The self-declared Catholic group DignityUSA recently held a convention for its gay Catholic members in San Francisco.
Speakers at the convention included the openly gay catholic Richard Rodriguez, who is a well-known writer, and also the former Catholic priest Geoff Farrow who has made a name for himself by opposing the Catholic Church on a number of moral issues.
The president of DignityUSA, Mark Matson, gave an address at the Catholic LGBT convention. I have pulled out some of the highlights. Mr. Matson said:
“It is time to shift our focus from protesting Church to being church for all who seek full inclusion.”
For DignityUSA and other LGBT activists, this means the Catholic Church must ignore Christian revelation and not only tolerate homosexual acts, but celebrate them.
Mr. Matson soon gets to DignityUSA’s main mission, agitation and heresy:
“The seedbed for homophobia is misogyny. We must challenge it at every opportunity. If we want women to come and to stay, we must make room for them at the altar, at the pulpit, and in our language. Although we have largely freed ourselves from limiting dogmas on human sexuality, we continue to deprive ourselves of abundant access to the feminine dimensions of the Divine. We will not reach the Promised Land until we change that fact.”
Instead of the Catholic faith, Mr. Matson gives us an eclectic tour through leftist political thought, once again illustrating that DignityUSA is about political agitation, and not about serving our Lord Jesus Christ.
Also notice the “We have” and “We continue”, instead of “The Church teaches” or “Our Lord said.” DignityUSA, like many dissident Catholic groups, can only view the Catholic Church as some democratic political body that “the people” can seize power from when it is no longer compliant.
Also take note of one common tactic of the gay agenda, which is to undermine the reality that men and women are different; ignoring the fact that God has made them equal, yet given them different gifts and roles.
If obvious and innate differences between the sexes are rejected, then it is much easier to muddy the waters around the the union of one man and one woman in marriage, for example.
Regarding women priests, John Paul II made it clear that the Church doesn’t have the authority to ordain women to the priesthood. Jesus Christ, who didn’t cow to any social pressure, chose 12 men to be the first Bishops.
Priests (given authority by a Bishop) stand “in the person of Christ,” and we know that Jesus was a man. The successor to St. Peter has spoken, and faithful Catholics must assent to this teaching.
Mr. Matson continues; notice again we must “challenge” male/female differences:
“Along the way, we will be called on to challenge dualistic categories that separate laity/clergy, male/female, GLBT/straight, celibate/married, the sacred and the profane, thus embodying the notion of the priesthood of all believers.”
So we see that, instead of being faithful to Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church (or even using reason), Mr. Matson is “called on” to oppose the natural law, Sacred Tradition, Scripture, Papal teachings, morality and common sense all at once. At the end of the day, what is actually Catholic about Mr. Matson and the members of DignityUSA?
As he does many times in the address, Mr. Matson refers to the “the Spirit” who is apparently guiding these gay and lesbian Catholics as they challenge the Church:
“So now what? My sense is that Dignity is being called by the Spirit to one of many midwives in the birthing and rising of a new Church.”
The spirit? It might be a spirit, but it’s not the Holy Spirit. How do I know that? Any spirit that “calls” on one to be disobedient to Catholic Church teaching is not of God. Here is what St. John wrote:
“Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God…”(1 John: 4:1).”
The “Catholics” in DignityUSA should test the spirits that are leading them, because rebellion, celebration of sin and heresy are not Catholic beliefs.
Finally he gets to his “demands,” all the while couching them in ’60s Civil Rights language:
“It will be the Church where ALL are welcome to the table of Eucharist. It is that Promised Land we seek.”
The Eucharist is the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ. To receive our Lord is not “a right,” but a privilege. The Church is clear that those in a state of mortal sin should refrain from communion (the Eucharist):
The Catechism of the Catholic Church:
1457“… Anyone who is aware of having committed a mortal sin must not receive Holy Communion, even if he experiences deep contrition, without having first received sacramental absolution, unless he has a grave reason for receiving Communion and there is no possibility of going to confession…”
When a person receives the Eucharist at Mass, they are saying publicly: “I am in communion with this Church,” and that “I believe that what the Church believes.”
