"Progressive" Bishops attack again. Let the Belgian collapse be a warning: there is no innocence or naivety in anything that "Progressive" Bishops do or say. And, particularly when they are so nonchalant and shameless about certain matters, the signs of grave problems in their dioceses and nations are clear. Rome should act before grave things come out, and not express sympathy for the hierarchy when the result of their behavior leads to an inevitable humiliation of the hierarchy.
Honestly: is there anything more ridiculous than a shameless old man who thinks he is "hip"?
[Excerpts of the interview granted by the Bishop for the Armed Forces (Military Ordinariate) of Portugal, Januário Torgal Ferreira, to Portuguese website i-online and published yesterday. (Tip: JSarto)]The Church is usually a little inflexible in such matters... [of culture]What I do think, then, is that there is a group of people, and I say it respectfully, who have become perfectly illiterate, filled with guilt, malice, sensuality, almost castrated. Whoever knows the world, and loves it, looks at it in a clean and happy way. And I give thanks to life, and to the educators I had, for looking to the world in a guiltless and uninhibited way. It is as when people tell me: "Oh...[sic] you go to the beach and to the pool in trunks." And then? What is the problem? I am a citizen like everyone else!But people have told you that?Not directly. But people see me in the beach. Let us imagine the following situation: "So, you were there lying down, next to a topless lady?" And then? What is the matter? Only a pervert goes to the beach and thinks about these things. Malice is often in the way one faces the world. And there you see where this conversation has led...[sic] [laughter]...[On the recently-approved Portuguese law extending the concept of marriage to same-sex couples.]...To me, independently of the content - I do not agree with the notion of [same-sex] marriage -, I do agree with and accept a man who lives with a man, and a woman who lives with a woman.And this does not shock you?Obviously not. The attitude I must keep is one of respectability....The Church welcomes homosexuals, in fact. As long as they do not practice their homosexuality...It is certain that a homosexual couple is not theoretical, isn't it? And affections are translated through this practice, through this psycho-affective fusion of mysterious unity that is the human being.[*]The Church must understand this?She must understand it. But not sanctify it - because love is, for the Church, a sacrament, matrimony. This is a very complex matter, which must be very well understood. And no institution may say that it accepts it or does not accept it. Each case is a [particular] case....But you must surely have received complaints for speaking about things you shouldn't have...Yes. From people who disagree with my ideas. I receive so many nasty letters! One day, I will publish them all! I don't care, naturally, that there are positions different from my own. What upsets me is that people distort what I defend or decide to use insult and gratuitous aggression.And from within the Church?I have been warned once or twice.Regarding what?Family planning, for instance. But I still keep thinking what I thought before, and to say what I said before. Which proves that, from my part, that is not any hostility at all. There is a great communion, and love for the Church, and I am convinced, by my pastoral experience, that that which I defend will soon be a reality. I do not accept the dogmatism of natural methods. People often do not wish to be realistic. But what matters most is that there continues to be a great dialogue, because truth is never possessed in full.
[* RORATE note: one of the most euphemistic definitions of sodomy we have ever read.] Bishop J.T.Ferreira, 72, was named by Pope John Paul II Auxiliary Bishop for the Armed Forces, in 1989, and Bishop for the Armed Forces, in 2001.
