"When freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God."For background, read Pope Says Gay Agenda & Abortion Dooms Society and also read Pope Says Public Opinion Won't Liberalize Church as well as The Pope, and Obama's War on Christianity
-- Pope Benedict XVI
UPDATE 3/14/13: Pope Francis I Says Gay Agenda is Work of the Devil
-- From "Pope: Gay rights an "attack" on traditional family" by The Associated Press 12/21/12
The pope pressed his opposition to same-sex marriage Friday, denouncing what he described as people manipulating their God-given identities to suit their sexual choices — and destroying the very "essence of the human creature" in the process.
"People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being," he said. "They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves."
Church teaching holds that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered," though it stresses that gays should be treated with compassion and dignity.
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From "Pope signals inter-faith alliance against gay marriage" by Philip Pullella, Reuters 12/21/12
The Vatican has gone on the offensive in response to gains for gay marriage in the United States and Europe, using every possible opportunity to denounce it through papal speeches or editorials in its newspaper or on its radio station.
The "pre-ordained duality of man and woman" had to be respected, [the Pope] said, if families and children were not to lose their place and dignity.
In some countries, the Catholic Church has already joined forces with Jews, Muslims and members of other religions to oppose the legalization of gay marriage, in some cases presenting arguments based on legal, social and anthropological analyses rather than religious teachings.
In November, Spain's highest court . . . upheld a gay marriage law, and in France the socialist government has unveiled a draft law that would allow gay marriage.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Pope critiques 'gender ideology' in year-end address to Roman Curia" posted at Catholic World News 12/21/12
The Pope’s discussion of family—which was almost universally reported in the secular media as an argument against same-sex marriage, although the Pontiff never specifically mentioned that issue—was part of a lengthy address in which Benedict XVI also summarized the major events of the year for his pontificate, and spoke at length about the Church’s interaction with other faiths and with society at large.
. . . Turning next to general themes of the pontificate, the Pontiff spoke first about the family. . . . The first threat to family and marriage is the “refusal to make any commitment,” he observed.
However, the Pope continued, it is clear that “the attack we are currently experiencing on the true structure of the family, made up of father, mother, and child, goes much deeper.” Citing a study by the Chief Rabbi of France, Gilles Bernheim, he said that “gender ideology” undermines the fundamental understanding of what it means to be a human . . .
God created male and female, the Pope observed. “Man calls his nature into question,” he said, when he questions that fundamental concept of sexuality. Moreover, the Pope continued, because the “gender ideology” seeks to make every individual completely autonomous, it destroys the understanding of the family as a community designed for the rearing of children. Again citing Rabbi Bernheim, the Holy Father said that in this radical new understanding of sexuality, children lose their own rights because “the child has become an object to which people have a right and which they have a right to obtain.”
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Following the Lead of Pope Benedict XVI, It is Time for Christians to Engage with the World" by Deacon Keith Fournier, Catholic Online 12/22/12
For weeks I have experienced Christians walking around looking, acting and speaking like forlorn warriors. . . . For some, there is residual depression over the implications of elections past. It is time to acknowledge that the collapse of Western civilization will not be remedied by political movements alone. They are inadequate for the task. However, we cannot retreat from the culture. Part of our mission is to walk into the culture, filled with the love of God, equipped with the splendor of truth, and continue the work entrusted to us as Catholic Christians. We have been given a gift meant for the whole world.
. . . We need to simply acknowledge that we live in a declining western culture which is increasingly hostile to the Church. Our struggle involves a clash of worldviews, personal and corporate, and competing definitions of human freedom, human dignity, and human flourishing.
Crippled by the culture of death and indoctrinated by what Pope Benedict XVI called a "Dictatorship of Relativism", the West has been seduced by the siren song of evil. It is deluded by the lies mouthed by a movement which purports to be progressive when it is regressive. In addition, evil runs rampant in our midst.
To read the entire opinion column above, CLICK HERE.
Also read Bishops Chasten Vice President Biden, a 'Practicing Catholic'
