It’s a new year and new bigotry from the Catholic church: The Archbishop of Westminster has ended the long-running gay-inclusive Mass held twice a month at Our Lady of the Assumption Church in London’s Soho neighborhood.
Archbishop Vincent Nichols, who oversees Catholics in England and Wales, explained in a statement:
“The moral teaching of the church is that proper use of our sexual faculty is within a marriage, between a man and a woman, open to the procreation and nurturing of new human life. As I stated in March 2012, this means that many types of sexual activity, including same-sex sexual activity, are not consistent with the teaching of the church.
For many years now the diocese of Westminster has sought to extend the pastoral care of the church to those who experience same-sex attraction. This care as been motivated by an awareness of the difficulties and isolation they can experience and by the imperative of Christ’s love for all.
In recent years, this pastoral care has focused on the celebration of mass at Our Lady of the Assumption church in Warwick Street. Over these years, the situation of people with same-sex attraction has changed both socially and in civil law. However, the principles of the pastoral care to be offered by the church and the church’s teaching on matters of sexual morality have not.”
Oddly enough, Nichols originally refused to criticize the Soho Masses, saying “anybody who is trying to cast a judgement on the people who come forward for communion really ought to learn to hold their tongue.” But after Catholic conservatives attacked the services in the press, he’s apparently changed his tune.
The Masses will be phased out in time for Lent.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Banane
Hypocritical Roman abomination of a church created and run by thugs, murderers, adulterers with an abundance of gay clergy in high office.
Ellipse Kirk
Maybe, just maybe, this will open the eyes of the foolish attendees.
2eo
Sadly this is nothing new, with the appointment of a conservative to the archbishop of canterbury post all christian cults have gained a little gall.
Worry not, people like me are doing a wonderful job pushing religion out of the cultural fabric of Britain, what people do in their homes and places of worship should have absolutely no influence in any capacity as to how the populace goes about its business.
jmps
Why oh why oh why would any gay person want anything to do with an institution whose core beliefs about gays are that they are “intrinsically evil?” People, the Catholic Church hates you! A gay person who tries to be a part of Catholicism is no different than someone who remains in an abusive relationship.
alexoloughlin
One important part of this article is missing. Weekly masses for gay Catholics will be celebrated at the church of the Immaculate Conception, on Farm Street, in London’s fashionable Mayfair district, so it hasn’t been stopped altogether.
Samuel
@jmps: Exactly. Why would u go for a mass, even if its called gay mass or whatever…. in a church whose teaching clearly condemn homosexual sex.
MACDONALDBANK
Being black, left-handed or being gay is just as natural. It is a sometimes rare occurrence to fall in Love and to hold that person in your heart and be loved in return … it is something that should be celebrated! If it’s between two guys or two girls — all the better. It takes even more courage to defend that LOVE!
I am the son of a catholic father who never went to church and a protestant mother who took us to church and Sunday school. Onward christian soldiers; I think not. Such absolute drivel. To be manipulated by a santa claus; an easter bunny and worst of all a bogus cross?
It’s now time to shut down the synagogues and churches with the torah & bibles with Leviticus 18:22 and Deuteronomy 13:12-16. To see the religious lunatics manipulate government and peoples’ lives — is shameful.
Many theologians state quite correctly that the birth; crucifixion; resurrection and other elements of christianity actually didn’t even happen! Churches are committing hate crimes and more succinctly a violent criminal offence against a federally protected minority namely the gay community. It is actually a bigger moment in history … gays standing up for equality … the realization that there is something far more evil at work — hateful religion which should be discharged from society – period.
Religion and the churches should now be exposed as a bigoted structure that gets away with hate mongering. It is a criminal offence to cause harm onto others physically or with written items; torahs – old testament/new testament bibles have been getting away with corruption and cultism based on bogus hocus pocus.
