Another guest post from James Likoudis
Note: by James Likoudis
The spread of homosexuality in American society and the moral sanction given sodomy is one of the most glaring manifestations of moral decay and decline instigated by the Sexual Revolution which can be traced back to the 1950’s which saw even Catholic clergy beginning to go soft on contraception, abortion, and homosexuality, and supporting the immoral Sex Education programs instigated by such secular humanist organizations as SIECUS (the Sex Information and Educational Council of the United States). The full impact of the Sexual Revolution on the Church itself would be seen in the Revolt of priests, religious, and lay people led by Rochester diocesan priest Charles E. Curran against Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae. The Diocese of Rochester itself would become nationally known as one of the leading liberal/modernist dioceses where important clerical and lay voices could be heard either subtly or blatantly opposing Catholic teaching on contraception and homosexuality. In this latter regard, the role played by Mr. and Mrs. Casey Lopata in subverting Catholic teaching on homosexuality is instructive. The following Review of their book “Fortunate Families: Catholic Families with Lesbian Daughters and Gay sons” (Trafford Publishing, Victoria, Canada, 2003) bore the favorable recommendation of their good friend and advisor, Sr. Kay Heverin, SSJ, Pastoral Associate in a diocesan parish. It will be recalled that for some years Casey Lopata and his wife co-directed the Rochester Diocese’s “Lesbian and Gay Ministry” office until they resigned their post on April 6, 2004.
Review
Chapter 7 of the book written by the Lopatas ostensibly “addresses church teaching in relation to homosexuality”. It distorts the Church’s teaching by invoking the “primacy of conscience” to justify engagement in homosexual activity and in excusing the gravity of homosexual acts committed by lesbians and gays. Dissenters from Catholic teaching who deny the intrinsic immorality of homosexual acts (such as the group “Dignity” and such “moral theologians” as Fr. Richard Peddicord, author of “Gay and Lesbian Rights”) and the confused comments of some Bishops are quoted in support of the Lopatas’ distortions of Catholic moral doctrine. Even Scriptural condemnations of sodomy suffer radical reinterpretation and the official documents of the Holy See on homosexuality are alleged not to be considered authoritative as binding in conscience since “struggling” lesbians and gays are not “expected to do the impossible.” They dismissed the authoritative nature of the moral teaching of the Holy See on the ridiculous grounds that “Catholic teaching was formulated without the participation of openly gay and lesbian people, and the teaching doesn’t take into account the lived experience of faithful, gay and lesbian Catholics.”
For the Lopatas artificial birth control practice and divorce-and-remarriage constituted similar moral “dilemmas” that evacuated God’s objective moral norms of their binding force. They falsely stated that the Church’s teachings on the intrinsic evil of contraception, homosexuality, and divorce-and-remarriage are not infallible teachings but rather subject to change. The Lopatas failed to grasp that anyone’s “struggle” with objective moral teachings can never justify the violation of such teachings, and that the Catholic Church understands that though a homosexual orientation is not in itself sinful, openly avowed “lesbians and gays” are those who identify themselves in society as practicing homosexuals,i.e., those who choose to commit sinful homosexual acts and defend their moral liceity. But did not the Apostle Paul teach the faithful in the Church of God: “Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor boy prostitutes, nor practicing homosexuals…will inherit the Kingdom of God?” (1 Cor. 6:9-10). In The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the “sin of the sodomites” ( hardly the sin of inhospitality claimed by the Lopatas) remains one of the “sins that cry to heaven” (CCC, #1867) . Moreover, despite the recourse of the Lopatas to the supposed findings of secular humanist psychologists, it is not a scientific fact (which they assume) that one’s homosexual orientation is a “seemingly irreversible sexual orientation” and never “something freely chosen.” It is clear they foolishly expected change in Catholic moral teaching on homosexuality. In their desire to assure “respect, friendship and justice” for lesbians and gays they only twisted what the Church intends for “pastoral care” of homosexuals. Their book flies in the face of the wise words of the Angelic Doctor: “We love sinners out of charity, not so as to will what they will, or to rejoice in what gives them joy, but so as to make them will what we will, and rejoice in what rejoices us. Hence it is written, ‘They shall be turned to thee, and thou shalt not be turned to them.;” (Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 25, a.6, ad 4).
