PETITION: Support Catholic Bishop who is calling for a boycott on LGBT 'Pride'. Sign the petition here.
June 12, 2019 update: Haas responded to LifeSiteNews' request for comment after publication. His response is now included in this report.
EAGAN, Minnesota, June 5, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – A famous American Catholic hymnist whose songs are sung in churches across the continent every Sunday has composed a chant to celebrate homosexuality.
David Haas, 62, is known by Catholics throughout the English-speaking world for such hymns as “Blessed are They,” “You Are Mine,” and “Servant Song.” Jesuit-run America Magazine has called Haas “one of the most prolific and significant liturgical composers of the post-Vatican II English-speaking church.”
On Monday, June 3, Haas announced on social media that he had written a refrain to celebrate “Pride Month.” His post included an image with rainbow colors with the word “pride” written across in bold white letters.
In a now-deleted post on Facebook that was captured by LifeSiteNews, the composer wrote: “For Pride Month, last night I composed a Taize’-like (ostinato) refrain, based on Psalm 139, 13-14.”
Haas provided the text and permission to use his composition for the duration of “Pride.” His lyrics conclude with the sentiments, “You have created every part of me; you’ve made me wonderful, you’ve made me wonderful.”
“If you want a ‘rough copy’ of the score to use – and you can use it with my permission this month – if printing, please agree to include the copyright info below – send me a PM here on FB, with your email address, and I will get it to you in the next couple of days,” he added.
Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, musician and author of several books on the liturgy, told LifeSiteNews via email that Haas’s text was “scurrilous and blasphemous.”
“Scurrilous, because people will take ‘every part of me’ in predictably vulgar directions,” Kwasniewski explained.
“Blasphemous, because it attributes to God deviations and distortions that are not His work, but the result of sin, collective and personal,” he continued.
The liturgist said also that Catholics should cease to use Haas’s music because of his public support of the LGBT agenda, if not for reasons of taste.
“What's obvious is that David Haas, long-time composer of substandard ditties for contemporary Catholic worship in its phase of perpetual envy of mainstream Protestantism, has in this way publicly signified his support of the LGBT agenda, which ― in the absence of good taste ― ought to be enough for all right-thinking Catholics to jettison any piece of music that bears his name,” Kwasniewski said.
Haas told LifeSiteNews that the psalm response he composed “has nothing to do with the issue of same-sex marriage.”
“The piece was simply a gift to many colleagues that I have in ministry ― both Catholic and Protestant ― and yes, also clergy as well as lay people ― who minister to folks in the LGBTQ Community, and to many of my sisters and brothers who are part of the LGBTQ community as they celebrate Pride Month. If you read the FB post correctly, that was clear.”
“God loves all people, without distinction,” he said, adding: “This I believe passionately.”
Haas’ Facebook message received a mixed response before it was removed. Haas subsequently published two posts by LGBT activist Fr. James Martin, S.J., one offering a prayer “for those who feel rejected” and another the latest encouraging Catholics not to “be wary of June’s ‘Pride Month’ events.”
Martin continued: “It’s one way for LGBT people to be proud that they are beloved children of God, that they have families and friends who love them as they are, and that they have the right to be treated with ‘respect, compassion and sensitivity,’ as the Catechism asks, especially after years of persecution. And, for many of them, years of coming to accept themselves as God created them.” The priest acknowledged that “not every Pride Month event or celebration will be to everyone's liking or taste, but the underlying point–LGBT people should be proud of who they are, after centuries of persecution and violence–is an important one.”
Haas’s tune celebrating “Pride Month,” like Martin’s assurances that its “events” are nothing to be wary of, is in sharp contrast to Bishop Thomas Tobin’s reminder to Catholics that they should “not support or attend LGBTQ ‘Pride Month’ events.”
Tobin observed that “Pride” events “promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals” and “are especially harmful for children. For years LifeSiteNews has documented acts of public indecency and obscenity that occur at “Pride” parades, some of which clearly have been witnessed by children. The open use of recreational drugs is also a traditional feature of such celebrations.
The doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, while underscoring that men and women with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” must be “accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity,” declares that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” The Church teaches that such acts are “contrary to the natural law,” “close the sexual act to the gift of life,” and “do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity.”
“Under no circumstances can they be approved,” states the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Despite popular confusion on the point, the Church does not say that people who struggle with same-sex attraction are themselves disordered, but that their inclination is “objectively disordered”. The Church calls such people to chastity and encourages them to “gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.”
An international apostolate for people with same-sex attractions who wish to remain chaste was founded by a Catholic priest named Fr. John Harvey in 1980. Courage International, which is often under fire from LGBT activists, is approved by the Catholic Church.