"There can therefore be no charity towards homosexuals, or towards any other persons living in objective mortal sin, which does not place above all other considerations their being converted away from sin and into a state of friendship with God"

"Saint Peter Damian makes of homosexuality a sin of such unsurpassed evil as to constitute a war against the very Being of God Himself. God created man in His own image, “to the image of God He created him: male and female He created them…” The sin of homosexuality, therefore, by which men and women “have changed the natural use into that which is against nature (Ro 1:27)”, constitutes war not only against the nature of man and woman, but also against the very image of God. It is, in other words, the premier sin in the flesh against Being itself – both Supernatural Being, and natural being.

In St. Peter Damian’s day, this war was largely a private matter, practiced in secret. It has now emerged as a full-scale public war conducted openly in both the Church and the world. It has gained almost total victory over all governments in the Western world. It has conquered the minds and hearts of untold numbers of children in our educational systems through such things as “diversity training” and “inclusiveness”. It has befouled almost the entire priesthood and hierarchy within the Catholic Church. 

 By James Larson

Rosary to the Interior: For the Purification of the Church

Alphonsus Liguori said that no one goes to Hell without un-forgiven sexual sin. And as Our Lady of Fatima said, “More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason.”

At the very depths of the depravity of the modern world’s descent into the world of the flesh is the sin of homosexuality. Nothing could be in greater polar opposition to Mary’s purity, and the Mysteries of Her Immaculate Conception and Bodily Assumption into Heaven. St. Paul, in delineating the consequences of the descent of man into the world of the flesh which is the consequence of rejecting God, gives the greatest prominence to the sin of homosexuality:

“Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves….For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And in like manner, the men also, having the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error.” (Romans 1: 24, 26-27).

St. Peter Damian writes the following concerning the sin of homosexuality, especially as it was then prevalent within the priesthood:

“Truly, this vice is never to be compared with any other vice because it surpasses the enormity of all vices. Indeed this vice is the death of bodies, the destruction of souls. It pollutes the flesh; it extinguishes the light of the mind. It evicts the Holy Spirit from the temple of the human heart; it introduces the devil who incites to lust. It casts into error; it completely removes the truth from the mind that has been deceived…. It opens hell; it closes the door to heaven…. It separates the soul from God to join it with devils. This most pestilential queen of the sodomists makes the followers of her tyrannical laws filthy to men and hateful to God. She commands to join in evil wars against God, to carry the mili­tary burden of a most evil spirit.” (Book of Gomorrah, XVI).

Saint Peter Damian makes of homosexuality a sin of such unsurpassed evil as to constitute a war against the very Being of God Himself. God created man in His own image, “to the image of God He created him: male and female He created them…” The sin of homosexuality, therefore, by which men and women “have changed the natural use into that which is against nature (Ro 1:27)”, constitutes war not only against the nature of man and woman, but also against the very image of God. It is, in other words, the premier sin in the flesh against Being itself – both Supernatural Being, and natural being.

In St. Peter Damian’s day, this war was largely a private matter, practiced in secret. It has now emerged as a full-scale public war conducted openly in both the Church and the world. It has gained almost total victory over all governments in the Western world. It has conquered the minds and hearts of untold numbers of children in our educational systems through such things as “diversity training” and “inclusiveness”. It has befouled almost the entire priesthood and hierarchy within the Catholic Church.

Some, of course, might protest that it is only a small percentage of the clergy who actually commit these sins. But the spiritual defilement goes much deeper – to those members of the hierarchy who have known and been silent; to those have hidden abuse, and retained such abusers in ministry in the Church; to priests and deacons who are silent about this immense evil for fear of persecution, involvement in conflict, or loss of revenue (which would of course be seen as bad “stewardship”); and to the countless number of seminarians who only managed to become priests by remaining silent in the face of this widespread evil in seminaries (the guilt for which may indeed explain their silence as priests). And now, of course, all of this intimidation and silence has now penetrated the hearts and minds of the laity who, if they wish to protest at all against this firestorm of evil within the Church and the world, dare only to do so in private conversation. We used to speak of “closet-homosexuals”. As with so many other beliefs and practices within the modern Church, this has been largely “turned around” or inverted. It would now seem much more appropriate to speak of “closet-Catholics”.

The consequence of all this silence, and its accompanying loss of the virtue of fortitude and commitment to Catholic truth, became overwhelmingly clear during the recent USCCB meeting (Nov 12-14, 2018) and its aftermath. In August of this year Cardinal DiNardo had committed the Conference to addressing the abuse scandal among the hierarchy, and in September the Conference’s Executive Committee released a plan for investigating the Cardinal McCarrick scandal, and also for holding bishops accountable. On the opening day of the Conference, Cardinal DiNardo informed the bishops that he had received instructions from the Vatican insisting that these subjects not be discussed, and that the standards of accountability for bishops, and the formation of a special commission for receiving complaints against bishops, should not be discussed or voted upon during the meetings. On November 28, two weeks after the USCCB meeting, more than 50 law enforcement officials raided the Chancery offices of Cardinal DiNardo searching for secret archives related to clergy sexual abuse. All of this is an ominous sign of what is almost certainly to come.

