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(LifeSiteNews) — Huge breaking news from the Vatican: Pope Francis has appointed a hugely controversial homosexuality-promoting priest as preacher to the papal household.

LifeSiteNews Rome correspondent Michael Haynes reported Thursday morning on the appointment of Father Roberto Pasolini as the preacher to the papal household, succeeding Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa who is now 90 and has served as preacher to the papal household for 44 years. Pasolini, a Capuchin friar, has a record of extreme heterodox views on homosexuality, suggesting that the Bible only condemns homosexual acts because the concept of “homosexual orientation” did not exist at the time of its writing.

To show you how insane this is, in a recent talk Pasolini encouraged Catholics to “imagine” relationships like that between Jonathan and David as potentially homosexual. He encourages the same imagining with the centurion and his servant, the centurion who appealed to Jesus to heal his servant. The new Francis appointee argued that these interpretations could challenge traditional views and asserted that Jesus might have offered praise to a man in a homosexual relationship. Because Jesus said of that centurion, “Truly, I tell you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.” (Matthew 8:10)

Pasolini’s views are blasphemous and contrary to Church teaching, failing even to condemn the concept of imagining Jesus Himself in homosexual relations with his apostles, which he also presented in his talk.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church condemns homosexual acts as “intrinsically disordered” and calls for those with homosexual inclinations to live chastely. A 1986 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) called the “Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons” further specifies that a homosexual inclination is an “objective disorder” oriented towards moral evil and emphasizes the need for clear pastoral care that aligns with these teachings.

Pasolini’s views are a contradiction of Church teaching masquerading as “caring,” “welcoming,” and “accompanying” stance on homosexual inclinations. They seek to overturn the unchangeable truth taught by the Church that inclinations, even if not acted upon, are disordered.

This new Francis appointment marks another step for the LGBT revolution in the Church. Francis’ attempts to falsify the gospel and remake the Church in his own image on homosexuality are legion, from his naming of pro-homosexual cardinals and bishops, to his proposal of the blessing of homosexual couples, and his constant promotion of Fr. James Martin and LGBT lobby groups within the Church.

The Catholic Church teaches that the fundamental identity of each Catholic is as a beloved child of God, created in His image and called to holiness – NOT some sexual inclination, and especially not a sexual inclination in which its fulfillment is contrary to the law of God, the Bible says God sees as an abomination, and that the Church has taught as one of the four crimes crying to heaven for vengeance.

Identifying as LGBT is contrary to the teaching of the Church, as Pope St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body taught. Our identity is rooted in our creation as male and female, with our bodies expressing our vocation to love in accordance with God’s design.

READ: New preacher to Papal Household promotes homosexual reading of Scripture and Christ

In Catholic moral theology, temptations or inclinations toward certain sins (e.g., greed, anger, or same-sex attraction) are seen as part of human fallenness and are not to be embraced as aspects of personal identity.

We are not to embrace as aspects of our personal identity the sins to which we are inclined. We are to call ourselves “beloved children of God,” and while we must acknowledge our sinfulness, we do not claim as our identity sinful desires. But we can do so with holy inclinations.

So, it works to say:

I’m a Marian Catholic, or I’m a Franciscan, or I’m a Benedictine, but NOT:

I’m a greed-loving Catholic, or an anger-loving Catholic, a pedophile Catholic.

We can’t identify with our sinful desires, nor even with our mundane sexual preferences if they are not offensive to God, thus we don’t identify as “heterosexual Catholics” either.

We can indeed acknowledge our sinfulness, but such public confession is rare: I’m a Catholic inclined to hatred and anger, I’m a Catholic inclined to alcoholism, I’m a Catholic inclined to greed and usury, I’m a Catholic inclined to homosexual acts.

There is no sin in being tempted to sin, tempted to drink to excess, tempted to anger, tempted to greed, tempted to homosexual acts. The sin is in acting on the temptation – even acting on it intentionally in our imagination.

The 1986 Vatican document issued by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger under Pope St. John Paul II is totally contrary to the position of the new Francis-appointed papal preacher.

Although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.

Therefore special concern and pastoral attention should be directed toward those who have this condition, lest they be led to believe that the living out of this orientation in homosexual activity is a morally acceptable option. It is not.

4. An essential dimension of authentic pastoral care is the identification of causes of confusion regarding the Church’s teaching. One is a new exegesis of Sacred Scripture which claims variously that Scripture has nothing to say on the subject of homosexuality, or that it somehow tacitly approves of it, or that all of its moral injunctions are so culture-bound that they are no longer applicable to contemporary life. These views are gravely erroneous…

Far beyond any other consideration, life is all about deciding where we will spend eternity – in heaven or hell.

With such a stark reality, is it not a truly loving act to warn those given to homosexual acts or any other sexual aberration that they imperil their eternal life?

The absolute lie that a “welcoming” approach is loving is shown by a famous anti-Catholic atheist named Penn Jillette, who was co-host of a very popular television show in North America called Penn & Teller. Mr. Jillette said these powerful words:

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?

These words serve as a reproach to all those Catholic and Christian leaders who, out of fear of being politically incorrect and losing human respect or some other motive, are silent on the danger of sex outside the plan of God.

Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted followed the example of Pope Benedict in coming at this problem with love in truth – caritas in veritate.  

“Love and truth go hand-in-hand,” he said. “Everyone who experiences true love knows this – we want those we love to know the truth. As Catholics, we want to love people authentically and not in a mediocre way that would ignore dangers in a person’s life out of a shallow concern for political correctness. We need never worry that speaking the truth clearly and charitably is a violation of love.”

“Both Church teaching and the study of reality, the natural law, show that homosexuality is an objective disorder – that is, it does not correspond to the God-given reality of the sexually differentiated human being. Therefore, to condone the homosexual lifestyle is never a move in favor of a person’s true happiness.”

Proverbs 13:24 in the Old Testament: “Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.”

Here are the words from that 1986 Vatican document by the future Pope Benedict XVI that show Fr. Pasolini is harming rather than helping persons with same sex attraction:

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.

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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.

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