Bishops respond to Marriage Care on homosexual 'marriage'

The most complete report on the bishops' reaction to the speech of Terry Prendergast, the Chairman of Marriage Care, rubbishing Catholic teaching on marriage, appeared in The Tablet. It reveals that Archbishop Nichols is actually the President of Marriage Care, and that Prendergast is an adviser to the Marriage and Family Life Committee (chaired by Bishop Hine) of the Bishops' Conference. In short, he and his organisation are intimately connected with the ecclesiastical bureaucracy, making it particularly difficult for the bishops to distance themselves from even his more outrageous views.

The Tablet (25/7/09) “The Church’s vision is that the crucially important quality of stability in family life needs gender complementarity and role modelling too,” said the bishops. They recognised that circumstances may mean that some of these dimensions were unavailable, creating the need for additional support, but added that “it is inconsistent with Catholic teaching to plan or promote a notion of family from which they are deliberately excluded”.

Mr Prendergast is an adviser on the Bishops’ Marriage and Family Life Committee, chaired by Bishop John Hine, who acknowledged this week that there were difficulties over Mr Prendergast’s observations. The concerns of both Archbishop Nichols and Bishop Hine were raised with the board of directors of Marriage Care at a meeting on Tuesday.

Mr Prendergast said that he felt he had been able to explain his position to the bishops. “My impression was that they were making every effort to understand the position of Marriage Care,” he said.

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Marriage Care head on homosexual unions

There follows a press release about a conference organised by Quest, a homosexual 'Catholic' group which was ejected from the Catholic Directory many years ago for rejecting the Church's teaching on sexuality (see our dossier). Terry Prendergast is the Chief Executive of Marriage Care, an formerly Catholic organisation listed at great length in the Catholic Directory (under its former name, 'Catholic Marriage Care': see our dossier).

On Prendergast's jaw-dropping claim that there is 'no evidence' that children do better with both a mother and a father see here for details of a study and here for Ed West.

Pendergast has spoken and written several times of his support for homosexual marriage and the like, but this speech is particularly clear. It remains to be seen if Archbishop Nichols will take the opportunity either to bring Marriage Care to heal or cut the Church's links with it. Listing in the Directory is a formal endorsement, at least in general terms, by the Bishops of England and Wales, as their own guidelines make clear. 'Criteria for entry into the Catholic Directory' is available from this page of their website, as a pdf (here). It tells us that 'ecclesiastical recognition is given to organisations so that they may be publicly known as both Catholic and of national significance'. It goes on to specify as the first criterion for entry:

'A fundamental commitment to the teaching and practice of the Catholic Church, particularly as expressed by the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.'

This is explained in more detail: 'The word 'fundamental' relates to the key objectives of the organisation as formally written and as corporately pursued. It is tolerant of some variety of emphasis in expression and in operation, but not of deviation from ultimate loyalty to the Church, nationally or internationally.'

Head of Marriage Care exhorts Church to re-think the family.

Gay couples can lay equal claim to their married heterosexual counterparts when
bringing up children in stable relationships. That is one of the many
challenges laid down by Terry Prendergast, Chief Executive of Marriage Care, in
a speech to members of QUEST, the community of lesbian and gay Catholics at
their annual conference this weekend. His remarks come as a timely contribution
after many Catholic adoption agencies have, in recent months, had to agonise
about whether to fall into line with new legal arrangements which oblige such
bodies to make adoption available equally to same-sex as well as heterosexual
couples.

Mr Prendergast will address the gathering in Leicester with his wife, Kate, a
lecturer in social policy at Brunel University. The conference theme is:" We
Are Family: New Thinking for the Twenty First Century."


"Statistically, children do best in a family where the adult relationship is
steady, stable and loving, " he says. "Note that I stress adult, not married,
since there is no evidence that suggests that children do best with
heterosexual couples, " he adds.

A dominant theme of his address centres on how the Church has often built up a
romantic image of a golden age of the nuclear family which, in truth, has not
really found expression in reality, often with unwelcome consequences for those
that "do not fit." These include single parent families, and also co-habiting
and same -sex families. He says that often "those individuals.want to live good
lives according to the precepts of the Gospels. They are an advert for the
Church, an advert that the Church often ignores, or consigns to the waste bin."

He says that in all relationships, the institutional aspects are less important
than the sacramental qualities, "the presence of God mediated through
commitment, consent and covenant. The move from the institutional to
companionship, choosing for love, has been marked, possibly more deeply, in
co-habiting and same-sex couples."

Inspired by Professor Margaret Farley's book, Just Love: A Framework for
Christian Ethics, Mr Prendergast lays out seven norms or criteria for
evaluating the richness of relationships and family:

Do no unjust harm,

Free consent,

Mutuality,

Equality,

Commitment,

Fruitfulness

Social justice.

Terry Prendergast is Chief Executive of Marriage Care, formerly CMAC, and has
been in that role since 2000. He was born in West Yorkshire and joined the
Montfort Fathers in 1967. He left the Montfortians in 1970, marrying Kate. He
trained as a social worker in 1975 and as a Psychotherapist in 1980, but has
been involved in management in the charitable sector since 1989. He has an MA
in Managing Change in Community, from Bradford University. He is concerned
about long-term relationships, their management and support, as well as the
development of their spiritual and sacramental aspects

For further comment, Terry Prendergast can be contacted on the following mobile
number: 07771 768631.

Kate Prendergast's address is entitled: "Chance, Choice and Caritas," and will
also feature as part of the conference proceedings . It is hoped a full
transcript of the paper will be available soon after the conference on the
Quest website at www.questgaycatholic.org.

Sit Stephen Wall, a former adviser to both Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor and
Tony Blair, will be the after dinner speaker on the evening of Saturday July
18th. Sir Stephen has been a member of Quest since January 2008.

The 2009 Quest Conference will be the 27th in the organisation's history and
will take place between 6pm on Friday July 17th and 4pm Sunday 19th July at
John Foster Hall at the University of Leicester.

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Feminism and Homosexuality

Feminism, as an ideology, is clearly completely contrary to the Catholic view of human nature and to Catholic practice. The fact that serious feminists regard an all-male clergy as inherently unjust gives the game away. Amazingly feminists have nevertheless been able not only to enter official Church structures but even exercise an ideological domination of them, through 'Women Word Spirit' and its historic stranglehold on the National Board of Catholic Women.

Just as Catholic women are the special targets of prosletising militant feminists, homosexual Catholics are targetted by militant gay groups which reject the teaching of the Church on sexuality and embrace the gay sub-culture. What is amazing, again, is that they have been able to do this for decades with some measure of official approval.

Click on the names to see our full dossier on each group.

Marriage Care, formerly the 'Catholic Marriage Advisory Service', then 'Catholic Marriage Care'. It is no longer 'Catholic' in its self-description but it is still in the Catholic Directory. Once a worthy organisation dedicated to marriage counseling, now they want to help people in all 'relationships', and undermine the Church's teaching on the nature of marriage and homosexuality. They also promote sex education, of a kind completely at variance with the Church's guidelines. The Chairman of Marriage Care has repeatedly spoken in favour of homosexual unions.

Women Word Spirit (WWS), formerly Catholic Women's Network (CWN). Recently ejected from the Catholic Directory, it still has a stranglehold on the National Board of Catholic Women, an official consultative body of the Bishops Conference of England and Wales, and its quarterly newspaper 'Catholic Omnibus' (which is now to be published only as a download). As Feminists they ceaselessly campaign for women's ordination, and also support abortion. They are part of a network of dissenting groups on the issues of contraception, the liturgy, clerical celibacy, homosexuality, and the role of women in the Church.

