Anyone think that there isn't a move from the liberal left to SILENCE the Catholic Church on this issue should click
here. I'd encourage you to go there and try to leave a comment and evangelize if you have the time..."to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death."
Prayers for you too, Father. This is a huge weight on your shoulders, and I pray you stay strong and continue your ministry.
ReplyDeleteThanks! God gives us what we need to do the work he asks of us, and this is no different. It doesn't bother me in the least. Keep the prayers coming though!
Delete2 comments over on the Good As You blog.
ReplyDeleteThat'll certainly revolutionise and redirect society, wouldn't you say?
No one is listening to you just the Catholic individual,s conscience has come to its mind on contraception in countries that value conscience and education over ignorance and dogma.
Okay. Have a great day.
DeleteBecareful my young, Jedi-priest friend! You are heading down this very dark road and the Force may not be with you!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Master Yoda. I think I'll go ahead and keep on keepin' on with what we've got in the works, but I appreciate your sage wisdom
DeleteSilence, Fr. Hollowell?! I believe I am giving you an open forum to leave your views on my site. And I believe that I have raised your platform by posting this stuff (posts you have been eager to promote each time).
ReplyDeleteTrying really hard to figure out how, exactly, that constitutes “silencing.” I want *more* speech. Trust me, I want everyone to know that NOM is subscribing to your views about gay people.
-Jeremy
Good As You
Great. As I noted on your site, our film has raised roughly 10,000 dollars in the one day that you slandered me on your site, and all the comments of zealots on your blog only further our cause.
DeleteWe have a saying in the Catholic Church that goes back to the beginning - "The seedbed of the Church is the blood of the martyrs." That means that the Church really only grows when people witness martyrdom of various kinds. Our Church has been soft and tepid for a long time, and thus clumsy and lazy...this issue and the way we are attacked for it is doing nothing but strengthening Catholics across the country.
"To shine on those that dwell in darkness and the shadow of death?" That reminds me what it is like to live a lie in the closet. I did that for many years. It is unhealthy to the body and the soul. I opened the closet door 21 years ago and finally felt the sun. My partner and I have been together for 21 happy years.
ReplyDeleteIt also describes what it is like to live in a dark place that the left is telling you there is nothing you can do, you're born this way, and you just need to deal with it.
DeleteThe left is just as aggressive as the religious right in this whole debate, and what is even more sad is that the left's argument isn't even based on sound psychology. To say "I know these attractions are a core of who I am, I know for a fact that these desires are not coming from anywhere in my subconscious" is really quite an amazing statement.
And what do you know about the nuances of human psychology and relationships? Are you a psychologist? Or a therapist?? What would qualify you to make such statements?
DeleteA degree in psychology is not necessary because no one involuntarily unzips their fly. Psychology may have explanatory powers, but it has no justifying powers. So a psychological analysis might give us good insight into what motivated someone to rob a bank, but the moment it is suggested that there is nothing wrong with stealing, then we have left the world of psychology.
DeleteThis is an A and B conversation Scott. So C your way out of it.
DeleteVery well. I'll take that as tacitly conceding my point.
DeleteDear Sir,
ReplyDeleteWe encourage you to politely disregard Mr. McMichael's comment. Do not let his realistic point of view discourage you. We still believe in you.
Since you began to refer to yourself as "Warrior Priest," you have earned the reputation among many in the Catholic community of having a big ego; however, we see this for what it truly is --- divine self-awareness.
Much Love,
~Tri-nut and X
a big ego - great attempt at trying to wound, but your punch didn't land. You can say that all you want, but for me it is comforting that you have nothing else to resort to other than to say "he's got a big ego." I sleep well at night knowing that I got ordained to be a parish priest, I never asked for any of this, I never would have started a blog in the first place if Pope Benedict hadn't asked priests to do so...my preference if I was writing my life script would be to be a high school math teacher, football coach, and a father of 19, but God had other plans. Try to tell people I have a big ego, that's fine, but I don't rely on blog comments for my identity, I rely on my family, my great friends, and my priest friends who are an inspiration, and who all do a great job of keeping me honest and realistic.
