Pro abortion Blairs will also be there to receive the Eucharist when Pope Benedict is in England.
Concelebrating the Holy Mass will be Cardinal McCormac who permits sacrilege in its many forms and on many issues.
UPDATE ON THE SOHO MASSES
According to Catholic Action(U.K) Dossier on RCCLGCM/SMPC
I am often asked if these Masses are continuing and I am sorry to say they are – at five o'clock every first and third Sunday in the Church of our Lady and St Gregory in Warwick Street near Piccadilly. And, yes, a group of us still pray the Rosary outside in reparation for the objectively sacrilegious Communions being received by Catholics who are openly living homosexual lifestyles. In a recent interview with Justice , the ex-Carmelite priest who arranged these Masses, Martin Pendergast, boasted that our numbers were dropping. Well, it has been a very cold winter and Warwick Street is a draughty street, but if any of you can join us now the weather is better your support would be very welcome. I know that supporters who cannot reach London, including many good Sisters, do pray with us from a distance and I want them to know we appreciate that.
Mr Pendergast also said in this interview that he believes the Vatican “ is looking at this model as one which could be used potentially in other parts of the world .” This may sound ridiculous but as the Vatican have been kept informed about the Masses from the beginning and have taken no action to stop them, it is understandable. I wonder if he believes the Vatican will also allow heterosexual activity outside marriage or perhaps do away with sin altogether! Like the politicians say, he should ‘get real'.
Meanwhile we should all pray for these people who are not getting the guidance they deserve and also for the priests like Canon Pat Browne,(Dean), Fathers Seamus O'Boyle, P.P. John Creagh, MHM Timothy Radcliffe O.P., Dave Stewart S.J., Michael Kirwan S.J., Tim Curtis S.J., Philip Endean S.J., and Brendan Callaghan S.J. who never give them true Church teaching in their homilies and who not only offer Mass for them but give them Holy Communion, although they openly admit their situation. Archbishop Vincent Nichols, who allows these Masses to continue also needs our prayers, especially as he seems, against all the evidence, to be in denial. –The Flock, Newsletter of Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice
The Soho Masses Pastoral Council was founded by members of the Roman Catholic Caucus of the Lesbian Gay Christian Movement.
The Lesbian Gay Christian Movement also has caucuses for other denominations, and campaigns against traditional Christian morality; here, for example, they are trying to claim that genital sexuality outside marriage is not forbidden in the Bible. Among their links they include organisations which are part of the self-described gay sub-culture, which ceaselessly promote an immoral lifestyle, such as the Gay Times. In other words, there is no question of this group comprising Christians who happen to be gay; it comprises people committed to an immoral lifestyle who want to rewrite Christian morality to suit themselves. Their recent conference accused a variety of Christian leaders, including the Pope, of homophobia.
The new website of the RCCLGCM includes this on its homepage:
The LGCM Statement of Conviction
It is the conviction of members of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement that human sexuality in all its richness is a gift of God, gladly to be accepted, enjoyed and honoured as a way of both expressing and growing in love, in accordance with the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. Therefore it is their conviction that it is entirely compatible with the Christian faith not only to love another person of the same sex but also to express that love fully in a personal sexual relationship.
They RC Caucus was asked by Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor to remove 'Catholic' from its name, but declined to do so. Wanting to use an alternative vehicle to negotiate for permission for special Masses, Martin Pendergast set up the Soho Masses Pastoral Council; the people involved in the two organistations, however, are largely the same, and Pendergast remains a leading light in both the SMPC and the LGCM, recently condemning the stance of Catholic bishops on the Sexual Orientation Regulations at the LGCM conference. Pendergast, a former Carmelite priest, is also notorious for his 'civil partnership' with the former head of CAFOD, Julian Filochowski; Filochowski dedicated a collection of essays attacking Church teaching to him (see here).
