Archdiocese Of Baltimore - 14 Pages Of Saying Nothing Useful

Cardinal Gregory exposed his willingness to coddle sins of sodomy a few weeks ago, but he wasn't the first.   Archbishop Lori of Baltimore beat him to the punch when released a "pastoral letter" entitled "Like Every Disciple: LGBT Pastoral Accompaniment" this past July.  Concurrently, the Catholic Review published some commentary on it.  It is looooong! A 14-page verbosity extravaganza!  However, because it is chock-full of moral error, we will slog through it.

Let's count how many times certain words and terms occur in this massive missive, shall we?

• Pastoral - 16 times
• Accompaniment - 20 times
• Journey - 20 times
• Relationship
• mortal sin - 0 times!
• Repent - 0 times!
• Confession - 1 time
• Disorder - 0 times!
• Hell - 0 times
• Heaven - 1 time 
• Salvation - 1 time

These word counts are quite revelatory in regards to the priorities of the authors of these things.  The last three word counts betray the utter disregard for the most important aspect of the Church's work - to save souls from hell and to help them attain heaven.  Note also that the word "repent" is not mentioned once, even though, according to Mark's gospel, it is the first word that Jesus uttered in His public ministry.

This thing yammers on and on about "accompaniment" and "journey" and being "pastoral", but what is being completely glossed over is that to engage in sexual perversions is to commit mortal sin.  We know that if a person commits just one mortal sin and then dies without the Sacrament of Confession and/or Perfect Contrition, that he/she will spend eternity in hell.

Therefore, the first - FIRST - priority is for that person to immediately make a good sacramental Confession, confessing the mortal sins committed in number and kind.  Without that, no amount of "accompaniment" will amount to a hill of beans, for no grace can accrue to anyone with mortal sin on their soul, especially if that person is still committing that sin.  That confession must happen immediately, regardless of any "journey".  Time is of the essence.

Let's now go through this mess and look at some of the most egregious nonsense.  In the early part, the question is asked: "What does it mean to follow Christ and to belong to the Church as a person who identifies as LGBT?"  Well, so see how absurd this question is, just substitute another sin, say "drug dealer" or "spouse abuser" in place of "LGBT".  If one identifies themselves by the perversion that they practice, then they are practicing it.  So "what does it mean"?  It means that the person be told, up front and with no kid gloves, that they are endangering their souls and that their destructive behaviors must cease and that good confessions be made.  If there are falls (most likely will happen), then they must get up, go back to confession and resolve to sin no more.

Further down, we read about the "desire to truly welcome and embrace sexual minorities".  No, they are not minorities, as would be the case of racial or ethnic minorities.  A person with an unwanted same-sex attraction is no more a LGBT person than a person afflicted with a violent temper be a murderous person.  We do not identify people by their disordered inclinations, especially if they don't act on those disordered inclinations.

Moving on down, this document quotes Francis during one of his plane-interview bloopers.  This is the one where he asked "if a person is gay and seeks out the Lord and is willing, who am I to judge that person?"   Well, if this conversation occurred in the sacrament of Confession (and that word occurred only once in this 14-page mess), the priest better be evaluating this person's soul, for the latter's salvation.  Again, if a person self-identifies via his/her disordered tendency, it's fairly clear that this person is acting according to those tendencies.   As far as this person being "willing", willing to do what?  If this person is repentant of the evil tendency, then indeed there is much cause for rejoicing.  Otherwise, there is no authentic "seeking out the Lord".

As we get closer to the end of this thing, we read that "often the Church and her teaching are being presented as being against LGBT persons, as if she were the enemy of human flourishing."  Who is doing this "presenting"?  Of course the secular culture is holding out that picture, but where, oh where, do we see God's teachings regarding sexuality being presented in Church venues?  All too often, the Church pulpits are silent on this matter.  When Church officials drag their feet when good people are trying to stop gay-coddling legislation from becoming law, they are showing that they are ashamed or even opposed to Church teaching.  We certainly don't see any unambiguous presentation of Church teaching in this document!  There is not one clear, concise presentation in all these 14 pages.

I'm sure other bishops will follow suit.