Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Societal Suicide

With the State of Massachusetts leading the nation toward the moral abyss of depravity and ruin, we witness a group of professed Catholics, including priests and religious, engaging in what can only be described, at best, as a scandalous confusion of Catholic teaching and, at worst, complete apostacy. Regardless of the intent of those who participated in and signed this statement, the scandal resulting from this action can only be viewed as objectively grave.

The statement, while clearly calling for the respect of the dignity of the individual person, confuses what are termed "human rights" with "license". The dignity of a person with homosexual tendencies is no more diminished because of existing marriage laws than is the dignity of one though blind who may not be licensed to operate a motor vehicle.

The Church teaches us that men and women with homosexual tendencies "must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided".

However, there is much more to it than that. Those with homosexual inclinations are called, like other Christians, to live the virtue of chastity. We cannot fail to recall that the homosexual inclination is "objectively disordered" and homosexual practices are "sins gravely contrary to chastity".

What this group of signatories fails to recognize or fails to admit is that we, as professed Catholics, have an clear, moral obligation to oppose the legitimization of evil. We must refrain from any kind of cooperation with any laws or proposals for such laws that would give any sort of legitimacy to a so-called "homosexual union". To merely advocate for dialogue and respect do not go far enough - we are called to proclaim the whole truth in charity, not just that part which is easy to proclaim or which only serves to obfuscate the painful realities of life.

The Church clearly explains why it is necessary to oppose homosexual unions:
1. Right reason - the legitimization of homosexual unions obscures basic, fundamental moral values which are necessary for the common good of society.

2. Biological and Anthropological Considerations - These 'unions' are not life-producing and are opposed to the complementarity of the sexes. They are fruitless and as such, they can only contribute to the decline of civilization. Human society is based on the family unit, consisting of a man who may become a father and woman who may become a mother. The absence of sexual complimentarity is an obstacle to the proper development of children.

3. Social Considerations - Humanity, in the form of societal structures, cannot survive without the family which comes about from marriage. Legal recognition of homosexual unions, in essence, redefines marriage. In effect, such a recognition distorts the truth and strips society of an institution which is essential for the society to survive. True justice requires that those things which are detrimental to the good of society not be sanctioned by the State as legitimate.

4. Those who are married and who faithfully carry out their responsibility are essential to the survival of the society and, therefore, to the common good. They help to ensure the "succession of generations", and rightly, civil laws grant them recognition. This is not possible with homosexual unions which cannot exercise this function.

The State has an obligation to preserve and protect society by promoting the institution of authentic marriage. Failure to protect society results in disorder - the promotion of disorder as a way of life leads only to death; it leads us away from life itself. We are on a death march to our own destruction. Rational minds must prevail amid this confusion. We murder the unborn depriving society of future generations, and more importantly, we attempt to deprive God Himself of His own children. We attempt to kill those who are no longer 'useful' to society - the sick, the elderly, the infirmed. Now we are attempting to promote another evil as a good for the benefit of society - unnatural unions. In the name of freedom, we have exchanged virtues for vice, good for evil, truth for lies. Many are proclaiming that darkness is light and that society will be better off with these 'freedoms'. No society can withstand living in darkness for very long. Every society which has attempted to live in darkness has starved itself to death.

The Church concludes in "Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons" with this:
The Church teaches that respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions. The common good requires that laws recognize, promote and protect marriage as the basis of the family, the primary unit of society. Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behaviour, with the consequence of making it a model in present-day society, but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity. The Church cannot fail to defend these values, for the good of men and women and for the good of society itself.
We are called to be faithful, to know the truth, to live the truth, and to suffer for the truth. We must not shy away from the Truth, from Jesus Christ - we must, in all charity, present Him as HE is - the Way, the Truth, and the Life, even if we must suffer persecution.

We must "do whatever He tells us to do". We must offer our prayers, sacrifices, daily Holy Communions, and penances for our own sins and the sins of those who have abandon God. We must pray for those who think they are gaining 'freedom', when in fact, they have sold themselves into slavery. Our future and the future of our children depends on our fulfilling our obligations to God, to our families, and to our society.

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