Oklahomily - Repeated warnings against watered down teaching

that give rise to protest or even derision, especially in the field of the truth of faith and moral teaching."

Amen, we said. But God wasn’t (and isn’t) through with this theme yet.

There was the report we link to today detailing how Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, is risking jail because he proclaims Church teaching about the intrinsic moral evil of homosexual practice, and rallies the faithful in an effort to overturn Canada's recent adoption of gay marriage. Speaking in Minnesota, which is facing its own fight against gay marriage advocates, Bishop Henry said the new definition is causing rapid changes in Canada.

“Canadians who believe in the historic definition of marriage, who believe that children need a mother and father, are now the legal equivalent of racists,” Henry said.

Henry said that the Canadian legal establishment is “combing through its laws and institutions to remove evidence of heterosexist discrimination.” References in law and government to the “wife,” “husband,” “mother,” “father,” are being eliminated across the board.

Among the hottest battlegrounds are Canadian schools, Henry says. “Children will have to be taught about homosexual acts in health class, as they now are about heterosexual acts.”

Such classes and curriculum material are in fact already in place, but until the passage of the law, parents could opt their children out.

Just one more example, we noted, of what happens when you "water down" the clear and consistent teaching of the Church.

Continuing our internet foraging seeking newsworthy items for the web site, we came across a story that saddened us greatly, an interview with a former Jesuit priest and theologian (who claims he was thrown out of the order but never laicized), who admits -- even boasts -- of being a practicing homosexual and a pioneer in developing new gay-friendly doctrine for what he sees as the church of the future. The interview is in a newspaper notorious for its negative views of the Roman Catholic Church, so we cannot say we were too surprised.

This ex-priest believes that God is

engineering renewal in the Church through those who disagree with and actively disobey its teachings in various areas, most of them dealing with sexuality. He believes their protest will lead to a takeover of the church where priests, deacons and other ministers will be elected by the people, and the pope will be relegated to simply “chief listener of the faithful.” He calls this “the shrewdness of God.”

Frankly, it sounds more like the “shrewdness” of a lesser supernatural being, one who has always been jealous of the existing order and the Eternal One who established it, a fallen angel who “was a liar from the very beginning,” Jesus tells us.

Satan loves to masquerade as an angel of light. He loves to trick us into misusing our compassion against God’s divine plan which, as we know, includes the Church. We see our brothers and sisters suffering because they have been encouraged by society, and even some renegade religious, into actively pursuing a homosexual lifestyle. They do feel rejected by the Church because the Church will not accept their behavior, their actions. The militant among them reject chastity as an option. That is, of course, their right to so do with the free will they have been given. But that is not enough. These same individuals insist that the rules must change. It is not enough that we love them as children of God; they insist that we must embrace their sinful actions and declare them sinful no more.

Sometimes they do such a good job of selling their plight that our compassion overwhelms us, and we see only their hurt and pain and we wish to alleviate it. We may forget for a moment that, while lying to them about God’s truth might make them feel better in this life, it may well condemn them (and us) in the next. Eternal punishment, hell, is not a fair trade for a little relief today.

Therefore we cannot allow ourselves to be deceived or coerced into accepting homosexual actions as anything other than “intrinsically disordered” and tragically sinful. Standing firm on Church teaching is the only way that God’s victory will be won.

But we fear that before that victory there are going to be many heated discussions, many terrible injustices, and no small amount of pressure on good Christians, regardless of our job descriptions and ecclesial status, or lack thereof. We all must pray that the Holy Spirit give us the courage to stand firm with the Church against watered down teaching, and to prayerfully know exactly how God wishes us to witness His truth to the world.

It is among the many tests of our time. In choosing to remain faithful to the teachings of Jesus Christ as faithfully transmitted by the successors of the apostles and underscored in Holy Scripture, we firmly declare that we will continue to drain the swamps of moral confusion.

At stake are precious human souls. Souls that are yearning for Truth with a capital T and that were created to live gloriously in the Light of God forever.

That’s the noblest quest any human being could have.

                    By David Jones

You may have noticed them: odd moments where themes are repeated around you. Perhaps in the news articles you read, or in the daily scriptures, or in an anecdote relayed through a friend. As we grow into spiritual maturity we more often notice these moments. A worldly person might say that it’s all just coincidence. The individual of faith knows that there is no such thing.

So it was this week as we began to notice several repeats of a common theme, the watering down of Church teaching so as not to offend others. There were even secular variations of this theme being played out.

For us it started with a conversation we had with an assistant catechist after teaching a 10th grade class on Sunday. Our assistant said she was having trouble with the concept of purgatory -- a friend or a family member had planted a very Protestant   notion that the Doctrine of Purgatory cannot be proved with scripture -- and when she had taken her question of doubt to a religion teacher at her school, she was assured that it wasn’t necessary for her to believe everything the Church teaches.

This is dangerous advice. It is much better to say that the Church has been given authority to define doctrine and our natural presumption should be to give the Church the benefit of any doubt. To say otherwise encourages second-guessing, which leads to more doubt.We have an obligation to become informed if there are areas in which doubts fester.

So you can imagine our reaction at hearing this. (Wouldn’t it be nice every once in awhile to have someone back your attempts to convey sound doctrine?) So what did we do? We smiled, and said that while it might not be necessary for her to strictly believe in Purgatory, she might be a lot happier -- a lot more confident and hopeful -- if she would research it and pray that the Holy Spirit help her understand it. And, oh, by the way, there are several passages in scripture that support Church teaching in this area; we’d be glad to send them to you.

And thus our conversation continues. We will attempt to gently drain the swamp of confusion.

On Tuesday it was reported by the Vatican that Pope Benedict XVI had told the bishops of Austria to be on guard against those who argue that Church teaching must be “watered down … to prevent people from leaving the Church.” There was this strong quote: “At times, those who direct this mission fear that people may move away if they are spoken to clearly," he said. "However experience has generally shown that the opposite happens. ... Catholic teaching presented incompletely is self- contradictory and cannot be fruitful in the long term."

The pope, quoting from St. Paul to the Ephesians, “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God,” then added his own version: "It is true that we must act delicately, but this must not prevent us from presenting the divine message clearly, even on those     subjects that do not enjoy widespread approval, or