Roman Catholic Caucus of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (RCCLGCM)/ Soho Masses Pastoral Council (SMPC)
&
Quest
Two very similar organisations seeking to undermine the Church's teaching on homosexuality. Although neither is listed in the national Catholic Directory (Quest was ejected in 1998 for refusing to 'clarify' its position on homosexual sex) they have considerable success at local level organising Masses and other events with the agreement of bishops and priests. At their events, and in their literature, there is a pervasive assumption that a homosexual couple's sexual relationship is perfectly ok, and that the Church's teaching to the contrary is 'fallible' and wrong. They are supported by a handful of dissident theologians. They campaign to guide or even be put in charge of the pastoral care of homosexual Catholics, a remarkable attempt by the wolf to apply for the shepherd's job.

Catholics for AIDS Prevention and Support (CAPS)/Positive Catholic (successor to 'Catholic AIDS Link'): another organisation promoting dissent about homosexuality. It has close links to RCCLGCM, and is listed in the Catholic Directory. As Positive Catholics it organises an annual retreat in Douai Abbey.

The arguments used by apologists for these groups are examined here.

The Archbishop Romero Trust: an interesting over-lap between 'Justice and Peace' dissent (CAFOD, Progressio etal.) and the homosexual dissent. The Chair is Julian Filochowski, a former director of CAFOD, whose civil partner is Martin Pendergast, the leading figure in the RCCLGCM, SMPC and CAPS. So we find CAPS Masses promoting Romero (or Romero Masses promoting CAPS?) and both being promoted by the Justice and Peace establishment.

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Marriage Care head praises civil partnerships

Briefing. This will not surprise readers who have seen our dossier on Marriage Care. This organisation is still listed the Catholic Directory.

From CFNews: Terry Prendergast, chief executive of Marriage Care says that the graces of the sacrament might also be found in other forms of relationships than heterosexual marriage.

In a speech to the Roman Catholic Caucus of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement Mr Prendergast said: 'I have been thinking more and more of the sacrament of relationships, rather than the sacrament of marriage, if we are to believe that God's presence is expressed through all committed and loving relationships.

'It is my belief that the sacrament is present where you have love, commitment, consent, and covenant,' he said. 'On this basis I wonder how it is possible for anyone to make an adverse judgment about such relationships'.

But Victoria Gillick, the Catholic family campaigner, called for his resignation. 'He should go.' she said. 'Children do best within marriage and marriage is good for men and women but for the last 20 years it has not been at the forefront of Government policies and fewer people are getting married and more children are suffering. It really has to be explained, defended and supported by the 'best hearts and minds in the Catholic Church. ' [Catholic Herald]

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Another anti-Catholic conference from the bishops' favourite gay activists

Comment: Damian Thompson reports on this year's Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement conference, which is using this as a banner in their advertising, placing the Holy Father in the middle of a group including all the best known anti-gay bigots of American fundamentalism, Islam and so on. The implication is the Pope is a homophobic bigot.

It is being advertised by the 'Soho Masses Pastoral Council' on their website, which is not surprising since the SMPC is simply another name for the Roman Catholic Caucus of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (see our dossier). Martin Pendergast is the leading figure of both, and it was he who emailed Damian Thompson about it.

What is astonishing, as Thompson points out, is that the SMPC is a group officially allowed to organise the 'gay Masses' in the church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Warwick Street by the Archdiocese of Westminster.

But we've been here before. The image above is the same as the one they used last year, which makes the accusation against the Holy Father even more explicit.

Thompson is hoping that Archbishop Nichols will make the connection and put an end to the crazy promotion by the Church of organisations which hate the Church and attack it in this ferocious way. We shall see. In the meantime it is extremely heartening that Thompson is publicing it: the present situation depends on people being able to pretend they don't see anti-Catholic nature of the SMPC. Let's see some more Catholic bloggers, and the Catholic press, shining a light into this dark corner.

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Damian Thompson on 'Gay Masses'

Comment. Damian Thompson writes coyly that 'I know I should steer clear of this subject': it is characteristic of him to provoke and simultaneously dread (or claim to dread) the comments on his blog about his own orientation, domestic arrangements, etc.. 

Here's the locus classicus of this: 'Calling all lesbian and gay Roman Catholics! ... Having lit the fuse, I look forward to your responses. Hint to people who don't like me, or fancy a spot of outing: this is your opportunity to get in a few digs'. In that post he was actually promoting the Warwick Street contribution to the London Gay Pride march - or ironically pretending to.

However we've never criticised him for what is a matter for the internal forum (despite his hints); as far as we care to know he's not a public sinner; the rest we leave to his conscience and the Good Lord. We have other criticisms of his journalistic standards: see 'How not to blog'.

What he says about the 'Gay Masses' in the church or Our Lady of the Assumption, Warwick Street, however, is spot on:

The Warwick Street formula is deliberately ambiguous, however. The community "enables all who take part in the Masses various ways to grow in their faith and integrate this with their sexual orientation". Meaning what? Sounds like don't ask, don't tell on the part of the diocese. Critics would say it amounts to having your rainbow-coloured cake and eating it.

Speaking of which, doesn't that rainbow rhetoric make you cringe? It's as outdated as, well, Bungle and Zippy. I don't know if the Warwick Street LGBT caucus has noticed, but young gay people tend not to be into that Castro stuff. Some of them haven't even read Tales of the City.

And as for young homosexual Catholics, well, some of them are Lefty activists but many are traddies who wouldn't be seen dead in Warwick Street unless Mass was celebrated in the Extraordinary Form. And this is just a guess, but I reckon most of them are pretty impressively celibate. I don't judge them, or gay couple friends of mine whose intimate life is none of my bloody business.

This is exactly right. The Warwick Street Masses, as we have always pointed out, don't cater for Catholics of a homosexual orientation, but for people who dissent from Catholic teaching in a way characteristic of the 'ageing lefty' type. The whole idea of Masses for specific groups like homosexuals is just embarassing to anyone who takes the Mass seriously. The way they do it, rainbow cakes and all, makes it even worse.

But Thompson is being optimistic when he suggests, at the end of his post, that Archhbishop Nichols may bring these Masses to an end. If he'd been reading CAUK, he's know that Nichols has beeen tolerating his very own 'Gay Masses', in Birmingham, for years. If they are ok in St Catherine of Siena, Bristol Street, Birmingham, why should he move against them in Our Lady of the Assumption, Warwick Street, Soho?

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Martin Pendergast on homosexulity in the Church

Briefing: an interesting statement of his position, which no doubt goes for his groups, the Roman Catholic Caucus of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement/ Soho Masses Pastoral Council, and Catholic AIDS Support/ Positive Catholics. He makes it quite clear that he completely rejects Church teaching, including the prohibition on homosexual sexual acts, which he coyly calls 'choosing to exercise rights of conscience'. He is simply laughing at the hierarchy, who would prefer to turn a blind eye to his views when granting him permission for 'gay' Masses.

The fundamental issue here, which we never tire of pointing out, is that in allowing them to organise Masses, run the choir, distribute their literature at the door etc. etc. bishops are allowing these groups to exercise a pastoral role viz-a-viz some of the most vulnerable Catholics in their dioceses. Since these organisations reject the Church teaching relevant to the issues at hand, this is a gross dereliction of duty.

Pendergast writes: Successive Roman documents have embroidered this offensive and confusing vocabulary [that homosexuality is 'instrinsically disordered'] to the present day. The Vatican becomes more and more isolated from other parts of the church in theological reflection and pastoral practise. It has ratcheted up its rhetoric, forcing Bishops to defend the indefensible, whether with regard to admission of candidates to seminaries or religious communities, same-sex marriage and civil unions, or same-sex couples ability to foster or adopt children.

