COLLINGWOOD, Ontario, August 7, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Not all Catholic pastors are responding to certain Canadian bishops’ requests that they address the marriage redefinition issue in their parishes. However, many parishioners are reporting that exceptional homilies on the issue have been given in their particular parishes. One of many examples is the homily given on Sunday July 27, 2003 by Fr. James McLenaghen, Pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Collingwood, Ontario. Fr. McLenaghen received applause (which is uncommon in Catholic churches) from the congregation at both masses at which he gave his strong sermon on the issue.
Like the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and strong Catholic leaders such as Chicago’s Cardinal George, Fr. McLenaghen believes that the issue of same-sex ‘marriage’ cannot be addressed without also addressing “the depth of depravity our Western culture is sinking into” and the issue of homosexuality.
Gay activists have made plain that their agenda involves far more than merely gaining the right to ‘marry’ and that they aim to eventually radically transform the traditional understandings of marriage, family life and restraints on any sexual relationships. Therefore, limiting the pro-family response to only defending traditional marriage will not stop, but may at best only slightly delay, the social radicals’ larger agenda since an uninformed public will still be left in the dark about what is being done to the culture. Fr. McLenaghen states “We live in a culture that is obsessed with the idea of individual rights, even to the detriment of the common good”.
He continues that “there is no longer any clear moral or philosophical foundation to this prevailing notion of individual rights. The natural moral law used to be the foundation, a foundation that suited all religions and people of good will, but no more”. The Catholic priest notes that “There isn’t a single world monotheistic religion that approves of homosexual acts”. He warns “When we separate the unitive from the procreative and say that sex is just an itch to be scratched – that sex is an appetite to be sated in any way we like – then we diminish what it means to be human”. See the text of the complete homily at https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/aug/030807b.html