A
response to
Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message
to Parents of Homosexual Children, a statement of the NCCB Committee on
Marriage and Family.
Roman Catholic Faithful, Inc.
In defense of the Holy Father and Orthodoxy
P.O. Box 109, Petersburg, IL 62675
ph: 217-632-5920 fax: 217-632-7054
Tuesday, October 7, 1997
Press
Conference outside the NCCB office
in Washington, DC
A
statement by by James Bendell, Esq.
Board Mbr. of Roman Catholic Faithful, Inc.
Port Townsend, WA 360-385-9556
I
became active in the Roman Catholic Faithful organization at about the
time I was representing former altar boys who had been molested by
priests of the Archdiocese of Seattle. I had experienced the concern and
compassion of the American Bishops in that law suit. One of the priests
had molested three sons of a widow. After we filed suit, the
Archdiocese filed a counter-suit against the widow, claiming that she
contributed to her sons’ damages by not caring enough for them after
they were molested. This is the same argument that was recently made by
an official in the Dallas Diocese -- that the parents of the children
were to blame. To which I respond to the Diocese of Dallas and the
Diocese of Seattle, with the words spoken at a Congressional hearing
years ago:
AMERICAN BISHOPS, AT LONG LAST, HAVE YOU NO SHAME?
Now
let me turn to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (the NCCB).
Do you know that the NCCB possesses secret documents that it has
circulated to the American Bishops during the past decades concerning
how to deal with priest pedophiles. In the recent Dallas pedophile case,
which resulted in a verdict against the Diocese exceeding $120 million,
the victims’ attorneys attempted to subpoena those documents, and the
court in fact ordered the NCCB to turn them over. But the NCCB refused.
Do you know why? Among the reasons cited by the NCCB was the argument
that conferences like the NCCB "have no responsibility for
ministering to individual members of the Church", and that there is
no "legal or ecclesiastical relationship with individual members of
the Church".
In
other words, the NCCB is not accountable to Catholics for what it does
or what it says. Well, if the NCCB is not willing to take
responsibility, then please go away and don’t bother us Catholics with
drivel like this so-called Pastoral. But if you do want to be involved
in the lives of Catholics, then have the guts to step up to the plate
and release these secret pedophile documents. Why you won’t hand over
these secret documents concerning the nationwide pedophilia scandal? Who
pays your salary? WE DO! Whose children are being molested? NOT YOURS.
What are you hiding?
We at
Roman Catholic Faithful feel so strongly that the NCCB should turn over
these documents to Catholic parents, that we are launching a national
campaign to urge Catholic parents to demand that these documents be made
public. And if they are not made public, then the American Bishops are
going to see the results in the collection plate on Sunday.
A
BRIEF LOOK AT THE PASTORAL
We
can start by noting that the entire letter is based on a lie. It
deliberately misquotes the Catechism as suggesting that homosexuals
should accept their own "sexual identity". However, if you actually read
Section 2333 of the Catechism cited by the Pastoral, it is clear that
the Catechism is referring to a person's sexual identity as a man or
woman, not as homosexual, bisexual or any other disordered variety of
sexual attraction. So we know that the authors of the Pastoral are
willing to lie to Catholic parents in order to pursue their own agenda.
The
Catechism of the Catholic Church states that homosexual acts are
"intrinsically disordered". The Pastoral makes what can only be
interpreted as a deliberate omission of this core teaching of the Church
on this topic.
The
Pastoral tells parents that if they feel their adolescent child may be
experimenting with homosexual acts, that sometimes the best approach may
be a "wait and see" attitude. This is outrageous. Wait and see
for what? Until they get AIDS? Until the become totally engulfed in the
homosexual lifestyle?
A
comment like that can really only be made by someone who doesn’t see any
moral disorder in homosexual behavior. Which is not surprising,
considering that the authors of the Pastoral called upon notorious
dissenters such as Fr. Robert Nugent, a homosexualist who has already
been thrown out of 2 Diocese in the United States, and is under
investigation by the Vatican.
The
Pastoral tells parents to believe that homosexuality is a "fundamental
dimension of one’s personality", suggesting that it is inevitable.
This deliberately ignores the clinical evidence that homosexuality can
often be successfully cured through psychotherapy. The Pastoral’s only
comment on this treatment is to say that since it is not 100% guaranteed
there is no obligation to undertake the treatment. But that is not the
issue!! The issue is whether parents who love their children should
encourage them to undertake treatment. OF COURSE THEY SHOULD. Would
the bishops discourage parents from giving chemotherapy to children with
cancer based on the theory that it is not a 100% guaranteed cure??!!
Here’s another lie in this Pastoral, "Nothing in the Bible or in
Catholic teaching can be used to justify prejudicial or discriminating
attitudes and behaviors." In fact, several years ago the Vatican
sent a letter to the American Bishops warning them about proposed
legislation that would remove the right of citizens to discriminate
against homosexual persons in certain areas such as adoption, child
rearing, etc.
Based
on the NCCB’s official position in the Dallas pedophile suit, it has no
relationship to the Catholic people in this country. However, if it
really wants to give sound advice to parents worried about possible
homosexuality in their children, here is advice the NCCB could give.
1.
Keep your children away from the many Diocesan "Gay and Lesbian
Ministries" throughout the country -- they encourage homosexuality.
2. If
your son expresses a desire to become a priest, be careful what seminary
he selects, because so many seminaries are so chock full of active
homosexuals, your son will find himself subject to sexual harassment.
3.
Finally, and most importantly, the NCCB could encourage parents to urge
their children to join the one Catholic organization that truly reflects
Christ’s love for homosexual persons -- Courage, the Catholic support
group for homosexual persons that is based upon the virtue of chastity
and the love of Jesus Christ. It is so telling that this pastoral makes
no mention of this wonderful organization. And it is just one more
reason why we have to ask whether the authors of this Pastoral really
accept the moral teaching of the Catholic Church.