JUNE 10, 2017
Homosexuality at the altar and sacrilegious Holy Communions in the Church in Malta
Sacrilegious: Pro-gay group in Malta archdiocese uses rainbow flag as altar cloth
By Pete Baklinski, Malta, June 5, 2017
A homosexual group that campaigns for the Catholic Church to accept homosexual “marriage,” sodomy, and adoption of children by same-sex couples has been given a free pass to operate unofficially in the Catholic Archdiocese of Malta run by Archbishop Charles Scicluna.
Drachma LGBTI, which labels itself “Catholic,” has been allowed to meet in Maltese Catholic parishes, retreat centers, and in the Catholic chapel of the country’s only university.
While the group has no official status within the archdiocese, this has not stopped Archbishop Scicluna from going out of his way to lend support to the group and its activities.
In 2014, the Archbishop presided at a Eucharistic celebration put on by the group aimed at ending “homophobia.”
Stated the group about the event at that time: “The Drachma Community hopes that this celebration can serve as a clear message against all forms of homophobia and transphobia in our society. This celebration also demonstrates that it is possible for LGBTI persons to fully integrate their sexuality with their spirituality.”
Last year, the Archdiocese hosted on its own website a report with photos of Drachma LGBTI presenting Scicluna with the group’s newly published pro-homosexual book titled “Our Children.” The Archbishop called the book a “tool to help parents of LGBTI children.”
Drachma LGBTI uses social media to promote its meetings in sacred Catholic spaces.
Last month, the group posted a photo on its Facebook page of a prayer event in a Catholic chapel to end “homophobia.” The photo showed a Catholic altar bedecked with vigil candles and a statue of the Virgin Mary. The front of the altar was draped in a rainbow “gay pride” flag.
Drachma LGBTI Coordinator Christopher Vella defended the group’s dissenting views on Catholic sexual morality in a February 2016 interview with One News Malta.
“I believe that my sexuality as a homosexual person, bisexual, and all the other sexualities that you can mention, are all normal and natural. That is, if my nature is homosexual, if my nature is bisexual, if my nature is transsexual, that is my nature and in that way I can love,” he said.
“I have my nature as a homosexual man, I must love in that way, and I can only, to put it like that, live love in a complete way when I live my love, my bisexual, homosexual love, in that way,” he added.
Asked how homosexual Catholics belonging to the group can remain loyal to the moral teachings of the Church, Vella responded that active homosexuals have a “responsibility” to “dialogue” with the Church to help her “slowly slowly” find “balance” in her moral teachings.
“That’s where, in your decisions, you choose to love a person with all your love. So it’s not sex alone, but sex together with relationship. And the two together, yes, can be a gift of God for you, and that you give, in a beautiful way, to others. I say that even a relationship between two men or two women can be a beautiful relationship, and even spiritual, holy, even the relationship between two men in their sexual intimacy,” he said.
“If you consider sexuality as a gift of God, therefore you cannot consider sexuality to be an obstacle to being a person of faith. The solution is that you find, in an adequate way, in a good way, how you integrate these two realities together. After all, if we are God’s children, and sexuality is a gift, let’s live it in a beautiful way,” he added.
LifeSiteNews asked Scicluna if his Archdiocese has a support group for Catholics with same-sex attraction that faithfully adheres to Catholic teaching, but did not receive a response.
The Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts, as well as same-sex orientation, can never be accepted as if it were part of God’s plan for human sexuality.
The Catechism calls homosexual acts “intrinsically disordered” since they are “contrary to the natural law” and they “close the sexual act to the gift of life.” Likewise, same-sex attraction is also called “objectively disordered” since God created sexual attraction to be between a male and female for the sake of procreation.
The Church stated in a 1986 letter to bishops regarding pastoral care for homosexuals that the same-sex inclination is a “more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.”
“[S]pecial concern and pastoral attention should be directed toward those who have this condition, lest they be led to believe that the living out of this orientation in homosexual activity is a morally acceptable option. It is not,” the letter stated.
In 2003, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reaffirmed the homosexual inclination as “objectively disordered” and called homosexual practices “sins gravely contrary to chastity.”
“The Church teaches that respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behavior or to legal recognition of homosexual unions,” the document stated.
The Catholic Church in Malta under Scicluna’s leadership has strayed from authentic Catholic teaching in other areas besides sexual morality. Earlier this year, the bishops allowed civilly-divorced-and-remarried Catholics living in adultery to receive Holy Communion and has forced seminarians to comply with the Communion guidelines.
Last month, Scicluna along with Bishop Mario Grech of Gozo attacked a group of faithful Catholics in Malta after it published a full page ad in a widely read paper defending real marriage against “unnatural” homosexual “marriage” in the lead-up to the country’s June 3 general election. The bishops criticized the ad as “propaganda” and stated that they had “nothing to do” with the group.
1 of 50 readers’ comments
Matthew 24:15-16: “So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel—let the reader understand—then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.”
