The Church and Homosexualism (Part Two)

Author: ks. Dariusz Oko,
Love One Another! 16/2010 → Questions and answers

Read also: The Church and Homosexualism (Part One)

Holy Scripture condemns homosexual acts unequivocally–and this right from the very beginning. In the Book of Genesis we read, “And the Lord said: ‘The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great, and their sin so grave’” (Gen 18: 20).

Their “sin,” among others, is the practice of homosexuality; evidently, God considers it to be especially grave and repugnant. While Lot entertains the two strangers at his house, the young and old citizens of Sodom say to him, “Where are the men who came to your house tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have intimacies with them” (Gen 19: 5). They respond to Lot’s entreaties with threats and acts of violence. The cup of bitterness overflowed. The following day the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah lay waste and incinerated. Only one righteous man was saved–Lot and his family. We find a similar story in chapter nineteen of the Book of Judges.

The New Testament condemns sodomy even more forcefully. Saint Paul clearly tells us that, like other sinners, practicing homosexuals who refuse to convert, risk eternal damnation. “Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor sodomites nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6: 9 et inf.).

Saint Paul saw sodomy as a sign of the nadir of man’s moral decline–a sign of man’s self-contradiction and estrangement from God (Rom 1: 18-32). Like us, he knew homosexualist propaganda, which mocks God openly. He writes: “Although they know the just decree of God that all who practice such things deserve death, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them” (Rom 1: 32). We read similar words in the Letter to Timothy (1: 3-11) and the Book of Leviticus (18: 19-23). Such manifest abuse of God’s plan, such a rejection of the natural complementarity between a man and a women, must profoundly wound and destroy a human being in a multiplicity of areas. It must eventually lead to catastrophic results–and must, therefore, incur divine condemnation.

The main conduit of homosexualist propaganda in Poland is “Koncern Agora”–in particular, Gazeta Wyborcza and Radio TOK FM. Only the gay Internet sites are more militantly homosexualist. The manner in which Gazeta Wyborcza promotes homosexualist ideology is, as I mentioned earlier, an affront to the norms of intellectual and moral discourse. It excludes rational debate. Pro and contra articles appear on its pages at a ratio of 100 to one. Despite its good points, the newspaper is dominated by atheists and, in many areas, is manifestly anti-Christian, although it also publishes supplements on the life and miracles of the late pope, as if these things were compatible. This is sheer cynicism and mendacity: making money on a man whose teaching one ruthlessly opposes. What Gazeta Wyborcza has to say on the subject of homosexuality is as true as what Trybuna Ludu [Poland’s socialist daily–ed.] used to, and continues to, say about communism. Its feature articles of homosexual celebrities have as much to do with reality as the great sports personalities of the USSR had with the reality of that country. The policy makers grouped around Gazeta Wyborcza seek nothing less than the remodeling of social consciousness. Their goal is to achieve in Poland what their fellow member of the International in Spain, Premier José Zapatero, has already achieved in his country. Such is the course they pursue with respect to the other leftist-liberal canons: the promotion of abortion on demand, unbridled eroticism, divorce, and euthanasia. The struggle against Christianity is integral to their utopian agenda.

The most recent “Auschwitz lie” is a clear illustration of how far homosexualist propaganda is able to go. In January of 2005, on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, the European Parliament considered a draft resolution in which camp victims were grouped according to a bizarre classification and then listed in the following order: Jews, Roma (Gypsies), homosexuals (as if they constituted a nation), Poles, and other nationalities. Since homosexuals were listed third and Poles fourth, one might reasonably conclude that according to the European Parliament more gays suffered and died in Auschwitz than Poles. In fact, the tally of victims is as follows: 1.1-1.3 million Jews, 70,000 Poles, 20,000 Roma, 15,000 Soviet prisoners-of-war, and 15,000 representatives of other nationalities. Of those interned in the camp for reasons of homosexuality, 64 cases are documented–of which 51 perished. Fifty-one individuals are listed before seventy thousand Poles. No mention is made of the prisoners-of-war or other nationalities. A brief debate follows, a slight retouching of words, but nothing special beyond this. So the homosexualist lobby wields enough influence to bring before the European Parliament a resolution that states that 51 is greater than 70,000. Other resolutions of the socialist-dominated European
Parliament show the same high regard for logic. Ditto all the pronouncements of the homolobby.