DeleteJust as you did not ask to become a priest, I don't think homosexuals asked for that either. I know many who would have easier lives if they were heterosexuals and didn't have to deal with criticisms from all kind of people; many who fought against their attractions and tried to force heterosexual attractions, to no avail. I try really hard to understand, but I just don't get how homosexuality threatens the Church or society. Obviously, they can't have biological children, but they could adopt the throngs of children who need loving parents. And to be honest, I don't know that many homosexuals want the approval of the Church or any other group not willing to give it. They simply want the same rights as heterosexuals. What's the harm in allowing homosexuals to be married, in the eyes of the government even if not in the Church?
DeleteThe government has a common-good obligation to protect the building block of society which is the family. This angle on rights is smoke and mirrors. We've already seen the first rotten fruits of approving the homosexual agenda. People have been fired from jobs, kids have been forced to endure "education" on same-sex marriage in schools with parent's being denied the possibility to opt out, another kid wrote the con side to same-sex marriage for his school newspaper that he was asked to wrtie got sent to the office and threatened with expulsion and berated for hours on end (where were all those anti-bullying campaigns then?), and in one case woman had to flee the country with her daughter to escape her creepy ex-lesbian "spouse" that a court insanely awarded custody to. This is just a foretaste of what is to come.
DeleteIn fact, the very phrase "allowing homosexuals to be married" is a porkie pie. As one of my friends put it:
How often do we hear the issue of enforcing contracts between sodomites-qua-sodomites phrased as “allowing gays to marry?” The passive libertarian language of “allowing” deliberately conceals the reality; for what is advocated is not mere passivity. What is advocated at the most basic level is for society to enforce certain kinds of legal contracts, even though those legal contracts are grossly immoral. The passive language “allow gays to marry” is a lie. Enforcing contracts is an activity of government (not a passivity), and it is impossible to decide what to actively enforce and what not to actively enforce without making substantive judgements about the good. Substantive judgements about the good will necessarily discriminate: every function of governance, including contract enforcement, is an authoritative discrimination of some kind resting on some substantive concept of the good. What makes liberalism (including libertarianism) different from other political views is that liberalism has to make authoritative discriminations resting in a substantive conception of the good while at the same time denying that it is doing so. What makes liberalism different is that it has to lie about itself in order to invoke its own justifying principles, that is, nondiscrimination (equality of rights) and freedom from substantive discriminating authority.
The government can protect family as the building block of society by allowing gay couples to marry and adopt the many children born to parents unwilling or unable to care for them. What people are fired from jobs for being homosexual, or married to a homosexual? If the government recognizes the marriage, it would be illegal for that firing. If the government allows gay marriage, what is wrong with educating people and children about the topic? Perhaps a little education on your part would make you a little more accepting of people who are different from you. I agree that it is a shame that the child was nearly expelled for writing a piece he was asked to write, however did you read that piece? I wonder if it was not the topic, but perhaps antagonistic content that was to blame? Was it hateful and threatening? With the situation about the woman fleeing the country, does that not also happen with heterosexuals? Have we never heard of a heterosexual custody battle turned really ugly?
DeleteI also think you are meshing Church and State in your post by putting quotations around marriage and spouse in reference to gay marriage. If the State recognizes a marriage, how can you say it isn't real? Maybe the Church doesn't recognize it, but as individuals of the State, we can't deny that, especially when you probably don't have the authority to speak on behalf of the Church.
Finally, by allowing gays to marriage, are we really advocating homosexual marriage over heterosexual marriage? I've not seen any sort of campaigns urging heterosexuals to consider homosexuality.
I've already demonstrated how "allowing gays to marry" in itself is a falsehood.
Delete"If the State recognizes a marriage, how can you say it isn't real?"
When the State recognized a plantation owner's as slaves, how could you have said they weren't property?
As far as having authority to speak on behalf of the Church, I don't need it because the Church has already spelled it out: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20030731_homosexual-unions_en.html
"In those situations where homosexual unions have been legally recognized or have been given the legal status and rights belonging to marriage, clear and emphatic opposition is a duty. One must refrain from any kind of formal cooperation in the enactment or application of such gravely unjust laws and, as far as possible, from material cooperation on the level of their application.:
No one should be FORCED to live a celibate life unless they freely choose to do so. Forcing such a thing is inhumane and cruel. To me this is just another example of Catholic insanity, which is the reason for the decline of it's members and the closing of many Churches around this country. I predict in 10 years the Catholic Church will be nothing but a memory
ReplyDeleteThe Church isn't saying anyone SHOULD be forced to live a celibate life style. This is a documentary exploring WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES!!! You all are so reactionary that you don't even listen to what we're talking about.