Roman Catholic teaching on homosexuality highlights some of Catholicism's best kept secrets: the primacy of a fully informed personal conscience, the hierarchy of truths, and the development of doctrine. The Catholic Bishops of England & Wales rose to these challenges when they authorised the publication of "An Introduction to the Pastoral Care of Homosexual People" in 1979.

These guidelines stayed faithful to Catholic teaching that sexual activity is only admissible within marriage, but stated that both homosexual orientation and heterosexual orientations are morally neutral. This underscores the Vatican position that the orientation in itself is not sinful, but moral decisions relate to how that orientation is expressed sexually. Whereas the Vatican would go no further in the discussion, the local Pastoral Care guidelines encouraged clergy to adopt a more nuanced approach when faced with two people in a permanent, faithful relationship who choose to exercise their rights of conscience. The Vatican was not pleased with this liberal interpretation.

See the full article, in the Guardian, here.

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Blair attacks the Church

Briefing: the arrogance of this man is stunning. Having just been received into the Church, and having refused to clarify his position on abortion and so on at the request of concerned Catholics, he has gone to a militant homosexual magazine to criticise the Pope and tell him to change the teaching of the Church.

Here's the interview in full. Here's a typical passage. He's just been saying (and he's not the only one who has noticed) that the younger generation of Evangelical Protestants are far more liberal than the previous generation. So, he thinks, the same may be true of the Catholic Church. Asked about the Pope's reiteration of the teaching of the Church on homosexuality, he says:

'Again, there is a huge generational difference here. And there’s probably that same fear amongst religious leaders that if you concede ground on an issue like this, because attitudes and thinking evolve over time, where does that end? You’d start having to rethink many, many things. Now, my view is that rethinking is good, so let’s carry on rethinking. Actually, we need an attitude of mind where rethinking and the concept of evolving attitudes becomes part of the discipline with which you approach your religious faith. So some of these things can then result in a very broad area of issues being up for discussion.'

This is so half-witted that it defies critique. There are things being rethought in the Church: the policy of appeasment toward liberal governments, the policy of soft-pedelling hard teachings in catechesis, the policy of trying to make the liturgy as like ordinary, daily experience as possible. These are being rethought because as policies they had goals, and in terms of those goals they have failed. It seems dubious that Mr Blair would approve of this rethinking. But you can't chuck the deposit of faith in the way you can chuck policies: it is a set of truths, and we have to live with those truths like them or not.

But who cares what Blair thinks? The only important thing here is that neither Tony nor Cherie should be considered reputable Catholics to speak at Catholic events, still less to speak for Catholics or the Church. They are are simply liberals who have wandered into the Church by mistake: and have left it, by denying the faith, without noticing.

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Another dissident conference at Roehampton

Briefing: bringing together a remarkable collection of dissident groups, Tina Beattie, the well-known dissident feminist, is organising a symposium on AIDS at Digby Stuart College, Roehampton. This is where the dissident Catholic homosexual group, Quest, held its conference last year. Digby Stuart was founded as a Catholic college and still has a Catholic chapel.

It is not surprising that the dissent on the 'response to AIDS' fomented by CAFOD and Progressio should find an echo with the dissident homosexual groups such as the RCCLGM Quest, and their supporters at Marriage Care. All these groups will no doubt be represented at this delightful symposium, where they will sit at the feet of an American feminist nun, Margaret Farley.

Farley is giving a talk to the RCCLGCM (see here). Terry Prendergast is giving that paper a reply, perhaps in preparation for addressing the conference of the UK's other dissident Catholic gay group, Quest. Prendergast is head of Marriage Care, the formerly Catholic marriage guidance service which now counsels homosexuals whose relationships may be in difficulties, and peddles sex education materials: see our dossier on them.

From an email: HIV/AIDS - meeting the challenge, exploring the questions

Sister Margaret Farley, Professor of Christian Ethics at Yale University and active in Sister to Sister, a project working with African women religious on HIV issues, is visiting London to give the 5th Alan Bray Memorial Lecture, Sacrament of Desire, on Saturday, 18th April (see
http://www.rccaucuslgcm.co.uk/.)

Professor Farley has agreed to take part in a one day symposium at Digby Stuart College, Roehampton University, on Monday, 20th April, which will bring together moral theologians, representatives of NGOs and religious orders and others working in the area of HIV/AIDS, to explore our different perspectives and to ask how we can maintain a dialogue which enables us to address the questions and challenges we face.

We should be delighted if you or a representative of your organisation would join us for this event. The venue will be Digby Stuart College, Roehampton University in south west
London(http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/about/location/directions/index.asp), and we plan to start at 10.30 am and to finish by 4.30 pm. We are also able to offer a limited amount of accommodation for anybody who would like to come to London for the Alan Bray lecture and to stay over for the Monday event.

I'd be very grateful if you would let me know as soon as possible if you are able to attend. We can meet expenses (within reason!), but for budgeting purposes it would be helpful to know, if you plan to attend: (a) your estimated travel costs, and (b) whether or not you will need
accommodation and, if so, for how many nights.

I look forward to hearing from you.

With best wishes,
Tina Beattie

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Pope opposes militant homosexuals' 'gender theory'

Briefing: this is the theory that gender roles - including parental responsibilities and sexual roles - are matters of convention, and can be changed. It is promoted by militant homosexual groups to justify gay sex, gay marriage, gay adoption and the attack on the family. Note the absurd but threatening reaction of the spokesman for the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (see our dossier on its 'Catholic' caucus): if you criticise our ideology, we will accuse you of violent homophobia. (The LGCM has already described the Pope as a homophobe) In a follow-up article, the BBC is also able to quite Mark Dowd, until recently Chair of Quest, the dissident 'Catholic' Gay group, now at the environmentalist group 'Operation Noah', as saying the comments betrayed "a lack of openness to the complexity of creation".

The Holy Father also called for an end to the depiction of World Youth Day as a kind of 'rock festival'.

From the BBC: Pope Benedict XVI has said that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour is just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.
He explained that defending God's creation was not limited to saving the environment, but also about protecting man from self-destruction. The Pope was delivering his end-of-year address to senior Vatican staff.

His words, later released to the media, emphasised his rejection of gender theory.
Speaking on Monday, Pope Benedict XVI warned that gender theory blurred the distinction between male and female and could thus lead to the "self-destruction" of the human race.

Gender theory
Gender theory explores sexual orientation, the roles assigned by society to individuals according to their gender, and how people perceive their biological identity. Gay and transsexual groups, particularly in the United States, promote it as a key to understanding and tolerance, but the Pope disagreed.

When the Roman Catholic Church defends God's Creation, "it does not only defend the earth, water and the air... but (it) also protects man from his own destruction," he said. "Rainforests deserve, yes, our protection, but the human being ... does not deserve it less," the pontiff said.
It is not "out-of-date metaphysics" to "speak of human nature as 'man' or woman'", he told scores of prelates gathered in the Vatican's sumptuous Clementine Hall. "We need something like human ecology, meant in the right way." The Catholic Church opposes gay marriage. It teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are.

Rev Sharon Ferguson, chief executive of Britain's Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, described the Pope's remarks as "totally irresponsible and unacceptable". "When you have religious leaders like that making that sort of statement then followers feel they are justified in behaving in an aggressive and violent way," she said. 

'Rock festival'
The pope uses his traditional end-of-year speech to offer his Christmas greetings and say a few words about what he considers the important issues of the day. This year, Pope Benedict also deplored the tendency to depict the Catholic church's World Youth Day, which he attended in Sydney earlier this year, as mere spectacle. He stressed that the event should not be considered a "variant of modern youth culture, as a kind of ecclesiastical rock festival with the Pope as the star," but as the fruition of a "long exterior and interior path".

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EnCourage speaks out on 'welcoming homosexuals'

Briefing: the EnCourage Trust is a support group for Catholics who experience same-sex attraction - one which actually uses the teaching of the Church as the basis for its work.

