blend of both, or neither,” regardless of one’s anatomy and chromosomal makeup – XX female, XY male.
But as Dr. McHugh explains in the chapter “Surgical Sex” in his book The Mind Has Mountains: Reflections on Society and Psychiatry (Johns Hopkins University Press), transgender is a “mental illness,” and to surgically alter someone’s genitalia is to enable a disorder. “I have witnessed a great deal of damage from sex reassignment,” states Dr. McHugh in his book. “The children transformed from their male constitution into female roles suffered prolonged distress and misery as they sensed their natural attitudes” as males develop.
👉 Transgender Health Experts Contradict Themselves in New Publication
By Rebecca Oas, Ph.D June 23, 2016 NEW YORK, June 24 (C-Fam)
A leading medical journal published its first series on transgender health and reveals what appear to be major contradictions. On the one hand the journal argues there is nothing medically wrong with transgenderism. On the other hand, it argues transgenderism is a condition that requires medical attention, setting up transgenderism as the first non-medical condition that requires a medical intervention. The World Health Organization (WHO) will likely revisit its diagnostic manual in 2018, moving gender identity issues from the chapter on “mental and behavioral disorders” to a new chapter on “conditions related to sexual health” using the term “gender incongruence.”
The revision would be the latest step in a series of changes in how the mental health field views gender identity. In 2013, the latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual (DSM-5) reclassified “gender identity disorder” as “gender dysphoria.” This was seen as normalizing transgender identity by shifting the focus from gender identity to the distress associated with living in a body that does not match one’s perceived gender.
But, according to the authors of one of the articles published in The Lancet, “gender dysphoria” still imparts stigma since “the diagnosis remains one of mental disorder.” In an interview with Mother Jones, the article’s lead author and sexology professor Sam Winter pointed out that diagnoses enable transgender persons to access drugs and other therapies. The article raised but did not answer the question about why, if being transgender is not a disorder, it requires so much therapy.
👉 Exposing the Hypocrisy in the Transgender Movement
Trent Horn March 07, 2017 - There have been a lot of stories in the news recently about transgender issues. This includes the Trump administration’s roll back of transgender guidelines that were issued under President Obama as well as the transgender boy who won a Texas girls wrestling championship (which is not surprising, given that this biological female takes testosterone in order to give her a more masculine appearance). But another story caught my eye that, at first, seems unrelated but is actually quite pertinent to the discussion over transgender identity.
👉 Rendering the Sexed Body Legally Invisible: How Transgender Law Hurts Women
By Erika Bachiochi within Sexuality May 26th, 2016 - The Witherspoon Institute Public Discourse
The gross misappropriation of executive power to utterly remake the meaning of very basic legal terms threatens not only the structure of our government. It threatens the rule of law itself. This distortion of legal language is a particular threat to laws concerning women.
Whether she knew it or not, when Vanita Gupta, the acting head of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, stated earlier this month that trans women are women and trans men are men, she was making a metaphysical claim. Her claim is that men and women are not most fundamentally human persons. Rather, they are minds unmoored from human bodies. But the law does not govern human minds; indeed, it cannot. The law governs human persons, who are always and everywhere embodied. And human bodies are always and everywhere sexed.
👉 Gender Ideology Harms Children
The American College of Pediatricians urges educators and legislators to reject all policies that condition children to accept as normal a life of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex. Facts – not ideology – determine reality.
👉 “ MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED THEM ”
TOWARDS A PATH OF DIALOGUE ON THE QUESTION OF GENDER THEORY IN EDUCATION - It is becoming increasingly clear that we are now facing with what might accurately be called an educational crisis, especially in the field of affectivity and sexuality. In many places, curricula are being planned and implemented which “allegedly convey a neutral conception of the person and of life, yet in fact reflect an anthropology opposed to faith and to right reason”.1 The disorientation regarding anthropology which is a widespread feature of our cultural landscape has undoubtedly helped to destabilise the family as an institution, bringing with it a tendency to cancel out the differences between men and women, presenting them instead as merely the product of historical and cultural conditioning.
