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| Does the Catholic Church "breed contempt for gays" or do Catholic bishops breed contempt for the faithful? Bishops McElroy & Lynch, and AB Cupich use shooting to promote liberal agenda and say NOTHING about Islamic violence. |
A number of Catholic bishops have been using the Orlando shooting to promote the liberal, politically correct agenda: attacking Catholics for "anti-gay prejudice," promoting gun control, and saying nary a word about the violence of Islam. Robert Lynch was the most outrageous blaming the Catholic faith for fomenting hatred against gays. His fulmination should be challenged. And so I'm posting in toto a message from Catholic Vote forwarded to me from a friend. It includes contact information for the bishop at the end. I hope everyone reading this will take the opportunity to send Bishop Lynch a (civil) letter or email.
From Catholic Vote:
There is no tip toeing around this.
It’s time to be blunt.
Early Sunday morning, 49 of our fellow Americans were killed by a purportedly gay, radical Islamist, who pledged allegiance to ISIS. The killer scoped several locations for his heinous crime, including Disney World where tens of thousands of families visit every day. He ultimately committed his crime at a gay night club.
Shamefully, in the days since the massacre, partisan ideologues have used the mass-murder to demonize Christians, gun owners, and anyone who doesn’t fully embrace the radical LGBT agenda.
...and it’s not just the ACLU.
Several of our own Bishops are engaging in this madness.
This is disgraceful. And wrong.
Every person killed in Orlando was made in the image and likeness of God. Human dignity does not stop at the doorstep of a gay night club. Each of the victims was loved by God beyond measure.
Not a single Catholic has celebrated this crime. Not one Catholic voice has called for violence against gay and lesbian people. But now, an increasing number of leaders are attempting to exploit the terrorist attack in Orlando to advance political agendas -- and they are even blaming us!
Don’t believe me? Consider just these few examples:
Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Florida, wrote in a national editorial: “sadly it is religion, including our own, which targets, mostly verbally, and also often breeds contempt for gays, lesbians and transgender people. Attacks today on LGBT men and women often plant the seed of contempt, then hatred, which can ultimately lead to violence.” Link.
A New York Times editorial today: “...lawmakers who have actively championed discriminatory laws and policies, and those who have quietly enabled them with votes, should force themselves to read the obituaries and look at the photos. The 49 people killed in Orlando were victims of a terrorist attack. But they also need to be remembered as casualties of a society where hate has deep roots.” Link.
Chase Strangio, a lawyer for the ACLU's LGBT & AIDS Project: “The Christian Right has introduced 200 anti-LGBT bills in the last six months and people blaming Islam for this. No. You know what is gross - your thoughts and prayers and Islamophobia after you created this anti-queer climate.” Link.
Virginia Congressman Don Beyer claimed if you oppose transgender bathrooms, you are part of the problem. “Hatred breeds hatred… we are not blameless.” he said. Link.
Did you get that? You and I are partly to blame for Orlando.
Catholics who believe in the natural institution of marriage and the intrinsic beauty and complementarity of men and women, and who desire to protect women and children from predators in public restrooms helped fuel this terrorist attack? This is outrageous.
This is nothing more than the shameless exploitation of a terrible terrorist attack to fuel hatred of anyone that believes in the time-honored institution of marriage, and traditional sexual morality.
What happened in Orlando was an act of terrorism, fueled by a radical ideology and carried out by a mad man. To suggest that faithful Catholics helped encourage this attack is beyond disgraceful.
We will not stand for it. And neither should you.
I am asking every CV member to write or call Bishop Lynch in St. Petersburg today.
Ask him to clarify his comments, which suggest that Catholic teaching on marriage and sexuality somehow “breeds contempt for gays.” Ask him to consider issuing a public clarification.
CONTACT INFO:
Bishop Robert Lynch
Diocese of St. Petersburg
P.O. Box 40200
St. Petersburg, FL 33743-0200
Phone: 727-344-1611
Fax: 727-345-2143
Email: communicate@dosp.org
Please do not personally attack the Bishop. He remains a shepherd of the Church. However, we must defend our rights as Catholics to follow the teachings of our Church -- and respond together to the insinuation that doing so leads to violence.
We ask you to be charitable, but firm.
Dear Mary Ann you have a gracious heart of Christian love. As for me, I grieve so much over the sinking in,, the sinkhole, of the loss of faith and charity that I can just about not deal with the kinds of commentary this bishop has put out publicly so I am glad you have done such a good job with this post.
ReplyDeleteLynch has been a problem for years.
ReplyDeleteReceived from Chriss via e-mail
ReplyDeleteI read your blog this morning. To contrast what the liberal bishops today are saying about us being to blame for deaths of sodomites, consider quoting St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
The impenitent and obstinate sinner wounds and tears his own soul
Perhaps one becomes perplexed by this word of the Prophet: ‘He who loves iniquity, hates his soul’ (Ps 10:6). But I add: he also hates his own flesh. Does he not treat it with hate, in fact, when every day he accumulates for it the torments of hell, and he accumulates, due to his hardening in evil and the impenitence of his heart, an abundance of wrath for the day of revenge? It is true that we should judge much less from his intention than by the effects [of his deeds] that the sinner is the enemy of his body, just as of his soul. For example, the dissolute who, while drowsing his reason endeavors to do evil to himself, shows himself to be the enemy of his body. Yet is there worse dissolution than impenitence of the heart and obstinacy in sin? It is not just on his body that the miserable raises a violent hand, but his own soul that he wounds and tears. If you have ever seen a man rub his hands together until they start bleeding, you have a clear example of what the sinner does. (Saint Bernard of Clairvaux. Of Conversion: a sermon to the clergy, Ch. IV, no. 5)