LGBT in the Church
– Among some members of the Church, LGBT ideology has gained a “human face”. However, it should not be forgotten that the Church from the beginning very strongly distinguishes between objective evil and the guilt of a particular person – says rev. professor Paweł Bortkiewicz, Society of Christ.
TOMASZ KOLANEK: Let’s go back to the year 2019, a priestly ordination takes place in France, which is stopped at the last minute by the then-Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Robert Sarah. It turned out that the ordination was to be given to a woman who had “changed her gender” and it was written in the documents that she was a man. Would such an ordination, if carried out, be valid?
REV. PAWEŁ BORTKIEWICZ: Of course not. The Church has unequivocally ruled and continues to rule on the subject of priestly ordination, which solely concerns men. This is by the will of Christ himself, who ordained men as apostles, and this has not changed in the Church.
Of course, in the example you cited, we are ostensibly dealing not so much with the ordination of a woman who has had “a sex change” and is, according to the law, a man, but, let’s face it, the so-called sex change is only nominal, not real. This person still remains, from the biological and genetic perspective a woman, and as such simply cannot receive ordination. Such ordination would be invalid.
Why then in that regard were there also voices in the Church that Cardinal Sarah overreacted, to say the least?
Your question is very succinct, but the answer would certainly require consideration of many different aspects. The most important of these is undoubtedly the invasion of the sexual revolution, which has crawled all over the world, and since all over the world, unfortunately, in the Church as well.
This is one of the most fundamental problems of modern times. We live in an age of deformation and degradation of the meaning of sexuality and sex. Despite the clear efforts of the Holy See and previous popes – John Paul II and Benedict XVI – who unequivocally showed the value, the dignity of human sexuality, despite the contents of documents dedicated to human sexuality, today the truth is unfortunately falsified also in the Church itself.
The second factor generating this state of affairs is the enormous pressure of LGBT ideology, which is one of the elements of the ongoing sexual revolution. This ideology is as hypocritical as it is aggressive. It is hypocritical because it rejects the truth about human sexuality. From the point of view of theology, it rejects the truth about the creation of man and woman and the designation of these sexes with a specific personal vocation. At the same time, it is an aggressive ideology, demanding recognition of claims as rights of the human person.
Unfortunately, some Catholics succumb to this narrative and simply allow themselves to be deceived in this regard, thinking that the demands of this ideology become an expression of love of thy neighbor, mercy, and respect for human dignity and rights. This, of course, is a misunderstanding to say the least, and to be a little more frank – an outright lie.
You used the term “ideology” several times. However, I get the impression that in the Church, LGBT is not seen by some priests, theologians, etc. as an ideology, but as people…
Unfortunately, yes. Among some members of the Church, LGBT ideology has gained a “human face”. However, it should not be forgotten that the Church from the beginning very strongly distinguishes between objective evil and the guilt of a particular person.
When we look at LGBT ideology, on the one hand we see systemic evil, and on the other hand we see specific people who can contribute to, participate, and cooperate in building this systemic evil. They may be seduced by this evil, they may be somehow drawn, not entirely consciously, into this web of ideological evil, and hence the degree of their responsibility undoubtedly varies. However, this does not change the fact that each such person more or less consciously participates in an evil that cannot be called anything but that, and to be more specific it is an ideological evil.
Why is this ideological evil forcefully penetrating the Church? After all, it is enough to evoke the so-called synodal way, which is taking place in Germany, as well as the ideas of some Polish bishops, who invite LGBT organizations to take part in the Synod on synodality. One gets the impression that LGBT ideology is the most important problem in the Church today, and not, for example, problems with the faithful or even priests’ belief in the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament…
What you cited is undoubtedly an expression of the fact that some clergy and faithful want the Church to turn away from Christ and towards the world. That it should turn away from the spirit of Truth and turn to the spirit of the times.
Perhaps some of the Church’s hierarchy see this as an opportunity for themselves. Perhaps they believe that with such actions they will be able to expand the number of Church members…
The number of members?
I deliberately used the expression “number of members” and not “number of believers,” because these are at most nominal members who will be included in statistics. Such people cannot be believers, that is, believers in Christ and His words. Based on the words of our Savior this precludes such a possibility.
Indeed, the so-called synodal way in Germany is a process that aims to democratize the Church. The hierarchs there are trying to align the Church with one of the many social or even political agendas, changing both the power structures and the rules of church membership. The problem is that in such a process the Church ceases to be the Church.