👉 The Church needs a unified strategy to counter gender ideology, expert says
By Elise Harris Rome, Italy, May 19, 2017
Apostolic nuncios attended a crash course last year on gender from an expert in the field, who stressed the need for the Church to develop a unified strategy, based on the faith's basic principles, in fighting gender ideology. First, “we Christians, and certainly our bishops and nuncios, need to be convinced about our principles, the principles of our faith,” Fr. Robert Gahl told CNA May 16. “We also need to have a thought-through understanding of those principles, also regarding the human body.”
He stressed the importance of remembering that “humanity has been saved fully, that we are redeemed also in our sexuality.” This implies a daily struggle and fight with original sin, he said, explaining that “the redemption of our own embodiment and therefore of our own sexuality and complementarity” is a task each person must carry out daily.
Secondly, he said, “the Church needs to act together, so that it be in concert, because we’re more powerful when we act together.” Acting together doesn’t mean that everyone has to do the same thing, but rather that by seeking guidance from the Church on how to handle modern issues such as gender, individuals will be able “to act in a way that will be more effective in the public square.” Fr. Gahl emphasized that the present time “is a crucial moment for the bishops to help to intervene and to help coordinate so the market can produce sound alternatives that also agree with our conscience and our religious belief.”
Both individuals and institutions “need to have instruction and guidance” from bishops, he said, noting that “many people are waiting for that and at times, unfortunately, it’s missing, because the bishops aren’t sure what to do because things are changing too rapidly.” Fr. Gahl, a priest of Opus Dei, is an associate professor of ethics at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross who has authored numerous publications on sexual ethics and moral action, among other topics.
👉 Pope in Georgia blasts gender theory as the 'great enemy' of marriage
By Elise Harris - Vatican City, Oct 1, 2016 - In a lengthy, off-the-cuff speech in Georgia, Pope Francis said the world today is at war with marriage, and urged couples to fight against modern threats to the sacrament such as gender theory. Speaking to Irina, a Georgian wife and mother who gave her testimony in front of Pope Francis and hundreds of priests, seminarians and religious Oct. 1, the Pope said “you mentioned a great enemy of marriage today: gender theory.” “Today the whole world is at war trying to destroy marriage,” he said, noting that this war isn’t being fought with arms “but with ideas.” There are “certain ideologies that destroy marriage,” he said. “So we need to defend ourselves from ideological colonization.”
👉 Commentary on the Relationship Between Men and Women
Author: Prof. Jutta Burggraf, University of Navarre
Man and woman are created to be like eagles, not hens
It has unfortunately become normal to watch the most dramatic and scandalous events that the media daily show us and often parade to satisfy the morbid curiosity of a broad section of the public: a husband grabs a weapon and kills his wife in a fit of anger, another pushes his wife out the window, a third seriously injures his partner with a knife. These scenes may occur in any quiet and peaceful town where neighbours waste no time in joining together to express their amazement and dismay. And after having heard more or less coherent complaints, we switch to another item of news, thinking that society should provide women with better protection.
Without denying that this protection is indeed urgently necessary, it must be said that the results of certain recent inquiries give food for thought. As a German psychological journal (cf. Psychologie heute, July 2004) claims, it is men, not women, who suffer most from domestic violence. Women are also showing a growing inclination for physical aggression, whereas their husbands prefer to keep quiet about the abuse they suffer. "I have always been careful only to slap educated, gentle men who would not have slapped me back", an active feminist declared (cf. Die Welt, 11 June 2004).
Apart from this revealing confession, it is known that women are capable of [...] damage by means of psychological torture, embittering the lives of their families by more subtle and "indemonstrable" means, such as coercion, humiliation or constant bad temper. In such a situation, it is not surprising the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has addressed its Letter to both men and women. Its intention is not only to defend the dignity of women, as Pope John Paul II did with fine sensitivity 16 years ago in his Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem, a Document that even gave rise to admiration in certain radical feminist circles. For example, Gertrude Mongella, President of the International Conference on Women in Beijing said: "I would like all the fanatics in the world to reason in the same balanced way as the Pope" (cf. Kirche heute, December 1996, 26).
