"HOMOSEXUAL" OR "GAY"?
GIRLS AND GUYS WITHIN SPITTING DISTANCE AT WYD
LATE NEWS ON AN UPCOMING LITURGY CONFERENCE
Dear Friend of Catholic Answers:
Ken Magnan and Bill Hollick of our staff went door to door last week. Behind not a few of the doors were Catholics who were glad--no, surprised--to see them. One woman sent them a note that ended this way:
"Again, it was great to have met you and to have opened my door not to a Jehovah's Witness but to Catholics like me! It's inspiring to know that Catholics are going door to door and not just the other religious groups."
I will leave this as a subtle hint to those readers who might be in a position to do a little door-to-door work of their own.
WILLIAM DONOHUE IS NOT A WALLFLOWER
The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights sends out, almost daily it seems, faxes from its president, William Donohue. Last Friday's fax was about the release of priests' personnel files by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Among other things, Donohue said this:
"We know from the files that have been released that in 79 percent of the cases the alleged victim was male; this comports with the figure of 81 percent cited by the John Jay study of priests nationwide. And we know from the latter study that almost 8 in 10 of the alleged male victims were post-pubescent, meaning that the problem is homosexual priests.
"Yet many in the media continue to lie--they say the problem is pedophilia when the data directly say otherwise. No, homosexuality does not cause molestation, and there are many good gay priests, but the fact remains that most of the problem priests are gay."
Good, plain speaking, though I would make a small but important change. Donohue uses "homosexual" and "gay" interchangeably. Many people do. I think the words should not be used as synonyms.
By "homosexual" I mean someone who suffers from same-sex attraction. By "gay" I mean a homosexual who endorses and lives the "gay lifestyle." "Homosexual" is a neutral term, "gay" a political term. Gay activists want everyone to equate the two; they want everyone to think that all homosexuals are gays. But that isn't the case. All gays are homosexuals, but not all homosexuals are gays.
Consider, for example, the members of the Catholic support group Courage. They are homosexuals who are trying to live chastely, according to the Church's teaching. Many of them once lived the gay lifestyle, and all of them are trying to live apart from it now. I think it makes sense to say the members of Courage are homosexuals but not gays.
So much for that little digression. Otherwise, I think Donohue's observations were on the mark and unobjectionable, but some people might object to the ending of his fax. He used these words: "Get the guilty and protect the innocent. Exercise common sense and have the courage to execute. And stop the lying. That's my recipe."
"The courage to execute"? I hope he meant "the courage to see things through, to fix the problem, to do what you should do." I don't think he meant the solution to the priest scandal is the hangman.
AND NOW, THE JUDGMENTALISM AWARD ...
At each World Youth Day Catholic Answers has distributed hundreds of thousands of booklets. For years this has been a major project of ours, and we have been glad for the chance to reach so many young people.
As for World Youth Day itself, I confess I am somewhat ambivalent. Part of it is that I am triple the age of the intended audience, and part of it is that I just am not one for big crowds. When I take some time off, usually it is to go on a solo hike in a wilderness, not to squeeze into a massive crowd.
Be that as it may, I have no great objections to World Youth Day, even though I think certain elements (liturgical, mainly) could be improved a lot. Some people, though, think the entire event is incorrigible. One of them is Marian Horvat, who has a web site called Tradition in Action. Under the title "Church Revolution in Pictures" she complains about what happened in Cologne by reproducing six photographs and providing a caption for each:
Church Revolution in Pictures
The first photo shows a young couple. He is holding a camcorder and has a rosary around his head. She has a knapsack with a teddy bear protruding from it. They are smooching. The caption: "A young couple kissing in an ambience of complete liberty."
I don't see anything particularly problematic about the photo. It reminds me of that famous "Life" magazine photo, taken in Times Square on V-J Day, showing a sailor kissing a nurse.
Horvat's second caption says: "Adolescents of both sexes sleeping close to each other without any barrier to prevent their bad instincts from developing." Sounds ominous until you look at the picture, which shows two girls and two guys sleeping on the grass.
The girls face each other. They guys are on their backs, facing the sky. Granted, they are "close to each other," but they are in the middle of tens of thousands of young folks who are taking a snooze. They would be closer if they got on a city bus together.
The third photo is captioned "a love-in manifestation in a style characteristic of Woodstock." A close look at the photo seems to show not something like Woodstock but a conga line. I used to see conga lines in old black-and-white movies, so I guess they're okay.
The fourth caption: "A smiling punk with an extravagant hairstyle looks as if he is being blessed by the billboard's Benedict XVI." Actually, it's hard to tell if it's a billboard or one of the giant video screens that were set up in Cologne. Anyway, the guy does have goofy looking hair, but at least he's a Catholic punk.
The fifth photo shows a youth with a spiked mohawk. The rest of his head is shaved, and on his scalp is inked "Köln 2005." Horvat writes: "Another punk feels at ease in the tolerant ambience of Cologne 2005." Would she be as snide, I wonder, if she discovered that the local German paper, running the photo later, had this caption:
"Kurt Holzer, 16, from Berlin, leads his parish's perpetual adoration society and plans to study for the priesthood. 'I want to be a missionary priest,' he said. He prays the rosary and attends Mass each day. At his gymnasium [high school] he leads a study group that is reading Augustine's 'Confessions.'"
That is not a real caption. I made it up. But how does Horvat know what is in this young man's heart and mind? When I was a few years older than he seems to be and in college, I wore clothing that would look pretty silly on anybody now. Despite that, I think I turned out okay. At least I turned out orthodox. (Maybe Horvat would have less of an attitude had she worn garish bell-bottoms 35 years ago.)
The sixth and last photo is a long-distance shot. The caption: "Boys without shirts and girls in shorts wade into the waters of the Rhine River to greet the boat of Benedict XVI." What is the problem here?
The last time I waded into a river I took my shirt off too--I wanted something dry to wear when I got back to shore. And wading into the water wearing shorts? Well, it would be a little awkward for gals to go wading in long skirts. Which makes me wonder: What does Horvat expect them to wear when they go swimming--a swimsuit that covers their knees?
There is more stuff like this at her web site. Check it out for yourself and see if the word "Jansenism" pops into your mind.
LATE NOTICE OF A GREAT CONFERENCE
Sorry, but I just found out about this event. If you are within driving distance of Clarkston, Michigan, consider attending next week's special conference on the liturgy.
Among the speakers:
Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, former prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
Msgr. Peter J. Elliott, director of Australia's John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family
Robert Fastiggi, professor of systematic theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary
Fr. Manfred Hauke, Swiss professor and author of "Women in the Priesthood"
Helen Hull Hitchcock of Adoremus and the "Adoremus Bulletin"
Monica Migliorino Miller, author of "The Theology of the Passion of Christ"
Fr. Eduard Perrone, founder and spiritual director of Call to Holiness
There are many other speakers. It looks like a very good line-up and ought to be a very good conference. You can find details at:
www.liturgicalrenewal.org
p.s., If you have a comment about anything appearing in this E-Letter, please do not hit your Reply button. Instead, go to Catholic Answers' discussion forums at
http://forums.catholic.com
where you may post your comment in the forum dedicated to the E-Letter. You will find a thread devoted to this issue of the E-Letter. Feel free to add your comment in the form of a reply to that thread.
|
C A T H O L I C A N S W E R S :
[TOP]
of
Discuss
Index
Prior issue
Next issue
Sign up