Blogs
Featured Image

July 2, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — You should not be hearing this from me. All the faithful Cardinals and bishops of the Church need to stand up and say, “Enough!” Enough to the destruction of the teaching of the Church coming from Pope Francis.

But because that unified voice of the faithful shepherds is silent, faithful fathers must stand up to defend the faith of their children against the onslaught of the devil and his accomplices in this world, including those false shepherds who seek to devour the sheep. 

For those of you who may not have heard, Pope Francis sent homosexuality-promoting priest Fr. James Martin a personal handwritten letter this week to encourage him in his ministry to LGBT Catholics. In this special episode of The John-Henry Westen Show, I unpack all of this.

It is not loving to allow your children to rampantly misbehave without correcting them. Speaking as a father of eight children, I will admit that it is often easier to turn the other way and purposely fail to notice misbehavior. But out of love for their children, parents must correct and discipline them.  

So, too, must the Church, especially Her shepherds — the fathers of souls. They must feed the flock and teach the “hard” truths, however difficult and politically incorrect it may be to do so. That is true love!

Silence on the hard truths of homosexuality was specifically warned against by the Vatican. The man who became Pope Benedict XVI, while he headed up the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), made a public statement directed to the bishops of the Catholic Church that silence about the Church’s teachings regarding the spiritual harm of homosexual acts presents a false charity which is “neither caring nor pastoral.”

The 1986 CDF document entitled “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons” emphasized the necessity of “clearly stating that homosexual activity is immoral.” 

The instruction to the bishops of the world on homosexuality, signed by then Cardinal Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict, added, 

But we wish to make it clear that departure from the Church’s teaching, or silence about it, in an effort to provide pastoral care is neither caring nor pastoral. Only what is true can ultimately be pastoral. The neglect of the Church’s position prevents homosexual men and women from receiving the care they need and deserve.

And that is exactly what Fr. James Martin is doing in encouraging the Church to bless same-sex unions. He is not being loving, nor is he being pastoral.

In supporting this attack on the faith, Pope Francis, too, is harming the faithful, especially those who suffer from same-sex attraction. At LifeSite, we have followed the career of Fr. Martin promoting homosexuality for over a decade.

We were warned right from the beginning of the Church that such a time would come. St. Paul warned about in 2 Timothy 4, when he said, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears.”  But the apostle to the Gentiles strictly directed Bishop Timothy to fulfil his ministry of evangelizing nonetheless, stating, “I charge thee, before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead, by his coming, and his kingdom:  Preach the word: be instant in season and out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine.” 

Let’s look at the example of Pope Benedict XVI and the Vatican under him at the time, and the Vatican during the time of Pope St. John Paul II. 

In 2005, Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, who was President of the Pontifical Council for the Family, gave one of the strongest statements defending the traditional family ever voiced in the Church.  

Cardinal Trujillo said parliaments that “open the way for same sex ‘marriage’  … destroy piece by piece the institution of the family the most valuable heritage of peoples and humanity.” He also called homosexual “marriage” a “crime that represents the destruction of the world.”  Speaking on the topic of adoption of children by homosexual couples, he said, “This would destroy the child’s future, it would be an act of moral violence against the child.”

With those strong words, he awoke many to the dangers of the worldwide assault on the family. 

Importantly, the cardinal further explained that it was out of love that the Church was pointing out these dangers.  Love not only for society at large but also for homosexuals themselves. “As I have said many times,” said the Cardinal, “homosexual peoples must be respected, loved and assisted.  We must help them overcome this situation if they seriously want to and help them realise that there is not only life on earth, there is another life … It is false to say that the Church does not love these people. She loves them and wants to lead them to eternal salvation.”

In an address to the Roman Curia on December 22, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI capitalized on the popular ecology trend, calling for a “human ecology” that respects the Creator’s natural order of relationships between man and woman. In language very similar to that of Cardinal Trujillo, the Holy Father said the Church must “protect man from self-destruction.” 

If the Church speaks of the nature of the human being as man and woman, and demands that this order of creation be respected, this is not some antiquated metaphysics. What is involved here is faith in the Creator and a readiness to listen to the “language” of creation. To disregard this would be the self-destruction of man himself, and hence the destruction of God’s own work.

The Pope did not speak on the subject to be popular, nor because he had some vendetta against gay people. He was preaching caritas in veritate, speaking the truth out of love; love for God and his Truth, love for mankind as a whole, but specifically love for his fellow human beings who are hurting themselves with destructive sexual lifestyles.  

For his remarks, he was castigated in the mainstream press. In thousands of news articles and talk shows around the world, from Bulgaria to India, Pope Benedict was bashed for daring to say we should care as much for mankind as the tropical rainforests; that the harm caused by going against the Creator’s plan for human sexuality is destructive and hurtful. 

The pro-homosexual press had the most outrageous headlines on the topic. A Pink News headline in the U.K. read: “Pope Benedict learnt nothing from his time in the Hitler Youth,” and “Pope Benedict’s latest outburst ‘justifies’ homophobic bullying and attacks.” But the coverage in the mainstream press was hardly less offensive. 

A San Francisco Chronicle headline read, “Pope Benedict at Christmas: Preaching bigotry disguised as compassion,” and the Times of London opined: “Christmas was never meant to be about this.”

