More details on another group that has slithered out of the slime of dissent and have misappropriated the name 'Catholic'. I've written on this group before. Their plans are rather insidious.
From California Catholic Daily: "Aggregate Reports on Every Gay Priest
Washington, D.C., Aug 22, 2010 (CNA) -- Prominent Catholic dissenters have created an organization to promote homosexual political causes and to change Catholic opinion through coordination with other activists. Organized explicitly to oppose the U.S. bishops, the group’s website asks for reports of “anti-equality activity” in Catholic parishes."Shift Catholic public opinion"? What the H-E-double hockey sticks more do these cretins want - Obama got elected, didn't he? With the help of a whole bunch of nominal Catholics no less? I suppose for the percentage that still think sin is sin, and that SSA is a disorder, we have to be marginalized and silenced. Tolerance is not the end game with these evildoers - total acceptance of their lifestyle isn't the gold ring either. It's our complete and total silence on the issue. It won't be "Resistance is futile!" Their mantra is "Resistance will not be allowed". They want compliance, not compromise.
The group Catholics for Equality’s website, which is still under construction, reports that the organization is dedicated to “support, educate, and mobilize equality-supporting Catholics to advance LGBT equality at federal, state, and local levels.”
The group claims the “official voice of the hierarchy” favors discrimination and opposes “just” efforts to secure “legal equality for LGBT Americans.” This “anti-equality voice” is “far too often” portrayed as representative of American Catholics, according to the website.
One page on the site, titled “Report anti-equality activity!” contains an incomplete template for a submission form. It asks informers to describe the purported anti-equality activity and to categorize whether it took place in the parish, diocese or community “so that pro-equality Catholics can respond.”
The information generates an e-mail sent to the organization and also “an entry into private ‘report’ database,” the website says.
Mark Matson, president of the dissenting Catholic group DignityUSA, reported in a March 2010 newsletter on the group's website that an organizational meeting for Catholics for Equality took place on January 30 and 31 in Washington, D.C.
He said the meeting was convened to address the “increasing role” of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and state bishops’ conference in opposing “LGBT” political causes. Another purpose of the meeting was to “coordinate efforts to shift Catholic public opinion and voter behaviors.”
They desire to eliminate the Church from public discourse on this issue. Their position is that it was wrong for the Church to be involved with Prop 8, or with the marriage initiative that was voted on last November in Maine.
This group is threatening to report on "anti-equality" behavior as it happens in parishes and dioceses - in other words, parishoners snitching on their priests and bishops, and maybe even other parishoners. And what kind of "anti-equality' behaviors do they talk about? Well, nothing specific according to the article, but you can bet their rainbow sashes and glittery eye-liner they're talking about sermons that promote Church teaching on the sinfulness of homosexual behavior, the immorality of so-called gay marriage, or the dangers of adoptions by gay couples.
So the volunteer CCD teacher tells his students that marriage is the union on one man and one woman. A parent with a gay sibling hears of it, and then what? The teacher gets ousted because of his "anti-equality" views? Or maybe the high school Health teacher points out that homosexual men are more likely to contract HIV, and have a shorter life span. Would he be forced to quit because the facts are inconvenient?
I think you can count on it.
Which proves that all the claims that so-called gay marriage will in no way impact or force the Church to accept such beliefs were just big fat heterophobic lies. That gay marriage will have no impact on straight marriage. Yeah, right. Well, if it affects Church teaching, then it affects straight marriage, because that's the only form of marriage that exists: one man + one woman. Anything else is a sham.
But the bigger issue? It's the parade of organizations that purport to call themselves 'catholic', when at the end of the day, there's nothing remotely Catholic about them. There's "Catholics For Choice". "Catholic United". "Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good". Not to mention the countless other Wandering Tribes, many of whom are involved with the upcoming American Catholic Council. Now "Catholics For Equality". What do they all have in common? An abject hatred for the authoritative teachings of the Catholic Church, and a desire to wield the power of government to squash the influence of the Catholic Church in the public square.
While there's nothing we can do about these groups being created - after all, Americans do have the guaranteed right of free association - there's plenty we can do, and ought to do, to demonstrate repeatedly that these groups are opposed to Catholicism, not supporters of it. They are wolves in the sheepfold, poison in the veins. Faithful Catholics - who aren't slaves to political correctness or idolaters of the spirit of the age - must expose the wolves and neutralize the poison.
And while there are plenty of great Catholic groups who stand for authentic Catholicism - Catholic League, Catholics United for the Faith, Catholic Answers, and numerous others - I think it's time to create one more.
Catholics for C.A.T.H.O.L.I.C.I.S.M. That stands for "Crusading Against The Heterodox Organizations Lurking Inside Churches Increasingly Spreading Manure". How's that?
They must be called out. They must be fought - with charity and clarity. With prayer, fasting and acts of penance, and with words and deeds as well. They must not be unopposed as they usurp the truth to advance their wicked ideological positions. It is the Christian thing to do - not just for their sake, but for the sake of those who don't know what's what or who's who. We are no longer fighting back the barbarians at the gate. We are at the gate, fighting our way back in.
Make no mistake about it - representatives of these groups will be the ones interviewed in the media to define the issues and frame the discussions. These will be the folks who will be held up as 'Catholics', while we will be described as 'fundamentalist', or 'extreme', or 'insensitive'. We will continue to be portrayed as narrow-minded and dangerous.
And I say: So.what.
There will always be enemies of the truth. For centuries, since the beginning of the Church, those who have stood up for the truth have been attacked. We have been hung, crucified and burned. Drowned, boiled, flayed and beheaded. Flogged, beaten, tortured and maimed. We have been imprisoned and exiled, raped and robbed from. We have been drawn and quartered, and fed to wild beasts. We have been hunted and sought after. We have been created in the image and likeness of our Creator - and Jesus Christ endured all this and more for the sake of the truth. The blood of martyrs courses through the veins of the Church, which gives Her strength to endure. Can there be any greater reward for Christ's faithful servants?
This latest example of anti-Catholic activity cannot go unchallenged. I am not hopeful that a significant number of priests and bishops will stand tall and not succumb to political correctness, but I am praying to be wonderfully surprised. In the end, it will be left up to the laity - within our spheres of influence: our families, our friends, our neighborhoods, our parishes. Keep an eye on what Catholics for Equality is up to in your diocese or parish. It is time to take up arms, and to choose a side.
I choose Catholics for C.A.T.H.O.L.I.C.I.S.M.
