The article, “Gay celibacy group prompts U of T parishioners to leave,” was brought to my attention yesterday, and I neglected to post on it. Friendly Atheist picked up the story and posted on it today. Parishioners are voting with their feet and leaving a Toronto church in protest. I should have posted on this immediately; Canadians need to hear about this:
A Catholic group that counsels homosexuals to be celibate has prompted dozens of offended people to leave a parish on U of T campus and earned a rebuke from the university. Yet it continues to operate.
A chapter of the international organization Courage, a self-described support group for homosexuals in the Catholic Church, was invited to the Newman Centre’s St. Thomas Aquinas Parish last year. Shortly afterward, several members of the parish lodged a complaint with the University of Toronto, even though the parish is independent from the university.
It is ironic that the centre is called the Newman Centre after John Henry Newman (1801-1890) because Newman, an Oxford academic, a priest in the Church of England who converted Roman Catholicism and became a cardinal in 1878, may have been a homosexual.
Newman’s sexual orientation is important because Courage is
an apostolate of the Catholic Church, ministers to persons with same-sex attraction and their loved ones. . . .
From [its]web site you will learn about same-sex attractions and chastity. By developing an interior life of chastity, which is the universal call to all Christians, one can move beyond the confines of the homosexual identity to a more complete one in Christ.
Don’t be fooled; according to a former liturgical minister and lector at the parish Thomas Aquinas Parish, “‘This group indoctrinates . . . praying yourself straight,’” and “estimates that 50 people have left the parish to worship elsewhere.”
Despite complaints, a member of Courage continues to spread Courage’s bigoted message.
As one parishioner who now longer attends St. Thomas Aquinas church says,
“Let the man speak to an empty room,”
Why not go further Catholics? Empty all the Catholic churches and let all priests speak to empty rooms.
h/t: Paul O’Donnell @PaulToronto