But what comes of the approach of Fr. James Martin and Pope Francis, betraying the truth of Christ in this difficult matter? The praise of the world! As well as kudos from high-ranking politicians and world leaders. They’ve also received the appreciation and company of the glitterati and the adulation of the media. They are stars, they are loved by the world, they are welcomed into the halls of power and of fame.  

It is love that compels a parent to remove a child from a dangerous situation, even when that child is complaining about his parents being mean for depriving him of his fun. It would not be love at all to allow your little child to harm himself by engaging in dangerous activities.  

It is not easy to speak out against homosexuality today. It doesn’t make you popular, and it may soon cost you your friends, reputation, and even your job, as it has for some already.  

Our bodies were not designed for same-sex sexual behavior, and our anatomy itself gives that testimony. The negative mental and physical health consequences that flow from homosexual sex acts are many, and the medical evidence pointing to them is readily available on LifeSiteNews.   

But even if you question the science, at least listen to homosexual activists themselves describe the many woes experienced by practicing homosexuals. On Feb 17, 2009, Canada’s largest homosexual paper XTRA reported on a group of homosexual activists who were demanding Canada’s healthcare system pay more attention to the “gay community.” 

Gens Hellquist was the executive director of the Canadian Rainbow Health Coalition, a leading homosexual activist group. He explained at length his concerns about the health status of homosexual men and women in Canada:  

We have one of the poorest health statuses in this country … Health issues affecting queer Canadians include lower life expectancy than the average Canadian, suicide, higher rates of substance abuse, depression, inadequate access to care and HIV/AIDS.

There are all kinds of health issues that are endemic to our community. We have higher rates of anal cancer in the gay male community, lesbians have higher rates of breast cancer … the reality is there is more LGBT people in this country who die of suicide each year than die from AIDS, there are more who die early deaths from substance abuse than die of HIV/AIDS. …   

Now that we can get married everyone assumes that we don’t have any issues any more. A lot of the deaths that occur in our community are hidden, we don’t see them. Those of us who are working on the front lines see them and I’m tired of watching my community die.

But even beyond the heart-wrenching physical and psychological damage the homosexual lifestyle causes, there are also the spiritual costs, which can be eternal. 

So, if you believe in the eternal consequences for sexual sin, you cannot stay silent. To do so would in fact be a true act of hate.  

Even a committed atheist can see that. Penn Jillette, of the famous Christian-bashing show Penn and Teller, said these words back in 2008: 

If you believe that there’s a heaven and hell, and that people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward … — how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible, and not tell them that?

So, do we love people inclined to homosexual sex enough to tell them that it’s bad for them, even though telling them is socially awkward? 

Therefore, I beg you, good priests and bishops, speak out with conviction and love for the truths of Christ, especially in these hard areas of human sexuality, and even if that means publicly correcting Pope Francis. You will be criticized for it, but you must trust that God will see to it that the truth is well-received.  

Love demands it, and the future of Christianity depends on it. How can I say the future of Christianity depends on it, since we know that Christ will be with His Church till the end of time? Because in this battle of homosexuality, a time of persecution of the Church is near at hand, and indeed, in many parts has already arrived. 

This is not my estimation, but that of the Pope Benedict XVI.  In an address given only 18 days prior to his election to the pontificate, and one day prior to the death of Pope John Paul II, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger  said, “Very soon it will not be possible to state that homosexuality, as the Catholic Church teaches, is an objective disorder in the structuring of human existence.” 

Yes, the time may be coming shortly when we are forbidden to state the basic truths of the Church. Will we then have the courage to proclaim Christ’s truth with the possibility of losing our freedom, or perhaps even shedding our blood? If we choose silence now because of cultural pressures, the loss of human respect and political calculations, how can we imagine that when the penalties are increased to include imprisonment, and possibly even torment and death, we will dare to speak the truth of Christ? 

The John-Henry Westen Show is available by video on the show’s YouTube channel and right here on my LifeSite blog.

It is also available in audio format on platforms such as SpotifySoundcloud, and Acast. We are awaiting approval for iTunes and Google Play as well. To subscribe to the audio version on various channels, visit the Acast webpage here.

We’ve created a special email list for the show so that we can notify you every week when we post a new episode. Please sign up now by clicking here. You can also subscribe to the YouTube channel, and you’ll be notified by YouTube when there is new content.

You can send me feedback, or ideas for show topics by emailing [email protected].

By clicking subscribe, you are agreeing to receive emails about The John-Henry Westen Show and related emails from LifeSiteNews.

Featured Image

John-Henry is the co-founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of LifeSiteNews.com. He and his wife Dianne have eight children and they live in the Ottawa Valley in Ontario, Canada.

He has spoken at conferences and retreats, and appeared on radio and television throughout the world. John-Henry founded the Rome Life Forum, an annual strategy meeting for life, faith and family leaders worldwide. He is a board member of the John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family. He is a consultant to Canada’s largest pro-life organization Campaign Life Coalition, and serves on the executive of the Ontario branch of the organization. He has run three times for political office in the province of Ontario representing the Family Coalition Party.

John-Henry earned an MA from the University of Toronto in School and Child Clinical Psychology and an Honours BA from York University in Psychology.