Further to CF NEWS report 1501.15 (Bishops encouraging priests to put up posters advertising 'support services' for homosexuals), this is a copy of a letter sent to the National Marriage and Family Life Project Office of the Bishops Conference of England and Wales by EnCourage London ('Our mission is to provide friendly and informal support based on traditional Roman Catholic principles to people of any Faith who struggle with homosexuality. Our purpose is to offer friendship and support; we are not in any way involved in the matter of sexual reorientation').

'I am writing to you as the co-ordinator of EnCourage in London.

First of all, I would like to offer you an article attached to this email by Father Paul Check, who is the director of Courage, on the issue of same-sex-attraction.

Secondly, I do not believe that your leaflet manifests an authentically Catholic understanding of the human person by characterising people who experience same-sex-attraction as being gay or lesbian in their sexual orientation.

Your leaflet is very disappointing.

EnCourage London.

The attached article reads as follows.



Courage and the Cross: The Problem of Same Sex Attraction

The Pauline year has given the Church the opportunity to meditate on the life and work of one her greatest saints. The fruits of St. Paul's apostolic labors are evident enough. But what made this man such a useful instrument in God's hands? What was the reason for his holiness? In answer, may I propose an episode recorded by St. Paul himself near the close of his second letter to the Corinthians. He reports that he was bothered by a "thorn", and that he begged the Lord three times to remove it. We do not know what this thorn was, and it really does not matter. Yet from the urgency of his prayer, we can surmise that this matter was gravely disturbing to Paul. Perhaps he believed that he could be a more effective apostle without it.

"Neither are your ways my ways," the Lord told the prophet Isaiah (55:8). Now, Jesus further specifies these words from the old covenant to Paul: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor 12:9). I believe that we find the secret of St. Paul's sanctity here in this passage. In the midst of his suffering, St. Paul discovers more of the wisdom and providence of God. Embracing Christ's admonishment, St. Paul then writes compelling words of strength and consolation: "When I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor 12:10). There was no other path to holiness for the apostle, nor will there be for any of us.

Cardinal Newman said that we will always learn far more about the Cross of
Christ by bearing it after Him, rather than by glowing accounts of it. Jesus's
bride, the Church, knows this well in her being and through the lived
experience of her members. As the Cross united heaven and earth, so does it
unite human hearts to the pierced and wounded Sacred Heart. With a mother's
love, the Church offers the grace, mercy, and peace of her crucified and risen
Savior to a fallen and struggling world through her sacraments, her teaching,
and her apostolates. One such is Courage Apostolate.

Courage was founded in New York City almost thirty years ago to assist men and
woman who are afflicted with the thorn of same sex attraction (SSA).
"Encourage" is a ministry to their families. Today these ministries are
international and are endorsed by the Holy See. Members of Courage strive to
achieve not only external chastity according to the teachings of the Catholic
Church, but also interior chastity, or "chastity of the heart", as its founder,
Father John Harvey, OSFS, often says.

Prayer, Mass and Confession, Christian fellowship, and service to others are the
means to the goal. In addition, the spiritual fatherhood of the priest chaplain
of a local Courage chapter can help to address a "father wound", particularly
in the heart of a man. The apostolate seeks to foster chaste friendships among
its members. Above all, Courage desires to help men and women with SSA to
become saints, by aiding them to find God's grace in and through their human
weakness.

Of course, much of the world does not regard the condition of homosexuality as a
weakness, let alone a cross or a way to holiness. Emotions and confusion make a
conversation about this topic difficult, even painful. We must also say that
rash judgment and severity are not the tone of the Gospel. The attitude for all
of the Master's disciples when approaching this question can be found in St.
Paul's example in 2 Corinthians 12. Humility, a docile spirit, and a
willingness to trust in God's providence dispose the heart to find strength in
weakness and to address charitably those burdened by the weakness. In trying to
follow the example of the Lord, Courage always desires to think in terms of
individual people and their needs, as opposed to the idea of homosexuality as a
cultural issue. St. Paul would call this putting on "the mind of Christ" (I Cor
2:16).

The problem of same sex attraction is often vexing to those who struggle with
it, and it is not easily vanquished. Shame, loneliness, and a sense of
hopelessness are the enemies. With abundant charity, the Catechism of the
Catholic Church acknowledges that those who have homosexual tendencies are
many, and that this inclination "constitutes for most of them a trial" (par
2358). Often people with SSA also struggle with sexual addiction, drug or
alcohol abuse, depression, anxiety or other mental illness. This remains true
even in the places where sexual promiscuity is widely tolerated.

Men and women with SSA-perhaps up to 40% of them-may very likely have been the
victims of sexual abuse as a child. (This is good to keep in mind if a young
person claims to be "gay".) In many cases, they will say that as far back as
they can remember, they have "always felt different", or that they "did not
choose this". But St. Paul offers a way forward: "We know that in everything
God works for good with those who love Him" (Rom 8:28). In everything . . . in
every thorn.

Let's continue with some history, a definition of terms, and the origins of SSA
before turning to the question of morality. North Carolina State English
Professor R. V. Young points out that not until the late nineteenth century is
the word "homosexuality" accepted as a term of language intended to describe
the permanent condition of a fixed group of people, namely, "homosexuals". In
the language of the Greeks and Romans and in that of Sacred Scripture, the
vocabulary used was drawn instead from the action or the behavior. Young
suggests that this novelty allows the proponents of the sexual revolution to
control the terms of social discourse. While it is certainly true that we are
transformed by our actions, we can also agree that someone's identity cannot be
collapsed into his or her sexual appetite.

The word "homosexual" when used as a noun is ambiguous and so not helpful in
discussion. Does it refer to an involuntary attraction, to a chosen behavior,
or to a set of convictions? Furthermore, the psychological sciences indicate
that there is a wide spectrum of those who are attracted to members of the same
sex, in terms of the intensity of the sexual attraction. The Courage apostolate
then, prompted by Christian charity and sound anthropology, uses the
terminology "men and women with same sex attraction".

Where does same sex attraction come from? First, no scientific evidence
establishes the existence of a "gay gene". If there were a genetic explanation,
then in those cases where one identical twin has same sex attraction, so would
the other. As it happens, the simultaneous occurrence of SSA in such twins (who
have identical genes) is very low, perhaps as low as 10%. Beyond that, the many
well-documented cases of change in sexual attraction would also tend to
disprove a genetic (and therefore fixed) cause of SSA. Finally, as author and
researcher Dale O'Leary has remarked, same sex activity is always sterile, and
so it cannot be considered a neutral variance within the human population.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church properly states that SSA is "objectively
disordered" (par 2358). These words can at once be jarring and liberating. They
are jarring because they can be heard as a moral judgment of the person (which
they are not), as opposed to an assessment of the inclination as measured
against human nature. The desire to lie is objectively disordered, as are
desires to steal, to cheat, and to fornicate. When acted upon, these
inclinations will always be contrary to the good of the person as recognizable
by the prima gratia, the natural moral law, which is imprinted in the mind and
heart of everyone (cf. Rom 2:15). The words from the Catechism are liberating
precisely for this reason. Something inside the person with SSA tells him or
her that this desire does not accord with nature, and the voice of the Church
confirms his or her instinct.

So we return to the question of the origin or source of the problem. Same sex
attraction is a developmental disorder that is both treatable and preventable.
It indicates an incomplete character development likely based on the
convergence of several factors: temperament, environment, experience, and free
will. In other words, we are born male or female, but we learn and grow into
our masculinity or femininity through family and friends, acquaintances, and
other aspects of our personal and social history. What matters in every case is
how the person responds to these factors.