The SMPC organised Masses in an Anglican church, St Anne's, for years, inviting sympathetic priests to celebrate Mass and preach. Although these Masses did not have the permission of the Archdiocese of Westminster, no action was ever taken against the priests involved. After many complaints, and the involvement of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Cardinal Levada, in Feb 2007 Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor gave the SMPC the use of a Catholic church, Our Lady of the Assumption, Warwick Street, suggesting he was mindful of complaints and was taking control of the situation. The same suggestion was made when he changed the parish priest. But although Anglican women ministers no longer preach, and bidding prayers for those who have recently contracted civil partnerships are no longer said (they are still to be seen here), the Masses are still used as a platform to undermine the teaching of the Church, in four ways.
First, only priests sympathetic to the SMPC agenda are invited to say Mass and preach. They never mention the Church's teaching on sexuality, but rather emphasise their sympathies with the SMPC.
Second, the fact that the SMPC 'organises' the Masses gives credibility, within the Church, to them as an organisation, to their leaders, and to their wider views.
Third, their bookstall at the back of the Church and their Newsletter, handed out with the hymnbooks, contradict the teaching of the Church.
Fourth, they promote events and organisations of the gay subculture which promote an immoral lifesyle, such as the LondonPride march (see picture above), of which the RCCLGCM and SMPC were both official participants (for another example see here). Their joint stall at the march, manned by Martin Pendergast, was also the stall of a third dissenting 'gay Catholic' group, 'Catholics for AIDS Prevention and Support'. Pendergast helped write an article attacking Church teaching on condoms in his capacity of Sectretary to Catholics for AIDS Prevention and Support', here. (For the 2008 event, see here.)
The Church's condemnation of sex outside marriage does not need to spelt out (though see here). Two important documents on specific issues are these:
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 'The Pastoral Care of the Homosexual Person', 1986: (See here for the full text.) 17: 'All support should be withdrawn from any organisations which seek to undermine the teaching of the Church, which are ambiguous about it, or which neglect it entirely.'
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's 2003 document, Considerations regarding proposals to give legal recognition to unions betwen homosexual persons.
The wider picture is that these Masses are an encourgement to bishops around the country and beyond to hand over the 'pastoral care' of homosexual Catholics to people who reject the teaching of the Church most relevant to that care. The groups genuinely trying to help homosexual Catholics live according to the teaching of the Church, such as the Encourage Trust, are sidelined and ignored.
"In those situations where homosexual unions have been legally recognized or have been given the legal status and rights belonging to marriage, clear and emphatic opposition is a duty. One must refrain from any kind of formal cooperation in the enactment or application of such gravely unjust laws and, as far as possible, from material cooperation on the level of their application. In this area, everyone can exercise the right to conscientious objection. (n.5)"
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The Soho Pastoral Council of the Archdiocese of Westminister states:
Soho Masses
The Soho Masses Pastoral Council welcomes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered Catholics, their parents, families and friends to Masses at 5.00 pm, on the 1st & 3rd Sundays of every month, at the Church of the Assumption & St Gregory, Warwick Street, London
No foreigner adhering to Yahweh should say, 'Yahweh will utterly exclude me from his people.' No eunuch should say, 'Look, I am a dried up tree.' For Yahweh says this: 'To the eunuchs who observe my Sabbaths, and choose to do my good pleasure and cling to my covenant, I shall give them in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I shall give them an everlasting name that will never be effaced. As for foreigners who adhere to Yahweh to serve him, to love Yahweh's name and become his servants, all who observe the Sabbath, not profaning it, and cling to my covenant: these I shall lead to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.Isaiah 56, 3-7
Everyone has a place in the church, every person without exception should be able to feel at home and never rejected-Benedict XVIMasses, at which LGBT Catholics are particularly welcomed, are held at 5.00 pm, on the 1st & 3rd Sundays of each month, at one of Soho's most historic Catholic parish churches: The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption & St. Gregory, Warwick Street, London W1B 5NB, close to Piccadilly Circus. The church dates from the 18th century and was used as a chapel by the Portuguese and Bavarian embassies, built during a period when public Catholic worship was still outlawed.It appears that the Christmas carol 'O Come All Ye Faithful' may well have received its first public performance in the Church when it was the Portuguese Embassy chapel in 1795.
See: http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Notes_On_Carols/adeste_fideles.htm
Westminster Diocese issued this statement on 18 December 2007:
Our Lady of the Assumption and St. Gregory
In recent years a number of homosexual Catholics, together with their parents, families and friends, have expressed their desire for pastoral care from the Diocese of Westminster. SinceMarch 2007, this has been provided by the parish of Our Lady of the Assumption and St. Gregory in Warwick Street, in the heart of Soho.