The Lopatas’ book “Fortunate Families” constituted, as noted, a sophisticated subversion of Catholic teaching on the pastoral care of homosexuals. While ostensibly commiserating with their sufferings, it ignored the demands of the love of God. Giving lip-service to Catholic teaching, it did not urge conversion to a chaste life-style, but rather revealed a non-judgmental acceptance of impure behavior. The Lopatas did not hide their agreement with those quoted in their book who claimed that the Church’s magisterial teaching is responsible for Catholics becoming negative, bigoted, hateful, hypocritical, oppressive, destructive, and homophobic.
When the Rochester diocese came out of the closet to sponsor in 1998 a scandalous Conference of the gay-friendly National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries (NACDLGM), the Lopatas were heavily involved. In his pastoral letter “We all need Redeeming” (September 1, 1998), Bishop Clark noted “NACDLGM is a legitimate group, loyal to magisterial teaching, with an official liason from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Bishop Gabriel Zavala.” Auxiliary Bishop of Los Angeles, known as a strong supporter of “human rights” and “social justice” submitted his resignation to the Holy See after revealing to superiors he had fathered two children who are now teenagers.
-James Likoudis
This is Ben again. The above article mentions some issues that were addressed in a fascinating and recent article in First Things.
and another quote that Mike posted in a comment a while back has also stuck with me:
“Years of watching the situation carefully have convinced me that it really IS all about sexual autonomy. People don’t turn institutions upside down because they’d rather hear the Mass in English. You can do that without destroying buildings and the structure of religious life, and catechesis. You turn institutions upside down to support a ‘complete change in teleological purpose’ in your life — and eliminate unpleasant reminders that maybe your new purpose, sexual autonomy, isn’t such a great idea.”
Tags: Bishop Clark, Homosexual Agenda
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Kind of ironic that the author’s first line “deceives”. There is no “spreading” of homosexuality. Every statistic I have ever seen says the percentage of homosexuals in any given population has always remained pretty stable across time and cultures. People may be more open about their homosexuality today, but there is certainly no “spreading” of it. If anyone has some statistics that suggest otherwise – please share.
BigE, please read the article I linked to: “Same-Sex Science”. Also the spreading of homosexuality refers not only to those individuals who partake in it, but the legitimization of it in the general public. If you don’t think it’s spreading then you have your head buried in the ground.
This has been documented? What was the percentage of the population that was homosexual in the 1800s and how do we know it?
I wonder what the Lopata’s are going to do after July 15?
BigE makes a minor point that reminds us to distinguish between practicing homosexuals and activists on behalf of homosexuals and the ideology of homosexualism. Given that, the bean-counting over how many practicing homosexuals there are and how they are trending is a red herring. What is undeniable is spreading of the <a href=http://www.whatswrongwiththeworld.net/2011/03/the_zerosum_game.html>Zero-Sum Game which is what Mr. Likoudis was mainly referring to if one could be bothered to read him in good faith. The most recent zero-sum offense was the case of Brendon Wegner. He is a high school student who was ASKED to write the “con” side of an article on same-sex marriage for the school newspaper. When he did so, he was hauled before the superintendent to be berated and threatened with suspension for hours and hours. The message is clear: Tolerance is not enough. YOU. MUST. APPROVE. This is quite ironic considering all the “anti-bullying” campaigns cropping up around the country.
Mr. Likoudis is spot on about the subversion of Church teaching under the rubric of “primacy of concious” which has come to be a code for solipsistic supremacy of conscience. (i.e. the dicatatorship of relativism)
Sorry for the bad link. Try here: http://www.whatswrongwiththeworld.net/2011/03/the_zerosum_game.html
Does anyone know why the Lopatas resigned in 2004? I actually have decent sources infiltrated into FF, and I did not know of this. Guess I need new sources….
