May 12, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Clergy who openly defied Rome by blessing homosexual couples in Germany earlier this week engaged in a “truly sacrilegious act” that is also a “diabolical act of pride and immorality,” a priest from Mexico said.
Fr. Hugo Valdemar, canon penitentiary of the Archdiocese of Mexico, told Catholic World Report on Tuesday that such a blessing is an act of “indiscipline and rebellion against the pope and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
Earlier this week, Catholic clergy in Germany openly defied the Vatican’s ban on same-sex blessings by offering blessing services across the country in over 100 locations as part of a campaign titled “Love wins, blessing service for lovers.” The campaign was launched in response to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith asserting in a March 15 declaration that the Church cannot bless same-sex relationships since God “does not and cannot bless sin.”
They did it.�� Some priests in Germany have blessed same-sex unions today defying the Vatican's ban. pic.twitter.com/Bv9rOT6wbn
— Sachin Jose (@Sachinettiyil) May 10, 2021
Fr. Valdemar commented that “persons can always be blessed, even if they are sinners, but that which is in itself a serious sin and offensive to God, such as homosexual acts, cannot be blessed.” He called upon Catholics in Latin America to pay attention to the situation in Germany “so as not to allow ourselves to be enveloped by this perverse mentality of gender ideology that is slowly permeating society.”
News of the rebellion of the German priests was picked up favorably by mainstream media outlets such as the New York Times, the Associated Press, the CBC in Canada, and others.
The way the blessing services were performed varied from place to place. One participant who attended a homosexual blessing service in Cologne told CNA Deutsch that the event was more “political” than anything else. “After some political statements, the Gospel was read aloud, followed by a speech. Finally, the song Imagine by John Lennon was played,” Catholic News Agency reported.
PETITION UPDATE (3/15/21) -
Reports suggest that the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Conference (USCCB) is preparing a vote on what to do about pro-abortion Joe Biden (and, presumably, other abortion-promoting politicians) who continues to present himself (themselves) for Holy Communion.
Public excommunication would be a suitable response for Biden's obstinate, public and grave sin of scandalously promoting abortion.
Please continue to SIGN and SHARE this important petition.
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PETITION UPDATE (2/4/20)
Since Joe Biden was sworn-in on the 20th of January, he has wasted no time in signing Executive Orders to destroy the protections which former President Trump offered to the unborn and to the innocence and modesty of children of the United States.
In one executive order, Biden rescinded the Mexico City Policy prohibiting the federal government from spending taxpayer monies on abortion and the promotion of abortion.
And, in another executive order, Biden seeks to force girls' athletic programs, restrooms, and locker rooms to accept gender-confused males.
Since the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was shamefully silent throughout the presidential campaign on the pre-eminent issues of abortion and gender ideology, and what Biden vowed he would do as president, it is cold comfort that their pro-life office is now speaking up about this Administration's wilful disregard for human life and for God's design of human nature (i.e., two biological sexes).
Stated plainly, Joe Biden is as bad as he said he would be, and the bishop, acting in unison (as the USCCB) have an obligation to the Lord (first) and to the faithful (second) to refuse Holy Communion to this grave public sinner.
With all due respect to these bishops, they diminish the Holy Eucharist and their high office, as well as cause grave scandal to the faithful, by dialoguing with a man who is promoting mass murder of the unborn against the constant teaching of the Church.
A man who continues to use the church as a backdrop for statements about how "Catholic/religious" he is, but, at the same time, is now doing everything in his power to protect the murder of the innocent, needs to publicly repent before dialogue can begin.
The bishops should not dialogue with or congratulate someone who has publicly betrayed the Church's teaching and who is leading others astray.
It's an embarrassment and a scandal for the bishops to continue to allow him to receive Holy Communion.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition today!
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PETITION UPDATE (12/10/20)
Prior to the election on November 3, the U.S. bishops did not address Joe Biden’s anti-Catholic position regarding faith and morals as a unified body.
The USCCB, the organization to which every U.S. bishop belongs and which is staffed and led by bishops, remained disgracefully silent in the run-up to the election.