There is no scientific evidence to prove any of the cross related bogus elements of christianity and other religions. Our early human ancestors; on this earth … go back more than 6 million years … 5,996,000 years before the Greeks, Romans and the Jews. Christianity is basically a 2012 year old fictional cult. In the year 300 AD when Emperor Constantine, who to some was the first pope; went on to fabricate & market Christianity! Christianity is a fantasy; which turned out to be one of the most hateful & evil concoctions ever perpetrated on the world.
It is written; so therefore it shall be? We are the chosen people; such a wicked fantasy.
Einstein stated in a letter recently auctioned that the bible was a collection of primitive legends. He said believing in God was childish and he as a Jew is no different than another person and are not chosen by God.
The pope is running a bigger fraud than Madoff’s $50 billion ripoff.
Today’s evangelical extremists are like the nazis who cast others into ovens & are actually supremacists – who practice their bogus hocus pocus – and are trying to suppress and deprive others of their happiness and their legal rights in an open and proud society.
bmwblonde
The Archbigot of Wesminster may be a “blow where the winds blow” cowards,but
at heart he is also an unprincipled, political bigot. The good news, we just
need to await the die-off of him and other similar dinosaurs — which IS
annoying (“the trouble with Darwinism is that it TAKES TOO LONG).” And
don’t get me started on what “”””THE””” Church (ha ha, what egomania)
actually is — an “engine” for instilling the nut-cake idea that God
created us, hates and reviles us for our “Sin” (which he introduced us
to), and now wants to hate ourselves and continually kiss its ass
seeking “forgiveness.” No one with a brain would ever fall for this
stuff — or at least — can totally get over it. No normal person
could ever make all this stuff up. Holy yikes.
tidalpool
I was raised a roman catholic, and continue to follow the basic precepts of the church. I have found a certain comfort in familiar traditions and the words God gave to us. While many see the church as hating gays,I do not. Far to many people confuse the church’s teachings on sin and how one can be gay, and remain in a state of grace with our God. I tried to avoid any pre-marital sex, and once committed to my spouse, did not stray from the relationship. This is not an easy road, and many prefer to live life w/o moral judgements. That is their privelege. Supporting a philosophy, attending a church of your choice is a personal matter. I do not presume to judge those who follow other essential philosophys, and I would hope they do not denigrate mine.
D9W
@Samuel: Because their faith is not in the church, but in a faith that outside of the man run institution. Yeah there are the sheep that blindly follow the man run institution- and you see that even going on in the LBGTQ community with their own dogma. But there are the people who see what the church is supposed to really be doing. Like: Feeding the poor, clothing the naked, visiting those who are in prison- whatever prison people find themselves in (example: people who are HIV+, people who lost their family or Jobs, or wound up living on the streets), and are going outside of the man run institution, and doing what Christ told them to do. But the biggest thing the Church is really miserably failing at is teaching us to love one another as Christ, who gave up his life for us, commanded us to do. I don’t care if you believe that or not or in Jesus Christ’s dogma. But the TRUTH is Christ commanded his followers to love their neighbor as Christ loved them and most of the time the Church is thumbing it’s nose at Christ teachings. LIKE: don’t judge others, unless you want to be judged by the things you accuse others doing. This guy clearly has forgotten Christ Two Commandments- Love God above everything else, and love your neighbor as Christ has loved you. The problem comes when people blindly follow the man in the robe/dress, and not the teaching of the one who founded the faith in the first place.
CaptainFabulous
So are they also abandoning unmarried couples that have sex? Infertile married couples that have sex despite not being able to produce a child? Anyone else who happens to like having heterosexual sex, including anal sex, and isn’t married? Or is it just the gays that get the shaft, no pun intended?
2eo
@CaptainFabulous: Don’t be silly, you expect practitioners and preachers of a religion to adhere to the actual rules.
That is insanity.
2eo
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/9779057/Italy-bans-card-payments-in-Vatican-over-money-laundering.html
Will any catholic practitioners comment on the immorality and ethical evil of stealing billions from the Italian populace and smuggling the money into mafia owned accounts in Switzerland?
Thought not.
Brian
I sometimes wonder if the Catholic Church is simply the mafia in robes. What is it?