Some circumstances do recur when the profiles of many people with SSA are
studied: a broken or turbulent home, the child's alienation from the same sex
parent (e.g., the boy from his father) or even the perception of an
estrangement, a child's failure to integrate with same sex peers (especially
true for boys), and sexual trauma. What this means is that SSA is not first a
sexual problem, but a symptom or component of an antecedent problem, i.e., a
gender identity deficit, and traceable in large part to how someone reacts to
the foregoing situations. Something that should have happened in the
development of the child did not happen. In particular, the natural desire for
healthy relationships with persons of the same sex is frustrated or
unfulfilled. When this is coupled with other factors, particularly a sensitive
temperament, that desire may become eroticized.

So feelings of SSA or "being different", no matter how far back they are
perceived to be, do not constitute proof that someone was "born that way".

An awareness of these things helps us to identify children who could be "at
risk" and vulnerable to emotional hurt. Because the incidence of men with same
sex attraction is probably at least twice that of women with SSA, the
relationship between fathers and sons will always deserve special
consideration. Dr. Joseph Nicolosi from the National Association for Research &
Therapy of Homosexuality speaks of the absence of "shared delight" in the
childhood and adolescence of men with SSA, the mutual and regular enjoyment of
some activity or experience between a boy and his father that is otherwise part
of normal childhood. For example, many men with SSA lack hand-eye coordination
and as a result were spurned or the subject of jokes by their fathers or the
neighborhood boys because they could not play certain sports easily. Quite
simply, if a boy cannot throw a football very well, there are many other things
that he and his dad can do and enjoy together . . . but the initiative must be
the father's.

At the same time, a mother who is overly involved in the life of her son,
especially if she demeans the father in the eyes of the boy or tries to make
her son into a surrogate husband, will likely do harm to the development of the
boy's masculinity. That the Catholic Church teaches that homosexual activity
(as distinguished from the inclination) is gravely immoral is widely known, but
perhaps not widely understood. Perhaps it can be explained this way. Moral
philosopher J. Budziszewski writes that as individuals, we are "blessedly
incomplete", which is another way of saying that we are made for others. In the
case of spousal or conjugal love, the union of man and woman in "one flesh"
begins with the complementarity of the sexes, namely, that man is made for
woman and woman for man.

This complementarity is physical, of course, but it is also emotional,
psychological, and spiritual. Through their self-giving union of minds, hearts,
souls and bodies, the spouses first transcend themselves, and then their love
becomes incarnate-or transcendent- in a child. This is nature's plan for
marriage and sexual love.

It is a short step from separating procreation from marriage to separating
sexual activity from marriage, and then another short step to separating sexual
activity from nature's design. The widespread rejection of the teaching of
Humanae Vitae, which simply expresses the natural order for sexual love,
explains the ambivalence of many Catholics toward the Church's teaching on
homosexual activity or same sex unions. Neither our genes nor our environment
makes us do anything, and therein lies reason for hope.

A frequent temptation to anger, for instance, does not mean that someone must
yield to or indulge that prompting. St. Paul assures us that "where sin
increased, grace abounded all the more" (Rom 5:20). Grace, perseverance, love
and the help of a therapist with a sound Christian anthropology can transform
the hearts of those with SSA. When Jesus says that the "truth will make you
free" (Jn 8:31), He is not so much imparting a theological principle as
reminding us what it means to be human. We need humility to recognize truth,
and we need the virtue of courage to live it. Freedom, strengthened and
purified by grace, makes it possible for any of us to turn the wounds and
thorns of life into the path to joy.

Regrettably, many people think that all that the Catholic Church offers to men
and women with same sex attraction is the word "no". Like all good mothers, the
Church does say "no" to the self-destructive and counterfeit pleasure of sin,
out of a sense of love for her children. Yet that "no" is embedded in a larger
"yes", a yes to Him who is Love, and who gave Himself to the Father and to us
from the Cross. The Lord asked St. Paul to find strength in his weakness
through the power of the Cross. The Courage apostolate expresses that same
redemptive paradox to men and women with same sex attraction and urges them to
trust in what they see in the life of the Master and His apostle.

[Rev. Paul N. Check is a priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport, CT and the
incoming Executive Director of Courage, International. He earned an STB from
the Gregorian University and an STL from the Athenaeum of the Holy Cross, both
in Rome. The Courage website is www.couragerc.net.]

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Everybody is Welcome - except the Pope

Action: complaints, please, to Bishop Hine(jhine@absouthwark.org) and to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The The Marriage and Family Life 'project' of the Bishops' Conference has produced a leaflet on how parishes should help homosexuals. It has very little content, apart from suggesting that the Church's usual response to homosexuality is callous rejection, but refers readers to four 'Church documents which describe the teaching of the Church and address the pastoral care of homosexual persons'. This list does not include the Church's primary catechetical document, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, nor any other document from Rome: all are documents from the English or US bishops conferences, Cardinal Hume or the Diocese of Westminster, one of them dating back to 1979. All are seriously defective; three of them have been subject to criticism by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. The attempt to direct Catholics away from documents giving the full story of Catholic teaching is remarkable, and the exclusion of papal teaching suggests an attitude approaching the schismatic.

The four documents listed the leaflet lists are:

1. Cherishing Life. Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. London: CTS, 2004.
2. A Note Concerning the Teaching of the Catholic Church Concerning Homosexual People. Cardinal Basil Hume. 1997.
3. Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children and Suggestions for Pastoral Ministers. USCCB 1997
4. An Introduction to the Pastoral Care of Homosexual People. CBCEW Catholic Social Welfare Commission, 1979

The first, Cherishing Life, has a short section on homosexuality (pp51-52) dominated by the strapline 'the Church teaches that homosexual people must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.' That is also its sole quotation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The rest of the text devotes itself to playing down the notion of 'objectively disordered' ('in this precise and particular sense only') in order to assert misleadingly that 'a homosexual orientation can never be considered sinful or evil in itself.' Sins are acts, not orientations, so denying that an orientation is 'sinful' is a straw man, but in teaching that a homosexual orientation is 'intrinsically disordered' the Church is certainly saying that it is a bad thing.

The second, A Note Concerning the Teaching of the Catholic Church Concerning Homosexual People, was composed by Cardinal Hume specifically in order to 'soften the blows' of the orthodox teaching about homosexuality presented by Vatican documents (reported in an obituary here), incorporating suggestions from the dissident 'Catholic' homosexual group Quest, which rejects the Church's teaching on sexuality (see our dossier on Quest here). Quest explains:
His Observations (1993) had been sent in draft to Quest. In full, and not unpersuasive, comments, Quest urged him to give more place to aspects of the CDF's views which showed, if somewhat meagerly, some sympathy, closer to the bishops' guidelines, with the needs of homosexual people. Nor had the cardinal taken any account of the strong support given by his predecessors at Westminster, Cardinals Griffin and Godfrey, to the decriminalisation of homosexual acts between men. This deficiency was remedied with a new paragraph on social policy which reflects Quest's concern for a better Catholic attitude than the CDF had shown to civil rights legislation for homosexual people. When the Observations were revised and reissued as the more expanded Note (1995), it was not sent in draft for the same wide consultation. The introduction of new sections on friendship and human love was not at all to the mind of the CDF (where love is never confused with sex - hence a further revision of the Note two years later).(See here.)

The third, 'Always Our Children' was criticised severely when it came out (in 1998), with the remarkable statement from the orthodox Bishop Bruskewitz, bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska:
"Calamity and frightening disaster" are terms which are not too excessive to describe this document. It is my view that this document carries no weight or authority for Catholics, whom I would advise to ignore or oppose it. (See his full critique here.)