What were the bishops afraid of, losing their charitable tax status with the IRS, or being deprived of fat checks from the HHS (immigration programs) and USAID (foreign aid programs)?
Or, were they just too cowardly to clearly declare Christ's law to be above man's law and risk the ire of a Joe Biden as president?
Either way, the bishops’ lack of clarity in this regard is a terrible scandal in itself and probably greatly contributed to the possible election of a pro-abortion, anti-Catholic Catholic to the presidency.
Given the fact that exit polling shows Catholics split their vote 50-50 for Trump and Biden, even a slight deviation in the heavily-Catholic swing-states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania could have produced different results.
The bishops could have spoken out against Biden’s pro-abortion stance collectively, but, again, they were overwhelmingly and shamefully silent.
Because of this, they will be at least partly responsible for the policies advanced by a Biden administration, in the event that Biden is sworn into office.
However, the bishops can, even now, mitigate the damage done by their inaction by taking the following steps: 1) Speak with one voice, as the USCCB, and plainly condemn Biden's pro-abortion stance; 2) Publicly advise Biden not to present himself for Holy Communion because of his scandalous position on abortion and homosexual "marriage;" and, 3) Tell Biden to publicly repent of publicly promoting the wilfull murder of the preborn, sins against nature, and diminishing the natural family.
Thankfully, some individual bishops have spoken out forcefully on Biden's scandalous behavior, and his standing in the Church.
On November 9, Archbishop Strickland of Tyler, Texas tweeted: “A dark cloud has descended on this nation when the USCCB and Planned Parenthood speak in unison in support of a Biden-Harris administration that supports the slaughter of innocents by abortion for all 9 months of pregnancy.”
Additionally, Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver, Colorado and Archbishop Charles Chaput have both declared publicly that Joe Biden “should not receive Holy Communion."
But, to add insult to injury, Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C. has said that he will give Holy Communion to Biden because “it’s a matter of the responsibility that I have as the archbishop to be engaged and to be in dialogue with him, even in those areas where we obviously have some differences.”
And, Bishop W. Francis Malooly of Wilmington, Delaware and Bishop McElroy of San Diego also congratulated Biden in statements, but they have not indicated whether or not they would administer Holy Communion to him.
With all due respect to these bishops, they diminish the Holy Eucharist and their high office, as well as cause grave scandal to the faithful, by dialoguing with a man who is promoting mass murder of the unborn against the constant teaching of the Church.
A man who uses the church as a backdrop to make sickening political advertisements about how "Catholic/religious" he is, but, at the same time, says that he will do everything in his power to protect the murder of the innocent, needs to publicly repent before dialogue can begin.
The bishops should not dialogue with or congratulate someone who has publicly betrayed the Church's teaching and who is leading others astray.
It's an embarrassment and a scandal for the bishops to continue to allow him to receive Holy Communion.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition today!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/us-catholics-weigh-mixed-reaction-biden-win
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PETITION UPDATE (9/29/20)
Cardinal Raymond Burke has stated that Democratic candidate Joe Biden should not receive Holy Communion because of his support for abortion.
In an interview for Thomas McKenna's Catholic Action for Faith and Family podcast, Cardinal Burke states the following (starting around 5:00):
First of all, I would tell him [Biden] not to approach to receive Holy Communion, out of charity toward him, because that would be a sacrilege and endanger the salvation of his own soul.
But, also, he should not approach to receive Holy Communion because he gives scandal to everyone, because if someone says, 'I'm a devout Catholic," and, at the same time is promoting abortion, it gives the impression to others that it's acceptable for a Catholic to be in favor of abortion.
Of course, it's absolutely not acceptable, and never has been, and never will be.
We give thanks for Cardinal Burke's frankness and clarity. And, we call on every U.S. Catholic bishop to follow Cardinal Burke's lead and call out Joe Biden for his bloody-minded hypocrisy on the issue of abortion.
To reiterate: You cannot be a Catholic and support abortion.
Thank you for continuing to sign this urgent petition.