Instead, today, in addition to clearly indicating the legitimate rights of women and working to make them respected on the five continents, it is also necessary to speak of the duties of both sexes. To use a more attractive metaphor: the time has come to remind people of their important mission in this world. We have all been created to be "eagles" that can soar toward the sun, and we must not diminish ourselves by behaving like "hens" that do nothing but peck at grain scattered on the ground.
Contrary to widespread misinformation, scientists have not discovered a biological cause for homosexuality. Instead, many researchers believe a homosexual orientation results from a combination of factors. Not every homosexual will have all the factors listed below but may have some combination of them. This presentation highlights the primary role of environmental factors.
People who are attracted to members of their own gender, do they come to it for biological reasons or is it something that they choose? Watch Dr. Julie Hamilton explain how science shows it is neither.
YOUTUBE - Nov 14, 2015 Dr. Julie Hamilton's session is full of insights, truth and compassion regarding the topic of homosexuality and what the research actually says. She begins with audience assessment questions and dispelling the myths and misinformation regarding homosexuality with questions like, "Is someone born gay or do they choose homosexuality?"
She then covers developmental factors that can contribute to setting the stage for homosexual desire and then what to do about it all for the Christian. Her expertise is matched with her compassionate approach which is so incredibly refreshing on the current cultural stage.
Dr. Julie Harren Hamilton is a licensed marriage and family therapist with a private practice in south Florida. She is also former President of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality and speaks in a variety of contexts on issues related to marriage, family life, spiritual growth, and homosexuality.
She is co-editor of The Handbook for Unwanted Homosexual Attractions: A Guide to Treatment. ©RestoredHopeNetwork.org. Permissions: videos and screenshots may be used for private consumption without written permission. Any media usage must obtain written permission from the Restored Hope Network Board of Directors.
👉 National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality
The National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, also known as the NARTH Institute, is a US organization that promotes conversion therapy, a harmful and pseudoscientific practice used in attempts to change the sexual orientation of people with same-sex attraction.
👉 Bringing Sanity to Sex: Part I By Karlo Broussard
February 08, 2017 - Sanity is to see what is (reality) and live in accord with it. If your grandfather thinks leprechauns are jumping in his butter dish and he gives them his butter knife to use as a springboard, then his sanity is defective. He mistakes a hallucination for what is real and behaves accordingly. As he tells you about this phenomenon at the dinner table, you probably would invite him to become a citizen of the real world and see reality as it is and live in it. I use this example to prompt the question, “Is there a real world when it comes to sex and our sexual powers?” In other words, is there a meaning to sex that is independent of what you or I make sex out to be? Is there a reality to sex, and thus to our sexual powers, that we ought to reverence and live in accord with? Is there a real world with regard to sex that we could invite someone to live in? Is there such a thing as sexual sanity?
👉 Bringing Sanity to Sex: Part II By Karlo Broussard
In my previous article, we saw that there is such a thing as sexual sanity, an objective reality with which we need to live in accord in order to be sexually sane. Regardless of someone’s personal motive for engaging in sexual activity, procreation is its natural end. Now, the charge that such a view reduces human sex acts to mere biology might have force if producing children were the end of the story. But it’s not. There is another purpose of sex intrinsic to making babies: the physical and emotional drawing together of spouses. Catholic theology calls these the procreative and unitive dimensions of sex. There are two ways to see this intrinsic connection. The first sees the spousal friendship as finalizing the procreative dimension inasmuch as it makes sex a human reproductive act. The second sees how the unitive is bound to the procreative for the sake of rearing children.
2. Naturally, an exhaustive treatment of this complex issue cannot be attempted here, but we will focus our reflection within the distinctive context of the Catholic moral perspective. It is a perspective which finds support in the more secure findings of the natural sciences, which have their own legitimate and proper methodology and field of inquiry.