The fourth, 'An Introduction to the Pastoral Care of Homosexual People', also included suggestions from Quest. Quest itself tells us this, adding
The bishops' guidelines were not well received at the CDF where the moral basis appeared defective and some of the pastoral advice in consequence unwarranted. Accordingly, the CDF wrote more fully and instructively to bishops worldwide, correcting moral misjudgements, disallowing inappropriate pastoral methods and forbidding support of extremist homosexual organisations. On all three counts, the English and Welsh bishops had to reconsider the position of the guidelines. In consultation with Quest and others, a revised version was drafted. On two matters of crucial concern to Quest, the moral neutrality of homosexuality as a condition and the right of homosexual couples to receive the sacraments, no concession was made to the CDF. (Seehere.)

It is outrageous that the list includes neither the Catechism not the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's 'On the Pastoral Care of the Homosexual Person' (1986), pretty obviously relevant here.

The same approach can be seen with the other leaflets in the series: notably on mixed-faith marriages, and divorced Catholics.

The leaflets also promote Marriage Care (the leaflet on homosexuality wrongly calls it 'Catholic Marriage Care'), an organisation which no longer claims to be Catholic, and whose dissent from Catholic teaching has been exposed in our dossier here.

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Bishop McMahon calls for married clergy

Udate: In a letter to The Tablet (22/11/08), Bishop McMahon seeks to clarify his position: Saying that there is no priest-shortage to justify the ordination of married men for pragmatic reasons, he goes on: 'I am quoted as saying that it is a matter of justice. Certainly some people feel that it is unfair that convert married clergymen are still being considered for ordination while the door is shut to other Catholic married men. Even if this is difficult to accept, we should always remember that ordination to the priesthood can never be understood as a right - like all sacraments, it is a gift.'

This is a bizarre re-run of the 2002 incident when his diocesan newspaper quoted him making it very clear that he supported the ordination of women. This, he claimed, was false. How on earth could The Telegraph put quotation marks round the things they did if he told them the opposite? Something very odd is going on.

Briefing 10/11/08: Bishop McMahon of Nottingham, considered a candidate for the Archdiocese of Westminster, has publicly called for the ordination of married men (see the Sunday Telegraph), as a matter of 'justice' towards men who wish to marry and also to be priests, and towards the faithful suffering from a shortage of priests."

Yes, it is theoretically possible for the Latin (Western) Church to adopt the Greek Church's practice of ordaining married men to the priesthood, and it has done so for the exceptional case of former Anglican clergy. But McMahon suggests there there is simply nothing to be said for the immemorial practice of the Latin Church. Saying that we could have women priests is not a denial of doctrine; saying that the theological considerations in favour of a celibate clergy have no weight is. It is an implicit denial of the value of celibacy in the priesthood. This is something which has been reiterated recently by Pope Benedict XVI:

Post-Synodal Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis (2007) 24 The Synod Fathers wished to emphasize that the ministerial priesthood, through ordination, calls for complete configuration to Christ. While respecting the different practice and tradition of the Eastern Churches, there is a need to reaffirm the profound meaning of priestly celibacy, which is rightly considered a priceless treasure, and is also confirmed by the Eastern practice of choosing Bishops only from the ranks of the celibate. These Churches also greatly esteem the decision of many priests to embrace celibacy. This choice on the part of the priest expresses in a special way the dedication which conforms him to Christ and his exclusive offering of himself for the Kingdom of God. (75) The fact that Christ himself, the eternal priest, lived his mission even to the sacrifice of the Cross in the state of virginity constitutes the sure point of reference for understanding the meaning of the tradition of the Latin Church. It is not sufficient to understand priestly celibacy in purely functional terms. Celibacy is really a special way of conforming oneself to Christ's own way of life. This choice has first and foremost a nuptial meaning; it is a profound identification with the heart of Christ the Bridegroom who gives his life for his Bride. In continuity with the great ecclesial tradition, with the Second Vatican Council (76) and with my predecessors in the papacy, (77) I reaffirm the beauty and the importance of a priestly life lived in celibacy as a sign expressing total and exclusive devotion to Christ, to the Church and to the Kingdom of God, and I therefore confirm that it remains obligatory in the Latin tradition. Priestly celibacy lived with maturity, joy and dedication is an immense blessing for the Church and for society itself.

See the Catholic Encyclopedia on clerical celibacy; more comments by Damian Thompson and Fr Ray Blake.

Bishop McMahon is often described as 'conservative', but this is only the latest in a string of unsettling outbursts and scandalous policies.

He called for women priests in his own diocesan newspaper in 2002 - so explicitly  that his later claim that he had been misquoted can only be understood as a face-saving way of back-peddling. On the same occasion he called for married clergy. (See this Christian Order article.)

On his diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes, he invited two Anglican women ministers into the sancturary to assist him during his celebration of Mass, and encouraged pilgrims to attend their services (see this Christian Order article).

What is more serious is that he has allowed his diocesan adoption agency to secularise, and, taking the assets given to it for Catholic charitable activities with it, to place vulnerable children into the care of homosexual couples.

Finally, Bishop McMahon, who is a Dominican, he has allowed Quest (see our dossier), the dissident gay group which was excluded from the Catholic Directory by Cardinal Hume for its support for gay sex, to have weekly Masses in the Dominican house in his diocese, Holy Cross in Leicester. Nottingham Quest members gratefully report that Bishops McMahon has encouraged them. What a nice man he must be.

Why is he regarded as 'conservative'? Because he has occasionally attended the Traditional Mass? Is that all it takes? This really is grasping at straws.

Why is McMahon coming out with this while apparently being considered by Rome for the Archdiocese of Westminster? Perhaps because in these matters the influence of liberals is greater than the influence of orthodox Catholics, and he wishes to establish his credentials as a liberal.

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Dossier: The Archbishop Romero Trust

What have Oscar Romero, CAFOD, and homosexual activists got in common?

'Justice and Peace' groups naturally see the Servant of God Archbishop Romero, perhaps soon to be beatified, as a hero for speaking out against government human-rights abuses. Unfortunately, they focus their own work on getting parishes to buy 'Fair Trade' products while our own goverment is forcing adoption agencies to give children to gay couples, allowing scientists to create human-animal hybrids, and promoting abortion for 12-year-olds.

But that is not enough. The Romero Trust, which has the laudible aim of promoting knowledge and awareness of the life and work of Archbishop Romero, is Chaired by Julian Filochowski, a former CAFOD director and civil partner of gay activist Martin Pendergast: an irony noted by Fr Tim Finnigan. The Mass celebrating their civil union caused a storm; a book edited by Filochowski in honour of the relationship is full of attacks on the Church: see here.

The use of Romero by these militant gay activists gives them opportunities for promoting the gay agenda through the activities of the Romero Trust. This might seem a difficult trick to pull off, but Martin Pendergast tells us himself that a Mass in honour of Romero in 2005 also marked World AIDS Day. Naturally, this is not a day dedicated to suggesting to 'active' homosexuals that they stop their immoral and self-destructive behaviour: it has been so completely taken over by the gay lobby that this year its theme was ending 'HIV prejudice'.

Another of Martin Pendergast's hobbies is the 'gay' Masses on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of each month in the church of Our Lady of the Assumption, Warwick Street: see our dossier on the RCCLGCM. Another dissident group in which he is involved, 'Catholics for AIDS Prevention and Support', is celebrating a 'World AIDS Mass' in this church on 30th November, and this is being promoted by the Diocese of Westminster's Justice and Peace Commission, through their e-bulletin, which also promotes World AIDS Day itself and an event of another dissident group, Pax Christi (their advent service 8th December).

So it's all very chummy. The presence of militant gay activists in the 'Justice and Peace' estblishment fits J&P's 'progressive' image, but hardly its Catholic identity.

What would the saintly Archbishop have thought? The Servant of God, Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador, was well known for his opposition to Marxist-inspired liberation theology. He was assassinated for speaking out against the murders and other abuses being perpetrated by the Salvadorian Government and its allies, in 198o.