The line has been crossed. We must expect much more of the same. The State is now poised to take a posture towards the Roman Catholic Church which will treat it as an organization or corporation engaged in criminal activity (under the RICO Laws). We should expect more raids, actions by Attorney Generals in all 50 states against the dioceses under their jurisdiction, passing of laws which will make it a criminal offense to withhold information regarding abuse obtained in the confessional, etc. And now that the Vatican has intervened to silence the bishops in regard to the treatment of abuse among the hierarchy, we may expect attempts to prosecute Vatican officials despite any claims to diplomatic immunity. The one thing most instrumental in preventing the success of such efforts in the past is that Church lawyers have been able to successfully argue that the bishops in this country are not “subjects” of the Vatican. There would seem little credibility left in such a claim after the recent USCCB meeting.

The extraordinary irony is that while the Church is now in the process of being invaded and prosecuted for homosexual abuse, any member of the clergy who preaches against homosexuality or “Gay Marriage” places himself in a position where he is prosecutable under hate-crime legislation. The Church now lies almost totally prostrate before the world.

It is, however, never too late to stand with Christ.

We must begin by fully affirming the truth that God does not create homosexuals, any more than He creates murderers or rapists. Nor does God create people with homosexual “orientation.” Whether due to the cumulative effects of original sin, to upbringing, or to actual sin, homosexual “orientation” is in itself disordered and neither innate or natural to anyone. The temptation to homosexual acts is nothing less than temptation to grave sin, just as is any other serious temptation towards mortal sin. The notion that there can be any such thing as a licit celibate homosexual vocation to the priesthood is therefore absurd. Nor should anyone who is actively homosexual or who claims such “orientation” be allowed any role in any of the ministries of the Church, and this of course includes teaching. All we need to do in order to understand this elementary truth is to imagine trying to justify admitting to such ministries a person with a history or strong inclination towards rape or murder.

The question remains, of course, as to what exactly is our proper response as Catholics to such persons. The answer is simple: charity. We owe charity to all human beings created in God’s image, no matter how great their sin. The problem today, however, is that both within and without the Church charity is equated with a false mercy and inclusiveness. In order to exercise charity, we must therefore come first to a proper understanding of what the very precise concept of Catholic charity actually entails.

St. Thomas defines charity as “the friendship of man for God”. (ST, II-II, Q.1, A.1). At first, this might seem to us a rather dull definition. We tend to think of friendship as something less than love. This is not true of the friendship between God and man. St. Thomas writes:

“It is written (John 15:15): I will not now call you servants…but My friends. Now this was said to them by reason of nothing else than charity. Therefore charity is friendship.” (Ibid).

To read carefully the entirety of John 15 (from which the above passage is taken) is to see the nature of this friendship revealed in depth. It entails the elevation of man to the state of fully abiding in the love and truth of God. To raise man to this friendship is the reason why Christ sacrificed Himself on the Cross: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13). In the light of this teaching to be found in this chapter of John, the concept of friendship takes on a whole new depth of meaning. It reaches to the greatest depths of God’s love for man. When man responds through conversion, it establishes that state which we term “living in the state of sanctifying grace”. In Thomas’ words, “Charity is the life of the soul, even as the soul is the life of the body.” (Ibid, A.2). Correspondingly, the soul that does not possess charity, does not possess sanctifying grace, is not in the state of friendship with God, and is spiritually dead. Satan reigns in his flesh.

What then of mercy, and its relationship to charity?

Posing the question as to “Whether Mercy Is the Greatest of Virtues” (II-II, Q.30, A.4), Thomas offers the following conclusion: “The Apostle after saying (Col. Iii, 12): Put ye on…as the elect of God…the bowels of mercy, etc., adds (verse 14): Above all things have charity. Therefore mercy is not the greatest of virtues.”

In accord with the teaching of St. Thomas, we must carefully distinguish mercy as it is proper to God, from that which is proper to man. Mercy can only be considered the greatest of virtues as it is applied to God Who is “greater than all others, surpassed by none and excelling all”. God’s mercy in creating angels and men from nothingness, and his further act of calling man out of a state of condemnation in order to share in the inner life of the Godhead, can therefore be seen in a light which views mercy as His supreme attribute. This, according to Thomas, is not true for man, “since for him that has anyone above him it is better to be united to that which is above than to supply the defect of that which is beneath. Hence, as regards man who has God above him, charity which unites him to God, is greater than mercy…”

And, Thomas concludes:
“The sum total of the Christian religion consists in mercy, as regards external works: but the inward love of charity whereby we are united to God preponderates over both love and mercy for our neighbor.”

There can therefore be no charity towards homosexuals, or towards any other persons living in objective mortal sin, which does not place above all other considerations their being converted away from sin and into a state of friendship with God. Any concept of mercy or charity which would detract from this supreme truth of the spiritual life embodies Satan’s agenda for the ruin of all human souls.