CRUX NOW: Tens of thousands march against gay marriage in Mexico

NORMAL HUMAN MARRIAGE WINS! -CD2000

Associated Press September 25, 2016
Via CruxNow

Demonstrators take part in a march organized by representatives of the National Front for the Family, in Mexico City, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016. Dueling marches, in support and against Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s push to legalize same-sex marriage, gathered at the Angel of Independence monument. The two sides were kept apart Saturday by hundreds of police and barriers erected around the city's iconic monument. (Credit: AP Photo/Marco Ugarte.)

In Mexico City on Saturday, tens of thousands of people marched through the city streets to demonstrate their opposition to the legalization of gay marriage, in a protest that many Mexicans saw as the country's powerful Catholic Church flexing its muscles.

MEXICO CITY - Tens of thousands of people marched through Mexico City on Saturday in opposition to President Enrique Pena Nieto’s push to legalize same-sex marriage.

Organizers of the National Front for the Family estimated at least 215,000 people participated, and while that number could not be immediately confirmed, it was clearly one of the largest protest marches in Mexico in recent years.

Dressed mainly in white and carrying white balloons, the marchers held banners warning against same-sex marriage and demanding parents’ right to control sex education in schools.

“We are not against anybody’s (sexual) identity,” said Abraham Ledesma, an Evangelical pastor who traveled from the border city of Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, to participate in Saturday’s march.

“What we are against is the government imposition … of trying to impose gender ideology in education,” Ledesma said. “As religious leaders, we don’t want to be forced to marry same-sex couples and call it marriage.”

Others carried signs saying “an adopted child deserves a mother and a father.”

On the other side of a police barricade separating the two sides at Mexico’s Independence Monument, a far smaller crowd of same-sex marriage supporters - perhaps a couple hundred - listened to music and speeches.

“They may be the majority,” said Felipe Quiroz, a gay activist and school teacher. “But just because they are the majority, doesn’t mean they can take rights away from minorities. That would lead us to a dark period, to fundamentalism.”

Many saw the massive march as the Roman Catholic church flexing its political muscle in a country where about 80 percent of people identify as nominally Catholic. In May, Pena Nieto proposed legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. It is currently legal only in some places such as Mexico City, the northern state of Coahuila and Quintana Roo state on the Caribbean coast.

But in June, Pena Nieto’s party suffered unprecedented losses in midterm governorship elections, and his party has since put the proposal on the back burner in Congress.

Activists say opposition to same-sex marriage played a role.

Jose Medrano, a university professor, came to Saturday’s march from the northern state of Chihuahua, where the ruling party lost the governorship in June to the conservative, pro-Catholic National Action party.

“We may have influenced this, because the proposal (for same-sex marriage) was presented just a few weeks before the elections, and a lot of people were against it,” said Medrano.

MARRIAGE IS BETWEEN ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN

LGBT Agenda Is a Demonic Attack on the Family, Cardinal Sarah Warns U.S.

Source: ChurchPop

François-Régis Salefran, Wikimedia Commons

Same-sex marriage, transgenderism, and divorce are demonic attacks on the family, Cardinal Robert Sarah warned in his keynote speech for the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. early on Tuesday, May 17th, 2016.

“This is about defending ourselves, children, and future generations” he said, according to LifeSiteNews, “from a demonic ideology that says children do not need mothers and fathers. It denies human nature and wants to cut off entire generations from God.”

He listed examples of this evil ideology: “Do we not see signs of this insidious war in this great nation of the United States? […] The legalization of same-sex marriage, the obligation to accept contraception within health care programs, and even ‘bathroom bills’ that allow men to use the women’s restrooms and locker rooms.”

“Should not a biological man use the men’s restroom? How simpler can that concept be?”

He also pointed to divorce and cohabitation as destructive, especially for children.

“The rupture of the foundational relationships of someone’s life – through separation, divorce, or distorted impositions of the family, such as cohabitation or same sex unions – is a deep wound that closes the heart to self-giving love [unto] death, and even leads to cynicism and despair.”

“These situations cause damage to the little children through inflicting upon them a deep existential doubt about love. They are a scandal – a stumbling block – that prevent the most vulnerable from believing in such love, and a crushing burden that can prevent them from opening to the healing power of the Gospel.”

He lamented that new problems are compounding the old ones. “Sadly, the advent of artificial reproductive technologies, surrogacy, so-called homosexual ‘marriage,’ and other evils of gender ideology, will inflict even more wounds in the midst of generations we live with.”

“This is why,” he concluded, “it is so important to fight to protect the family, the first cell of the life of the Church and every society.”

His speech is reported to have been received with thunderous applause from the audience. The program also included Speaker Paul Ryan, Fr. Paul Scalia (son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia), and Sr. Constance Veit from the Little Sisters of the Poor.

‘Same-sex synod’ what? By Sr. Teresa R. Tunay, OCDS

Pope Francis greets a cardinal as he leaves at the end of a mass to mark the opening of the synod on the family in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican, Rome, Italy, October 5, 2014. [Picture source: Christian Post]

…and that’s the truth [from CBCP News]

THEY are at it again—those who have an axe to grind against the Catholic Church are finding media morsels to feast upon at the ongoing Synod of Bishops in the Vatican. Further exploiting Pope Francis’ most misconstrued quote “Who am I to judge?”, these people with special interests label what is actually a synod on the family as “same-sex synod”, a “novelty”, an occasion for “hundreds of celibate men” to display once more their “obsession with sex” colliding head on with their “puritanical idealism”. It is high season for optimistic militant LGBT entities to repackage and resell their pet theories while judging the bishops and the Church as being “outdated” and woefully out of touch with reality.