It was a highly confused situation. A basically left-wing government was fighting a civil war with Marxist terrorists supported by Cuba; far-right death squads, loosely controlled by elements in the government, were wreaking havoc at the same time. Jimmy Carter, the Democrat US President of the time, supported the government with military aid. Romero was killed by a member of a death-squad, after calling for President Carter to cease this aid. (See Wikipedia.)

The one thing one could comfortably predict about Romero, is that he would find the J&P establishment's idea of action for the worst off pretty unimpressive. Perhaps Filochowski and his friends regard him as a man to be admired, but not emulated. Or perhaps not even admired: just used.

Post scrip: We've had an email from Positive Catholics, aka Catholicss for AIDS Prevention and Support, the dissident homosexual group we write about here. It suggests that there is something innacurate about the post, but we can't see anything in the post which the email contradicts, except the exact dedication of the 2005 Mass we refer to. 

Here is the email. (Don't you love their apostrophe's?) :

My attention has been drawn to an item on your blog. The Mass did not mark Archbishop Romero’s murder, but coincided with both the 25th anniversary of the murder of 4 American religious women in El Salvador in 1980, and the annual commemoration of World AIDS Day. As such it was supported by a range of Catholic organisations, with the £250 collection being sent to the Contrasida AIDS project in San Salvador, directed by Maryknoll Sister, Dr. Mary Virginia Annel, who belonged to the same community as two of the murdered sisters.

It is regrettable that something which calls itself Catholic Action, allegedly committed to promoting truth, seems to rely on incorrect information, mistruth, and personal vendetta’s against fellow Catholics and organisations which it seeks to denigrate or undermine.

Vincent Manning
Chairperson – Catholics for AIDS Prevention & Support

We were relying on 'incorrect information'? Well, that would have to be Martin Pendergast's press release. As if it made any difference, Pendergst tells us, re this Mass: 2005 marks two significant 25th anniversaries in the martyrs' chronicle of the small Central American country of El Salvador. On 24 March 1980, Oscar Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador, was martyred as he celebrated Mass in the chapel of a cancer hospice. - the other being of the four religious women. Anyway, anyone could click on the link we gave to see the full press release.

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New outrage at Westminster 'gay Mass'

Action please: the 'pastoral care' given to vulnerable young homosexual Catholics by the Archdiocese of Westminster has apparantly been delegated to the 'Soho Masses Pastoral Council' who take them to a gay bar before Mass. Please protest to Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor and Cardinal Levada and others - see below.

The Soho Masses Pastoral Council (see our dossier on this group) recently announced that it is forming a younger people's group. A newsletter was given out at the Soho Mass, which said:-

"Soho Masses Younger People's Group invites you to their first gathering, 5th October, 13.30pm. Meeting in front of Thistle Hotel, Charing Cross Station; from there to the Retro Bar and ending up for the 1st Sunday 17.00pm Mass at Warwick Street. The group provides an opportunity to meet and socialise with other younger people part of, or visiting the Soho Masses. Further details - info@sohomasses.com"

An internet search shows that the "Retro Bar" in Charing Cross, mentioned in the SMPC leaflet, is listed as a "gay bar". The diocese states that the Masses run by this group are "part of the diocese of Westminster's pastoral provision for LGBT Catholics, parents and families", so it would appear that Westminster believes that it is good pastoral practice for young homosexual people to be taken to gay bars before going to Mass and receiving Holy Communion.

Complaints please, to
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor (Email)
Archbishop's House,
Ambrosden Avenue,
London, SW1P 1QJ).

Also to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:-
His Eminence William Cardinal Levada,
Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
Piazza del S. Uffizio, 11,
00120 Vatican City State,
Europe

Also to the Pontifical Council for the Family:
President of the Pontifical Council for the Family
Piazza S. Calisto, 16
00120 Vatican City State, Europe
Phone: 011 39 06 6988 7322 Fax: 011 39 06 6988 7214
Secretary: Most Rev. Archbishop Josef Clemens pcpl @ laity.va

Also the Congregation for Divine Worship
Prefect of the Congregation for Worship and Sacraments
Palazzo delle Congregazione Piazza Pio XII, 10
00120 Vatican City State, Europe
Phone: 011 39 06 6988 4316 Fax: 011 39 06 6988 3499
Secretary: Most Rev. Archbishop Domenico Sorrentino

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Portsmouth Diocese supports dissident gay groups

Victory! Thanks to complaints, and the action (presumably) of Bishop Hollis and the web editor Rose Marr, the three dissident 'Catholic' homosexual groups we discuss below have been excluded from a revised version of the list. It still has a number of secular organisations which oppose the Church's teaching: the Samaritans, Age Concern, etc., and the Sexual Health Line. It is wrong for these groups to be endorsed by a Catholic bishop, but at least those using these groups won't be expecting a specifically Catholic approach.

Worse is the continuing inclusion of 'Marriage Care', which, despite being listed in the national Catholic Directory 2008, has no respect for Catholic teaching on marriage and promotes sex education. We have been campaigning to remove this from the Catholic Directory here.

You can download the revised list here.

Original post (13/07/08)
Action: complaints, please, to Bishop Crispian (email), the editor of this part of their website (email), and copies to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (contact details). Previous complaints to the web editor, Rose Marr, elicited the response that the Bishop has approved the list.

The website of the Diocese of Portsmouth includes a downloadable Word document claiming to list organisations 'supporting the family'. This includes several good Catholic organisations, some dubious secular ones (the Samaritans, for example, support abortion; Age Concern promotes the homosexual agenda), the formerly Catholic Marriage Care (see our dossier), which supports gay marriage and sex education, and three self-styled Catholic groups which campaign against Catholic teaching about homosexuality: Quest (see our dossier), the Roman Catholic Caucus of the Gay and Lesbian Christian Movement (see our dossier), and Catholics for Aids Prevention and Support (aka Positive Catholics), which is an off-shoot of the RCCGLCM, run by its leading figure, Martin Pendergast.

The parent organisation of the RCCGLCM, the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, call the Pope a 'homophobe' (the picture on the right is from their conference), and Pendergast read out a conference statement attacking the Catholic bishops of England and Wales for opposing the Sexual Orientation Regulations. Quest publicly campaigns against the Church's discipline on homosexuals in seminaries, and sought to undermine the bishops stand against the sexual orientation regulation, criticising Archbishop Vincent Nichols. For the full details see our dossiers.

There are more very dubious groups on this list but complaints should focus on these last three groups, since they explicitly claim to be Catholic and explicitly dissent from Church teaching. None of them accept the Church's teaching that homosexuality is intrinsically disordered and that heterosexual marriage is based on a 'complementarity' between the sexes which is lacking in homosexual relationships: the constant teaching of the Church reiterated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. ... Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

It is a grave scandal that these groups are being put forward as supporters of the family when they deny the Church's teaching on sexuality, whereas a genuinely Catholic homosexual support group, the Encourage Trust, is excluded from the list. There is no possible justification for the endorsement of the Diocese of Portsmouth for these groups, and none of the three is included in the national Catholic Directory (Quest was thrown out of it by Cardinal Hume); on the contrary the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 'The Pastoral Care of the Homosexual Person', 1986 says:(See here for the full text.) 17: 'All support should be withdrawn from any organisations which seek to undermine the teaching of the Church, which are ambiguous about it, or which neglect it entirely.'
Here is the list in case they remove it from the site (information about other groups here would be gratefully received):

Age Concern
Tel: 0800 009 966
Email: marymitchell@ageconcernhampshire.org.uk

Alanon & Alateen Helpline (10am-10pm)
Tel: 020 7403 0888

Anti-Bullying Campaign Helpline for Parents
Tel: 020 7378 1446

Association of Interchurch Families
Paul and Lucy Docherty
Tel: 01329 233602
Email: paul@docherty1.co.uk
lucy@docherty1.co.uk

