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Malta Archbishop Scicluna.(AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini)

MALTA, June 6, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — It comes as no surprise that Malta Archbishop Charles Scicluna has unofficially lent his support to a homosexual group within his diocese that recently draped a rainbow flag over a Catholic altar as part of a prayer service to end “homophobia.” 

Under Scicluna’s watch, Drachma LGBTI — a group which campaigns for the Catholic Church to accept homosexual “marriage,” sodomy, and adoption of children by same-sex couples — has been given a free pass to meet in Maltese Catholic parishes, retreat centers, and in the Catholic chapel of the country’s only university. 

READ: Sacrilegious: Pro-gay group in Malta archdiocese uses rainbow flag as altar cloth

Scicluna has not only presided at a Eucharistic celebration put on by the group aimed at ending “homophobia,” but he has used the occasion of the group presenting him with a newly published pro-homosexual book titled “Our Children” as a photo-op which was published on the archdiocese’ website. 

And why is it no surprise that Scicluna backs Drachma LGBTI? Because Scicluna himself openly dissents from Catholic teaching on homosexuality.  

The Catholic Church teaches that God created humans as male and female, giving them sexual organs that fit together and making them sexually attracted to one another for the sake of procreation (increase and multiply). Same-sex attraction is called “objectively disordered” in the Catechism because it is contrary to God’s design for sexuality. Homosexual acts are likewise called “acts of grave depravity” and “intrinsically disordered” because they are “contrary to the natural law” in that they “close the sexual act to the gift of life.”

The Church furthermore teaches that homosexual practices are “sins gravely contrary to chastity.” Those who with full knowledge willingly commit such sins risk separating themselves from God for all eternity (hell). 

Because homosexual acts can destroy a person's relationship with God, the Church teaches that same-sex civil unions can never be approved since it would mean to condone homosexual behaviors. 

In a 1986 letter to bishops about how to care for persons with same-sex attraction the Church stated that “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.” (bold mine)

Moreover, in a 2003 document about whether same-sex civil unions were supportable, the Church clarified that “respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions.” (bold mine)

Despite these clear teachings, Archbishop Scicluna told Malta Indep last year that homosexual civil unions are a “service to the dignity of these people.”

“I think that we should support legislation that gives same-sex partners their dignity and their social protection,” he said in the March 19, 2016, video interview that was posted to YouTube. 

And there you have it. Open dissent from Church teaching by a Catholic leader. Scicluna's false teaching could result in the eternal doom of countless souls who follow his mistaken advice. 

Maybe it’s because of this dissent that Scicluna, along with Bishop Mario Grech of Gozo, recently attacked a group of Maltese faithful Catholics after it published a full-page ad in a widely read paper defending real marriage against “unnatural” homosexual “marriage” in the lead-up to the June 3 election. The bishops called the ad “propaganda,” stating that they “categorically” had nothing to do with the group. 

What would truly be a “service” to people who struggle with same-sex attraction would be for Catholic leadership to warn them that immoral sexual activity of every kind has eternal consequences. It’s not the “social protection” of homosexuals that bishops should be most concerned about, but rather their “spiritual protection” from the devil who seeks to snare them in his traps so that they would become eternally separated from the society of God and his angels. 

A true service to sexual sinners would be to tell them what Our Lady of Fatima told the three children in 1917, namely that more souls go to hell for sins of the flesh than for any other reason. 

And now that Scicluna has allowed the camel’s nose into the tent by condoning same-sex civil unions, how on earth will he refuse the rest of the camel as his country prepares to introduce within weeks homosexual “marriage” legislation? He can’t without the homosexual lobby rightfully accusing him of discrimination. Because if, according to the Archbishop, there’s nothing inherently wrong with homosexual behavior, why not ratify such behavior in “marriage”? 

That’s why the Catholic Church is right to draw a line in the sand on homosexual behaviors. And it’s a grave scandal and a blow to the Church in Malta that Scicluna has decided to cross this line. When the Son of Man returns will he find any faith in Malta? Maybe not if dissident Catholic leaders have their way. 

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Pete Baklinski is Director of Communications for Campaign Life Coalition, a Canadian pro-life organization working at all levels of government to secure full legal protection for all human beings, from the time of conception to natural death. He has a B.A. in liberal arts from Thomas Aquinas College and a masters in theology (STM) from the International Theological Institute.