Homosexual Rainbow Sash Movement Threatens to Disrupt Pentecost Mass, Confront Cardinal George

Members of the Rainbow Sash Movement will be entering Cathedrals across the nation on Pentecost Sunday

On Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2010, members of a Homosexual Equivalency Activist Movement which calls itself the "Rainbow Sash" have announced their plans to attempt to disrupt the celebration of the Holy Mass throughout the Nation.They have specifically announced their intention to openly confront one of the great Churchmen of the United States, the Archbishop of Chicago and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Francis Cardinal George, OMI.

P>CHICAGO, Ill. (Catholic Online) - On Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2010, Catholics throughout the world will celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit and the Birth of the Church. It is one of the Solemnities of the Church year. Sadly, members of a Homosexual Equivalency Activist Movement which calls itself the "Rainbow Sash" have announced their plans to attempt to disrupt the celebration of the Holy Mass throughout the Nation.

They have specifically announced their intention to openly confront one of the great Churchmen of the United States, the Archbishop of Chicago and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Francis Cardinal George, OMI.

"Rainbow Sash" makes their plan and aims clear on their web site with these defiant words:

"Members of the Rainbow Sash Movement will be entering Cathedrals across the nation on Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2010. In Chicago Cardinal Francis George will be directly challenged in his Cathedral at the 11AM Mass.Cardinal Francis George of Chicago is one of the Vatican's generals in the war against Gay Families. Here is someone you should get to know because he would deny your right to employment, housing, marriage, adoption if you are Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender. Nobility would call him to resign, but ego will not allow it."

On Friday, February 5, 2010, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops acting through Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I, the archbishop of Chicago and president of the Conference, issued a strong repudiation of  "New Ways Ministry." The group is comprised of people who, like Rainbow Sash, openly dissent from the clear teaching of the Catholic Church concerning the immorality of homosexual practice.

They have aggressively opposed efforts to defend marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman. They foster dissent within the Catholic Church and cause scandal and confusion to many of the faithful. They have been publicly and repeatedly reprimanded by the Church.  For example, two of their former leaders, a priest and a religious sister, were ordered to resign their positions with the organization and separate themselves from any involvement.

The Cardinal said in his notice: "No one should be misled by the claim that New Ways Ministry provides an authentic interpretation of Catholic teaching and an authentic Catholic pastoral practice. Their claim to be Catholic only confuses the faithful regarding the authentic teaching and ministry of the Church with respect to persons with a homosexual inclination." As for the organization, they responded to the correction by rejecting it whole cloth. In fact, they have encouraged an advocacy campaign to get the Church to change its position.

This decisive action by Cardinal George is to be commended. It was the proper response of a good shepherd and faithful teacher of the Church. It also seems to have increased the ire of the members of the Rainbow Sash movement. They are numbered among those who I refer to as homosexual equivalency activists. They do not accept the teaching of the Church but rather seek to change it.

They also align themselves in the civil arena with those who openly oppose family based on the indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman and want to force society to recognize a legal and moral equivalency between true marriages and cohabitating practicing homosexuals. In these efforts they are led by well funded and strategic groups such as the "Human Rights Campaign" in the United States. 

This position is in direct opposition to the heroic and dedicated defense of marriage efforts undertaken by the Catholic Church and the teaching of the Church concerning true marriage as an indissoluble bond between one man and one woman, open to life, and the family and society founded upon it. The leaders of the "Rainbow Sash" movement intentionally confuse the faithful regarding the Church's clear admonition to respect all persons, including those with same sex attractions, and her absolute prohibition of homosexual sexual activity.

Among the clearest summaries of Catholic teaching on this matter was that set forth by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under the leadership of then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) in the "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons" promulgated in 1986. Here are a few of the paragraphs in this important instruction:

"The Church, obedient to the Lord who founded her and gave to her the sacramental life, celebrates the divine plan of the loving and live-giving union of men and women in the sacrament of marriage. It is only in the marital relationship that the use of the sexual faculty can be morally good. A person engaging in homosexual behavior therefore acts immorally."