Already, in “Catholic” Malta, because of Pope Francis’ disastrous Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, the bishops have permitted the divorced and civilly remarried (and expectedly living therefore in adulterous relationships) to receive Holy Communion.
Malta’s bishops allow civilly remarried divorcees to receive Communion
By Lisa Bourne, Malta, January 13, 2017
Update: In a move taken as a sign of approval, the Vatican’s semi-official newspaper published the Maltese bishops’ guidelines Friday morning in its print and online versions.
The bishops of Malta have given the green light to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics in their dioceses to receive Communion if they are “at peace with God.”
The bishops say it might be “humanly impossible” to follow Church teaching and live chastely while civilly remarried, a requirement for receiving the Eucharist in this situation.
The affirmation comes from the Bishops’ new document “Criteria for the Application of Chapter VIII of Amoris Laetitia,” in which they say their guidelines are “in line with the directions given by Pope Francis.”
Catholics are still awaiting a response from Pope Francis on the dubia submitted in November by four cardinals seeking clarification on ambiguous parts of Amoris Laetitia (AL) concerning marriage and reception of the Eucharist.
The Maltese bishops stated in their document:
If, as a result of the process of discernment, undertaken with “humility, discretion and love for the Church and her teaching, in a sincere search for God’s will and a desire to make a more perfect response to it” (AL 300), a separated or divorced person who is living in a new relationship manages, with an informed and enlightened conscience, to acknowledge and believe that he or she are at peace with God, he or she cannot be precluded from participating in the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist (see AL, notes 336 and 351).
Regarding conjugal continence – abstinence from relations when in a civil or other irregular marital union –the bishops say that some couples may be able to do this, but, “On the other hand, there are complex situations where the choice of living “as brothers and sisters” becomes humanly impossible and give rise to greater harm (see AL, note 329).”
Pope Saint John Paul II and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI both taught that Catholics receiving the Eucharist while living in non-matrimonial unions must abstain from sexual relations and live chastely. Asserting the impossibility of this precept conflicts directly with the previous pontiffs’ established teaching.
The Maltese Bishops say the new guidelines are “aimed at accompanying people to an awareness of their life situation in the light of Jesus,” according to the Bishops’ website, a message also “relevant to the couples and families who find themselves in complex situations.”
Those who advocate allowing the divorced and remarried to receive Communion frequently used the term “accompaniment” during the Ordinary Synod on the Family.
Pope Francis’ exhortation has created division since before its release last April because its ambiguity in several sections allows bishops in various areas of the world the leeway to interpret the document differently.
This has resulted in some bishops’ conferences acting to allow Holy Communion for Catholics living in objective sin, while others have persisted in upholding Church teaching.
The confusion and damage of conflicting pastoral practice and resulting risk to Catholics’ salvation compelled Cardinals Raymond Burke, Walter Brandmüller, Carlo Caffarra and Joachim Meisner to submit the dubia to Pope Francis for clarification on Amoris Laetitia.
The Malta Bishops cite AL heavily throughout their document, including passages that are the subject of the dubia submitted by the four cardinals.
“By thinking that everything is black and white, we sometimes close off the way of grace and of growth, and discourage paths of sanctification which give glory to God,” (AL 305) they state in one instance.
To justify the new policy, the Maltese bishops refer to the Three Kings fleeing Herod after seeing the infant Jesus in the stable.
“Akin to the Magi, who took a different route (original emphasis) back home after meeting Jesus (see Mt 2, 12), these persons – at times after a strenuous and difficult journey – are able to meet Christ who offers them a future even when it is impossible for them to follow the same route as before,” the bishops stated. “Through accompaniment and honest discernment, God is able to open up new routes for these persons, even if their previous journey may have been one of “darkness”, marked with past mistakes or sad experiences of betrayal and abandonment.”
In one U.S. diocese’s interpretation of AL, the judgment of whether a divorced and remarried person should receive the Eucharist depends upon each individual’s own sense of God’s call.
The Diocese of San Diego, headed by Bishop Robert McElroy, stated in a document in November, “Many Catholics engaging in this process of discernment will conclude that God is calling them to return to full participation in the life of the Church and the Eucharist.”
Cardinal Burke told The Remnant in an interview last month that he agreed with Ross Douthat of The New York Times in that if this interpretation of Pope Francis’ document becomes universal, “then the Church’s teaching on marriage is finished.”
The Archdiocese of Malta and the Diocese of Gozo have directed their parishes to read a letter this Sunday at Mass explaining the new guidelines on interpreting Amoris Laetitia.
1 of 115 readers’ comments
This has to be said: This is Pope Francis’ fault.
Out of the many critical articles available on the Net, I choose to include just this one more.