However, the Catholic moral viewpoint is founded on human reason illumined by faith and is consciously motivated by the desire to do the will of God our Father. The Church is thus in a position to learn from scientific discovery but also to transcend the horizons of science and to be confident that her more global vision does greater justice to the rich reality of the human person in his spiritual and physical dimensions, created by God and heir, by grace, to eternal life.
👉 Pastoral Charity Does Not Excuse Us From Seeking the Truth
The Quest for Same-Sex Unions Touches Us Deeply
People who not only claim to be Christians but also live the Christian life have accepted to be bound by Jesus’ commandment to love their neighbor as themselves, in addition to loving God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. Like Jesus, they must be devoted to each other and kind to every person; while they also cling firmly to the truth about both God and man. Those engaged in ministry to others are bound, after the example of Jesus, to practice pastoral charity, the dedicated love, service, and concern of the shepherd.
Pastoral charity, as we see it in Jesus himself, includes compassion to individual persons in their weakness combined with firm and unequivocal teaching of the truth. Jesus never said to a sinner, “Your inclination or attraction is so strong and you’ve had it from so young, that it’s your orientation; so it’s God’s plan for you. I bless you and your condition – go and be happy.”
With Jesus, it was always, “Your faith has saved you. Go, and sin no more.” Sometimes, He even added, “or something worse may happen to you.” Pastoral charity consists of a two-pronged approach: show compassion and understanding to the person, but be uncompromising with the truth of the situation and of what God expects of us all.
👉 Same Sex Attraction: Catholic Teaching and Pastoral Practice
BY FATHER JOHN F. HARVEY, O.S.F.S. in KofC Resources
SAME SEX ATTRACTION: WHAT AND WHY? - Introduction
It becomes increasingly difficult to pick up a newspaper or watch television without being faced with the fact of homosexuality. Yet as the “gay” lifestyle and the demand for “gay rights” become more prominent, intelligent discussions of the relevant moral and psychological issues seem to be growing scarce—as if no decent person could possibly see anything wrong with homosexual acts or anything distorted in the phenomenon of same-sex attraction.
Amid gay advocacy and political claims about science and ethics, confusion about the nature, origins, dynamics, and morality of homosexual activity is widespread. For this reason I should like to present some basic notions of a psychological and moral nature in this booklet. I shall conclude with a spiritual plan of life for those who deal with samesex attractions and wish to live chastely.
👉 What does it look like to be gay – and a practicing Catholic?
By Kerri Lenartowick - Rome, Italy, Jun 30 More than 10 years ago, Joseph Prever found himself scouring the internet for anything that might help him: he was gay, Catholic, and confused. Resources were scarce for a man struggling with homosexuality and trying to remain faithful to the Church’s teaching. In the intervening years, Catholics experiencing same-sex attraction have become a more vocal presence in the Church.
Google the words “gay Catholic” and one of the top sites to appear will be Prever’s own blog, a blog with the tagline: “Catholic, Gay, and Feeling Fine.” There, the 32-year-old writer considers his own experiences as a man struggling with same-sex attraction and trying to live out the virtue of chastity. What follows is an edited version of a conversation about everything from homosexuality and Batman to poetry and football. The interview is published in two parts.
👉 Why this Catholic takes issue with 'gay' and 'straight' labels
By Perry West Denver, Colo., Jun 3, 2018 Chastity actually means fulfillment, not suffering – and labeling people in terms of their sexual inclinations or attractions first is ultimately a reduction of their human dignity. These ideas form the basis of a provocative book by Daniel Mattson, a Catholic who finds identifying as “gay” unhelpful in the dialogue on the issue, and who also believes that living the Church's teaching on sexuality leads to the most profound experience of peace and freedom. “The Church must truly have a missionary zeal in proclaiming chastity as an invitation to a more fulfilling life for all men and women,” Mattson told CNA. He said that Catholics need to reach out “to those who identify as LGBT to truly 'come out,' and let the masks of the world's sexual identity labels fall from them, and see themselves as God sees them: solely as men and women, beloved children of God.” “The dividing line of human sexuality is not between gay and straight, but rather between male and female, as we see in the Creation account of Genesis,” said Mattson.
© 2006-2023 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2006-2023 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC
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