Raleigh, Charlotte dioceses pushing same-sex celibacy, NC marriage amendment

[Are_grits_groceries]

And the Catholic church wonders why people are leaving in droves. This article turned up in Sunday's edition of the News & Observer. The Raleigh diocese is launching a Courage ministry to "help" gay and lesbians pray away same-sex attractions. It will join leadership of the Charlotte diocese at a Feb 24 presser to back a marriage amendment in the state.

This article's spin is quite disturbing, almost supportive in its overview of Courage's mission and the rest of the ex-gay movement, noting that the Vatican is also sweeping out the gay in the seminaries to "enlist the aid of psychologists in screening candidates for homosexuality and other 'psychic disturbances,'" and compares Courage to Alcoholics Anonymous.

"The Catholic Church maintains that same-sex attraction is not sinful but that homosexual sex is. That has given gays and lesbians wide latitude in finding their place within the Roman Catholic Church. Nationally, there are several gay and lesbian ministries -- some that accept gays and lesbians as they are, others like Courage that view homosexuality as a problem to be overcome."
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1406567.html

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=7ECAD4B3C0E61608D762941B7146B16A?diaryId=9495

First Prop 8, and now this nonsense. BAH!! MEH!!

[dsc]

1. This is the letter I wrote to the N and O

When I moved down to North Carolina I drove through the night and discovered that John Tesh had a radio show where he dispensed advice. My first thought was who would go to John Test for advice. Well, there are worse places apparently.

The Catholic Church, whose supposedly celibrate priests caused the greatest sex scandal in the history of the universe, now is set to bring us celebacy to all gays everywhere. Maybe when the ink dries on the last check the church has to write to a victim of the priests it covered up for, it will be time for them to give us advice about our sex lives. Until then, we would be better off listening to John Tesh.

Courage, forget about it, they should be calling it chutzpah.

[Triana]

3. Great letter. Bwah! n/t

[Triana]

2. Any psychologist who considers homosexuality a "distrubance" should not be

in practice and needs to have their license revoked.

It's damn dangerous to insert your religious dogma into patient treatment - and it ought to be against the law, if it isn't already.

[CatholicEdHead]

4. This is popping up nationwide

Before I was banned from the Catholic Answers board, the Courage program was heavily pushed there. Remember, in the wake of the sex abuse scandle, funds are down, conservative people tend to be the best followers to bring in money and rebuild the prestige that the current neo-retro clergy like.

Also with what is happening in Rome, the ideal Catholics are usually Fundy converts who can be zealots when they first convert. At the same time the lifelong moderates and liberals are usually shown the door or pushed that way. :(

Don't expect this to change at the clergy or above level for at least a generation. The JPII neo-retro generation need to age before the Church can move back towards the present and then bring back married priests and eventually ordain women.

[Jackpine Radical]

5. I know people in the Church who are pretty much convinced

that Rome is trying to dump the American Church. They would be quite happy to see all the American Catholics become Episcopalians or something.

[CatholicEdHead]

7. Well, dump the liberals and embrace the SSPX

Many in the American Church want a bottom-up approach they grew up on. The neo-retro movement want the stern father top-down approach. They need mindless money coming in, conservative money usually bring that in and does not rock the ship.

The US brings in quite a bit of money looking at the worldwide Church and that money is needed for the institution. Since JPII, following has been the way to earn your stripes. Loyalty to the institution and not the flock get you ahead nowadays.

All this goes back to some time in the late 60s or early 70s when then Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger was turned off by where Vatican II was going even though he was in on writing it. Since then he has had a fetish for everything old and ancient.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

6. This kind of workshop follows the long-awaited

Catholic Church's Courage Seminar For Pedophile Priests.

The Courage Seminar For Pedophile Priests has been so heavily subscribed, they had to move it to Madison Square Garden, where it is expected to play to sold-out priests for at least four years.

[MidwestTransplant]

8. "Pray Away the Gay in You or Your Money Back"