As for the ongoing Synod on synodality, there is, in my view, a certain duality. In the Church in Poland, despite the examples you mentioned, in general the topic of LGBT ideology is not strongly emphasized, while in the pages of the Synod on Synodality’s international version there are many statements and studies that clearly try to reformat the Church’s position in relation to so-called LGBT community. These include, for example, footage promoting the activities of American Jesuit Father James Martin. These are actions in support of one Dutch clergyman who is leading a movement in favor of LGBT ideology and LGBT community and their place in the Church. These are statements by some hierarchs, including those from the United States, who are clearly calling for a radical change in the Church’s approach toward LGBT ideology and LGBT community. There are many other examples.
Unfortunately, this is a phenomenon that is officially posted on the website of the Synod on synodality, and is a serious cause for concern.
In the Polish reality, this whole spectrum of issues is not emphasized nearly as it should, and in many places it is simply absent, but yes, as you pointed out, we have the actions of some of the bishops who, for various reasons, have decided that the problem of the presence of the LGBT community in the Church is one of the most important issues that must be solved immediately. In a sense, they are right. Just as the Church cannot remain indifferent to non-believers or to those who are hostile to it, it cannot remain indifferent to the LGBT community, only that the Church’s relationship with these people must be one that explicitly strives for the dialogue, rather than acceptance and promotion of their sin.
St. Paul wrote: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever” (2 Corinthians 6:14-15). Such a community simply cannot be built, because it is constitutes an internal contradiction.
You brought up the Rev. Professor James Martin p. What is this man still doing in the priestly state? Why has he not even been properly admonished?
I can’t answer these questions. The fact is that Rev. James Martin’s behavior and statements are extremely appalling – including those in which he suggests that he has contacts with Pope Francis himself, that he supposedly has the Pope’s approval for his actions, etc. This is, of course, one-sided information, but it is not met with any denial from the Holy See Press Office.
All of this is cause for concern, but I dare say in all humility that James Martin’s position is in blatant contradiction with the doctrine of the Catholic Church.
So why are there no consequences being drawn against him?
Let me repeat: I cannot answer this question. Here we are touching on a very broad phenomenon that is a big problem for the modern Church. This phenomenon is doctrinal erosion, which in recent years has become a very dramatic fact and an even more painful wound to the Church. James Martin’s attitude to the Gospel and the attitude of the Church’s Magisterium to James Martin are, unfortunately, two prominent examples of this very wound…
What is your opinion of the situations that are repeatedly occurring in the US and increasingly in Western Europe: during Mass, sermons are given by so-called LGBT people, who very often enter the chancel with their adopted children and talk about how discriminated against they are by the Church and how they are entitled to everything?
The Church regulations clearly define who has the privilege, the right, the opportunity to preach the Word of God, to deliver homilies during the Liturgy. For this reason alone, such speeches are a violation of these norms.
Those who condone such a thing should be held accountable on the spot, and there must, I emphasize, must be at least canonical consequences against them.
As for the so-called LGBT people preaching the homily. Well…what is particularly infuriating is that precisely these people, by insistently persisting in their sexual inclinations and in the practice of LGBT life, are at odds with Church doctrine, with the moral practice of the Church, and hence spread error within the community as a whole. This is undoubtedly a situation that is a very serious danger for less informed people, who live in a huge media chaos and easily confuse tolerance with love of neighbor, acceptance of evil with mercy, etc.
However, this is primarily the responsibility of those who celebrate the Liturgy in question and who allow so-called LGBT people to celebrate the Liturgy. Let me remind you: participation in the Liturgy of the Word of God, reading the Word of God, preaching the homily during Mass is the celebration of the Liturgy and can only be done by the priest, not anyone else.
I am afraid that such scenes may soon take place in churches in Poland as well. Indeed, some priests and hierarchs claim that Pope Francis’ motu proprio should be interpreted as follows: if a faithful person gets permission from the local bishop to give a homily, the parish priest cannot refuse him.
Every bishop is not only subject to personal supremacy in the person of the Pope, but also subject to all the norms of the Church, and these, however, remain unambiguous: even a bishop has no right, within the framework of the Liturgy, to authorize anyone who is not designated by the documents of the Church to preach a homily or celebrate Mass, as demanded, for example, by the faithful and clergy in Germany.
Is it a coincidence that just in the year 2022 we are facing a kind of eruption in the number of so-called LGBT people inside the Church? After all, more and more priests are announcing, and during Mass, that they are homosexuals…
“There are no coincidences, there are only signs,” as Rev. Bozowski said. This is a shocking and very painful phenomenon. I can’t explain why it is happening right now, but the fact is that we are seeing some kind of escalation of this type of situation.
