Catholic and Enjoying It!
Due to the sudden uptick in comboxers who are unfamiliar to me, demanding to know if I think homosexual appetites gravely disordered and launching into arguments for the prosecution like this:
May Mr.Lorenzo rest in peace. Now for you Mr.Shea, are you a proponent of same sex marriage and gay adoption? How about sex ed classes teaching our children about homosexuality? Childrens books with titles like Heather Has Two Mommies? Gay Pride parades , really it’s all become too much in your face for a lot of us.
…I can reasonably infer that some aggregator like Pew Sitter has ordered the Pitchfork Wavers and Crackerbarrel Inquisitor to work themselves into a 15 minute hate and come lynch me, rather like these people lynched Pope Benedict in cyber-effigy a while back for his grave sin of extending charity to imperfect efforts at penitence by homosexuals.
Before undertaking that useful course of action, however, it might be advisable to, you know, not make a fool of yourself first. So, for instance, there’s this cool thing called “Google” that allows you to find out many answers to your questions *before* you ask something that is simultaneously filled with malice, presumption of guilt and embarrassing ignorance. Turning to this marvelous piece of technology and typing in, say, “Mark Shea gay marriage” for instance would yield an abundant number of comments from me on the topic (hint: I oppose it). Similarly, “Mark Shea Gay Brownshirts” reveals something of my opinion of a great deal of gay agitprop in the media. Or again, “Mark Shea Gay disordered appetite” would yield you information that would keep you from writing arch, ridiculous, opening lines like “Now for you Mr. Shea” as though you are now going to pin me with a sword and force the confession of my enthusiasm for homosex and my contempt for Church teaching from me.
Clues for the clueless: I completely accept the Church’s teaching on sexual morality. I also accept the Church’s teaching on rash judgment. However, since the behavior of a number of you in the Crackerbarrel Inquisition is making it clear that you don’t, let me refamiliarize you with it:
2477 Respect for the reputation of persons forbids every attitude and word likely to cause them unjust injury.278 He becomes guilty:
– of rash judgment who, even tacitly, assumes as true, without sufficient foundation, the moral fault of a neighbor;
– of detraction who, without objectively valid reason, discloses another’s faults and failings to persons who did not know them;279
– of calumny who, by remarks contrary to the truth, harms the reputation of others and gives occasion for false judgments concerning them.
2478 To avoid rash judgment, everyone should be careful to interpret insofar as possible his neighbor’s thoughts, words, and deeds in a favorable way:
Every good Christian ought to be more ready to give a favorable interpretation to another’s statement than to condemn it. But if he cannot do so, let him ask how the other understands it. And if the latter understands it badly, let the former correct him with love. If that does not suffice, let the Christian try all suitable ways to bring the other to a correct interpretation so that he may be saved.2802479 Detraction and calumny destroy the reputation and honor of one’s neighbor. Honor is the social witness given to human dignity, and everyone enjoys a natural right to the honor of his name and reputation and to respect. Thus, detraction and calumny offend against the virtues of justice and charity.
If you choose to ignore this basic teaching of Holy Church in your conviction that God Almighty has anointed you Prosecuting Attorney of the Kingdom o Heaven (the biblical word for such a figure–who turns up in the begnning of Job–is where we get the name “Satan” from, by the way), you might wind up making a complete jackass of yourself like this comboxer:
Fr. Levi, as the your point #2 above, you seem disposed to assume that the author, Mr Shea, should be taken at face value for stating that the late Mr Lorenzo, may he rest in peace, taught a great number of people the Catholic faith “in its fullness.” Perhaps he did, but what the author cited in support was Mr Lorenzo’s blog which he was kind enough to link to. Please examine it carefully before forming an opinion. I invite you to read the comments to each of the articles posted. Or fair warning, Don’t. Not unless you are interested in viagra, cialis, or any number of adds for pornographic websites and browsing. There was absolutely NOTHING posted in any comment of any article that was in any way Catholic, or Holy, or worthy of anything of Christ. If the writing on this blog; the only thing the author referred us to, is any indication, Mr Lorenzo’s inspiring words were totally lost on his readership. So therefore on what basis are we to conclude that, as the author would have us believe he inspired many in The One, True Faith of Our Lord?
Um, Perry has been dead since 2009 and the blog has just been sitting there, exposed to spambots because nobody is running it. Spambots dump advertising into comboxes and if you don’t have a filter there’s nothing to stop them. The garbage you see in the comboxes is due to spambots. Please learn something about how the internet works before making such an embarrassingly ignorant rash judgement in public again.
Sheesh!
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