Barring any creeping skepticism about who signed her up to her new parish in New York City, her publicist or herself, we Bright Maidens are glad to once again see a sister in Christ return to His Church!
When I posted this article about Katie's return to the Church, a few people spoke up and seemed to focus on the description of St. Francis Xavier in NYC, noting that the article mentioned it is "known for inclusive thinking and its welcoming of many gay and lesbian Catholics."
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| St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, NYC |
The folks commenting on the Bright Maidens post had good intentions, I'm sure, as the Church teaches against people practicing gay and lesbian lifestyles. The Church does not, however, teach that same sex attraction is a myth. The Church teaches that there may be people with same sex attraction, but just as single people without same sex attraction should practice celibate, chaste lifestyles, so should those with same sex attraction.
As you can probably tell, I was slightly upset by some of the "too bad she picked the wrong church" comments because another BIG FAT teaching of the Church is to be loving and welcoming. If we look at the mission statement from St. Francis Xavier's website instead of the interpretation from the HuffPo author, we read that the parish “strives to be a prophetic, welcoming community, inclusive witness to the presence of Christ Jesus in our midst.”
Uh, that sounds right to me. Of course, we could choose to read into this and believe the church also affirms same sex attraction-indulging lifestyles, which isn't beneficial to the whole person trying to follow Christ. That would be wrong. However, it is correct to welcome everyone.
And I argue that jumping to the "well, yes, she joined the Church again, but she picked a liberal one," is the exact wrong way to welcome anyone back.
Rant over. Carry on.
6 comments:
How about the fact she left Tom Cruise who we all this is supper hot and everyone would love to marry to go back to the Catholic Church . She choose Jesus Christ over Tom Cruise. That is a powerful message.
Good rant :-)
Good points, I feel the same way. :)
Begging your pardon, you must do more homework on Katie's church. Published comments by its own parishioners who are gay describe being embraced as couples and married gay couples there. It is clearly a violation of Catholic teaching and this church IS "affirming" - meaning in this case condoning and accepting gay lifestyle. We are not talking about loving everyone to the point of not admonishing. We are not talking of ostracism. There ARE gay Catholic apostolates which are very vibrant, active and orthodox, but embrace Catholic teaching in not condoning or living active gay lifestyles. They support their identity and struggles and love and are loved. Please read St F X's own blogs instead of that vague, politically correct mission statement meant to fly under the radar.
The church's own website has testimonials and blogs from their own gay parishioners describing more than the vague "affirming" in the mission statement: they describe condoning active gay lifestyles, which is a direct contradiction of Catholic teaching. Read on the site and do your homework.
Anonymii - Thank you for *spreading Christ's love towards a blogger you don't know* using anonymity.
If you read the entire post, you would see that I disagree with any parish or body that tells someone living an active gay lifestyle, especially because I don't think that lifestyle *leads* anyone to Christ. In this case, of course I don't agree with the church and I did do my homework. However, I think the first words uttered by faithful Catholics should be hope for the Holy Spirit's movement in any convert/revert, regardless of the parish to which they belong. Don't you think God is capable of working through a place like that?
I'm not one bit surprised that she, a Hollywood actress, would join a parish like this, both for publicity's sake and for her emersion-altered view of the world. I still think the Holy Spirit is fully capable of shaping her heart.
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