Association of Separated and Divorced Catholics
National Enquiry Line Tel: 0113 264 0638

Beginning Experience
(support for those who have lost a spouse through death, separation or divorce)
www.beginningexperience.com

Called to be One: a national pastoral and mutual support network for Catholic parents of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People
Sue/Paul Tel: 01642 465020

Care for the Family (promotes family life and helps those hurting because of family breakdown)
Garth House, Cardiff, CF15 7RG
Tel: 029 2081 0800
Email: mail@cff.org.uk
www.careforthefamily.org.uk

Carers in the Community
(for those caring for people with mental illness)
Tel: 01642 818332
www.carersinthecommunity.org.uk

Caritas-Social Action
Tel: 020 7901 4875
Email: caritas@cbcew.org.uk

Catholic Association for Racial Justice
Tel: 020 8802 8080
Email: info@carj.freeserve.co.uk

Catholic Blind Services
Tel: 0121 441 5577

Catholic Children’s Society
(professional care of children requiring family placement)
Tel: 020 8668 2181
Email: info@cathchild.org
Reading Office Tel: 0118 987 5121
Email: reading@cathchild.org
Winchester Office Adoption Tel: 01962 842024
Email: adoption.winchester@cathchild.org
Foster Care Tel: 01962 854652/01962 842024
Email: fostering.winchester@cathchild.org

Catholic Deaf Association
Voice Tel: 0161 834 8828
Fax: 0161 833 3674
www.cda-uk.com

CFH – The Caring Fellowship
Chairman: Jim Sharpe Tel: 01753 863283
Secretary: Paula Medd Tel: 023 92 369183

Catholics for Aids Prevention and Support
Tel: 020 8986 0807
Email: positivecatholics@btinternet.com

Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults (COPCA)
Tel: 0121 233 1963
Fax: 0121 236 3379
Email: admin@copca.org.uk

Catholic Women’s League
Branch President: Stella Adams Tel: 023 92 467394
Branch Liaison Officer: Dinah McLaughlin Tel: 01962 627494
Email: dinah_mclaughlin@yahoo.co.uk

Child Death Helpline
Tel: 0800 282986

Childline (for children in frightening situations)
Tel: 0800 1111

Compassionate Friends Helpline
Tel: 0845 123 2304
www.tcf.org.uk

Cruse Helpline
Tel: 0870 167 1677
Email: helpline@cruse.org.uk

Disability Alliance
Tel: 020 7247 8776
Fax: 020 7247 8765
Email: office.da@pipex.com

Domestic Violence Helpline
Tel: 0808 2000 247

Drinkline (9am-11pm Monday to Friday)
Tel: 0800 917 8282

Drugs Helpline
Tel: 0800 776600

Faith and Light
(an international Christian Association of people with learning difficulties, their families and friends, founded by Jean Vanier)
John Williams Tel: 023 80 260061
Email: johnandcarolwilliams@chandlersford76.fsnet.co.uk

Fertility UK
(Natural family planning & access to local teaching services)
www.fertilityuk.org

FFLAG (Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays)
Helpline Tel: 0845 652 0311
Email: info@fflag.org.uk
www.fflag.org.uk

Gamblers Anonymous Helpline
Tel: 020 7384 3040

Get Connected – a referral service for young people
Tel: 0808 808 4994
Email: help@getconnected.org.uk

Gingerbread Advice Line
Tel: 0800 018 4318
Email: advice@gingerbread.org.uk

Immigration Advisory Service
Tel: 020 7967 1200
www.iasuk.org

Life Fertility Care Programme
(provides supportive Natural Infertility Treatment and Natural Fertility Management)
www.lifefertility.co.uk

Life Pregnancy Care Service
The National Hotline: Tel: 01926 421587
www.lifeuk.org (main website)
www.preghelp.org (pregnancy help)

Lone Parents Helpline
Tel: 0800 018 5026 (9am-5pm Monday to Friday)
(Wednesday now open to 8pm)
www.loneparenthelpline.info

Marriage Care:
National Helpline: Tel: 0845 660 6000
(lines open 10am-4pm Monday to Friday local rate)
Counselling
Appointments Marriage
Preparation
Coordinator
Bournemouth 0800 389 3801 01202 672788
Newbury 0118 946 2529 -
North East Hants 0800 389 3801 01252 677176
Oxford 01865 742019 01491 873193
Portsmouth 0800 389 3801 023 92 263191
Reading 0118 946 2529 -
Southampton 0800 389 3801 01962 882636

National Association of Ovulation Method Instructors (NAOMI)
www.billingsnaomi.org

National Board of Catholic Women
Verena Wright
Tel: 023 92 610026
Email: verenanz@hotmail.com

National Debtline
Tel: 0808 808 4000
www.nationaldebtline.co.uk

National Missing Persons Helpline
Tel: 0500 700700

NSPCC (anyone concerned about a child at risk)
Tel: 0808 800 5000

PACT Prison Advice and Care Trust
Tel: 020 7490 3139
Email: info@prisonadvice.org.uk

Parentline Plus Helpline
Tel: 0808 800 2222
Email: info@parenting.org.uk

Parenting Programmes
Family Caring Trust
Tel: 028 3026 4174
www.familycaring.co.uk
Positive Parenting Publications
Tel: 023 92 528787

Quest Linkline for gay and lesbian Catholics and their families
Tel: 0808 808 0234

Rainbows (for children affected by loss)
National Office Tel: 01582 724106
Email: rainbows.dc@virgin.net
www.rainbowsgb.org

Rethink (to help everyone affected by mental illness to recover a better quality of life)
Tel: 020 89 746814
www.rethink.org

Retrouvaille (for those whose marriages are in difficulties)
Tel: 08000 327858
Email: info@retrouvaille.org.uk
www.retrouvaille.org.uk

Roman Catholic Caucus: Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement
Tel: 020 8986 0807
Email: info@lgcm-cc.org

Samaritans
Tel: 08457 909090
Email: jo@samaritans.org

Sands: Still birth
Tel: 020 7436 5881
Email: helpline@uk-sands.org

Saneline
Tel: 0845 767 8000

Sexual Health and National Aids
Tel: 0800 567 123

SOBS: Bereaved by Suicide
Helpline Tel: 0870 241 3337
Email: sobs.admin@care4free.net
www.uk-sobs.org.uk

Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC)
Tel: 020 7222 5845
Email: information@spuc.org.uk

Society of St. Vincent de Paul
Kevin McDermott
Tel: 01202 418354

Teams of Our Lady
(married couples growing spiritually and as a community)
Chris and Frankie Lane
Tel: 01329 310785
Email: c-f.lane@ntlworld.com

The Portsmouth Diocesan Tribunal
The tribunal seeks to assist, within canon law, those whose marriages have broken down and are seeking to establish whether they are able to marry in the Catholic Church
Tel: 01252 878789
Fax: 01252 871120
Email: portsmouthtribunal@tiscali.co.uk

Union of Catholic Mothers
Diocesan President: Maureen Meatcher
Tel: 0118 979 0359

Worldwide Marriage and Engaged Encounter
Portsmouth Diocesan contacts: Chris and Mary Farrall
Tel: 01962 620289 Email: chrisandmaryfarrall@ntlworld.com
Eastern Region Co-ordinators: Tony and Pam Darroch
Tel: 0118 981 1105 Email: torrisdale_pam@yahoo.co.uk
www.wwme.org.uk

Young Minds Parents Information Service
Tel: 0800 018 2138

Please advise us if any changes or additions are
needed to update this information
Department for Pastoral Formation: 01329 835583
Email: rmarr@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk

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