Will You Die for Him? (A Sermon on the Eve of Persecution in America)

From The Remnant
Letter by Father John Echert
  

Fr. John Echert, Ministering to the Souls of Soldiers in the Mideast

Editor’s Note: Whenever I hear it said that Catholic priests who continue to serve our war-torn Church from within the establishment are playing the part of the coward for not joining a traditionalist fraternity or society, my blood begins to boil. The following is the transcript of a sermon delivered a few weeks ago by a diocesan priest here in St. Paul. Father Echert has been providing daily Traditional Latin Masses in this archdiocese ever since 2007, and before that he opened his church willingly and enthusiastically to the TLM shortly after he was made pastor of the Church of St. Augustine in South St. Paul. A relatively young military chaplain who has served in Iraq and in various dangerous locations in the Mideast, Father’s courage seems to recognize no limits, unquestionably loyal to the Church but utterly unafraid to speak the truth no matter the personal costs. So the next time you’re tempted to claim that only priests trying to “save their skins” stay on and serve within our occupied Church, please remember Father Echert and the many good priests just like him who cannot find it within themselves to abandon their flocks to modernist priests during the present siege, and so have determined to stay on and hold the Catholic ground come what may. And as you read the following sermon, please consider the courage in the face of evil that is required of a priest first to deliver this sermon in the present climate and then to give the “rad-trad” Remnant permission to publish it. God bless you, Father! And, for what it’s worth, when they come for you, which now begins to seem almost inevitable, we’ve got your back!   Father Miguel Pro, pray for us and for our courageous priests. MJM

My Friends in Christ,

It has now been one week since the diabolical Supreme Court decision which now makes same-sex marriage a universal right for Americans. How ironic that in the days leading up to this national holiday that celebrates the Independence of the United States, the highest court in the land should abuse its power in such a blatant act against true human liberty and rights as determined by God.

Russian Orthodox Church Blasts Supreme Court Decision to Legalize Same-Sex "Marriages" As Godless, Sinful

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin

Moscow, June 29, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church has appealed to all Russian advocates of the American model of governance, asking them to think twice about the consequences of the United States' decision to legalize same-sex "marriages".

"The people who are into 'democracy the American way' and trying to reconcile it with traditional values need to think hard after this decision," the head of the Synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin told Interfax-Religion.
 

Father George Rutler on the Supreme Court's Abuse of its Authority

The Supreme Court’s abuse of its authority in the decision redefining marriage as an institution based on feelings rather than fact and sanctioning deviancy as a civil right was expected, but the surprise was its sentimental substitution of nihilistic narcissism for jurisprudence, expressed in an amorphous substitute for English diction. This passed a death sentence on Christian culture, just as Roe v. Wade sanctioned the deaths of millions of infants.
 

As Christ rose from the dead, so can our nation, but only the cynic and the naïf will deny that the next steps will be attacks on Christ himself in his Church, schools and charitable institutions. It can’t happen here? That is what the English said before 1534 and the French before 1789 and the Russians before 1917 and the Germans before 1923. Now is the time of trial predicted by Christ. Not all will be brave enough to endure the persecutions predicted by Christ, though great will be the reward for those who bring their white robes of Christian dignity “unstained into the everlasting life of Heaven.”
 

Pope Francis has said, “Same-sex marriage is not simply a political struggle, but it is an attempt to destroy God’s plan. It is a move of the ‘father of lies’ who seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God.” The President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops declared that the narrow vote of the Supreme Court “is a tragic error that harms the common good and most vulnerable among us.” Chesterton wrote in 1926: “The next great heresy is going to be simply an attack on morality, and especially on sexual morality.” In 2008, Sister Lucia, who believed that she saw the Mother of Christ at Fatima, told Cardinal Caffarra: “The final confrontation between the Lord and Satan will be over family and marriage.” Injustice takes a harsh toll, but it cannot last, whereas “justice is eternal” (Wisdom 1:15).
 

I yield my column to some lines from the dissenting opinion of Justice Scalia, who is Catholic in practice as well as in name:

A system of government that makes the People subordinate to a committee of nine unelected lawyers does not deserve to be called a democracy. . . . Four of the nine are natives of New York City. . . . The five Justices who compose today’s majority are entirely comfortable concluding that every State violated the Constitution for all of the 135 years between the Fourteenth Amendment’s ratification and Massachusetts’ permitting of same-sex marriages in 2003. They have discovered in the Fourteenth Amendment a “fundamental right” overlooked by every person alive at the time of ratification, and almost everyone else in the time since. . . . The opinion is couched in a style that is as pretentious as its content is egotistic. . . . The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie. . . . With each decision of ours that takes from the People a question properly left to them—with each decision that is unabashedly based not on law, but on the “reasoned judgment” of a bare majority of this Court—we move one step closer to being reminded of our impotence.     

