By Judie Brown
Perhaps the headline didn’t catch your eye, but it did mine. It reads “Cardinal McElroy on ‘Radical Inclusion’ for L.G.B.T. People, Women and Others in the Church.” The Jesuit magazine America published the piece that states, in part, “It is a demonic mystery of the human soul why so many men and women have a profound and visceral animus toward members of the L.G.B.T. communities. The church’s primary witness in the face of this bigotry must be one of embrace rather than distance or condemnation. The distinction between orientation and activity cannot be the principal focus for such a pastoral embrace because it inevitably suggests dividing the L.G.B.T. community into those who refrain from sexual activity and those who do not.”
In McElroy’s essay, the word sin is used without reference to the need of sacramental repentance and forgiveness as the road away from sinful acts, including those of a sexual nature. One gets the distinct impression that Cardinal McElroy is defending such acts outside the 10 Commandments rather than within Catholic teaching and biblical history.
Archbishop Samuel Aquila noted this as well, writing, “Cardinal McElroy’s reflection paints the Church as an institution that harms due to its incapacity to welcome everyone into full participation in the life of the Church. According to His Eminence, the Church categorically discriminates, but did not Jesus himself put demands on his disciples which distinguished them from those who did not respond to the radical and costly call of the Gospel?”
Aquila’s entire article is worth reading if not simply to reinforce the teachings of Christ and the truth of His teachings. For if not for sexual sin and the results thereof, there would be no abortion, contraception, or need of treatments for AIDS and other such activity related to one’s sexual appetites.
In the secular world we see the results of such disdain for chastity and purity everywhere. Why else would a male reporter tell readers of The Hill that abortion should be acceptable in every case because even the flawed exceptions for rape exist merely as decorations? We would have said that because we oppose any act of killing that defines every act of abortion, but the writer of the article has quite the opposite in mind. He favors radical inclusion of every sort of preborn child killing.
In the same context, recent events tell us that the morning after pill is gaining popularity, being promoted as the answer to sexual appetites gone too far in the same way that Coke and Doritos placate physical hunger. If this were not true, columnists would not be suggesting that those pills be in the same vending machines with food items.
Frankly, the entire nation seems to have run amuck! When the state of Texas has to sue President Biden to stop a federal mandate requiring the sale of abortion drugs, we know that it is long past time for individual citizens to turn away from lust and toward the Lord and His word to find the peace of mind that our broken government simply cannot provide.
Today, following Christ and His bride—the Church—requires heroic virtue and sacrifice. It means standing up to pressures that come not only from society but from some Church leaders as well. Dr. Jeff Mirus wrote words on this vexing challenge as it pertains to Cardinal McElroy that are worth quoting here:
The Church has always held simply that we cannot receive the Body and Blood of Christ if we know we are guilty of unrepented (and usually unconfessed) grave sin. Deliberate immoral acts of sexual congress with others are clearly grave sins, along with a great many more. The deliberate insistence that such grave sins—or anything sinful—is to be categorized as good and acceptable by the Church is an even graver sin.
Radical inclusion that rejects or fails to mention sincere sorrow for sin paves the red brick road to hell. And when some Church leaders are the bricklayers, something has gone tragically awry.