However, the meeting highlighted a rare agreement between the Catholic and Coptic Orthodox Churches on their stance against homosexual relationships.

During their meeting, Pope Tawadros II expressed his concerns directly, urging clarity and consistency in upholding traditional Christian values.

Cardinal Fernández responded by acknowledging the importance of these values. He also mentioned the need for ongoing dialogue to address and bridge any misunderstandings or disagreements that arise.

This encounter follows the Vatican's controversial clarification outlined in "Fiducia Supplicans", allowing for a non-liturgical same-sex blessing for couples. Some have interpreted this as a shift in the Church's position on homosexuality.

In response to the publication, the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Church suspended theological dialogue with the Catholic Church. The Synod also adopted a fundamental statement in which it reaffirmed its rejection of homosexual acts.

This suspension underscored the seriousness with which the Coptic Church regards the matter. It views any form of blessing for same-sex unions as contradictory to Christian doctrine.

Cardinal Fernández, head of the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, reassured Pope Tawadros that these blessings are not equivalent to the sacrament of marriage.

The declaration "Dignitas Infinita" also makes it abundantly clear that the Catholic Church completely rejects same-sex marriages.

Path of Love

Fernández emphasised the Catholic Church's adherence to traditional teachings on marriage as a union exclusively between a man and a woman. This position aligns with the beliefs of the Coptic Orthodox Church which has a similar doctrinal stance on homosexuality and marriage.

According to a news release issued by the Coptic Church, Tawadros told Fernández there is a path of love between the two churches. He also stressed the importance of dialogue.

Tawadros called for evaluating the results achieved by the Catholic-Oriental Orthodox Dialogue Commission over its 20 years of existence. He also expressed the need for more effective methods and mechanisms for the Commission's work.

Pope Francis met with Tawadros in May 2023 to mark the 50-year anniversary of restored relations between the Catholic Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church. However since March, formal ecumenical dialogue remains suspended.

Sources

Katholisch

Catholic News Agency

CathNews New Zealand

Being gay

After a difficult freshman year, I begged my parents to transfer me to the local public school. That request, to my father, was ridiculous.

Little did he know how ashamed and deeply isolated I felt inside, while a student in this revered high school.

As Eros bloomed inside, I lived in fear that I would be exposed, found out.

I lived in dread that I would be discovered as this despised thing whose name I did not know, but whose negative associations I could see and feel all around me.

All was not bad. I had some wonderful teachers: Jesuits and lay alike.

My senior English teacher, a layman and a coach, particularly affected me: he taught us to write from our feelings and he showed us respect and affirmed our dignity. A man for others. And I made vital life-long friendships.

Paradoxically, my nascent faith deepened as it also grew pale. I encountered Jesus in a new way.

And I was introduced to rudimentary Ignatian wisdom, that incomparable combination of a psychologically grounded spirituality, honoring intuition and insight, a contemplative posture that fostered religious imagination and presence.

Targeted and isolated

But my prep school was a difficult place for an—albeit deeply closeted—gay boy.

Back then, it strongly exemplified the dominant culture's values, values anathema to the development of whole persons, values particularly perhaps unwittingly suited to molding boys into narrow and constricted men.

So much of that—thankfully—has changed, but of course, remnants (some most durable, both overt and covert) remain.

Let two incidents suffice.

At our homecoming football game at the Municipal Stadium my freshman year, I was sitting with a friend when two guys from my homeroom approached.

One said: This is the one and proceeded to cuff my collar and pull me up out of the bleacher.

The other sucker-punched me, then threw me back into my seat and walked away, scornfully laughing.

They imparted the knowledge I dreaded: We're onto you. I lived with that daily fear, believing that somehow, I deserved what I got for being the one, the one they were all onto.

All our culture's words and notions and judgments came home to roost in … a young gay boy that the world, let alone his parents, could not know.

Alone and afraid

In sophomore year, I fell-in-swoon.

I fell in swoon like nigh all high school boys do, though unlike my friends, I was not falling for a girl. I was falling for a boy, one who sat a row away from me. It felt overwhelming.

I was excited and alarmed and scared. There was no one with whom to speak, no one with whom to share these feelings or even acknowledge that the feelings existed.