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PETITION UPDATE (8/17/20)
The Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, keeps claiming to be Catholic but has said he will do everything in his power to support abortion.
And, with his pick of California Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, Biden has just cemented abortion into the Democrats' 2020 presidential ticket.
Indeed, Harris is vehemently pro-abortion.
During her time as attorney general of California, Harris played a key role in defending Planned Parenthood over its sale of aborted baby parts (which violated multiple federal laws, according to undercover video of abortion industry personnel).
And, last year, Harris unveiled a plan to essentially force pro-life states to seek permission from the federal government before pro-life laws can take effect.
Additionally, Harris has dangerous views on religious liberty and freedom of speech.
Harris displayed anti-Catholic bigotry in the confirmation hearings of Judge Brian Buescher. Harris cited his membership in the “all-male society” the Knights of Columbus and its stances against abortion and same-sex “marriage” as grounds for rejecting Buescher for a federal district court in Nebraska.
And, David Daleiden, head of the pro-life investigative group Center for Medical Progress, wrote that from his firsthand experience, he considers Harris the “greatest threat to First Amendment civil rights our country has ever seen.”
Joe Biden has seriously erred by taking on Kamala Harris as his running mate, further distancing himself from the truths of the Catholic Faith, especially that every life is sacred from conception till natural death.
Please CLICK HERE to read an article which details one U.S. bishop's warning about the Biden-Harris ticket.
And, please continue to SIGN and SHARE this petition.
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Of course, these two things are incompatible: you cannot be Catholic and pro-abortion.
And, a "Catholic" politician's responsibility in this regard is absolute: On pain of serious sin, he or she can never promote abortion because abortion is the wilful murder of innocent preborn human beings, and also because doing so causes grave scandal to the Church and the faithful.
Please SIGN this urgent petition asking the bishops of the United States to refuse to give Holy Communion to Joe Biden until he publicly repents from his scandalous promotion of abortion.
Biden recently promised to “codify Roe v. Wade” as president, adding, "my Justice Department will do everything in its power to stop the rash of state laws that so blatantly violate a woman’s protected, constitutional right to choose."
And, since starting his latest run for the presidency, Biden also flip-flopped against the Hyde Amendment, saying that he would allow federal funds to be spent on abortion - a position he claimed to be against for more than 40 years.
In short, Joe Biden will do everything in his power to enable and defend the wilful murder of innocent preborn human beings.
So, this should not be a hard decision for our U.S. bishops. In fact, in another circumstance, it was already done by an Illinois bishop.
Indeed, Bishop Paprocki, of Springfield, Illinois, invoked Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law to withdraw Holy Communion from two Illinois state politicians who had worked to enact radical new abortion legislation in 2019.
Canon 915 states: "Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion."
Of course, no-one, least of all the bishops, wants anyone to be deprived of Holy Communion.
A politician who publicly and obstinately advocates for the murder of innocent preborn babies puts himself out-of-communion with the Church and her teaching.
Pro-abortion politicians should not think that they can advocate for the murder of the unborn and receive the Body of Christ at the same time. This would be to defile the Eucharist while giving scandal to the faithful.
Depriving politicians of Holy Communion is not just meant to prevent scandal; it is also designed to bring a grave public sinner to repentance. In this way, such an action is meant to be for the good of their souls, too.
Thank you for SIGNING this urgent petition which calls on the U.S. Catholic bishops to refuse to admit Joe Biden to Holy Communion until he publicly repents from his scandalous promotion of abortion.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Joe Biden: I support abortion ‘under any circumstance’ - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/joe-biden-i-support-abortion-under-any-circumstance
Catholic priest denies Joe Biden Holy Communion for pro-abortion stance - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/catholic-priest-denies-joe-biden-holy-communion-for-pro-abortion-stance
Cardinal McCarrick and the Concealing of Rome’s Position on Denying Communion - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-mccarrick-and-the-concealing-of-romes-position-on-denying-communio
**Photo Credit: Joshua Roberts / Getty Images
The New York Times reported about one blessing service performed by openly homosexual priest Bernd Mönkebüscher who last month created a social media post to protest the Church ban on blessings for homosexual couples that received the support of over 500 German priests:
During the ceremony, Father Mönkebüscher walked around the nave, approaching couples who sat in pairs, socially distanced and masked. They rose as he placed a hand on their shoulders and spoke a blessing as they bowed their heads. After one lesbian couple had received their blessing, they dropped their masks and shared a kiss, wiping away tears.
