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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Roman Catholic Faithful
Responds to NCCB Pastoral
on Homosexuality

A response to Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children,
a statement of the NCCB Committee on Marriage and Family.

Roman Catholic Faithful, Inc. In defense of the Holy Father and Orthodoxy P.O. Box 109, Petersburg, IL 62675 ph: 217-632-5920 fax: 217-632-7054 Tuesday, October 7, 1997

Press Conference outside the NCCB office in Washington, DC

A statement by Stephen G. Brady, President of Roman Catholic Faithful, Inc.

The Associated Press story by David Briggs as reported in the Indianapolis Star (Wednesday, October 1, 1997) "Love your gay children, bishops say" and the State Journal-Register of Springfield, Illinois of the same day implies that the bishops feel that since active homosexual conduct is an outcome of what they consider a natural condition that it therefore should be tolerated. Under this reasoning, sex outside of marriage should also be morally condoned since it results from a natural desire.

This media spin on the "pastoral" was inevitable given the pastoral's
cleverly nuanced language designed to undermine the teaching of the Catholic Church.

The bishop's pastoral assumes that sexual appetite, however disordered, defines the fundamental nature of a human being.

The real question here is why the NCCB is trying to break down resistance to homosexual conduct  while completely ignoring those children abused by the homosexual clergy, and those priests and seminarians  being abused by homosexual clergy? Why are the cries of the faithful going unanswered while the American hierarchy protects its own?

Bishop Joseph Imesch of Joliet, Illinois, (whose diocese has its own sex scandals) chairman of the Committee on Pastoral Practices (NCCB) was quoted in the Star article as an authority on the topic of the recently released pastoral.

Yet, when allegations of physical sexual harassment of priests were made by priests against one former priest of Imesch's diocese (Bishop Daniel Ryan of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois), neither Imesch nor the NCCB showed any love nor sought any justice for the priests who suffered at the hands of Bishop Ryan. Why?

In February, Roman Catholic Faithful (RCF) publicly identified Bishop Daniel Ryan as an active homosexual who had been placed in a position of authority within the Catholic Church. Based on the protection that Bishop Ryan received (the Papal Nuncio refusal to investigate), it has become painfully obvious that within the
American church leadership there are those who are cut from the same cloth as Ryan.

We have received phone calls and letters from priests, seminarians and laity who had their own horror stories in regard to the acceptance of overt sexual behavior at seminaries and Catholic institutions. The explosion in priest pedophilia lawsuits is merely a symptom of a deeper problem. One has to question whether the bishop's indulgent promotion of homosexuality reflects the  disordered sexuality that apparently exists among some of the Catholic clergy.

The release of this "pastoral", without the approval of the full body of bishops, just a few weeks before the NCCB meeting November 10, again raises the question-why?

In the spring of 1998 RCF will be sending out a mailing to every priest in this country in an effort to gather the information we need to help purge the Catholic Church of the homosexualist influence. We have found that litigation and public exposure can help rid the Church of scandal.

In their pastoral, the bishops speak of "accepting and loving your child". Are the bishops suggesting that Catholic mothers and fathers do not love their children unconditionally? What arrogance considering that many of our lost shepherds (including Imesch, Ryan, Mahony, Weakland, Untener, Clark, Hubbard and the like) speak of love and justice but their actions speak much louder than their words. We at RCF hear from hundreds of parents whose children are subjected to every form of abuse such as heretical teaching, inappropriate sex education, sexual abuse, and countless liturgical abuses. When   parents approach these bishops with their cries for help, they are completely ignored if not mocked and ridiculed. Do these bishops know what true love is?

If these bishops truly love the homosexual person, do they tell them to avoid the occasion of sin by staying away from gay bars? Do they tell them to remove themselves from a relationship with their lover? Are they told to go to confession and daily Mass to receive the graces necessary to fight this sinful lifestyle? Or, are they encouraged to attend a "homosexual Mass" hand in hand with their lover as in the case of Bishop Mathew Clark's March 1, 1997 "Mass for Gay and Lesbian Catholics" at Sacred Heart Cathedral.

Perhaps the NCCB should clean its own house before it attempts to tell Catholic parents how to love their children. The deplorable state of the Catholic Church in America is well documented and  is most definitely a reflection of the lives of its clerical leadership. It is about time orthodox Catholics hold their bishops accountable and we at RCF intend to do just that starting with our November 9th meeting in Washington DC.
 

Stephen G. Brady
phone 217-632-5920 / fax 217-632-7054
October 7, 1997

 

 

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