Father George Rutler is pastor of the Church of St. Michael in New York City. He is also the author of A Crisis of Saints .

 

Pat Buchanan: Quo Vadis, America?

By Patrick J. Buchanan

“Natural law — God’s law — will always trump common law,” said Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and a Christian leader in her own right, “God will have the final word in this matter.”

But, for now, Justice Anthony Kennedy has the final word.

Same-sex marriage is the law of the land, as the right of gays and lesbians to marry is right there in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which was ratified in 1868. We just didn’t see it.

Tony Kennedy spotted what no previous court had detected.

The absurdity of the decision aside, it represents another stride forward for the revolution preached by Antonio Gramsci. Before we can capture the West, the Italian Marxist argued, we must capture the culture.

Churches Embracing Homosexuality Prepare Members to Accept the Anti-Christ: Russian Orthodox Leader

MOSCOW, June 5, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Churches that have deemed homosexuality morally acceptable have rejected Christianity and are preparing their followers to accept the Anti-Christ, according to one of the leading figures in the Russian Orthodox Church.

His statement came as the Russian Orthodox Church announced that it is ending "formal contacts" with the United Protestant Church of France and the Church of Scotland over those churches' abandonment of traditional Christian sexual morality. In its statement, the church said ecumenical dialogue was pointless after France's United Protestant Church last month voted to allow pastors to officiate at same-sex "marriages" and the Church of Scotland approved ordaining clergy who are in same-sex civil unions.

Read more at LifeSiteNews >>

The New Persecution

From RealClearReligion

By Russell Shaw

The persecution of the Catholic Church and other morally conservative religious bodies has begun in the United States.

As predicted, it isn't -- thank God -- bloody persecution like the persecution of Christians in many countries. But it's real persecution and likely to get worse.

This new persecution currently has two prongs.

Father George Rutler on the Irish Blasphemy

The Constitution of Ireland begins: “In the name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred, / We, the people of Éire, / Humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, . . .”

The landslide vote in Eire for legalizing the fictitious form of marriage between persons of the same sex, in contradiction of all laws natural and divine, unearths the pulsating Druidism that Saint Patrick and his fellow saints defied. The estimated $17 million from pressure groups in the United States is no excuse, for people will only be pressured if they are willing to be pressured. The other dismal fact is that over 90% of the young people influenced to subscribe to this vote were formed in Catholic schools. The vote was less in favor of perversion and more in hostility to a Church whose Jansenism and clericalism had incubated corruption and lassitude. While most of Europe suffers from the deadly sin of indifference, or sloth, Ireland is in adolescent rebellion, virulent and irrational. This was exploited by political interests hostile to Christian civilization, and their propaganda combined legitimate accusations against ecclesial failings with a left-wing, secularist agenda.

Ireland helped to bring the Faith to America, and when the flourishing of that Faith degenerated here, that donation was returned in the form of a bacillus. Ireland today has one of the highest rates of suicide and mental illness in all Europe, and one-third of children there are born out of wedlock. Things are worse in the United States. Look at the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City to see what happens when the honor of a saint is dishonored, and when ambassadors for Christ become nothing more than goodwill ambassadors.

What happened in Ireland was not sudden. Like a dead elephant that remains standing for a sort while before collapsing, so the Flame that Patrick kindled on Tara had died long before Catholicism was mixed up with political causes, and ethnic drollery replaced dogma. In mordant irony, just a few weeks ago  the Stormont in Northern Ireland rejected a motion favoring same–sex unions, a motion more indicting for having been introduced by the Sinn Fein, which had long persuaded naïve Americans that it was a Catholic cause.

The Archbishop of Dublin, hardly a firebrand, said: “Marriage is not simply about a wedding ceremony or about two people being in love with each other. Marriage, in the Constitution, is linked with the family and with a concept of family and to the mutuality of man and woman as the foundation for the family.”

In light of the fine invocation of the Irish Constitution, the Irish vote is worse than perverse: it is blasphemous. All the great saints of once-verdant Ireland would have used stronger language.

