Is Pope Francis Naive about the Homosexual Agenda?

Is the pope using language that is easily exploited by the aggressive Sin Movement that calls itself “gay”? Read his full interview HERE.

Dear AFTAH Readers,

Americans For Truth About Homosexuality works closely with conservative Catholics from across the nation, indeed the world, in opposition to the homosexual activist movement. It is my experience that wherever the Catholic Church still has influence, if the Church or its leaders takes a strong stand against pro-“gay” legislation, the bills usually fail — but if Church leaders compromise on doctrine or go AWOL (public policy-speaking), homosexual activists triumph.

Having said that, I acutely recognize — from my perspective as an evangelical (who was raised Catholic) — that there has always been a “friendly distrust” or competition between ministry and the defense of morality. Between Christians who believe that the primary role of believers is compassionate Gospel outreach to lost homosexuals — and “culture war” Christians who (although also loving the Gospel) see religious traditionalists as a crucial force resisting the Sin Movement of homosexuality that so profoundly threatens our culture.

In this context we ponder the meaning and ramifications of Pope Francis’ new rhetoric on homosexuality. Below we reprint portions of an article from our good friends at LifeSiteNews — a Catholic pro-life, pro-family news site and one of the top social conservative websites in the world — on Pope Francis’ much-discussed interview released yesterday [available HERE or as a PDF document HERE]. We note LifeSite’s apprehensive take that:

“Most major media are reporting the statements [by Pope Francis] as a direct challenge to the Church’s way of operating on the moral issues. The comments are very different from those of his two predecessors.”

Yesterday, I sent out the following cautionary tweet in response to the pope’s comments — both in the new interview and a previous one — about the Church being more “welcoming” and less judgmental toward homosexuals:

The tragic reality is that a lack of proper moral “judgments” toward and vigilance regarding homosexually-inclined priest candidates contributed greatly to the horrifying homosexual-predator crisis that has so devastated the Catholic Church. This was exacerbated by liberals such as Milwaukee’s notorious homosexual Archbishop Rembert Weakland (see my report for America’s Survival on Fox News’ pro-“gay” bias).

I dare say that a more sinister plot to undermine the Catholic Church and its reputation could not have been carried out had Satan’s earthly minions spent $100 million devising one:

1. Homosexual men take advantage of more lax standards to enter priesthood.
2. Homosexual priests and male Catholic school officials use their authoritative role to seduce and molest mostly male teenagers and boys.
3. Homosexuals like then-Archbishop Weakland and their sympathizers in the Church cover up priest abuses and transfer predators to new, unsuspecting parishes, where they molest more boys.
4. The homosexual-predator scandal blows up in the media — alienating millions of Catholics from the Church and doing untold damage to its reputation and moral, spiritual and political influence.
5. Homosexuals and liberal allies who advocate for acceptance of homosexuality turn around and say Church is now discredited because it harbored “pedophiles.” Meanwhile, Church officials resist full disclosure of the scandal, thus perpetuating it.
6. Lastly, “gay” activists and their liberal allies continue to insist that the male-on-boy priest abuse scandal has little or nothing to do with homosexuals — but rather was a “pedophile” or “ephebophile” (adult who is sexual attracted to adolescents) problem.

My hunch is that each and every one of those complicit Church apologists for homosexuality, like Weakland, would consider himself “more compassionate” and “more Christ-like” than “anti-gay Catholics” who have been scandalized by the homosexualist advances in their Church. Such is the arrogance of liberals. This despite the untold suffering of boys victimized by sexual deviants masquerading as pastoral guardians of others’ souls. (See Catholic writer Randy Engel’s Rite of Sodomy: Homosexuality and the Catholic Church — one of the best books ever written on homosexuality — and Leon Podles‘ Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church [available through AFTAH; see below to order].)

All this is a roundabout way of saying that the great fear that I and many like-minded pro-family advocates share (including several Catholic friends with whom I’ve spoken) is that the pope is naive about the aggressive homosexualist agenda. Pro-“gay” ideologues are cunning and tactical — they are already using the pope’s words to advocate ideas that he surely condemns. While laying claim to the Gospel and noble concepts like tolerance and equality, they have brought corruption and destruction to many institutions, of which the Catholic Church is but one.