I felt then the beginnings of what I would feel profoundly until my 29th year: I was alone in this. In the most riveting sense.

And alone I believed I would always be, with no language, no community, no symbol nor myth, no conversation, no dialogue, no hope.

What did adhere in high school and in the world in which I lived were the messages the dominant culture proffers.

During puberty's final onslaught, I came to believe I was beyond the pale of grace. I came to know I was unacceptable in the eyes of the world.

All our culture's words and notions and judgments came home to roost in me, a 16-year-old boy, a young gay boy that the world, let alone his parents, could not know.

Lost from God

Finally, and primarily, I grew to believe that I was unacceptable as a human being in the eyes of God.

In the truest sense, I did not know why, for this thing that had visited me, not of my making nor at my initiative.

The more I prayed to be changed, which was the heart and content of my prayer (so deeply aware that I had not chosen this, but come to believe it was visited upon me because of my sinfulness), I regarded my not changing as God's further judgment on me.

I thought God found that my prayer, and my life, were insincere, beyond the pale of believability.

I was not available to the strands of grace everyone else seemed to somehow merit.

The One I called God, and my dear companion Jesus, previously the source of such great succor in my life, were taken away. Or they left. Or I could not find them.

They somehow necessarily abandoned me to despair because this person I had become could manage no change, could not desist either my feelings nor my desires, no matter how hard I fought them or prayed to be delivered from them.

I was alone.

This is the terror for many queer boys and girls: We are alone. Continue reading

• William D. Glenn, a former Jesuit has a Master of Divinity degree from the Pacific School of Religion, where he was awarded the Paul Wesley Yinger Award for Distinguished Preaching. He also has a Masters in Clinical Psychology from the University of San Francisco.

The project was carried out by conservative non-profit Catholic Laity and Clergy for Renewal.

The group has reportedly spent at least US$4m (NZ6.5m) on the project and shared the information with bishops across the country, reported the Washington Post.

The Renewal group's president, Jayd Henricks, posted a first-person piece on the site First Things, saying he was proud to be part of the group, whose purpose was "to love the Church and to help the Church to be holy, with every tool she could be given," including data.

Henricks said: "It's not about straight or gay priests and seminarians.

"It's about behaviour that harms everyone involved, at some level and in some way, and is a witness against the ministry of the Church."

The project's aim, according to tax records, is to "empower the church to carry out its mission" by giving bishops "evidence-based resources" with which to identify weaknesses in how they train priests.

Participants in the Renewal project were also said to be involved in the outing of a prominent Catholic pastor.

Monsignor Burrill resignation

Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill stepped down from his post as secretary general of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) in July 2021 after a Catholic news site, the Pillar, used commercially available data to track his use of gay hook-up apps and visits he paid to a gay bar and bathhouse.

Burrill's resignation and the latest discovery of mobile app tracking is raising alarms among LGBTQ+ advocates and privacy specialists who decry it as an invasion of privacy that is targeting vulnerable people.

"Revealing information that harms a person's reputation without an objectively valid reason - even if it's true - is considered a sin," said a USCCB member who knows Burrill and described the "intense emotional distress" he endured after his Grindr online activity was outed.

In 2021, Pillar editor JD Flynn defended their reporting, saying a priest shouldn't be on Grindr for the same reason a priest shouldn't ride alone in a car with a child.

Grindr spokesman Patrick Lenihan said the connections are harmful.

"We are infuriated by the actions of these anti-LGBTQ vigilantes.

Grindr has and will continue to push the industry to keep bad actors out of the ad tech ecosystem, particularly on behalf of the LGBTQ community," Lenihan said. "All this group is doing is hurting people."

Sources

The Washington Post

The Guardian

CathNews New Zealand

"Being homosexual isn't a crime," the pope reportedly said during an interview with The Associated Press in January adding that God loves all his children just as they are.

He further called on Catholic bishops who support the laws to welcome gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer or questioning (LGBTQ) people into the church.

However, Pastor Jamil Nasir, the Canada-based national head of the Church of Pentecost in a video titled "Fatwa [religious edict] by Pope Francis" wondered if the pope was promoting homosexuality.

