Crushing Truth

From the America Magazine article "It Just Hurts" “…“Every human being is born with this innate desire to love,” Father Massingale said. “For those who are oriented toward members of the same sex...to have it being described as inherently or innately sinful without any qualification, that is crushing.”

“…Julia Erdlen, a queer Catholic studying systematic theology at Boston College, agreed with Ms. Tang, saying, “It just hurts.”

And Fr. James Martin is quoted saying “…“some LGBTQ Catholics to leave the church, after years of feeling rejected and unwelcome.”

“Crushing”. “Hurt” These feelings do not come from the truth of the teachings of the Holy Catholic Church. They are a negative response to the truth brought on by having lived with the misunderstanding that our feelings and desires define what is good and loving and that our attractions define us. This is a lie that the culture has inculcated in the masses and is then internalized and repeated by well-meaning folks like Fr. Massingale, Fr. James Martin, and Julia Erdlen.

The “crushing hurtful” truth of the Holy Catholic Church is one of the reasons I came back to the Church rather than join another denomination. The truth that I knew deep in myself from the time I started engaging in same-sex sexual activity. The truth I knew the first time someone labeled me as gay long before I even had any interest in sex. The truth that pricked me each time I ordered a gay porn video through the mail or looked at a pornographic magazine. The truth that is written in my heart and all of our hearts. The truth that our culture is trying it’s best to beat out of us who live with same sex attraction and the Catholic Church who refuses to back down from this freeing, beautifully painful truth.

I am sorry that Fr. Massingale, Julia Erdlen, and many others feel hurt by this document, but I suggest they do what I and many of my brothers and sisters in the Courage apostolate have done: submit to the authority and tradition of the Church. This is where true freedom and joy are found, not in trying to get Jesus to conform to you but in you conforming to Him. Along the way, I suggest you ask yourself, as I begrudgingly did by God's grace many years ago, am I really happy living this life, or do I tell myself I am happy because I feel like I have no other choice?

Human-written, AI spell-checked 3/23/21 AD

Image from Vilkasss at Pixaby