Archbishop of Canterbury Opposes Redefinition of Marriage

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Justin Welby, has strongly opposed pending legislation, supported by the British Government, to redefine marriage.  The Archbishop's address during the Lords' debate on the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill follows:

My Lords, this Bill has arrived in your Lordship's House at great speed. The initial Proposals, when published at the end of the autumn, have needed much work to get them into today's form. Much of that work has been done through detailed legal effort and discussion, and I am deeply grateful to the DCMS (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) teams – and especially to the Secretary of State for the thoughtful way in which she has listened and the degree to which she has been willing to make changes in order to arrive at the stage we’ve reached today.

NC Voters Approve Constitutional Amendment Defining Marriage as Union Between Man, Woman

North Carolina voters approved a constitutional amendment Tuesday defining marriage solely as a union between a man and a woman, becoming the latest state to effectively slam the door shut on same-sex marriages.

With most of the precincts reporting Tuesday, unofficial returns showed the amendment passing with about 61 percent of the vote to 39 percent against. North Carolina is the 30th state to adopt such a ban on gay marriage.

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What Coffee is Your Church Drinking?

From OneNewsNow

By Charlie Butts

National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is continuing to encourage churches and believers to "Dump Starbucks."

Maggie Gallagher, co-founder of the traditional marriage advocacy group, says her group launched its boycott because of Starbucks' strong endorsement of the homosexual agenda (see earlier story).

"I was there at the board meeting this year in Seattle, where we asked the CEO, Howard Schultz, if it's really true that 'gay marriage' is now core, as one of its executives said, to the Starbucks brand, and he said yes -- that that was approved at the highest levels," she reports. "They've endorsed 'gay marriage' in the state of Washington; they've signed a legal brief, asking courts to overturn the federal definition of marriage."

In just the first week of its Dump Starbucks campaign, more than 25,000 people signed the pledge. Now, Christians are being encouraged to find out if Starbucks is being served in their churches.

"We're going to speak up loud and clear to Howard Schultz and this insular group of Seattle liberals about whether a worldwide consumer company really should be making gay marriage core to its brand," Gallagher asserts.

She points out that Seattle's Best Coffee is also a Starbucks brand, and the NOM co-founder says additional plans for the campaign will unfold soon.

British Catholic Leader Says No Need For Gay Marriage

From Sky News

Archbishop Vincent Nichols

The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales has told Sky News that Prime Minister David Cameron's plans to legalise gay marriage are unnecessary.

The Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, said he does not see the need to change the definition of marriage.

“He (David Cameron) seems rather intent in taking a step the reason for which quite frankly a lot of people don't understand,” he told Sky News presenter Colin Brazier.

“We have legal protection for the shape of the marriage that has served society very well around the world for many centuries and quite frankly we really don't see why it's important to change that legal definition."

Meanwhile, the leader of the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said in his Easter sermon that young people's hostility towards faith is not as extreme as society perceives.

Speaking at Canterbury Cathedral, Dr Rowan Williams - who is leaving at the end of the year - said a number of young people appreciate the role religion plays in society and are keen to learn about it.

He warned that now was the "worst possible moment" to downgrade the importance of teaching religion in secondary schools.

"There is plenty to suggest that younger people, while still statistically deeply unlikely to be churchgoers, don't have the hostility to faith that one might expect," Dr Williams said.

"[They] at least share some sense that there is something here to take seriously - when they have a chance to learn about it."

In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI used his Easter Sunday message to urge the Syrian regime to end the bloodshed.

The Pope, sounding hoarse and looking tired, celebrated Mass on steps of St Peter's Basilica, before a crowd of faithful that swelled to far over 100,000.

He said: "May the risen Christ grant hope to the Middle East and enable all the ethnic, cultural and religious groups in that region to work together to advance the common good and respect for human rights.

"Particularly in Syria, may there be an end to bloodshed and an immediate commitment to the path of respect, dialogue and reconciliation, as called for by the international community."

On Saturday Benedict, who turns 85 next week, presided over a three-hour long Easter vigil in a packed St Peter's Basilica.

He told the gathering that mankind is groping in darkness, unable to distinguish good from evil. "Love is stronger than hate. Truth is stronger than lies," he said.

Obama Supports Bill to Repeal Federal Gay Marriage Ban

From The Christian Post

By Alex Murashko

President Barack Obama appeared to take one step closer to officially endorsing same-sex marriage Tuesday by supporting a bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

The bill, which is being introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein in the Senate on Wednesday, aims to overturn the 15-year-old law that denies federal benefits for same-sex couples. Hearings on the law that defines marriage as being between a man and a woman are scheduled for this week.

