Semantic Gymnastics and Verbal Engineering

I've been having a friendly disagreement with Catholic in Brooklyn over the situation in New York

with Holy Innocents and St. Francis of Assisi and the pre-pride Mass. She calls me angry and judgmental and, frankly, I think she's a little clueless.

Anyway, the conversation got me thinking about another New Yorker, Msgr. William Smith, a holy moral theologian who often spoke at pro-life and home schooling conferences. (He died in 2009, a great loss to the Church Militant here on earth..) I was blessed to hear him speak on several occasions. One of his maxims was "verbal engineering always precedes social engineering." He described how effectively Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups took the spotlight off abortion by renaming it "choice." It created the ludicrous situation of many, even Catholics, claiming to be both pro-life and pro-choice. Feminists and pro-abortionists advanced abortion acceptance with this brilliant strategy! You can hear it in almost any Catholic Church and, in fact, I have a number of practicing Catholic relatives who claim they are "not pro-abortion, but pro-choice" ignoring the obvious moral contradiction of saying they support both the right to life of an unborn baby and the right of the mother to kill her child if that's what she chooses.

How is this related to the issue at hand? The homosexual community engages in the same kind of verbal engineering with the term "pride" to advance acceptance of homosexuality. It takes the focus off what homosexuals do (sodomy, fisting, fellatio, S&M, etc.) and focuses on self-affirmation and celebration of "sexual diversity" including all its permutations - LGBTQXYZ. The fact is "gay pride" (like "choice") is a political term emphasizing acceptance and celebration of homosexual activity. You certainly don't see Courage and Encourage featured at "gay pride" events because those groups promote chastity. "Gay pride" is the opposite. (Although what, pray tell, is there to be proud of in having a disordered inclination toward sinful behavior?)

When the Franciscans at St. Francis of Assisi embrace the word "pride" they join the same verbal game as the pro-aborts with the word "choice." That their order also promotes the misreading of Pope Francis' out-of-context "Who am I to judge?" statement indicates (to me at least) a disingenuous promotion of the gay lifestyle. And certainly selling all kinds of merchandise featuring the rainbow flag and the "Who Am I to Judge" statement, as St. Anthony Shrine in Boston does, promotes the gay lobby, something Pope Francis specifically condemned.

Consider a religious order offering a "pre-choice Mass" before a feminist march featuring Planned

http://www.cafepress.com/shrinepride

Parenthood and NARAL. Would that be acceptable? Not to me! Unless it were booked as a Mass of reparation for the sin of abortion.  which was certainly not the case with the "pre-pride Mass." The fact that the Franciscans used an ad featuring a variation of the rainbow flag, a symbol of homosexual activism, is also problematic.

Words and symbols have meaning that are not only explicit, but reach one at a subliminal level. More and more young people are embracing the gay agenda philosophically. I believe we can thank the Franciscans for contributing to the confusion, deliberately perhaps? Verbal engineering does, indeed, lead to social engineering and we are rapidly moving toward sexual social chaos.

Will Cardinal Dolan Do Anything about St. Francis and their Celebration of NYC "Pride"?

I've been posting about Manhattan's homosexual parish, St. Francis Xavier run by the Jesuits. (See here, here, here, and here.) It's a scandal, but Cardinal Dolan seems to have no problem with it. No discipline for the priests there promoting homosexual acting out. In fact, he cheered them on at the parish rededication.

Nope! Cardinal Dolan saves discipline for orthodox priests like Fr. Justin Wylie of Holy Innocents parish who dared to say in a Sunday homily that the diocese appears to be the abandoning the flock who desire the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). Holy Innocents is the only parish in the diocese that offers a daily TLM. So what happened to Fr. Wylie in a New York minute? He got the boot at the express order of the Cardinal's office. I mean, it's fine to talk about mixing with the smelly sheep, but, some sheep are smellier than others and those traditionalists just reek of incense!

To make a sad story even more ludicrous, Holy Innocents is planned to merge with St. Francis of Assisi run by the Order of Friars Minor. Seems the Franciscans are as proud of homosexuals acting out as the Jesuits at St. Francis Xavier. (The two Francises must be rolling over in their graves.) At any rate, St. Francis of Assisi is celebrating their "pre-Pride Mass" before the "hot" events on the evening of June 28th and the big parade the next day. Keep in mind that "gay pride" is a loaded term that refers to celebrating the homosexual lifestyle. If you have any doubts about what NYC pride stand for, visit the NYC Pride website. But don't check it out when the kiddies are around. One of the things they're proud of is redefining marriage. (Click on 2008 - 2013 to see the strides they've made in bringing same-sex marriage to reality!) Are you proud of that, Cardinal Dolan? And exactly how can the pro-sodomy parishioners "merge" with the traditional Catholics who keep the faith? Talk about strange bedfellows?