Good old-fashioned Christianity: Just in case you thought things were going to change

Pope Francis used an offensive slur for gay men during a discussion with bishops, sources say.ope

The Vatican apologized Tuesday “to those who were offended” after the pontiff used the derogatory term during a closed-door discussion with Italian bishops last week, two sources who were in the room told NBC News.

In case any of my readers thought that I was neglecting the Roman Catholic side of things.

And the discussion was about!:

Francis reiterated that gay men should not be allowed to train in seminaries as priests, according to Italian media, which said that his use of the slur left some in the audience surprised given the pope’s track record of a more welcoming approach toward the LGBTQ+ community.

So, parsing Pope Francis on sin and homosexuality.

 I seem to have missed putting this on the blog. Pope Francis says that homosexuality is not a crime but it is still a sin.

Then he needed to clarify what he meant by that: he meant sin as in "any sexual act outside of marriage is a sin". Pope Francis clarifies comments on homosexuality: One must consider the circumstances. 

What does this really mean? That if homosexuals get married with the church's blessing (holy sacrament of marriage), then homosexual acts are not a sin?

There are problems with the questions from Outreach, in the first place. Question 2 is problematic and I quote: ""Being gay is a sin," which, of course, is not part of church teaching." Say what? Has Humanae Vitae been struck down? Has the longstanding position that marriage is "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve" disappeared? I think not.

An interesting blog post comes from New Waves Ministry (Building bridges between the LGBTQ ministry and the Catholic Church since 1977). I just add it here because it shows just how difficult this issue is within Christianity, much less the RCC. "50 Years Later, Lessons from "Humanae Vitae" Debate readily Applicable to LGBT Issues". And this also highlights just how divided the Roman Catholic Church is on this issue.

Pope Francis is doing his best, I think, to change the channel on LGBTIQ issues but he needs to do a lot more and he doesn't have much time. The next Pope could well reinstitute reactionary thinking on this subject. If fact, if history tells us anything, then that is what will happen.

Told You So! It's about time some part of this church was acting with some level of moral integrity.

Jesuits of Canada release names of priests 'credibly accused' of sexually abusing minors

In wake of Jesuits' revelations, victims stress 'this cannot continue to happen'

We could now check out how many are already on the BishopAccountability.org website. I won't do this but it could be done. I only wish other parts of the Roman Catholic Church would this as well. At least somebody over at the Jesuits of Canada has a conscience. 

It is still so so very heart-breaking. It has been so destructive for our whole society, much less the Roman Catholic Church. The only thing that could make this list better would be if the Jesuits had put the dates of each pastoral assignment on the list. Are the assignments listed in chronological order? Just asking.

Now this may seem trivial but...

 People just don't seem to know! Thousands of baptisms declared invalid in Arizona.

The article talks about baptism as a "rite of passage". NOPE. If it was just a rite of passage, there wouldn't be all this fuss. And I can't believe that a Roman Catholic priest would have made this error unknowingly. Come on!! So, maybe seminary training "ain't what it used to be"???

Now to be fair, I am sure that the reporter of this story looked up "baptism" (probably on Wikipedia? I haven't checked) and saw it was a rite of passage. Good enough? If we were talking about the United Church of Canada or the Reformed tradition Protestant churches, that would have been good enough. In those Protestant denominations, for example, baptism welcomes the infants or adults into the Christian community. Baptists perform adult and child baptism so that the decision is one made by the individual. (NOTE: if you are in one of the Calvinist traditions, there is nothing that can be done about original sin - you are born with it and you die with it)

 However, in Roman Catholicism and even the Lutheran church, infant baptism is performed to remove the stain of Original Sin. If the stain of original sin is not removed then there is no possibility of redemption - hell is awaiting after you die. And the rite must be done correctly. The purpose of baptism is to take away original sin - the community cannot do that. Only God can do that. Did no one learn about the Donatists - the priests may not have to be free from sin, but, by God, the rite MUST be done correctly. The mess that is occurring in Arizona has been caused by a lack of understanding that Augustine supported the holy war against the Donatists. It is the sacrament that takes away original sin, and the sacrament MUST be performed correctly (redundancy sometimes works to get a point across).

I can only hope that Pope Francis is going to find some way to introduce retroactive measures into this parish.

The things that I learned after I began to study religion as an academic discipline. I was raised in the UCC; needless to say that original sin wasn't even on the radar! 

Why am I not surprised?????

 

Former, current ministers won't say who dropped residential school case against Catholic Church

Why am I Not Surprised?????

 This news story speaks for itself.

Millions meant for residential school survivors spent on Catholic Church lawyers, administration: documents