President Obama is "proud to support" the Respect for Marriage Act, the White House announced Tuesday.

Another Apology Is in Order, Archbishop Dolan

By Julie Collorafi

Archbishop Dolan and Governor Cuomo: Fraternal Correction or Affirmation?

Last week on his blog the Archbishop of New York gamely offered his post-game analysis of the momentous struggle in Albany over the same-sex marriage bill.

Among the noteworthy points Archbishop Dolan made was a handsome acknowledgement of the efforts of the "millions" of many faiths who went to the state capitol or made and sent hundreds of thousands of phone calls and emails in those tumultuous two weeks.

However, it’s difficult to understand why the prestigious prelate, almost in the same breath, found it necessary to extend a lengthy apology to the members of the gay community offended by his "strenuous defense of marriage."

Many Catholics like myself are thankful for the public statements Archbishop Dolan made opposing the bill in the final days before its passage, especially in the conspicuous absence of similar statements from his brother bishops in the New York Catholic Bishops Conference. The affable Metropolitan was far more visible in the thick of the fight than the other New York bishops, but, really, one can hardly describe a radio interview, a blog post and one Sunday morning sermon at St. Patrick’s Cathedral as a "strenuous defense of marriage," especially when hundreds of ministers of other faiths traveled to Albany, lobbied lawmakers in person for days, and demonstrated on the streets at pro-traditional marriage rallies across the state.

New York Catholics remember well that their bishops spared no effort or expense last year to organize the laity in opposing a bill to suspend the statute of limitations in clerical abuse cases. Urgent messages appeared for weeks in parish bulletins and busloads of clergy and laypeople journeyed to Albany where the bill was successfully halted, so a similar campaign against same-sex marriage was expected this time around.

Inexplicably, however, the New York bishops barely responded to the far more pressing situation last month. Many traditional marriage supporters in Albany were dismayed by the absence of Catholic priests and bishops at the state capitol and were stunned to discover in the first critical week of negotiations that Archbishop Dolan and the entire New York Catholic Bishops’ Conference had quietly skipped town to attend a USCCB meeting in Seattle.

Even the New York Times commented on the anemic, lack-lustre response of the New York Catholic bishops, a response that was mystifying given the far-reaching and disastrous effects experts agree this new law will have on religious liberty and the relationship between church and state in New York.

Despite Archbishop Dolan’s inspiring allusions in his post to St. John the Baptist and St. Thomas More who both lost their heads for opposing the degradation of marriage, the fact remains that, unlike the example of these two valiant and prophetic men, the New York Catholic Bishops’ participation in the campaign against same-sex marriage was amazingly flaccid and inept.

Most observers will agree that a certain former NFL football player exhibited far more courage than most Catholic bishops when he ventured into public to deliver his own resounding message against the marriage equality bill. (In my opinion, David Tyree delivered a far more articulate and theologically sound defense of traditional marriage in his brave video interview than clerics with miles of credentials and an abundance of doctrinal and pastoral expertise.)

If the Archbishop insists on apologizing to gays for his mild statements opposing same-sex marriage, then he also owes an apology to all the faithful Catholics who spent weeks in the trenches protesting our Democrat governor's vigorous and concerted attack on traditional marriage.

Much more than the gay community, we deserve our bishops’ sincere regrets for not supporting our efforts and for failing to explain tirelessly in a clear, compassionate and rational way Catholic doctrine on marriage and sexual morality.

Julie Collorafi is a graduate of Christendom College who currently homeschools her children, writes educational textbooks and is an organist in the Diocese of Brooklyn. 

New York Clerk Resigns over Gay ‘Marriage’: Gov. Cuomo Responds, ‘The Law is the Law’

A few days ago we wrote about an effort undertaken by a group of concerned New Yorkers who are asking that Archbishop Timothy Dolan enforce Canon Law Code 915, and refuse Holy Communion to Governor Andrew Cuomo and other Catholic politicians supporting same-sex "marriage" until they have publicly repented of their actions.

Governor Cuomo has now provided the Archbishop with the justification and response to anyone opposing the enforcement of Code 915: "the law is the law," the Governor says.  Indeed, Cuomo believes that "if you can’t enforce the law, then you shouldn’t be in that position."  It seems to us that should also apply to those responsible for enforcing the Church's laws.

The ball is in your court, Your Excellency.