It is clear that we are dealing with a great war of good and evil. On the one hand, we are dealing with an attempt to stop LGBT ideology, and on the other, more and more and often during Mass, the priest is performing a form of “coming out.” In my opinion, we need to look at it more broadly – a battle between the civilization of love and the civilization of contempt for love. This is not a theoretical battle, but a real one.
Here, however, we are again faced with almost no reaction from the Holy See. A few weeks ago, a declared homosexual became the new superior of the Franciscans in Germany, announcing that he would reform the Church in the spirit of LGBT ideology and slogans familiar from the French Revolution.
People who are proclaiming such attitudes are unlikely to notice that they are outside the Church. Their actions will hurt the Church community, because a person who preaches ideas contrary to Church teaching is outside the Church. Such people are unable to make any reform or do anything constructive.
The only thing they can do is to follow the path of Martin Luther’s Reformation and perform an act of destruction of the Church. This is most unfortunate, but these things are already happening in individual local communities.
I deplore the lack of clear decisions and actions on the part of the Vatican. There is no clear voice from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to be heard. What happened in 2019, when this Congregation spoke negatively about blessing so-called LGBT unions, was frivolous, to say the least. After all, what was the reaction of the Church in Germany? They reacted with opposition and announced that so-called LGBT unions would receive blessings in German churches. How did the Vatican react? With silence…
We are facing an enormous crisis of authority and that of the institution of the Church. This is a very painful and sad phenomenon, but it must mobilize us all the more as a community, as the people of God, as members of the Mystical Body of Christ to unite ourselves with Christ, who is the Way, Truth, and Life.
Why is it such an important issue for people who want to make a revolution in the Church to bless, and in the future to marry, so-called LGBT couples?
If it ever came to accepting and actually blessing so-called LGBT unions, we would be dealing with the ultimate attack on traditional marriage and family.
Please note that the attack on marriage and the family is embedded in the sustainable development agenda that dominates contemporary global politics, and which is essentially a mechanism for depopulation. The Church is one of the last institutions to resist…pardon me: trying to resist this phenomenon. However, everything is being done to drag the Church into this anti-civilizational swamp, so that it serves the so-called Great Reset, ceases to be the Church of Christ, and becomes the Church of the globalists.
The ultimate goal here will be to create some kind of pseudo-religion, some kind of pseudo-Church aligned with the world and dominant ideologies, including LGBT ideology. Such projects are a fact, as we can hear, for example, at the Davos Economic Forum, but not only. The Church has always had enemies, who are also today, who have a specific plan to destroy the Church and are constantly pursuing it.
The methods used by the forces of evil are not particularly novel. They simply take new forms, and their goal is to destroy the Church, destroy the family, destroy humanity, etc. I realize how my words sound, but these are, unfortunately, the facts.
What if the current state of affairs when it comes to LGBT ideology in the Church is the aftermath of the upbringing of future priests in seminaries? What if they really believe in the slogan “Through LGBT to salvation” and promote the whole rainbow agenda because they have been taught that this is the right way?
It is possible that the minds of young candidates for priesthood are infected with such ideas. Everyone lives in their own individual world, and encounters different statements, tendencies, etc.
I do not know to what extent such “infection” with LGBT ideology takes place in seminaries. However, I do know that as part of decent moral theology lectures, future priests need to be made aware of the truth about human sexuality and sex. The biblical basis for the Church’s assessment of homosexuality should be explained in detail. One should show the true history of the LGBT movement, which is based on the deception of Alfred Kinsey, who himself was a deviant surrounded by deviants.
Given that our conversation is coming to a close, I would still like to point out that the issues we are discussing, while extremely painful, nonetheless concern a minority. I can say with confidence that in my work I have only met several people in the seminary who had homosexual inclinations. They were recognized early, diagnosed, and removed from the seminary.
Among the priests I meet with, there are a great many figures who live a life of beautiful chastity dedicated to the Lord God, and I would like us not to look at the Church and priests only through the prism of these spectacular and hurtful figures to the Body of Christ, but to see that there is a power of goodness in the Church, which testifies to the fact that the Church is the work of Christ the Lord, who ministers to people. From the beginning, there have been traitors among the “people of Christ,” but in the end, there have always been and always continue to be figures in the foreground who direct us toward holiness.
This article was published in September 2022 in Do Rzeczy weekly magazine.
