{"id":291417,"date":"2018-10-05T23:23:37","date_gmt":"2018-10-06T03:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=291417"},"modified":"2018-10-05T23:26:42","modified_gmt":"2018-10-06T03:26:42","slug":"young-woman-with-same-sex-attraction-writes-a-letter-to-the-synod-and-its-beautiful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/10\/young-woman-with-same-sex-attraction-writes-a-letter-to-the-synod-and-its-beautiful\/","title":{"rendered":"Young woman with same-sex attraction writes a letter to the Synod \u2014 and it’s beautiful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

From National Catholic Register:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Avera Maria Santo is a 22-year-old U.S. Catholic who lives in Alabama and blogs at her website,\u00a0Inside My Holy of Holies<\/a>, about being same-sex-attracted and remaining faithful to the goodness, truth and beauty of what the Church teaches about human sexuality.<\/p>\n

In an open letter circulated in Rome to the bishops participating in\u00a0the Oct. 3-28 youth synod, Santo told them she had been \u201cdevastated\u201d to learn of\u00a0the ongoing campaign by pro-\u201cLGBT\u201d groups<\/a>\u00a0that are trying to utilize the\u00a0synod as a vehicle to shift Church teaching on homosexuality.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Consequently, she said, \u201cI wish then to lay my heart bare, and to share some of my story and my convictions with you, dear bishops of the Holy Catholic Church, and plead with you to keep the Church\u2019s teachings on homosexuality good, true\u00a0and beautiful.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She writes, in part:<\/p>\n

Recently, I came across a quote from Abbot Jean-Charles Nault, O.S.B. that spoke a great deal of truth to me. It read:<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the philosophers of antiquity, and for the whole Christian Tradition, freedom is the ability that man has \u2014 an ability belonging jointly to his intellect and will \u2014 to perform virtuous actions, good actions, excellent actions, when he wants and as he wants. Man\u2019s freedom is, therefore, his capacity to accomplish good acts easily, joyously\u00a0and lastingly. This freedom is defined by the attraction of the good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time and time again, we will hear phrases such as \u201cI just want the freedom to love whomever I want\u201d from those within the \u201cLGBTQ\u201d\u00a0community. This desire is an inherently good one, when it is rightly ordered.<\/p>\n

Man is only truly free when he can choose to do as he ought, not simply as he wants, for the things that we may want aren\u2019t always good for us.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read it all.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

And check out her blog<\/a><\/strong> for more.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From National Catholic Register:\u00a0 Avera Maria Santo is a 22-year-old U.S. Catholic who lives in Alabama and blogs at her website,\u00a0Inside My Holy of Holies, about being same-sex-attracted and remaining faithful to the goodness, truth and beauty of what the Church teaches about human sexuality. In an open letter circulated in Rome to the bishops […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":291426,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[12072,426,1271],"class_list":["post-291417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-great-links","tag-synod18","tag-homosexuality","tag-synod"],"yoast_head":"\nYoung woman with same-sex attraction writes a letter to the Synod \u2014 and it's beautiful<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From National Catholic Register:\u00a0 Avera Maria Santo is a 22-year-old U.S. Catholic who lives in Alabama and blogs at her website,\u00a0Inside My Holy of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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