From LifeSiteNews
By Patrick B. Craine 

Laura Fotusky

Reacting to the news that the first New York State town clerk has resigned rather than sign her name on a same-sex “marriage” license, Gov. Andrew Cuomo insisted Tuesday that “the law is the law.”

“When you enforce the laws of the state, you don’t get to pick and choose which laws,” he said, according to the NY Daily News. “You don’t get to say, ‘I like this law and I’ll enforce this law, or I don’t like this law and I won’t enforce this law’ - you can’t do that.”

“So if you can’t enforce the law, then you shouldn’t be in that position,” he added.

Laura Fotusky, a clerk in the town of Barker, announced her resignation Monday on the website of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms. “I cannot put my signature on something that is against God,” she wrote in her resignation letter. “The Bible clearly teaches that God created marriage between male and female as a divine gift that preserves families and cultures.”

Charity Requires Bold and Clear Teaching in New York; Enforce Canon 915

Archbishop Dolan

We were pleased to learn that a group of concerned New York State Catholics are petitioning New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, urging him to enforce Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law and deny Holy Communion to Catholic politicians who worked for the passage of the homosexual "marriage" law in that state, especially Governor Andrew Cuomo.  Those wishing to sign the petition may do so here.

In a recent editorial for The Anchor, the official newspaper for the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, Father Roger Landry writes:

The Church exists as a hospital for the spiritually sick to bring them the Divine Physician’s healing, to help them become well, and ultimately to minister them the medicine of Christ in such a way that they may live forever. When the Church fails to do this, it fails in its mission. If doctors and nurses at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute were aware that a patient was chain smoking cigars and out of a desire not to displease him said nothing, they would be guilty of unconscionable neglect. If the patient was flaunting his cigar-smoking and attempting to persuade others that, rather than harmful, cigar-smoking was a great practice deserving of celebration instead of censure, the destructive consequences of their reticence would be magnified. 

When the Church ignores the apostasy of prominent Catholic politicians, it sends mixed signals and falls short of its charitable obligation to provide, in the clearest possible terms, teachings that will assist all the faithful in realizing the salvation offered to them by Jesus Christ.

When Governor Cuomo receives Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament he is compounding sin by publicly stating he is in communion with and believes what the Church proclaims on the sanctity of marriage and the moral life.  He clearly does not.

We believe that Archbishop Dolan will act as a good shepherd of souls must.  Please sign the petition and encourage him to protect the Blessed Sacrament from sacrilege.  For the sake of all souls entrusted to his care, ask that he proclaim the Church's teaching without equivocation.

Top Gay Blog Laments: ‘WE ALWAYS LOSE’ When Voters Decide on Marriage

From LifeSiteNews

By Kathleen Gilbert

A prominent online gay publication has admitted the existence of a little-known but persistent obstacle to legalizing same-sex “marriage”: American voters.

A post on the Queerty blog Monday concluded that President Obama’s silence on gay “marriage” results from a recognition that most American voters oppose it.

“Even LGBT organizers agree that they’d rather pass marriage equality by legislature than at the ballot because at the ballot WE ALWAYS LOSE,” wrote Queerty’s Daniel Villarreal.

“People who oppose the ballot also like saying that if America voted on interracial marriage in the 60s, that still might be illegal too. But is that really our only defense against the ballot argument?” he continued. “If so, it’s no wonder that Obama hasn’t articulated a reason to support marriage that doesn’t fly in the face of the democratic process that had denied us our rights.”

Before New York legislators passed a same-sex “marriage” bill earlier this month, a poll by QEV Analytics found that 57 percent of voters in the state supported marriage as “only” between a man and a woman. The same poll, commissioned by the National Organization for Marriage, found that 59 percent favored putting the question on the ballot instead of leaving it to legislators.

When put to voters, measures to enshrine true marriage into law or a state constitution have won majority approval in all of the 30-plus states where they have been proposed.

Poll data on the issue have been found to be routinely misleading: a September 2008 survey found that lead-up polls on average vastly underestimated actual support for traditional marriage at the voting booth.

 

 

Archbishop Dolan: 'God, Not Albany, Has Settled the Definition of Marriage a Long Time Ago'

The stampede is on. Our elected senators who have stood courageous in their refusal to capitulate on the state’s presumption to redefine marriage are reporting unrelenting pressure to cave-in.

The media, mainly sympathetic to this rush to tamper with a definition as old as human reason and ordered good, reports annoyance on the part of some senators that those in defense of traditional marriage just don’t see the light, as we persist in opposing this enlightened, progressive, cause.