We understand that the pope is not embracing a change in Church doctrine, and that he truly wants to help homosexual strugglers come to God. But at the same time we recognize that words matter in this debate — indeed, they often drive it. (Witness the deviously brilliant slogan “marriage equality” used by LGBT advocates to denote sodomy-based so-called “marriage.”) And unfortunately the words Pope Francis has chosen (e.g., warning against “obsessing” about Church doctrines (such as Vatican teachings on homosexuality) and stating regarding “gay” priests: “Who am I to judge them?”) are already being manipulated, distorted and exploited by LGBT activists and their allies. That includes pro-homosexual priests like Fr. James Martin who are no friends of orthodoxy. (See Martin’s essay defending “gay priests” — against the more stringent priest eligibility standards that resulted from the homosexual-molestation scandal — HERE.)

Learning from an evangelical group’s demise

On the evangelical side, we have recently witnessed the implosion of a once-thriving “ex-gay” ministry, Exodus International — through the penetration of wrong, unbiblical ideas advanced by corrupt language (including “sexual orientation” and “gay” — which the pope now uses). Exodus’ demise was brought about by leaders claiming to be biblical yet more “compassionate” and “loving” than traditional evangelicals (especially those distrusted “culture warriors” like AFTAH!). Homosexual militants with zero interest in the Bible’s standard of righteousness championed Exodus’ “gay”-affirming evolution, then crowed as it closed its doors after “apologizing” to homosexuals.

We all — Catholics and Evangelicals alike — must learn from Exodus’ well-meaning descent into irrelevance and heresy.

Homosexual behavior is an abomination, so naturally confusion and subversion reign wherever indulged homosexuality takes root. (I must ask: what does “being gay” mean if homosexuality is about behavior that can be overcome? Why is homosexuality (“gayness”) attached to a person’s “identity” unlike other sins? Aren’t we all born with a sinful “orientation,” which we struggle against rather than celebrate?)

Nobody is predicting the dissolution of the Catholic Church, but when you see pro-homosexuality and pro-abortion militants acclaiming the new the pope’s approach, beware. AFTAH will be following this story closely. — Peter LaBarbera, AFTAH

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Order Book ‘Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church’

ORDER the Book “Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church,” by Catholic investigative writer Leon Podles. 675 pp., hardcover. Send $20 postpaid to: AFTAH, PO Box 5522, Naperville, IL 60567-5522. Note: “Podles book offer.” Or use form to order online at www.aftah.com/donate/.

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LifeSiteNews reports:

Pope Francis contrasted with Popes Benedict, JPII re: emphasis on abortion, gay marriage

By John-Henry Westen, 9/19/13

ROME, September 19, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In comments rocking the Catholic world today, Pope Francis has recommended that the Church pull back from her perceived emphasis on “abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods.”

The comments appear in a lengthy interview with La Civilta Catholica in partnership with America magazine, which was published just before noon today in most Jesuit publications around the world.

“We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods,” Pope Francis said.

“This is not possible. I have not spoken much about these things, and I was reprimanded for that,” he added. “But when we speak about these issues, we have to talk about them in a context. The teaching of the church, for that matter, is clear and I am a son of the church, but it is not necessary to talk about these issues all the time.”

In the interview the Pope says that the Church’s preaching must begin first with the “proclamation of salvation.” “Then you have to do catechesis. Then you can draw even a moral consequence,” he said.

Other key lines from the Pope’s interview which pertain to this point include:

The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules. The most important thing is the first proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you. And the ministers of the church must be ministers of mercy above all…

The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently.

Proclamation in a missionary style focuses on the essentials, on the necessary things: this is also what fascinates and attracts more, what makes the heart burn, as it did for the disciples at Emmaus.

We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel. The proposal of the Gospel must be more simple, profound, radiant. It is from this proposition that the moral consequences then flow.

Most major media are reporting the statements as a direct challenge to the Church’s way of operating on the moral issues.

The comments are very different from those of his two predecessors.

Speaking specifically to the proclamation of the Gospel, Bl. John Paul II wrote in his 1995 encyclical on the Gospel of Life that the Church’s teaching on the respect for life should be taught “constantly and courageously.”

“To be truly a people at the service of life we must propose these truths constantly and courageously from the very first proclamation of the Gospel, and thereafter in catechesis, in the various forms of preaching, in personal dialogue and in all educational activity,” he wrote. [continue reading at LifeSiteNews]