DeleteEven if this video were about what the Church teaches about marriage it wouldn't be saying that "celibacy" should be the law of the land. The Church acknowledges that you can't legislate sexual activity. If two guys are going to have sex, then there you go, free will being exercised and there isn't anything the government can do about it. The Church, in trying to talk about what marriage is, is saying the government DOES have the right to say what marriage is and isn't.
So again, this documentary is not about the marriage question, but even if it were, your "V for Vendetta" scenario of being persecuted by the government for having homosexual sex is nothing more than a nightmare you've thought up for yourself and is not based in reality (unless of course your reality is living in a Muslim country)
We've heard lots of rumors of the demise of the Catholic Church, but when you actually look at where most of the closings are, they are in diocese that most embrace secular leftism. The ones that adhere to traditional Catholic teaching and liturgy are at least holding their own and in many cases thriving. A perfect example is mainstream Protestantism where denominations such as the Episcopal church and ELCA Lutherans that have embraced the homosexual agenda are seeing more members flee than if the buildings were on fire. It's no mystery why. When your church is no different than the vapid world-view you can get at your job, your child's public school, turning on your tv, or just walking out your door, why waste an hour on Sunday morning hearing about it again? Sleep in because no one needs a church to learn how to be a secular humanist. You can't escape this kultursmog.
DeleteP.S. As important as it is to evangelize, I've never been a fan of board-swarming.
P.S. The conclusion of the entry you linked reads: "It's not just about marriage for them. It never was." Was that supposed to be a big revelation? Was the Church being secretive about its teachings encompassing human sexuality? Not as far as I can tell.
Delete@blogguy
DeleteThe very reason I am Catholic and love being Catholic is because its teaching on sexuality has the most beauty and integrity and wisdom of all possible views. Sure, it requires self-denial for everyone at times, but I am convinced that is by far the best proposal for the individual, the child, and society. The Church may get smaller, but that will not diminish the fact that if everyone fully embraced the teaching of the Catholic Church on sexuality, that the world would be a far better place. (I could write a book on that!) When one takes the time to really study the Church's documents and John Paul II's Theology of the Body, the Church's proposal just makes sense (even, I contend, if you are an atheist).
Anyway, back to your post. To understand the Church's position, one needs to look at how the Church defines marriage (which, by the way, has been the universal definition throughout the world and throughout history until very recently) and at the purpose of marital intimacy. Utterly inseparable from marriage is the openness to children and the willingness and ability to perform the sacred act that brings children into the world. It's not that the Church is imposing celibacy, but rather that the person who is attracted to the same sex does not want marriage, nor the act that is an inseparable part of it, and thus is actually choosing celibacy.
I wouldn't recommend this in most cases, but I actually know several Catholic people with same-sex attraction who are happily married, in valid Catholic marriages, to people of the opposite sex and have several children. Sure they have their very unique challenges, but their relationships are beautiful, breathtakingly so. Having some attraction to the same sex does not, in and of itself, result in a one being forbidden to marry, nor in forced celibacy.
Knowing many people with same-sex attraction, I know that finding oneself with that inclination is incredibly difficult. But even if a person can never marry nor ever experience marital intimacy, that does not mean that he or she cannot have a deeply satisfying life. It is simply not true that one needs sex or romance to be happy. I would suggest that deep friendships, a close walk with God, and the investment of oneself in serving others are far greater sources of joy than marriage or a romance. I have seen that happiness in the lives of those I know who have same sex attractions. It's for real.
Father Hollowell,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for being a voice for the Catholic Church. You inspire me to be a warrior in my own life by following the advice of the Blessed Mother at the wedding at Cana "Do whatever He tells you"
Keep fighting the good fight, Fr. Hollowell. I know this is a very sensitive and highly personal issue and can be confusing but like so many aspects of life, we as a culture, have fallen into "if it feels good do it" mentality and even worse, "don't you dare tell me I can't do what I want" attitude. The saddest part of the homosexual agenda is the lack of love...yes from heterosexuals for their brothers and sisters, but even worse, the lack of love the homosexual men and women have for themselves. I'm sure it started from feelings of shame but it escalates further as they pull themselves away from what they think is a "fantasy" God. Thank you for showing the truth which will lead to love.
Delete