A Rare Admission from Alternative Media

Leave it to a publication of the Zealots for the One Thing that Matters to offer an honest admission. Even if it is at the end of a contentious hatchet job. Southern Voice Online has the story.

The Catholic Church in New Orleans had the audacity to be Catholic. How dare they? Don't they know how Foolish they are? Why can't they just be more Reasonable and endorse "gay marriage." In fact, this hatchet job quotes one zealot who says exactly that:

“The Reasonable thing — not to say, the Christian thing — would be to continue the lease as an ecumenical gesture while repeating gently that a lease doesn’t imply an endorsement,”(emphasis and capitalization mine)

The current controversy began when the Archdiocese of New Orleans learned that Metropolitan Community Church of Greater New Orleans supports "gay marriage". The Archdiocese had leased space within a Catholic HIV/AIDS residential facility before they learned of this. Faced with the scandal of appearing to endorse "gay marriage" by effectively sheltering a Gay Church committed to the immoral union, the Archdiocese exercised its rights under the lease to evict its controversial tenant.

Note how the zealots spun it:

A predominately gay New Orleans church is being kicked out of a Catholic HIV/AIDS residential facility after the Catholic Archdiocese learned members of the church support same-sex marriage.

The Metropolitan Community Church of Greater New Orleans was told Aug. 4 it had 90 days to vacate its temporary space at the Project Lazarus complex, a Marigny AIDS hospice that is overseen by the Catholic Church.

MCC and the Catholic Church entered into a one-year lease agreement on May 15 for MCC, a church founded specifically for gay people, to worship at the Catholic facility. But according to an Archdiocese spokesperson, after the contract was signed and more inquiries were made into the MCC, the Catholic Church learned of its stance in support of same-sex marriage and decided to terminate the contract.

“We do not want to give the impression that we support [same-sex marriage],” Father William Maestri said.

“My understanding is that [the lease contractors] did not know about MCC’s support of same-sex marriage until later,” he added. “And we do not support [the MCC’s] teachings.”
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Rev. Troy Perry, moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches, a Christian denomination with churches in 23 countries and the parent denomination of the New Orleans church, issued a written statement criticizing the decision.

“I am saddened that the Archdiocese is expelling the rent-paying, lease-holding congregation, not from a church building, but from an AIDS hospice,” Perry said. “They are sending a clear message to people with HIV that the Roman Catholic Church welcomes you as a sick or dying person, but not as a living, loving person.

“We’ve grown weary of a church that will condescend to bury us but not have the simple courtesy to marry us,” he said.

Maestri stressed that a clause in the lease agreement allowing either party to back out within 90 days was requested by the MCC, and added that although the Catholic Church does not support same-sex marriage, it is not homophobic.

“I don’t know how we are being presented as homophobic when in fact Project Lazarus was the first facility to care for HIV patients in New Orleans. And we never ask how anyone contracts AIDS,” Maestri said. “How that is homophobic, I just don’t quite understand it.”

Brecht disagreed with Maestri’s reasoning.

“He can call it whatever he wants to, but the bottom line is he’s enforcing official doctrine that says homosexuality is inherently wrong. If that’s not homophobia, I don’t know what is,” Brecht said.

Yes, how Foolish of the Catholic Church to hold to it's outdated and unReasonable doctrine on homosexual activity as intrinsically evil. How dare they infringe upon every Great-I-Am's right to do the One Thing that Matters in any way they see fit. Why, next they'll be harping about how sex and having babies go hand in hand. Puh-lease!!!

The Homosexualist zealots have called any one that opposes their Reasonable agenda "homophobic." It's not a debate; it's a cry of "racism" meant to silence critics rather than engage the issue. They ignore the deep reasoning of the Catholic Church in favor of mean-spirited name-calling and straw-manish libel. They can foam at the mouth as much as they like. Fools will just keep laughing. How can we not when these Reasonable zealots ignore reality? Eleven referendums prohibiting "Gay Marriage" passed throughout the nation on election day, 2004. The nation has clearly spoken on the issue. But I guess all of those people that want to preserve 10,000 years of tradition are just homophobic, too!

My one problem with the Archdiocese of New Orleans action is that it should have been unnecessary. The Metropolitan Community Church of Greater New Orleans should never have been granted a lease in a Catholic hospice. Somebody in the Chauncery's office either dropped the ball or played the Spirit of Vatican II political-correctness game of "reaching out to everyone." The result is the Archdiocese has to wipe this egg off her face.

Sex is a wonderful gift from God. It is meant as the ultimate communion and celebration of matrimony between a man and woman. It's a unitive and procreative expression of each spouse's totally self-giving love for one another. Homosexual activity violates the integrity of this gift and the people that participate in it. Since it is ontologically incapable of being a procreative act, homosexual activity can't be a completely self-giving act between two people. "Gay marriage" perpetuates the myth that our bodies are one things while our minds are something else. It violates the fundamental reality that we are body-persons, to borrow Christopher West's phrase. Therefore, it's an ultimately self-destructive illusion that harms those who participate in it.

The Catholic Church opposes "gay marriage" for these reasons. She loves and cares for gay people first as people. Unlike many homosexualist zealots, She does not equate one's personhood with how one has sex. If this is what being homophobic means, then She's guilty as charged.

The Archdiocese of New Orleans defends the Truth of sex and marriage. She can do no less.