Gay Activists Denied Communion at Catholic College Mass by Archbishop Nienstedt

Archbishop John Nienstedt recently sent out a DVD defending marriage and calling the faithful to do so with their votes in the upcoming elections. This is the reason he is being opposed by homosexual equivalency activists. The Homosexual Equivalency Movement is now engaged in open defiance right within the sanctuary of the Catholic Church. This offense against the Church masquerades as a call for equal rights. Dissident groups assisted by Organizations like the Human Rights Campaign such as the small group at St. Johns Abbey must be exposed and opposed.

P>COLLEGEVILLE, MN. (Catholic Online) - On Sunday, September 26, 2010, during Holy Mass at St. John's Abbey on the campus of St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, 24 people were refused Holy Communion by Archbishop John Nienstedt of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. They were displaying rainbow buttons and rainbow sashes in direct defiance of the direction of the Diocese and thereby clearly expressing their rejection of the teaching of the Catholic Church. Anyone who comes forward to receive the Holy Eucharist is professing to be in Communion with the Church. That means they accept her moral teaching. This open show of defiance in the context of the Mass was encouraged by a group calling itself calling itself "People Representing the Sexual Minority" (PRiSM).

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) is the largest homosexual activist organization in the Nation. Its self proclaimed mission is "Working for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equal Rights". Harry Knox, who serves on President Obama's faith-based advisory council, is one its major leaders. He directs HRC's "religion and faith program." He is also Anti-Catholic. For example he claimed the Pope is "hurting people in the name of Jesus" and when confronted on it refused to back down. He told the local press that HRC was outraged at the denial of communion because "Jesus didn't play politics with communion.He offered his body and blood for everyone." Yes Mr. Knox and he calls us to conversion! This kind of assertion by the leader of a group dedicated to a Cultural Revolution and opposition to Catholic teaching points to a growing threat to the Catholic Church. 

Among the clearest summaries of Catholic teaching on the immorality of homosexual acts was that set forth by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under the leadership of then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) in the "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons" promulgated in 1986. Here are a few paragraphs in this important instruction: "The Church, obedient to the Lord who founded her and gave to her the sacramental life, celebrates the divine plan of the loving and live-giving union of men and women in the sacrament of marriage. It is only in the marital relationship that the use of the sexual faculty can be morally good. A person engaging in homosexual behavior therefore acts immorally."

"To choose someone of the same sex for one's sexual activity is to annul the rich symbolism and meaning, not to mention the goals, of the Creator's sexual design. Homosexual activity is not a complementary union, able to transmit life; and so it thwarts the call to a life of that form of self-giving which the Gospel says is the essence of Christian living. This does not mean that homosexual persons are not often generous and giving of themselves; but when they engage in homosexual activity they confirm within themselves a disordered sexual inclination which is essentially self-indulgent".

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"As in every moral disorder, homosexual activity prevents one's own fulfillment and happiness by acting contrary to the creative wisdom of God. The Church, in rejecting erroneous opinions regarding homosexuality, does not limit but rather defends personal freedom and dignity realistically and authentically understood."

This teaching is crystal clear. It cannot and will not change. Groups like these protestors, by their open defiance of this teaching, undermine the authority of the Church, confuse those who struggle with same sex attraction and scandalize the faithful. They also confuse the public as to what the Catholic Church actually teaches. They are joined in a network which participates in what I have called the "Homosexual Equivalency Movement."  They work within the Catholic Church to promote heresy and within the broader culture to bring about a Cultural Revolution.

The dissenting or confused Catholics who support this Homosexual Equivalency movement within the Church insist that the Catholic Church adopt their new doctrine - which amounts to heresy. Some also insist that the Civil Law of the Nation create a legal and moral equivalency between true marriages and cohabitating practicing homosexuals. In these efforts they are led by well funded and strategic groups such as the "Human Rights Campaign" who now seek to directly undermine the authority of the Catholic Church in defending its own doctrine and enforcing church discipline. 

Archbishop John Nienstedt is a defender of marriage as between one man and one woman, intended for life, open to children - and the family founded upon it. He teaches what the Catholic Church teaches, that the marriage based family is the first society, first government, first school, first economy, first church and first mediating institution of civil society. He has shown what I recently called "Episcopal Courage in Defending Marriage and Family" and is being singled out for his courageous defense of the truth. He recently sent out a DVD defending marriage and calling the faithful to do so with their votes in the upcoming elections. This is the reason he is being opposed by homosexual equivalency activists.

Homosexual sexual acts, even if engaged in with one partner for a long time, are not the equivalent of a marriage, no matter what any court or legislature may say. The reason that marriage - and the family founded upon it - has become the foundation of civil societies across ethnic, geographical, religious and racial communities is because it is an institution revealed by the Natural Law which can be known by all through the exercise of reason. Marriage is not simply a "religious" construct. It must not be redefined or replaced if we hope to promote the true common good. The effort of the "Human Rights Campaign" to equate how one engages in non-marital sexual acts with a member of the same sex to being a member of a particular race or gender (thereby making practicing homosexuals a "protected class" for civil rights purposes) is legally and socially dangerous. One is a status; the other involves a behavior and a lifestyle.

Though disputed, some maintain that same sex attraction is a genetic predisposition. Even if it were the case, that should not give homosexual practice a "civil rights" status. Should we then give other disordered appetites civil rights status? Certainly, those who engage in a homosexual lifestyle should be treated with the human dignity that they deserve and not be discriminated against. However, that is because they are human not because of their sexual behavior. Homosexual sexual acts are simply homosexual sexual acts. Our bodies do not lie, they speak the language written within their constitution and confirmed in the Natural Law which binds us all.

The Homosexual Equivalency Movement is now engaged in open defiance right within the sanctuary of the Catholic Church. This offense against the Church masquerades as a call for equal rights. Notice the name of the organization at St. John's and the use of the term "sexual minorities". This group also uses the language of compassion. In reality the Homosexual Equivalency Movement is engaged in an effort to censor the Catholic Church and radically reconstruct western culture. Exposing and opposing these activities is an important undertaking.

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Those in our midst who struggle with same sex attraction need to be given the truth which will help to set them free. They should be shown true compassion such as that offered by authentic ministries to homosexual persons like Courage http://couragerc.net/ which is faithful to the teaching of the Catholic Church. Dissident groups being assisted by Organizations like the Human Rights Campaign such as the small group at St. Johns Abbey must be exposed and opposed by all faithful Catholics.  

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