Read More

He says there is "a pattern of ambiguity" in Martin's writing and teaching.

Martin is the author of "Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity,".

"I find it necessary to emphasize that Father Martin does not speak with authority on behalf of the Church, and to caution the faithful about some of his claims," Chaput says.

Other bishops have also weighed in on Martin's message regarding homosexuality and Catholicism.

"Father Martin's public messages create confusion among the faithful and disrupt the unity of the Church by promoting a false sense that immoral sexual behavior is acceptable under God's law," one bishop, Thomas Paprocki wrote last week.

"People with same-sex attraction are indeed created and loved by God and are welcome in the Catholic Church.

"But the Church's mission to these brothers and sisters is the same as to all her faithful: to guide, encourage, and support each of us in the Christian struggle for virtue, sanctification, and purity.

Father Martin - no doubt unintentionally - inspires hope that the Church's teachings on human sexuality can be changed," the Paprocki's statement continued.

"... On the one hand, [he] correctly expresses God's love for all people, while on the other, he either encourages or fails to correct behavior that separates a person from that very love.

"This is deeply scandalous in the sense of leading people to believe that wrongful behavior is not sinful," Paprocki's statement said.

"This matter is not one of opinion, it is our Lord's own teaching, as we hear in Luke's Gospel: ‘Take heed to yourselves; if your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him,'" the bishop added.

In response Martin said he doesn't want to challenge church teaching.

He said one reason he doesn't focus on same-sex relations and same-sex marriage, which are impermissible (and immoral) under church teaching because LGBT Catholics have heard this repeatedly.

"Indeed, often that is the only thing that they hear from their church," he added.

Instead, Martin said he's trying to encourage Catholics to see LGBT people as more than just sexual beings, to see them in their totality, much as Jesus saw people on the margins.

Chaput responded saying he is sure Martin would agree ‘official' Church teaching is "based on the Word of God and centuries of experience with the human condition.

"Moreover, the point is not to ‘not challenge' what the Church believes about human sexuality, but to preach and teach it with confidence, joy, and zeal.

"Biblical truth liberates; it is never a cause for embarrassment," Chaput said.

Source

1. Catholic News Agency
2. Image: Catholic World Report

When Martin appeared for sentencing in the court last Friday, Al-Sa'afin said there is no place for extremist views in the church.

Martin's lawyer had said at an earlier hearing that her client carried out the assault because he held certain "religious views".

"I grew up in a Catholic household. I know what religion is, and that isn't what religion is.

I don't believe that those kind of extremist views belong here, or anywhere for that matter."

In his victim impact statement, Al- Sa'afin said he felt pity for Martin.

"My message to this guy is I really feel sorry for you.

"From my understanding, this was motivated by his religious views. I've grown up in a massively religious household and the only thing that I've always been taught is love."

He went on to forgive Martin. Addressing him directly, Aziz said: "To move forward, to help with my own healing, I need to do this. I forgive you for what you did to me.

"I hope that if there's anything you take from today, it's that we all believe in the same thing and that is love."

Aziz's is a journalist whose family came to New Zealand as refugees when he was about 18 months old.

His mother is from Lebanon, his father is from France.

His mother was a travelling journalist and when he was born she had just got a job with the Lebanese embassy in Kuwait.

"I was born in Kuwait and the Gulf War happened. So we were caught in the war and I essentially lived the first 18 months of my life in a bunker at our house."

Source

• rnz.co.nz
• msn.com
• stuff.co.nz
• nzherald.co.nz
• Image: msn.com

I'm sure there were homosexual people in my classroom or community.

Possibly even in my extended family.

But they were not 'out'.

Even the prevailing culture did not engage with homosexuality: growing up in middle America in the '70s and '80s was still far more Happy Days than Glee.

To say I grew up in a Catholic enclave wouldn't be far wrong.

• I went to Catholic primary school, where my mother also taught.
• My dad was a Eucharistic minister in our parish.
• After attending an all-girls Catholic high school, I earned a BA in political science at a Catholic university, then spent a gap year teaching at a Catholic primary school.
• I met my husband at World Youth Day '91.
• Before we married, I headed back to university for a masters degree in theology and got my first proper job working as the NSW state youth coordinator for the Society of St Vincent de Paul.