I follow with mixed amusement and compassion the ways anti-Church advocates—claiming “human rights”—manipulate mainstream and social media to advance their agenda. They start with looking oppressed—as though gays were the most tyrannized people on planet Earth. But are they, seriously? At least in the Philippines, they are far from oppressed—they are not only accepted, they are loved, adored, and some are even envied for their wealth and popularity. And their gifts and talents are not just acknowledged by the Church but are welcomed and utilized in its ministry. I have heard of gay boys being rejected by their fathers, but only in the movies. All the gay persons I know have no problem with acceptance.

The earliest memories I have of gays are those about the two men in charge of our town’s Flores de Mayo. “Dalawang bakla lang ang gumagawa ng lahat diyan,” my mother would admiringly inform us, referring to the two middle-aged unmarried men—with soft wrists and hard core devotion to the Virgin Mary—who would virtually bloom whenever Santacruzan time came around. They recruited sagalas, assigned Reinas their consortes, supervised the makeup, the flower arrangements, the carroza decoration—everything! It never occurred to me that they were different—maybe I was too naïve to notice, just as I was too innocent to appreciate the biggest role in the Santacruzan given to me—Ang Babaeng Samaritana.

No, I think the LGBT champions want more than mere acceptance—they want “gay rights” to be recognized as human rights. They want marriage (just like the straights), they want their own “family” of adopted kids, and in the process they try to “revolutionize” Church teaching in the name of human rights. What’s sad is they don’t seem to understand that by fighting for “gay rights” they are seeking affirmation based on mere sexuality. In a sense they are actually asking people to measure their worth by the yardstick of sexual preference, thereby wasting their own potential as human beings.

Claiming that the only natural love they know (and the act that accompanies it) is one for and with another person of the same gender, they argue that they have a right to find happiness in love. “Kasalanan ko bang ipinanganak akong isang sirena?” (Is it my fault that I was born a mermaid?), a lot of gay men I know have jokingly asked. Like any other person they look for someone to love, be loved by, and when they do, they have sex without babies (to put it bluntly). It’s sex to please oneself and the beloved. Pleasure blinds the indulgent, and this is where their problem worsens. They drop out of Church, or in any case stop listening to “God talk”—instead they choose listen to “the other side”, and from there it’s a slippery slope to perdition.

Somebody has to remind them of their “divine rights”, to convince them that they are—like everybody else, inside or outside the Catholic Church—children of a kind and loving God. As such we have a right to ask for strength from our Father in times of temptation. As His children we all are bound by love to listen to God’s voice, to seek His will in everything we do—and certainly, wasting sexual energy is not one of them.

“Who says you have to have sex with your boyfriend to express your love?” I tell this to my gay friends who seem to flit from one fling to another in search of happiness in love. (They keep getting brokenhearted anyway). “Happiness in love is not found in human love alone—perhaps, in ‘making you a sirena’ God wants to be your siyukoy (merman)! But if you keep complaining and marching in the streets for your gay rights, how can you hear the Father telling you He loves you?”

It is said that hope springs eternal in the human breast. And so my gay friends still hope that with such a dynamic pope as Francis at the helm, the ongoing synod of bishops will maybe allow same-sex marriage. “You see,” I tell them, “you’re just listening to the noise! The Church will continue to love you dearly but it will never bless your same-sex union and call it marriage.” And that’s the truth.

TIME News: What the Vatican Really Said About Homosexuality

TIME News - It's not the big shift people think it is

The Catholic world and the media were riled Monday by a Vatican document interpreted by many as signaling a softer church stance toward homosexuality, but the inclusive tone of the document is a long way from actual policy change.

At issue are three words most people have never heard of: Relatio post disceptationem. That’s the name of the document the Catholic Church’s Extraordinary Synod of the Bishops released Monday, one week into the Synod’s gathering to discuss the state of the family in the modern world. It translates, “Report After Debate,” and it was read aloud in the Synod hall to kick off the Synod’s second week. One of the report’s 58 sections—the one causing the biggest stir—is titled, “Welcoming homosexual persons.”

“Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community,” the passage begins. “Are we capable of welcoming these people, guaranteeing to them a fraternal space in our communities? Often they wish to encounter a Church that offers them a welcoming home. Are our communities capable of providing that, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?”

For a Church that has historically linked the word “homosexual” with the word “sin,” the idea of welcoming gays in any capacity can appear to be a significant move. Headlines immediately spoke of a “dramatic shift” and a “more tolerant” stance from the church.

But before rushing to conclusions, everyone, on all sides, should calm down.

First, here’s what the document actually is:

The relatio is a mid-Synod snapshot of 200+ Catholic leaders’ conversations that happened in the Synod hall last week. It is a starting point for conversations as the Synod fathers start small group discussions this week. It is a working text that identifies where bishops need to “deepen or clarify our understanding,” as Cardinal Luis Antonia Tagle put it in Monday’s press briefing. That means that the topic of gays and Catholic life came up in the Synod conversations so far and that it is a topic for continued reflection.

Second, here’s what the document is not:

The relatio is not a proscriptive text. It is not a decree. It is not doctrine, and certainly not a doctrinal shift. It is also not final. “These are not decisions that have been made nor simply points of view,” the document concludes. “The reflections put forward, the fruit of the Synodal dialogue that took place in great freedom and a spirit of reciprocal listening, are intended to raise questions and indicate perspectives that will have to be matured and made clearer by the reflection of the local Churches in the year that separates us from the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of bishops planned for October 2015.”