Recently there has been a review of the provision that has been provided and, as a result, Mgr. Seamus O’Boyle has been appointed Parish Priest. He will be responsible for ensuringthat all pastoral provision is given with due catechesis and formation according to the mind of the Church. The parish will continue to be sensitive to the pastoral needs of homosexual Catholics.
Our Lady of the Assumption and St. Gregory parish provides a welcome to all and every Mass celebrated at the Church has always, and will continue to be open to all.
The Archbishops - Sensitivity and Deepened Understanding
From Archbishop Vincent Nichols’ Homily at the 10th Anniversary Mass of Cardinal Hume’s death, 17 June 2009:
"He was resolved, for example, that those of a homosexual orientation should not feel alienated from the Church by an insensitive or incomplete presentation of the Church’s sexual moral teaching. He insisted that we heed the Church’s teaching thatpeople are not to be defined by their sexuality, a teaching much overlooked today. Hegave fresh emphasis to a forgotten esteem for the love of genuine friendship. In facing these and other moral dilemmas he sought to uphold the greater good while never belittling our best efforts and strivings. He was a compassionate teacher, never forgetful of his own weaknesses and therefore always sensitive to the vulnerability of others. He had taken to heart the words of
St Paul which we have just heard: ‘the human race has nothing to boast about to God’ other than the grace of God at work in us. Since this comes about through Christ, he, therefore, is ‘our wisdom, and our virtue, and our holiness and our freedom.’ (1 Cor 1.29-30). We thank God for such an inspired teacher."
Cardinal Hume’s 1997 A Note on the Teaching of the Catholic Church on Homosexuality may be found under the Parents’ Issues Section (Statements & Publications by the Catholic Bishops Conference of England & Wales) on this website
Archbishop-elect of Birmingham Bernard Longley on the BBC Sunday Programme, 4 October 2009:
Roger Bolton (Interviewer): ……You were also instrumental in setting up, or helping to be set up, services at which lesbians and homosexuals were welcome. Do you think the Church should show, needs to show, more compassion to those minority groups?
Archbishop-elect Longley: …… Our understanding of human nature is naturally something which has deepened as scientific understanding of the human person has developed …
RB: And on the question of sexual minorities, that whereas you’re very clear that the sexual practice of homosexuals and lesbians is wrong, do you adopt the same approach that our growing understanding about the nature of human sexuality means that we have to show more compassion, the Church needs to show more compassion and understanding?
BL: I think whenever it is demonstrated that there is a deeper understanding or a different understanding of those things which pertain to human nature, the Church has always looked very carefully, discerned the truth within such deepening understanding, and tried to respond accordingly. There was concern within our own Diocese that perhaps we were not offering the kind of outreach and support, and indeed clear teaching, towards Catholics who were homosexual, within Central London.
RB: What, they felt excluded?
BL: There had been organised for some years a celebration of Mass, which was in fact in an Anglican church, and the group had enjoyed the hospitality of a local Anglican parish, and I think they were very grateful to the pastors there for that, but the perception could very easily have been that they were welcome there, in that particular church, but in none of ours, and so, (RB: And not in their own Church?) the churches in the West End of London have worked very carefully together on this. Cardinal Cormac, Archbishop Vincent’s predecessor, asked me to be involved, to work together with the group who were organizing the Mass, and to see whether there couldn’t be a way in which they were fully at home and welcomed, without ourselves in any way changing Church teaching, and happily, through discussion, we were able to come to a point where they are part of an ordinary parish community.
LOOKING AHEAD
Towards a more inclusive Catholic community – considerations for ways forward in pastoral planning at The Church of Our Lady of the Assumption & St. Gregory, Warwick Street, Soho.
The Archdiocese of Westminister permits the Soho Mass.
(Archbishop's House, Ambrosden Avenue,Westminster, London,SW1P 1QJ, England,Phone: (44-020) 7798-9033 Fax: 7798-9077 Abhreception@rcdow.org.uk ).
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