"To choose someone of the same sex for one's sexual activity is to annul the rich symbolism and meaning, not to mention the goals, of the Creator's sexual design. Homosexual activity is not a complementary union, able to transmit life; and so it thwarts the call to a life of that form of self-giving which the Gospel says is the essence of Christian living. This does not mean that homosexual persons are not often generous and giving of themselves; but when they engage in homosexual activity they confirm within themselves a disordered sexual inclination which is essentially self-indulgent".

"As in every moral disorder, homosexual activity prevents one's own fulfillment and happiness by acting contrary to the creative wisdom of God. The Church, in rejecting erroneous opinions regarding homosexuality, does not limit but rather defends personal freedom and dignity realistically and authentically understood."

This teaching cannot and will not change. Groups like the "Rainbow Sash" movement, by their open defiance of this teaching, undermine the authority of the Church, confuse those who struggle with same sex attraction and scandalize the faithful. Finally, they confuse the public as to what the Church actually teaches.

The dissenting or confused Catholics who support the Homosexual Equivalency movement within the Church insist that the Catholic Church adopt their new doctrine - which amounts to heresy; what St. Paul warned of as "another Gospel" (Gal. 1:8,9; 2 Cor. 11:14). Cardinal George has been in the forefront of the defense of marriage and the family and society founded upon it. He is heroic in this stance and deserves our prayer and open, public support.

The Rainbow Sash Movement released this Press release concerning their intentions:

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"The Rainbow Sash Movement (Gay Catholics) will enter Catholic Cathedrals nationally and internationally on Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2010 wearing Rainbow Sashes. The purpose for our Pentecost Sunday presence is to give voice to the voiceless in our Church.

There is something bipolar about a Church that will not give members of the Rainbow Sash Movement communion because they self identify as gay publicly, while at the same time elevating men to the office of Pope, Cardinal, Archbishop, or Bishop who placed the reputation of the Catholic Church ahead of needs of innocent children who were sexually victimized by both predator priests and Bishops. The only word that comes to mind to describe such a dichotomy, in charity, is hypocrite.

Gay Catholics should not be divorced from public self-identification because of sexual orientation. Unfortunately the currency of hierarchical pronouncements is locked in male chauvinistic culture of clericalism. Such statements are based on homophobias that are so out of touch that it bars the use of condoms even to curb AIDS, and encourages Papal attacks on gay and lesbian families.

As to why we wear the Rainbow Sash; we can no longer sit idly by while homophobia takes over the heart and soul of our Church. No longer satisfied with discriminating against LGBT Catholics, the Bishops are now going after our children in Catholic schools. Discrimination against the children of gay parents because of their parents' sexual orientation is wrong, and only highlights how dysfunctional the current position of the Church has become.

We are not "flaunting" sexuality when we wear the Rainbow Sash. Simply put, if you are not seen, it is unlikely that your voice is recognized as significant enough to be given attention; if you cannot be heard, you cannot combat the prejudice you face, and no one can hear you cry out when you are the victim of injustice, when you suffer intimidation, or worship under institutionalized homophobia.

The love it or leave it mentality is not an option for us. On the contrary the Gospel challenge of love calls us to challenge exclusion with inclusion. In doing so, we follow in the spirit of the early Christians who challenged the exclusion of the uncircumcised.

That is why we will directly challenge Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, current president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops in Holy Name Cathedral at the 11 AM Mass on Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2010, along with other Bishops nationally and internationally to highlight their homophobia.

Participation does not require membership in the Rainbow Sash Movement. To find out how join or support the Rainbow Sash Movement please visit our website ...

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We call on our global readership to pray for Francis Cardinal George and support him in every possible wayduring this critical time. We ask for prayer for all of our Bishops and all priests who may be presiding at Mass on Pentecost Sunday when this threatened confrontation is scheduled to occur. We also invite you to pray for the conversion of the leaders and members of this group calling itself "Rainbow Sash" and all who are confused by proponents of the homosexual equivalency movement.

Together, let us call upon the Holy Spirit for a New Pentecost for the Church so that she may rise to the challenges of this new missionary age.   

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