March 16, 2016 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Following an outcry from concerned Catholics, a San Francisco Catholic parish located in the city’s predominantly homosexual Castro district has canceled a scheduled talk by a self-identified “gay” priest who has spoken of “Jesus as gay.” However, the cancellation leaves many more questions unanswered about the ongoing scandals occurring at the “LGBT-affirming” Most Holy Redeemer parish.
Donal Godfrey, a Jesuit who, according to the National Catholic Reporter, personally identifies as “gay,” asks in his book, Gays and Grays, “Is it less appropriate for gays to imagine Jesus as gay than for African Christians to picture him as black, Asian Christians as Asian?”
“If God must become Asian or African, then God is also in some sense queer and at work in the queer community,” writes Godfrey, who also states, “The gospel must always be inculturated into every culture, and this must include gay culture.”
Karen McLaughlan, Executive Assistant to San Francisco’s Archbishop Cordileone, informed LifeSiteNews.com yesterday that the talk has been canceled by the pastor of the parish, Fr. Matt Link.
However, the cancellation is unlikely to satisfy local Catholics, who have expressed concerns for decades over Most Holy Redeemer parish’s apparent acceptance of the “gay” identity and subculture. The cancellation also raises questions about the ongoing ministry of Godfrey, whose priestly faculties remain intact in the archdiocese despite his alleged self-identification as “gay” and his association of the term with the Divinity.
The parish openly advertises itself on the Internet as a “gay friendly, LGBT affirming Catholic church in the Castro district of San Francisco” and it praises Godfrey’s aforementioned book on its website.
“Fr. Donal Godfrey, SJ, wrote Gays and Grays which tells the story of the life of Most Holy Redeemer parish. The book is the popularized version of Fr. Godfrey’s dissertation, and his writing is superb. It starts with the rise — and almost fall of the parish — in a historical exposé,” the parish states.
The book, in addition to seeking to reconcile the “gay” identity with Christ and Christianity, is a celebratory account of the recent history of Most Holy Redeemer parish, documenting its gradual change from an ordinary Catholic parish into a social and political hub for the local homosexual population.
In addition to Godfrey’s statements regarding God that are seen as blasphemous by Catholics, the book contains numerous indications of the morally subversive environment at Most Holy Redeemer.
“One of the most colorful members of the [Gay and Lesbian Outreach] committee was simply known to everyone as Pansy,” Godfrey writes. “Pansy Bradshaw helped to write a definitive guide to San Francisco . . . ‘Betty and Pansy’s Severe Queer Review of San Francisco: An irreverent opinionated guide to the bars, clubs, restaurants, cruising areas, performing arts, and other attractions of the queer Mecca.’ Most Holy Redeemer was reviewed positively in the early editions; more recently, the parish is simply listed along with other ‘queer-positive religious organizations and churches.’”
The parish’s embrace of controversial ministers and public speakers does not end with Godfrey. Only a month ago, the parish scheduled another talk by Vincent Pizzuto, a self-declared homosexual and Episcopal priest who cohabits openly with his sexual partner and officiates at gay “weddings.” He is also Associate Professor of New Testament in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco, a Jesuit institution.
“Pizzuto is honest about his current aims,” writes Joseph Sciambra, a Catholic activist who battles against the ongoing influence of homosexual activists in the Archdiocese of San Francisco. “He recently described efforts to change the Church’s teachings as a ‘battle very much under way’ and said that ‘the Bible, as we understand it really does not address current issues…what we need to change is not so much the scriptures, which of course we cannot change, but the interpretation that has been given to them.’”
Sciambra’s protests against the speaking engagement, which were also made in various Catholic media, passed unheeded.