But, really, shouldn’t we be more upset – and worried – about this perilous presumption of the state to re-invent the very definition of an undeniable truth – one man, one woman, united in lifelong love and fidelity, hoping for children – that has served as the very cornerstone of civilization and culture from the start?

Priest Accused of ‘Anti-Gay Indoctrination’ for Teaching Catholic View of Homosexuality in Class

From LifeSiteNews
By Rebecca Millette

 A Catholic priest has come under fire from homosexual activists for “anti-gay indoctrination” after he taught his students what the Catholic Church teaches about homosexuality in his high school course on gay “marriage.”

Equality Matters, a media and communications group for homosexual rights, on their website accused the chaplain of Indianapolis’ Cardinal Ritter High School of “spouting a stream of homophobic and offensive falsehoods about same-sex marriage and gay people in general to a classroom full of students.”

Fr. John Hollowell, chaplain and teacher at the private Catholic high school, had posted the videos of the lectures on YouTube and his personal blog last week.

In the lectures he explains Catholic teaching on homosexuality. However, his presentation was denounced as “anti-gay lecturing” by the media watchdog group, who said that the priest “calls homosexual acts ‘an abomination’, advocates for ex-gay therapy, and rails against same-sex adoption and marriage by comparing homosexuality to alcoholism and prostitution.”

The priest is currently in Rome and says he won’t be able to respond to the accusations until his return.

In the videos, however, Fr. Hollowell is seen challenging his students to think about and discuss the “difficult” issues of homosexuality and homosexual “marriage.”

He points out that the Bible, in Leviticus 20:13 and other places in the New Testament, calls “homosexual acts” an “abomination.” “You have two options,” he says, “God is cool with homosexuality, homosexual acts, I should say … or what the Bible and the Church say about it is correct … There’s no middle ground on that issue.”

The priest refers to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the official book of the teachings of the Church, which states that homosexuals “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity,” and condemns any form of “unjust discrimination” against them.

However, the Catechism also states that homosexual inclinations are “objectively disordered” and homosexual acts are “acts of grave depravity.” “Under no circumstances can they be approved,” it says, explaining that people with the homosexual inclination are called to chastity.

Fr. Hollowell points out that human beings are able to choose either to act or not to act on given inclinations. Those who experience homosexual attraction, he said, are called upon to refrain from acting on their inclination. Just because someone has an “inclination to something” (for example, drinking alcohol, homosexual acts, etc.) does not make them “less culpable for acting on it,” he said.

Equality Matters claims that 70 percent of Catholics and the majority of Americans now believe that messages such as Fr. Hollowell’s lead to higher rates of homosexual teen suicide.

Hollowell, however, argues that the position he advocates is one of compassion. “If you’re struggling with homosexual attraction, the Church’s first message is compassion,” he told his students, “helping them overcome it is not the first inclination.”

Programs such as Courage are in place to help people “who want it,” he said, “we’re not out there telling people they need to change.”

Fr. Hollowell also described the “key Catholic social teaching” on homosexuality and its relation to the “common good.” By common good is meant “what every human person does affects me and affects everyone else,” said Fr. Hollowell, explaining why students should be concerned about homosexual “marriage” legislation in other states. “The Church sees society as one body, therefore all are affected,” whether we realize it or not.

Did Obama Justice Dept. Collaborate With Those Trying to Overturn California’s Same-Sex Marriage Ban?

A conservative advocacy group wants to know if the U.S. Justice Department had any behind-the-scenes correspondence or communication with various law firms and/or groups that are suing California over its voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage.

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Homosexuals Sue Christian Bed & Breakfast Owner for Refusing 'Civil Union' Ceremony

From Illinois Family Institute

By Laurie Higgins

Attacks on religious liberty and freedom of conscience have started -- mere weeks after Governor Pat Quinn (D) signed the 'civil unions' bill into law -- just as we warned.

The Walder Family - attacked by radical homosexual activists

While many conservatives think wisdom and political pragmatism dictate a "truce" on the social issues, liberals, including homosexuals, see this time as ripe for an all-out frontal assault on virtually every issue pertaining to homosexual practice.

The most recent assault by those who view our side's cowardly truce as their golden opportunity is taking place in Illinois. Just one month after Governor Patrick Quinn signed the civil union bill into law, a homosexual couple has filed complaints with both the Illinois Attorney General and the Illinois Department of Human Rights for the refusal of two innkeepers to rent out their privately owned bed and breakfasts for a civil union ceremony and reception.