 |
| 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] |
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militant LGBT entities to repackage and resell their pet theories while judging the bishops and the Church as being “outdated” and woefully out of touch with reality.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.