As a legislator, I have voted for and promoted legislation that accords rights, such as adoption, to homosexual people.

I have publicly stated that I don't agree with the Church's teaching on homosexuality.

How did such a good Catholic girl arrive at what appears to be a non-Catholic position on this issue?

The first people I knew who acknowledged their homosexuality were fellow Catholics at university, living away from home for the first time, struggling with a very real question of who they were and how they should live.

My lack of knowledge about homosexuality meant I had very few presuppositions to confront.

I came to the questions of how to respond to homosexual people armed not with Vatican teachings and cultural assumptions, but simply with the Gospel message of 'love one another as I have loved you'.

What I witnessed were people who suffered greatly because of the judgement of their family and community; friends who were more acquainted with loneliness than with romantic relationships; devout Catholics, some with a true call to vocation, grieving because their own church had no place for them.

I realised no one would choose an orientation that brought such misery.

In time I came to ask what the Church taught on homosexuality, and why. Richard P. McBrien's seminal tome, Catholicism, explained the Vatican teachings acknowledging the validity of homosexual orientation while condemning homosexual activity.

McBrien also outlined other theological points of view, including the argument that homosexual acts are morally neutral, because the morality of a sexual act depends on the quality of the relationship of the people involved; or that homosexual acts are preferable to living a life where one can never give expression to one's sexuality.

Another significant influence on my thinking also came from my studies of Catholic doctrine: the inviolability of conscience.

Conscience is a tricky area when one wants to claim it as a basis for disagreeing with the Church's official teaching. It often leads to accusations of being a 'cafeteria Catholic', choosing only the parts of Church teaching you want to agree with. Continue reading

• Kristina Keneally is a member of the NSW Labor Party. She was the 42nd Premier of New South Wales.
• Image: West Australian

The events leading to Fr Paul Kalchik's removal from his parish began at the beginning of this month. A statement in his parish newsletter announcing his intention to publicly burn a rainbow banner in front of the church drew media attention.

The banner was one that had been displayed in the parish church for several years.

According to a parish newsletter which describes the banner as "sacrilegious," the banner was found in storage "just when the news of the gay predation of Cardinal McCarrick broke."

When news of Kalchick's intention spread the following week, the archdiocesan vicar for clergy phoned Kalchik, instructing him not to proceed.

The archdiocese says it was "mutually agreed that the event would not take place.

"As Catholics, we affirm the dignity of all persons."

Kalchik has a different view of the conversation.

He says the archdiocese threatened him with "canonical penalties," - a claim the archdiocese denies.

It says there was no discussion of potential consequences for burning the flag because Kalchik voluntarily agreed to comply with the instruction.

Despite this apparent agreement, the banner was burned on 14 September in the fire pit ordinarily used by the parish during the Easter Vigil liturgy.

While the event was reportedly attended by Kalchik and only a handful of parishioners, images of the flag burning were circulated on the internet and generated strong reactions.

Some groups labeled Kalchik as homophobic and said the burning was a deliberately provocative act. A group called the Northwest Side Coalition Against Racism and Hate organised a demonstration condemning the burning.

Others see Kalchik's action as a stand against the pro-homosexual agenda in some parts of the Church.

In an interview after the flag was burned, Kalchik seemed to criticise Cupich, whom he accused of downplaying the Church's teaching on homosexuality and of rejecting a link between homosexuality and sexual abuse by clergy.

"I can't sit well with people like Cardinal Cupich who minimises all of this," he said.

"Excuse me, but almost all of the [abuse] cases are, with respect to priests, bishops and whatnot, taking and using other young men sexually. It's definitely a gay thing."

Kalchik also said he's not anti-gay and that he was "about as much of a gay basher as Mother Teresa."

Although the archdiocese insists that it was unrelated to the controversy surrounding the banner, no indication has been given to local parishioners - many of whom say they support Kalchik - as to exactly why their pastor was removed.

Cupich says in removing Kalchik he acted "out of concern" for Kalchik and parishioners. He said the 56-year-old priest needed "time away from the parish to receive pastoral support."

The archdiocese issued this statement: "…Archdiocese leadership previously contacted the pastor to notify him he could not move forward with that planned activity. We are following up on the situation. As Catholics, we affirm the dignity of all persons."