The above goes to show, firstly, how false gay propaganda can be and how little regard it has for entire nations and their sufferings; and, secondly, how powerful the International presiding over it must be in order to bring the European Parliament to such a state of embarrassment. This confirms the opinion of many physicians and psychologists that the various declarations of medical organizations on the subject of homosexuality are made under the pressure of the political lobby; consequently, they have as much value as the above draft resolution. They are as scientific as scientific communism, as wise as Soviet plans to reverse the natural course of rivers.

The strength of the international gay offensive derives not from reason but from political will. A small number people, who are frequently ill, could never achieve such importance, were it not for the pressure groups that have made of them their standard and battering ram. How great must be their poverty, how great their spiritual confusion to make such a thing the center of their lives. How terribly disturbed they must be in order to base their lives on so many lies and falsehoods.

But at least the situation is clearer for that. We can see who stands arrayed against us. The most militant homosexualists tend to be the most deeply anti-Christian and anti-religious. Here we see the great disaster of the atheist mind. Its true nature is laid bare. How debased the mind that makes a battle standard out of such an absurdity. Yet it is quite understandable. The mind that commits such a great fundamental error as to deny the existence of God–its Creator, Source, and Fulfillment–is all the more apt to commit every other kind of error, including this one. To a great extent, homosexualism is the creation of the atheist, consumerist mind. That is why it flourishes where Christianity and religion in general have grown the weakest.

It is clear that the homosexualist lobby is strongest in the countries of Europe where the process of secularization and de-Christianization has gone the farthest. Atheism–theoretical or practical–is now, numerically, the world’s fourth largest “denomination.” We can expect that the less Christianity there is, the more homosexualism and other atheist “isms” there will be. Where faith and reason go to sleep, the demons of ideology awaken. There are many signs–apart from those already mentioned–of such demons stirring in atheist souls, who–after a brief respite–will again seek to eliminate believers through recourse to the “law,” imprisonment, and even more brutal methods. There are signs that the next period of persecution of Christians is already upon us. Again we face the threat of spiritual imprisonment and death. We, of all countries, are only too familiar with such things.

Small wonder, then, that the tension between the Vatican and Strasbourg over this issue reminds us of the earlier one between the Vatican and Moscow. Just as Christianity cannot be reconciled with communism, so there is no reconciling it with homosexualism. Those in Strasbourg and Brussels who endeavor to impose the homosexualist ideology upon us would have us renounce our faith, reject the moral principles based on it, and trample on the teachings of John Paul II and Benedict XVI–i.e., the teaching of the Church. Like the old atheists in Moscow. Non possumus!

We have no reason to fear their chief bogeyman: namely, the label of “homophobe.” The label is affixed out of hand to anyone who dares to utter in public a single critical word on the subject of homosexualism. This means that the foremost “homophobes” in the world are our highest moral and religious authorities: John Paul II and Benedict XVI, our bishops, Catholic and Orthodox, Mother Teresa of Calcutta. They are so branded, because their criticism of homosexualism is the strongest, the most forceful, the most balanced, and the most sensible. For the same reason, theists in general, religious people, both orthodox Jews and Moslems, are also “homophobes.” This what the gay activists themselves say. On June 5, 2005, homosexualists carried a banner saying, “Benedict XVI–homophobe!” They profaned the Basilica of Notre Dame in Paris with a lesbian pseudo-wedding ceremony, and then roughed up the rector. This was their response to the Holy Father’s most recent statement opposing the homosexualist lobby’s aims. Gay leaders in France, Italy, and Germany applied the same label to him after the publication of the Vatican’s Instruction concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies (November, 2005).

Another example of a “homophobe” is the former President of the United States, who strove to tighten up USA’s constitution so that gay unions and marriage could not be placed on the same level. Thus the greatest “homophobes” are those who enjoy the greatest spiritual authority and influence and those who hold the greatest political, economic, and military power. Respectable, upstanding people have only to speak out against the homosexualist ideology (to the extent they understand it) and they are automatically branded as “homophobes,” just as anyone critical of the communist party was formerly branded an “enemy of the people.” Those so branded used to consider this a badge of honor. We must all choose, then, if we wish to be counted among the “homophobes,” along with Blessed Mother Teresa, John Paul the Great and Benedict XVI, or to be counted among the adherents of the Homointern, along with Adam Michnik, Jerzy Urban, and Joanna Senyszyn [All prominent representatives of the Polish left-leaning-liberal press–ed.]. The line between the two camps is clearly drawn.