Fr. Jan Korditschke, a Jesuit in Berlin who will lead a blessing ceremony for homosexual couples on May 16, told the Associated Press that it is his belief that homosexual acts are not sinful.
“I am convinced that homosexual orientation is not bad, nor is homosexual love a sin,” he said, adding: “I want to celebrate the love of homosexuals with these blessings because the love of homosexuals is something good.”
U.S.-based Jesuit priest James Martin, the editor-at-large of the Jesuit-run America Magazine who openly campaigns for the normalization of homosexuality within the Catholic Church, tweeted the above quote on May 10 without comment.
“I am convinced that homosexual orientation is not bad, nor is homosexual love a sin,” Father Korditschke told the Associated Press in an interview Friday. “I want to celebrate the love of homosexuals with these blessings because the love of homosexuals is something good.”
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) May 10, 2021
Fr. Ronald Vierling, an Oblate of Mary at the Foot of the Cross who is the former rector of the University of Notre Dame’s Morrissey Manor, called out Fr. Martin for tweeting the above dissident quote to his 300,000 followers.
“This lamentable situation demands prayers of reparation, not Tweets of celebration,” he said. Fr. Vierling in a subsequent tweet offered an Act of Reparation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The Catholic Church, basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, teaches that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.”
“They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved,” states the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 2357). The Catholic Church furthermore teaches that the homosexual inclination is also “objectively disordered” since God created sexual attraction for the purpose of drawing a man and a woman together to become husband and wife in marriage.
When Catholic journalist Sachin Jose tweeted on May 10 that the German priests who blessed same-sex unions have “acted contrary to the Church teachings,” asking that “all the Church leaders around the world including the US bishops should speak out on the issue,” Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler Texas responded: “As the Vatican recently said ‘we can’t bless sin.’”
“[L]et us pray for a conversion of heart for all involved … the faith is beautiful if we will only share it with clarity & joy. To truly love is to desire the good of the other & to assist them in attaining that good,” Strickland added.
As the Vatican recently said “we can’t bless sin” let us pray for a conversion of heart for all involved…the faith is beautiful if we will only share it with clarity & joy. To truly love is to desire the good of the other & to assist them in attaining that good. https://t.co/ewZmBsUYvf
— Bishop J. Strickland (@Bishopoftyler) May 10, 2021
Last week, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen joined Kazakhstan Bishop Athanasius Schneider and Switzerland Bishop Marian Eleganti along with a dozen priests in asking Pope Francis to intervene to stop the Catholic church in Germany from falling into “schism.” They highlighted in their appeal the German bishops’ “Synodal Path” that appears to be leading the German church to a place where it will depart from Catholic teaching on the male priesthood, priestly celibacy, marriage, and sexuality. They pointed out as evidence of their concern the fact that so many clergy see no problem in defying Rome by blessing homosexual couples.
Bishop Schneider told LifeSiteNews in a report published earlier this week that from a “human point of view” there is “little hope” that anything can be done to stop the church in Germany from sliding into schism. But, he said, there is always hope for God’s intervention.
“To save the Catholic Church in Germany, there is first the need of prayer and reparation for the sins against the Catholic faith and the sanctity of the sacraments, committed in the past decades in first place by many representatives of the hierarchy, cardinals, bishops and priests. There is a need of a Divine intervention that will raise some new apostles of the Catholic faith in Germany,” Schneider said.
The Bishop encouraged faithful Catholics in Germany, who are witnessing schism unfolding right before their eyes, to pray and to continue to remain faithful to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic faith. “Firstly, they should self-assuredly and joyfully confess the fullness of the Catholic faith, which they know from the Catechism and from the ever-valid documents of the Magisterium of the Church,” he said.