Just when you thought Minnesota’s Catholic bishops couldn’t sink any lower into the cesspool of anti-gay bigotry, Saint Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt posts a letter to the local diocesan website that injects a prayer for marriage discrimination into the Catholic Mass itself.
Nienstedt writes that he is “pleased” to offer the following prayer, “meant for use within the Holy Mass as part of the Prayer of the Faithful,” for the explicit purpose of “assist[ing] in the strengthening of our state-wide efforts to defend marriage in our civil constitution:”
Heavenly Father,
Through the powerful intercession of the Holy Family, grant to this local Church the many graces we need to foster, strengthen, and support faith-filled, holy marriages and holy families.
May the vocation of married life, a true calling to share in your own divine and creative life, be recognized by all believers as a source of blessing and joy, and a revelation of your own divine goodness.
Grant to us all the gift of courage to proclaim and defend your plan for marriage, which is the union of one man and one woman in a lifelong, exclusive relationship of loving trust, compassion, and generosity, open to the conception of children.
We make our prayer through Jesus Christ, who is Lord forever and ever. Amen.
The archbishop’s letter also “encourage[s] the posting of the prayer within Eucharistic Adoration chapels, along with an encouragement to adorers to pray for the success of the amendment and all efforts to strengthen marriage.”
There is absolutely no defense on any level for this kind of malicious, disgusting hatred. Nienstedt’s text is anything but a “prayer,” but instead is an overt attempt to cloak a set of anti-gay political talking points with the mantle of faith. The Archbishop even stoops so low as to use the Eucharist, which is sacred to LGBT and non-LGBT Catholics alike, as a weapon in the fight to exclude loving same-sex couples from marriage in Minnesota. This latest affront is religion-based bigotry in its most putrid, vile form.
This isn’t the first time that Minnesota’s Catholic bishops have specifically encouraged their priests and congregants to use parish time, facilities, and resources to push for the passage of the state’s proposed ban on same-sex marriage. In September 2010, the bishops produced and mailed a DVD attacking marriage equality to all registered Catholic households. And in another letter this fall, Nienstedt directed parish priests to form committees in their churches devoted “…to educat[ing] the faithful about the church’s teachings on [marriage], and to vigorously organiz[ing] and support[ing] a grass-roots effort to get out the vote to support the passage of this amendment.” The Archbishop called it “imperative that we marshal our resources” in this fight.
And as a side note: Archbishop Nienstedt’s contemptible “prayer” is just the latest example of Catholic churches and dioceses engaging in nakedly political activity in violation of the Internal Revenue Code. The tax-exempt status of these serial lawbreakers needs to be revoked. Exactly why aren’t they being investigated already?
Being a progressive roman catholic is a lot like trying to be a progressive republican. A fools errand.
[...] Saint Paul and Minneapolis Archbishop John Nienstedt (Remember him? The one who turned the Catholic Mass and that church’s holiest sacrament into a weapon with [...]
[...] the same bishop who turned the Catholic Mass and that church’s holiest sacrament into a weapon with which to bludgeon LGBT people, does not want dissent within the clerical ranks when it comes [...]
[...] the same bishop who turned the Catholic Mass and that church’s holiest sacrament into a weapon with which to bludgeon LGBT people, does not want dissent within the clerical ranks when it comes [...]
[...] the same bishop who turned the Catholic Mass and that church’s holiest sacrament into a weapon with which to bludgeon LGBT people, does not want dissent within the clerical ranks when it comes [...]
[...] the same bishop who turned the Catholic Mass and that church’s holiest sacrament into a weapon with which to bludgeon LGBT people, does not want dissent within the clerical ranks when it comes [...]
“Knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine,”
—1 Timothy 1:9-10 (NKJV)
“For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.”
—Romans 1:26-27 (NKJV)
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.”
—1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (NKJV)
These three references indicate that homosexual passions and acts are unnatural, shameful, contrary to sound doctrine and deny entrance to the Kingdom of God. This being so they cannot be the basis of a Christian marriage sanctioned by God’s Church. The Church exists to save people, not to bless the means of their damnation. No marriage can be sanctioned by the Church if the very basis of the marriage involves acts that put the couple outside of eternal salvation. No matter what our society may legislate, the law of God is clear – that a marriage is not a godly marriage if it is a same sex union.
If God had intended the human race to be fulfilled through both heterosexual and homosexual marriage, He would have designed our bodies to allow reproduction through both means and made both means of sexual intercourse healthy and natural. Homosexual anal intercourse carries a high risk of disease, this is recognized in Scripture where gay men are said to receive in their bodies the due penalty for their error (Romans 1:27).
Hollywood has propagated the myth that when it comes to marriage “all you need is love.” This is simply not true. Marriage is not based on emotion any more than any other partnership in life is. Marriage, like many human activities, involves emotion but it is not constituted by the presence of any particular set of emotions. I do not deny that many homosexuals feel deeply for their partners; however I do assert that no matter how deep the feelings, what they have is not a marriage in God’s sight. It is a beautiful deception.
Homosexuality is wrong and will always be wrong. And those churches that sway with every fad and fashion, along with the vocal eemands of a tiny minority group, will eventually fall into ruin.
[...] I’ve pointed out before, communion — known as the Eucharist to Catholics — is sacred to LGBT and non-LGBT [...]
[...] in that state, silencing dissent in the clergy, injecting a prayer for marriage discrimination into the Catholic Mass itself, and embracing “ex-gay” propaganda in their efforts to oppose marriage [...]
[...] perhaps any other Catholic bishop across the country. Nienstedt is the same prelate who injected a prayer for marriage discrimination into the Catholic Mass, turned the Eucharist — which is sacred to Catholics — into a [...]
[...] perhaps any other Catholic bishop across the country. Nienstedt is the same prelate who injected a prayer for marriage discrimination into the Catholic Mass, turned the Eucharist — which is sacred to Catholics — into a [...]
[...] perhaps any other Catholic bishop across the country. Nienstedt is the same prelate who injected a prayer for marriage discrimination into the Catholic Mass, turned the Eucharist — which is sacred to Catholics — into a [...]
[...] to Minneapolis-St. Paul Archbishop John Nienstedt injecting a prayer for marriage discrimination into the Catholic Mass and silencing any dissent among his priests on the marriage equality issue. And it has worked, at [...]
[...] Nienstedt has turned the fight against marriage equality into an all-out crusade. He’s inserted a prayer for marriage discrimination into the Catholic Mass, turned that church’s holiest [...]
[...] anti-LGBT spiritual bullying a priority (especially in Minnesota, where the Catholic Church is throwing its weight behind a proposed marriage discrimination amendment to that state’s constitution) [...]
[...] documented extensively here at TWO, the American Catholic bishops have made the preservation of marriage discrimination and the spiritual bullying of LGBT people and their allies a top priority. Perhaps [...]