In this connection, the comments of many Catholic pundits are particularly disturbing. They publically contradict the teaching of the Church and her popes. We must shout this from the rooftops. For example, in the June 4/5, 2005 edition of Gazeta Wybrocza, editor Halina Bortnowska states: “Well, yes, and this is not the first time I am saying it. In my view, the responsible building of lasting unions of same-sex partners is a goal worthy of the highest respect and assistance.” Such a view stands in flat contradiction to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which clearly states that “[u]nder no circumstances can [homosexual acts] be approved” (2357), and to John Paul II’s characterization of them as “deviant behavior” and “a “lamentable perversion.” In the November 27, 2005 edition of Tygodnik Powszechny [a national Catholic weekly–ed.], Fr. Adam Boniecki urges Catholics to take part in gay parades, and in the July 3, 2005 edition he calls for the legalization of “same-sex marriages.” And yet both John Paul II and Cardinal Ratzinger (the future Benedict XVI) declared jointly that, “If all the faithful have the duty to oppose the legalization of homosexual marriages, then Catholic politicians are bound to do likewise in a special way, at the level appropriate to their area of competence.” One may suppose that this applies even more to consecrated priests. And yet Frs. Jacek Prusak SJ and Tadeusz Bartoś OP (who has since left both his order and the priesthood) have publicized views exactly like Bornowska’s. With all due respect to these two individuals, we must state that on this issue they stand diametrically opposed to the Church. The same applies to the decision-makers of Tygodnik Powszechny, which, on this point, conducts itself not like a Catholic publication, but rather like the “religious supplement” to Gazeta Wyborcza; and in so doing, it toes the same political line. A tally of all the texts, which have appeared in Tygodnik Powszechny on the subject of homosexuality in the past three years, clearly reveals that, on this issue at least, the newspaper–Poland’s only national Catholic weekly–has flatly rejected the Church’s teaching and embraced the homosexualist ideology as its own. The front-runner here is Dr. Jacek Bomba, who comfortably promotes his homosexualist views in its columns. In this he is strongly supported by the paper’s at times awesomely influential editorial secretary, Mr. Tomasz Fiałkowski, and the above-mentioned Fr. Jacek Prusak SJ. One might say this threesome represents the “homotroika” of the Tygodnik–“the salt that has lost its taste” (Mat 5: 13). People who pick up and read this paper ought to know what to expect. It is an attempt to reconcile Christianity with something that is absolutely irreconcilable.

Reparative therapy centers are an authentic Christian response to the problem of homosexuality. In the USA and Canada alone there are 125 of such centers where men with same-sex attractions can seek and obtain help. There, men can meet other men who, even after a period of great homosexual activity, have been able to reform their lives and become happy husbands and fathers of families. One of these is Alan Medinger, author of the book Growth into Manhood. He has recently visited Poland. His center–called Regeneration–has succeeded in healing most of the men who have sought help there. We now have our first such Polish center in Lublin.

The quintessential Catholic response to the homosexualist ideology is the work of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta and the sisters of her congregation. They have vowed to help the poorest of the poor of the world. Among these are often active homosexuals, especially the old who are reaping what they have sown in life; unattractive, lonely, and all too often suffering from AIDS. Mother Teresa’s sisters devotedly and heroically serve them–especially them–in their hospices and shelters, even though they do not accept their views or their lifestyle. They do not shrink from proclaiming the biblical way of life and the way of death; and for this very reason they devote their lives to them.

Against the power of the homosexualist lobby, against its financial backing, its domination of the media and influence in politics, the Church has only the strength of truth, the strength of grace, love, and mercy–the strength of God’s nature. That is why she always wins in the end–whatever the ideology. It is only a question of time. Absurdity devours itself. And yet fidelity to the truth of reason and faith requires that we be ready to proclaim and defend it–even at great cost to ourselves. Struggle, spiritual warfare–not cheap irenicism–are the things that are the most elementally Christian. Christ died precisely because of His open struggle with the deception and false-heartedness of the Pharisees, who in other respects had their good points and merits. Moreover, Saint Paul constantly suffered persecution in his own Church for the fact that he struggled for the rights of the non-Jewish Christians, i.e. for the rights of the majority. This struggle was the beginning of his martyrdom. To the extent that the world remains unevangelized, we as faithful Christians must remain in tension with it–even to the point of strife and active struggle. We know this from the outset, and it must cost us–sometimes a great deal. Such struggles involve risk–sometimes risking everything. There is no other way of reaching our goal. But precisely this is the most beautiful thing, for it is the promise, the foretaste of its attainment.

Fr. Dariusz Oko, Ph.D.

Read also: The Church and Homosexualism (Part One)

The above article was published with permission from "Love One Another!" in June 2016.

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