Leonardo"s Notebook by Mattheus Mei

I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Transvestites Take Communion

I'm not one to normally agree with the conservatives. In fact, I normally tune into personalities like Bill O'Reily and read conservative blogs only when I feel like I need to get my blood pressure up (one needs to do that occasionally don't they?) I was reading American Papist - who I hardly ever agree with on anything and in terms of blogs I peruse with a certain degree of regularity, his is the one that riles me the most (my biggest qualm is that he's more than an enviro-skeptic, he outright denies global warming and denounces the whole environmental movement as nonsense) - when I came across this post:

Abp Neiderauer gives communion to blasphemous cross-dressers?


I suppose it was well and good that he didn't elaborate on this point, but instead let his linkings do the bloviating. (Read the rest of the post before clicking)

Conservative spew aside, I have to agree that it's a bit more-than-just-a-precarious situation, well - much more.

I'd like to talk about the good things that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence do, like raising money for AIDS hospices and other community outreach. I would like to say that I don't mind the fact that they participated in the liturgy, even though they're about as sacrilegious and satirical as The Hellfire Club of 18th century England )Even better than the wikipedia article on the group is the book by Daniel Manix).

But I can't. I can't even vocalize the amount of disappointment I feel for the San Francisco GLBT Community and the Sisters.

I know that the Gay community is, unfortunately, identified with Hedonism at best and Atheistic Sadomasochism at the worst. I'm embarrassed.

But the sister's took it a bit further when they obtained permission to use the church's hall and held one of their "REVIVAL Bingos," where they handed out porn and sex toys. This seems almost more of an offense to me than the fact that two members took Communion at the liturgy they attended.

I guess I'll just leave it at that, check out the article if you want, but be forewarned it's graphic and it's produced by a homophobic group - they're "a newly reorganized national organization devoted exclusively to exposing and countering the homosexual activist agenda," so don't look for any positives.

I'll let you all make your own determination about the Church in SF, I can't tell if it's Roman or belongs to the likes of Bishop KJS.

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2 comments:

Fr. Gaurav Shroff said...

I agree that a lot of the sites that are covering this incident are not promoting love and tolerance for homosexual persons ... however, they are responding to something that is serious, and, IMHO, it goes back to St. Paul's admonition (Rom 12), to not be transformed by the world.

This site has a section devoted to Most Holy Redeemer and a chronicle of stuff that has gone one in the past -- the videos of the "Revival Bingo" are most ridiculous. I think one legitimate and central point is raised: who's evangelizing whom?

What fascinates me is that it seems that William Cardinal Levada, successor to Papa Ratzinger as the head of the CDF, quite likely selected his own successor as Archbishop of San Francisco, and Abp Niederauder was, of course, appointed by Pope Benedict. Segments of the bloviating blogosphere are adding to their wails that this just shows that Benedict isn't quite the hammer of heresy that they expected or wanted. Which is a bit ridiculous -- folks don't realize just how decentralized the Catholic Church is at many times.

That said, this incident is, when it comes down to it, rather egregious. Archbishop Niederauer is presenting himself as ignorant. You can't be Archbishop of San Francisco and be so ignorant of your flock as to not know who the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are? It is a wasted opportunity at best. Most disappointing.

Mattheus Mei said...

oh I agree completely, where's the anger and vitriol of the gays I wonder, certainly it can't be but a few out there who find this as egregious as the heterosexuals.