We proceeded to the school cafeteria where lunch was served. Along the perimeters tables were set up, with various "social justice" organizations were hawking their wares and dissident mindsets. The only decent organization that I noted was the St. Vincent de Paul Society. As you can see, LEAD had a table there. They seemed to have learned one lesson from last year's expose of their nonsense; they did not give away little "gay-pride" flags. However, their display table skirt was a gay-pride flag. I suppose the poor dears just couldn't help themselves. Among the offerings on the table were several of Fr James Martin's books. At the opposite end of the row was a table for Pax Christi. They seem to be having internal difficulties when it comes to being anti-baby-slaughter. With all the regular "seamless garment" stuff, they are all in lock-step with each other. Why do they seem to have difficulties decrying the evil of abortion? Keep that question in the back of your mind as I relate to you the contents of the afternoon workshop.
The workshop was entitled "Fiducia Supplian: Putting It Into Perspective". The presenter was Keith Wildenberg, founder of Building Catholic Futures. He's also a partnered gay man. This organization ostensibly exists to facilitate the integration of LGBT persons into the Catholic Church. As I read the articles on the web about this, it seems that most of the LGBT people bristle at the idea that their inclinations are intrinsically disordered. The truth is that they are, given that sexuality is ordered by God for marriage and the procreation of children.
One question that Wildenberg asked at the beginning is "what is the Church supposed to do with the gay couples among us?" Another was "what can we do to make our priests more comfortable with this?" "Blessing prayers" were interspersed throughout the presentation. These always invoked blessings upon the gay couple, asking that their homes be blessed, that they grow closer as a couple. I emphasize as a couple for one simply cannot ask blessing on a couple without validating that which defines them as a couple, i.e. the disordered tendencies that drew them to each other.
Wildenberg tried to take the writings of various popes regarding friendship to justify the intrinsically disordered attraction found in same-sex couples. He opined ruefully that the "Church is clear about what we can't do with our bodies; I wish it was clear about what we can do with our bodies." This sounds a bit like randy, hormone-driven kids asking "how far can we go?" Let's face it. Anyone who asks that question already knows the answer in his/her conscience. Much effort was expended to twist Church writings to lend legitimacy to the existence of gay couples. That is, the talk was full of attempts to justify the objectively perverse attraction between people of the same sex. About halfway through the talk, he said, "you can't bless their union but you can bless them as individuals. And if they happen to be standing next to each other and you have two hands.." Here the audience broke out in chuckles - and we know why.
So how much of that pow-wow session was smoke-and-mirrors? Well, consider this recent news. It was discovered that Father Joseph Williams, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul parish in the Archdiocese of Chicago, presided at a "same-sex blessing" with exchange of "vows" on April 22nd. It was first reported in Our Sunday Visitor. Fiducia Supplicans states that any "blessing" not be accompanied by any accouterments that might imply a sacramental event. Father Williams was vested for the confection of a sacrament. He recognized them as a couple, asking blessing on their perverted relationship. A faithful Catholic notified the Chicago chancery and was assured that "it will be addressed". I'll believe it when I see it. If Williams is not disciplined for this sacrilege, we may safely assume that such "blessings" as he attempted are indeed the goal of the authors of Fiducia Supplicans.
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| Priest Blesses Lesbian Couple |
Throughout the presentation, various people read sample "blessings" for gay couples. Wildenberg had planned, as a closing activity, to have the audience break down into groups of 4-5 people so that we could compose our own "blessings" for same-sex shack-ups. I prepared to leave at that point for there was no way I could morally pretend to engage in that sin and I wasn't prepared to destroy my own cover. Fortunately, Wildenberg et al noticed that there would not be time for that activity before the closing event of the day.
There were quite a few other workshops, all having to do with various progressive causes: climate change, death penalty, labor organizing, racial matters, etc. There was only one that even mentioned pro-life concerns. Bear in mind that Maryland has on its ballot the question of whether or not the so-called "right" to baby-slaughter, It is the so-called "Right to Reproductive Freedom Act". Was it mentioned, at least once, in that "pro-life" workshop? By the way - as I was perusing the tables of different organizations during lunch, there was no pro-life display. Given that this was an ostensibly Catholic social justice convocation, I found such absence to be quite indicative of priorities being misplaced.
The title of that workshop was "Pro-Life, Social Justice, And Not Being Cringe". In that description was not one mention of the word abortion, the method by which over 90 babies every day are murdered in Maryland. Moreover, when I recall that I sat through two workshops in which gays lectured to us, in a Catholic school with permission of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, I find it rather backwards that the word "cringe" is being associated with pro-life activism.
To add to the authentically "cringe" factor of this convocation, I noticed that there were a number of Calvert Hall students were present, ushering people through the building and carrying materials to different locations. I presume that they were doing this for service points or other extracurricular credits. In forcing those boys to witness the progressives and deviants strutting through their school, the Archdiocese of Baltimore failed those boys miserably.
This year's convocation was no different than last year's debacle. These are unabashed attempts to normalize gay perversion (and other anomalies) within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The fact that this is being done so openly and on Catholic property indicates that such twisting of Catholic teaching is done with the permission of the Archbishop of Baltimore - if not at his express direction. The directors responsible for inflicting these convocations on Baltimore should be dismissed - even if that includes the current archbishop.
