To commemorate the final night of Pride month, a Kentucky Catholic church held a “Service of Atonement and Apology to the LGBTQ+ Community” on Thursday night led by the church’s director of Catholic LGBTQ+ ministry, to apologize for “the Church’s lack of respect, compassion, and sensitivity and for unjust discrimination.”
“The words the Church uses to describe me still sting,” wrote director JR Zerkowski in an “Apologies and Reconciliation” letter, “but I believe we are witnessing the evolution of doctrine, so I have hope.”
“I know many LGBTQ+ persons — far too many — have been hurt by the Church and many have left. So have their families and friends,” the letter continues. “LGBTQ+ persons left with good reason: to survive. Apologies aren’t coveralls for the past wounds, but they are a beginning.”
“There are those that call me a heretic. I have gotten hate mail from all over the country. That’s okay…love wins.”
– Rev. Richard Watson of St. Paul Catholic Church as they host an “unprecedented” service of apology to the LGBTQ+ community in Lexington, KY. @WKYT pic.twitter.com/sRPZHsNUs7
— Jeremy Tombs (@jeremy_tombs) June 30, 2022
For the “Call to Prayer,” Zerkowski called the Church’s diversity “sacred.”
“We gather to celebrate our unique diversity that has not always been celebrated, not always held sacred,” the director said, according to Fox News. “We gather to seek reconciliation for the hurtful words and actions of the Church toward LGBTQ+ siblings and their families and friends.”
One prayer urged the congregation to “build a just society and church, for LGBTQ people,” and asked that their actions always “include rather than exclude.”
It then went on to ask God that He make St. Paul parishioners “disruptors of the status quo” and “disruptors of stereotypes, philosophies, or would-be-theologies that do not consider every person as equal and worthy of dignity.”
While the message sounds warm and full of righteous rainbows, it’s an “evolution of doctrine” that many within the Catholic Church find disturbing, as it doesn’t represent an evolution as much as a complete dismissal of Catholic principles.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the “psychological genesis [of homosexuality] remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity.”
And in case that was too vague, the Catechism goes on to say, “Under no circumstances can they be approved.”
“Homosexual persons,” the Church states, “are called to chastity.”
So it appears church doctrine isn’t evolving in Kentucky. It’s being rewritten.
“The house divided will not stand,” wrote one Twitter user. “Their Doctrine forbids homosexuality, so basically now they are promoting sin.”
“Why are you apologizing for the sinful acts of others?” asked another. “God gives us the freedom to choose or not to choose to be godly or ungodly. God’s instruction is for man and women to be fruitful and multiply. God does not change his mind.”
“Pelosi received a warm welcome at the Vatican last week, and now this?!” exclaimed a third. “I’ve never been so ashamed of being a devout Catholic! How things have changed…”
The house divided will not stand, their Doctrine forbids homosexuality, so basically Now They are promoting sin.
— American Patriot (@America11864990) July 1, 2022
Why are you apologizing for the sinful acts of others?
God gives us the freedom to choose or not to choose to be godly or ungodly. God's instruction is for man and women to be fruitful and multiply. God does not change his mind. https://t.co/IIgTXvfGyY
— Michael Reese (@michaelreese406) July 1, 2022
Pelosi received a warm welcome at the Vatican last week, and now this?! I’ve never been so ashamed of being a devout Catholic! How things have changed… https://t.co/TrjpxJiz0g
— Sam D. Makary 🇱🇧 (@Al_Daiif) July 1, 2022
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