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• CBS News
• La Croix
• Queerty
• Image: Queerty

It is said that Alexander VI, the most debauched of the Borgia pontiffs, elected in 1492, even had an affair with one of his daughters.

Another pope contracted syphilis during his reign — a "disease very fond of priests, especially rich priests," as the saying went in Renaissance times.

That was Julius II, known as "Il terrible."

A third pope, Pius IX, added Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" and John Stuart Mill's book on the free market economy to the Vatican's List of Prohibited Books during his long reign in the 19th century.

He also formalized the doctrine of papal infallibility.

Get a grip on sex

What these Holy Fathers had in common was not just that they were badly flawed men putting forth badly flawed ideas: At the root of their moral failings is Catholicism's centuries-old inability to come to grips with sex.

I say this as a somewhat lapsed, but certainly listening, Catholic educated by fine Jesuit minds and encouraged by the open-mindedness of Pope Francis.

Where's Jesus?

The big issue behind the budding civil war in a faith of 1.3 billion people — a rift that could plunge the church back into a medieval mind-set on sexuality — is the same old thing.

And most of the church's backward teachings, dictated by nominally celibate and hypocritical men, have no connection to the words of Jesus.

If you're going to strike at a pope, to paraphrase the line about taking down a king, you must kill him.

Right-wing Catholics, those who think allowing gay members of the faith to worship with dignity is an affront to God, have just taken their best shot at Francis.

The attempted coup was disguised as an exposé by a conscience-stricken cleric, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.

He claims that the pope must resign because he knew about the sexual abuse of young seminarians by a disgraced cardinal and did not defrock the predator.

It's a fair point, and one that demands a full response from Francis.

But if you read Viganò's full 11-page letter, you see what's really driving him and his ultraconservative cabal — an abhorrence of gay Catholics and a desire to return to the Dark Ages.

"The homosexual networks present in the church must be eradicated," Viganò wrote.

Homosexuality is disordered

Those close to Francis, Vigano claimed, "belong to the homosexual current in favor of subverting Catholic doctrine on homosexuality."

For theological authority, he cited the infamous 1986 letter to bishops condemning homosexuality as "a moral disorder."

That instructive was issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, designed to do to heretics what the Inquisition once did, without the stake-burning.

The bishop's letter cites Old Testament sanctions against "sodomites" and a New Testament interpretation from St. Paul, who admitted he was not speaking with direct authority from the divine.

St. Augustine, who loved sex and had plenty of it before he hated it, set the church template in the fifth century, saying, "Marriage is only one degree less sinful than fornication." Continue reading

• Image: Seattle PI

But it still won't marry homosexual couples in church.

The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia's vote lets ministers bless gay couples in same-sex civil marriages or civil unions.

The vote happened at the church's biannual synod in New Plymouth this week.

The vote lets bishops either grant or deny priests in their diocese permission to bless gay couples in committed relationships.

In New Zealand, the Anglican Church comprises three wings: Maori, Polynesian and Pakeha.

The three wings have debated the issue for 50 years.

Polynesians reject gay relationships

The Polynesian group opposed the motion to allow Anglicans' blessing of same-sex relationships.

It says Pacific islands will never accept it and abstained from voting.

It abstained so that it wouldn't restrict the Pakeha and Maori wings.

The motion passed finally by a large margin.

To allow Polynesian and other conservative churches to opt out of the changes, they will not form part of official liturgy.

Instead there are no written blessings. Ministers will deliver them informally.

Despite the compromise, two prominent conservatives resigned their posts.

Rev Jay Behan, a member of the ruling synod and Rev Al Drye both quit after the vote passed..

They said, "We leave with no anger or bitterness in our hearts and we wish you the best as you seek to serve the Lord Jesus Christ."

Another conservative group, the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans New Zealand also dissented.

As a result of the vote's outcome, it says it believes that the General Synod acted in a way that left biblical authority behind.

It says it's ready to welcome other conservatives opposed to the decision.

Support came from Very Rev Ian Render, who is dean of Waiapu Cathedral, gay and and married.

