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Saturday, June 26, 2010

I told you earlier about the Archbishop


Well the gay and lesbian leadership of the Church of St. Francis Xavier has decided to march, in the Gay Pride march on Sunday, with the banner turned backward so that you see a blank banner, as in "what's that group and why are they marching?" I thought it was a ridiculous idea. If you google St. Francis Xavier NYC you'll see that the Catholics of America are demonizing this church and have somehow lumped in the Zen Meditation group that meets there, too!
So, one of the leaders will be on CNN talking about it, and I think it will continue to blow out of proportion. I have found a nice Episcopal Church in Long Beach I plan on attending. I like this Catholic Women's group and I plan to continue to participate-at SFX- but I feel that soon they will not have a place to meet per Archbishop Timothy Dolan. Just a prediction.

PRESS RELEASE
From: Rev. Joseph S. Costantino, S.J. Pastor
The Church of St. Francis Xavier, a Roman Catholic Parish, in Chelsea, NY Re:Gay Pride March
“Serving and caring for the spiritual and pastoral needs of those with same- sex attraction is indeed,” in the words of Archbishop Dolan, “a legitimate part of the Church’s ministry.” The Archbishop is extremely grateful to the Church of St. Francis Xavier for doing so.
In past years, a group of parishioners from our parish who are members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-gendered (LGBT) Ministries have participated in the Gay Pride March. They displayed a banner identifying themselves as parishioners of St. Francis Xavier parish. This year, Archbishop Dolan has requested that this group refrain from displaying the parish banner as they March.
The participation of parishioners in the March provides an opportunity to spread the message of God’s unconditional love and thus is a form of evangelization. Spreading the Good News is an integral part of the mission of our parish. During the March, parishioners distribute Welcome Brochures. Many people have entered the Church or returned to the Sacraments through this pastoral outreach.
Nevertheless, the display of the parish banner may give the false impression that the parish is somehow serving as a sponsoring organization or officially endorsing other sentiments that may appear in the course of the March.
Avoiding such confusion is the motivation for the Archbishop’s request.
The St. Francis Xavier LGBT Ministries will respect the Archbishop’s request and will be marching this year without a banner identifying our parish. Efforts to reach out to those who are open to the Gospel will continue. The desire of everyone at St. Francis Xavier parish is that we proclaim the infinite love of God for all while upholding the Church’s spiritual values and moral teachings.

What do you think about that?

2 comments:

Terri said...

That's the press release they sent out? And....it's an "attraction" eh? Not people being who God made them to be? An attraction makes me think it's like, today I'm attracted to the color blue but tomorrow it may be green? It's a pathetic press release.

Processing Counselor said...

And that's how much they understand or choose to understand.