TIA,

After viewing the picture of those with SSAD (same sex attraction disorder), waving their rainbow flags, what do they hope to achieve, I ask?

Many, coming from all parts of the world have been seen proudly displaying the flag of their country, or a "Welcome, Holy Father."

It is indeed a ludicrous action for someone who proudly displays and promotes sodomy to have a genuine desire to seek out the Pope with the same reasons most everyone else does.

Proponents of same-sex unions suggest that it is time for a legal redefinition of marriage because the traditional concept of marriage was based on religious belief. Where religious norms are tossed out, they say, there exists no non-religious impediment to gay marriage.

This is erroneous. It ignores nature. In fact, marriage is older than religious or cultural norms. Marriage as one man and one woman in a permanent bond predates any political system or government. There assuredly are non-religious obstacles to redefining same-sex unions as another form of marriage. The obstacles are biological, psychological, and sociological.

Redefining marriage to accommodate an unnatural act would change the meaning of marriage for all society. Bluntly, the new meaning would be that sex has no meaning beyond pleasure. This philosophy imperils marriage. Sex for pleasure and nothing greater devalues men and women, reducing them to gratifying objects. A society that accepts such a model has a death wish.

     B.A.

TIA,

Once again, TIA compromises its own credibility.

Re: the photo and text in Latest Updates about WYD 2005 and the Pope. Pope Benedict XVI could not have avoided these protesters, who would have followed his entourage in any event, nor will he be able to avoid them at WYD 2008.

Let TIA follow at least one etiquette for proper conduct in journalism... truth.

     M.K.



TIA responds:

M.K.,

The WYDs do not take place in spaces open to the public, such as a city square, where liberal laws allow homosexual manifestations. The sites where WYDs take place are, during these events, under the responsibility of Catholic Church authorities.

These places, as well as the access to them, are duly maintained by the organizers with help of the local police. For example, one of the things forbidden in Cologne – WYD 2005 – was to display placards advertising the use of condoms either in the gathering site or the access to it. The religious authorities asked the police to prevent them, and it complied. The police went so far as to remove those placards from the city metro that was being used by WYD attendees.

Now, why didn’t they agree with the police to forbid homosexuals to demonstrate on a pre-determined road taken by the popemobile? It seems clear to us that an explicit or tacit permission was given for them to remain along the Pope’s path.

We believe the comments on the mentioned picture are solid - even though they hurt your progressivist sensibility.

To corroborate those comments, find below another photo of Benedict XVI passing by the homosexual crowd and, this time, waving to it. Please check the reflection of a rainbow flag at the popemobile window to confirm that he was passing through the group of homosexuals.

     Cordially,

     TIA correspondence desk

TIA,

Permit me to weigh in on the new stations. Taking the book The Plot Against the Church, I believe that the Jews are the ones who are really behind something like this and benefit the most. They especially did not want any reference to Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin.

This sounds like the revised Oberamergau Play.

Can you do something on the Noahide Laws?

     S.M.

Guys,

I went to Stubie conferences. It's terrible that you are basically calling it evil. It is great and I know that Jesus loves having all these teens there.

I'm sure the pope does not approve of what you wrote. You need to rethink yourself. It is great. It has really helped me in my life. There were so many teens who did not believe in Jesus until these conferences.

Franciscan is the best college ever!!!!!!!

     M.C.

TIA,

This news report from AP on July 12, 2008 raises my apprehensions:

Pope prays for end to rifts in Anglican church

Aboard the papal plane (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that he is praying there will not be any more rifts in the Anglican community following the recent Church of England decision on women bishops.

Answering questions from journalists aboard his flight to Australia, Benedict touched briefly on the turmoil in the Anglican church. "I am praying so that there are no more schisms and fractures" within the Anglican community, Benedict said.

On Monday, the Church of England's ruling body voted its support for women to become bishops. That stance risks causing further division among Anglicans, since traditionalists are opposed to that idea.

I wonder whether or not this papal concern regarding the split among Anglicans, without asking for their conversion, fits with the Catholic doctrine expressed by Pope Pius XI in his Encyclical Mortalium Animos:

"Some people entertain the hope that nations in spite of their differing religious viewpoints, may be brought to unite as brothers in the profession of certain doctrines as a common foundation of the spiritual life. Certainly efforts such as these cannot receive the approval of Catholics, for they rest on that false opinion which holds any opinion whatever to be more-or-less praiseworthy and good.

“Those who hold this opinion are not only in gross error, they even debase the concept of the True Religion and, little by little, lapse into Naturalism and Atheism. He who refuses to have the Church for his Mother will not have God for his Father.

“When St. Augustine speaks of man's last end, he hastens to add this counsel to anyone who wishes to reach that end: 'Their attempt will be useless if they do not submit to the Catholic Church and humbly obey her, for she alone has been divinely instituted to give light and strength to souls, without which they will necessarily stray from the Right Path.'

“Would to God they had listened to the Voice of Augustine in the Past! And would to God that everyone might hear him today who rends the Seamless Robe of Christ, and miserably cast themselves outside the Path of Salvation."

I believe the statement by Pope Benedict XVI is in contradiction with this teaching.

     M.E.

Follow us

  Benedict XVI and Homosexuals at WYD-2005

  Fusion Catholicism at Steubenville

  New Stations of the Cross for WYD-2008

  Split in the Anglican Sect

  On the Conversion of Anglicans

  A Paralyzed Ecumenism