DUBLIN, Ireland (LifeSiteNews) – A parish in Ireland has hosted an “ecumenical LGBT prayer service” in which “Pride” flags were draped on the sanctuary of the church and remain flying outside.
St. Teresa’s Parish on Donore Avenue, Dublin, said the event “followed on from Pope Francis’ statement to the LGBT community” in which he told Fr. James Martin, SJ, that God “does not disown any of his children.”
Catholic commentators at the time lamented how Pope Francis omitted the crucial point that God’s children can disown God by committing grave sin, such as sodomy, or by dissenting from the deposit of Faith in celebrating disordered sexual desires.
READ: Cdl. Müller: ‘Nobody can change’ Catholic doctrine that homosexuality is ‘grave sin’
Yesterday’s ecumenical LGBT event at St. Teresa’s Parish was advertised on the Dublin Pride website and was co-hosted by neighboring members of the Protestant St. Catherine’s & St. James Church of Ireland parish.
With prayers offered for “LGBTQ+ parents and families, especially those who long to be parents,” participants then stood in front of the tabernacle and held the LGBT flag across the sanctuary while posing for photos, with one woman raising her fist in a show of “Pride.”
Neither the Archdiocese of Dublin or St. Teresa’s Parish responded to a request for comment by LifeSiteNews.
I’m very proud to call this my parish church. #pridedublin2022 pic.twitter.com/w4W1ZkgoCk
— Miriam Dowling (@Miriam_Coach) June 24, 2022
Meanwhile, a national synod meeting of church leaders and lay groups was hailed last week as “heartening” by LGBT activists in attendance.
Lesbian activist and former news anchor Ursula Halligan told the Irish Times that “a lot of us are out of our comfort zone. It will be our shared faith that will get us through this because it’s not going to be easy. But I think today was a good start. I am heartened and encouraged by what I experienced this morning.”
She warned that “there are a lot of people who are comfortable with the church as it is and have very set views, very rigid views, and I could easily see it reverting and going back.”
“It will require leadership and courage, at the moment from those who are in those positions, which are the male hierarchy, and that’s how the Holy Spirit works through us. I would have concerns about it reverting but I have been heartened by what I’ve heard today, in a way I hadn’t expected. So, I see today as a good starting point.”
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Anthony Neville of the Association of Catholics of Ireland said the synod was “the first time in 2,000 years that the people of God have an opportunity of discussing what’s happening in the church, what has happened and indeed what will happen in the future. It gives us great hope that for the first time we have an opportunity to have our say.”
At least one bishop is understood to have dismissed the suggestion from several delegates that Church teaching should change as a result of the synod, with many younger attendees preferring to focus on the need for evangelization and developing a relationship with Christ.
Please email the Archdiocese of Dublin to respectfully express your opposition to the promotion of “LGBT Pride” in Catholic churches: [email protected]