Neither did I know +Zavala was involved in a like minded organization. Indeed it is all about sexual autonomy.
Actually I just noticed that phrase is a major oxymoron. Sexuality (properly understood) is anything but autonomous.
Richard, regarding July 15, I just keep thinking about the scene in The Two Towers where Treebeard and friends give Isengard a good…..baptism. In the book, when it has all been rinsed away Gandalf tells the Ents to do it all over again. Lather, rinse, repeat, New Evangelism style.
Thinkling!
“I actually have decent sources infiltrated into FF, and I did not know of this. Guess I need new sources….”
You might be more successful if, rather than relying on souces who have infiltrated the organization, you plant a “mole” there, have them remain inactive for a while and then come forth after a safe period of time has elapsed and provide you with information.
Big E
If it is determined that you do have “your head in the ground” , in your charity, please say hello to all the bishops you see with you there!!
Does anyone have any data on the conversion rate from homosexuality to heterosexuality and what might be the regression rate if there is any ? Also what is the therapeutic/ conversion/moral techniques used to bring about this reversal/conversion. How do people find out that the conversion has taken place? Do many become inactive homosexuals and keep the commandments and lead a moral life??? Why is “Courage” not allowed in this diocese, thus eliminating a person’s choices for treatment?
The Lopatas resigned in 2004 to start the Fortunate Families ministry. See here http://www.fortunatefamilies.com/history.htm
According to the Fortunate Families web site, over 1300 people attended the so-called gay Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral. What happened to all of these people. Only 50 people showed up for one of the Masses at the cathedral for ashes on Ash Wednesday.
What happened to all these people?
The only thing that I can say to Bishop Matthew Harvey Clark, who conducted the Gay Mass on March 1, 1997, is that the American Psychiatric Association declared homosexuality a “mental defect” until 1973.
Wow… 1973 was a great year for Satan! SSA given a “cure” by the docs and abortion made a legal right in the land of the “free”. And down, down, down, we’ve gone ever since. +JMJ
If you want information concerning the treatment of homosexuality, you can read the books and articles by Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons. I’ll give you another site on a later post.
Here’s another site by Dale O’Leary. Look up the section on gender.
http://daleoleary.wordpress.com/
I had read that a lot of the attendees were members of the Callan-era Corpus Christi.
Ooy I misread the post, I thought they resigned from FF in 2004, my bad.
I just found your website. A local Catholic pastor advertises every sunday for the Fortunate families which meets in a neighboring “catholic’ Parish. I attended ONE meeting mistaking it for being Catholic. what I heard there shocked and angered me.
since then a good holy priest told me about Encourage. .which is 100% faithful to catholic teaching on chastity.
was auxillary bishop Zavala ( of los angeles) supportive of FF ? easy to believe. he was rather liberal.
How do i get this group OUT of Los Angeles?
I am worried that other parents like me might go to them in our time of traumatized shock and believe the lie that it is Catholic.
instead they advocated for so called same sex marriage, for acceptance of sexually active ‘couples” to be considered catholics in good standing, they condemned holy mother church as being the source of making thier loved ones ‘feel” bad. They do not promote chastity, but actually encourage sinful behavior.
I wrote to this pastor my concerns (the one who advertises it) and he has never responded.
Encourage acts out of True love. True love is to desire eternal salvation for our family members. Love the person, as a child of God, made in his image. But discourage, and encourage the sinner to leave the sinful ways behind. For those with Same sex attraction it is possible to lead chaste lives, and not act out sexually.
Just as for single persons, or those persons separated from their sacramental spouses , or the clergy; are called to live chaste lives and not fall into sexual temptation. Courage views the same sex attraction as a cross that these persons are called to bear.
we Parents of Encourage pray for and interceed for our children even if they are not ready to leave behind the lifestyle.
But unlike the other so called ministries has the full blessing of the vatican, fully in line with Catholic teachings on sexual purity.