He says, "I would like, in this late stage of my stipended ministry life, to feel as though I - and everyone else like me - finally will have a place to stand in this church."

Source:

• Newshub
• Christian Today
• Image: Newshub

Voris has been critical of Synod Fathers, including Cardinal John Dew of Wellington, who have called for a more pastoral approach in the area of human sexuality.

Voris is the founder of Church Militant and is known worldwide for his show The Vortex, "where lies and falsehoods are trapped and exposed."

The website claims "Michael will give you nothing but the pure truth of Catholicism while exposing the lies and falsehoods that have infiltrated Holy Mother Church."

He conducted speaking tours of New Zealand in 2012 and and again in 2015.

In October 2015 in his series of posts called Synod Profile Voris singled out Dew because he had called for less "offensive" language towards homosexuals, and supported the idea of opening Holy Communion to those in adulterous unions.

Church Militant has consistently been critical of "so-called progressives" at the Synod on the Family, including Dew.

"Dew of New Zealand is yet another Synod Father advocating for pleasant language, especially on homosexuality," wrote Bradley Eli in a post on churchmillitant.com in October last year.

Why did Voris choose this time to reveal his past?

Voris said he decided to reveal the details of his past when he heard the New York archdiocese was gathering information about his past life with the aim of publicly discrediting him and the work he does.

He says he regrets not revealing the nature of his sins before because it was "limiting God" and perhaps not letting his example inspire others in homosexual lifestyles to turn to God for help.

During the Vortex special, Voris apologised to "anyone who is wounded" by the revelations.

He said he "did not intend to deceive" but only "didn't see the need to provide up-close detail of past sins."

Voris says he does not know what ramifications to his apostolate will come of the revelation.

Source

• lifesitenews.com
• Image: churchmilitant.com

After a debate at the Synod in 2014, a working group was established to find a way for opponents and supporters of same-sex marriage to co-exist in the Church, while upholding the traditional doctrine of marriage.

The group has now published its report, A Way Forward.

The report proposes a compromise solution in which dioceses could decide if they wished to opt into offering a blessing in church for couples who had entered into a civil same-sex marriage.

It argues that, because it is offering new liturgies only to bless civil marriages, it does not depart from the traditional doctrine of marriage, which the Church will continue to hold can exist only between a man and a woman.

There was division, however, in the group, which included priests, bishops, and lay members. "While working-group members agree that they have met the brief given, they were not and are not of one mind on many issues.

Their manner of proceeding in unity without unanimity was at times arduous," the report states.

The proposals are described as a pastoral accommodation of the Church's unchanged doctrine of marriage, similar to the way those who are not baptised, or who are divorced and whose former spouse is still alive, are now also allowed to marry in church.

If the Synod, which is due to meet in May, approves the report, the first blessings for same-sex marriages could take place in 2018.

The liturgy portion of the package would require the majority of diocesan synods to vote for the changes, and a two-thirds majority in each House of the General Synod.

Source

• churchtimes.co.uk
• Image: www.churchtimes.co.uk

On Sept. 28, the local Shariah police known as Wilayatul Hisbah arrested the girls identified by age and initials as 18-year-old "AS" and 19-year-old "N" after police saw the girls embracing in a public place.

This arrest was in accordance with bylaws on the implementation of Shariah law in the fields of faith, worship and Islamic dissemination.

"In terms of human rights, the arrest is a violation," Father Paulus Christian Siswantoko, secretary of the Indonesian bishops' Commission for Justice, Peace and Pastoral for Migrant-Itinerant People, told ucanews.com.

"Everyone has the same dignity, whether they are gay or not. They are God's creation that must be protected," he said.

All religions, he added, "aim at protecting human dignity."

Siswantoko said that whether you accepted same-sex relations or not, attempts at intimidation violate the women's dignity.

"A right perspective on them being people with dignity and respect is needed. Never use intimidation in this kind of formation because it will disgrace human dignity," he said.

Sister Maria Resa of the Indonesian bishops' Secretariat of Gender and Women Empowerment said local customs in a conservative, autonomous area like Aceh often become a barrier.

"This is the difficulty. Thus, the local government has the authority to say no to anything violating human rights," she added.

Source

• ucanews.com
• Image: hrw.org