The Maltese disaster
https://canonlawblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/13/the-maltese-disaster/
By Dr. Edward Peters, Canon Layer, January 13, 2017
The bishops of Malta, in a document that can only be called disastrous, repeatedly invoking Pope Francis’ Amoris laetitia, have directly approved divorced and remarried Catholics taking holy Communion provided they feel “at peace with God”. Unlike, say, the Argentine document on Amoris which, one could argue, left just enough room for an orthodox reading, however widely it also left the doors open for abuse by others, the Maltese bishops in their document come straight out and say it: holy Communion is for any Catholic who feels “at peace with God” and the Church’s ministers may not say No to such requests. In my view the Maltese bishops have effectively invited the Catholics entrusted to them (lay faithful and clergy alike!) to commit a number of objectively gravely evil acts. That their document was, moreover, published in L’Osservatore Romano, exacerbates matters for it deprives Vatican representatives of the ‘plausible deniability’ that they could have claimed (and might soon enough wish they could claim), as it becomes known that the Maltese bishops went beyond what even Amoris, if interpreted narrowly, seemed to permit.
For now, I make just a few points.
1. The Maltese bishops have fallen completely for the canonically and ecclesiologically false view that an individual’s assessment of his or her own readiness to receive holy Communion (see c. 916) controls a minister’s decision to administer the sacrament (see c. 915). In Malta now, anyone who approaches for the sacraments should be recognized as being “at peace with God”. Objective evidence to the contrary is simply no longer relevant. Canon 916 is thus eviscerated, Canon 915 is effectively repudiated.
2. The Maltese bishops do not seem to know what the word “conjugal” means. They think that non-married people can practice “conjugal” virtues and that they can decide about whether to engage in “conjugal” acts. Nonsense and, coming from bishops, inexcusable nonsense at that. Non-married people can have sex, of course, but Catholic pastoral integrity does not hold such sexual acts on par with the physically identical, but truly conjugal, acts as performed by married persons.
3. The Maltese bishops, by extending their document to the sacrament of Reconciliation, have basically instructed their priests not to withhold absolution from divorced-and-remarried Catholics who refuse to repent of their “public and permanent adultery” (CCC 2384) even to the point of abstaining from sexual (NB: sexual not “conjugal”) relations. Incredibly, such a directive raises the specter of green-lighting sacrilegious confessions and the commission of solicitation in confession. No priest should want either on his conscience, let alone both.
4. The Maltese bishops even managed to take swipes at Baptism and Confirmation by opening the door to divorced-and-remarried Catholics serving as godparents contrary to the expectations of Canon 874 § 1, 3º. See CLSA New Comm (2001) 1062-1063.
There are other serious problems with the Maltese document but the above should suffice to show why it is, quite simply, a disaster.
SOME RELATED FILES
LETTER TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ON THE PASTORAL CARE OF HOMOSEXUAL PERSONS CDF
OCTOBER 1, 1986
CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING PROPOSALS TO GIVE LEGAL RECOGNITION TO UNIONS BETWEEN HOMOSEXUAL PERSONS
CDF
JUNE 3, 2003
INSTRUCTION CONCERNING THE CRITERIA FOR THE DISCERNMENT OF VOCATIONS WITH REGARD TO PERSONS WITH HOMOSEXUAL TENDENCIES BENEDICT XVI NOVEMBER 4, 2005
MARRIAGE AND HOMOSEXUAL UNIONS DOCTRINAL NOTE
CARDINAL CAFFARRA
FEBRUARY 14, 2010
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/MARRIAGE_AND_HOMOSEXUAL_UNIONS_DOCTRINAL_NOTE.doc
AS A LOVING MOTHER
POPE FRANCIS’ MOTU PROPRIO JUNE 4, 2016
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/AS_A_LOVING_MOTHER.doc
POPE FRANCIS AUTHORISES REMOVAL OF BISHOPS NEGLIGENT ON SEXUAL ABUSE
QUO VADIS PAPA FRANCISCO 03-HOMOSEXUALITY THE SEX ABUSE CRISIS AND THE GAY LOBBY
28
QUO VADIS PAPA FRANCISCO 53-POLICE BUST DRUG AND GAY-SEX ORGY IN VATICAN APARTMENT
THE DESTRUCTION OF CARDINAL PELL-THE INSIDE STORY
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/THE_DESTRUCTION_OF_CARDINAL_PELL-THE_INSIDE_STORY.doc
POPE PAUL VI HOMOSEXUAL AND FREEMASON
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/POPE_PAUL_VI_HOMOSEXUAL_AND_FREEMASON.doc
WHY WAS THE BEATIFICATION CAUSE OF POPE PAUL VI SUSPENDED?-FR LUIGI VILLA
CARDINAL OSWALD GRACIAS INTERPRETS POPE FRANCIS PERSONAL REMARK ON HOMOSEXUALS AS CHURCH TEACHING
CARDINAL OSWALD GRACIAS CHAMPIONS LGBT CAUSE AT HOME
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/CARDINAL_OSWALD_GRACIAS_CHAMPIONS_LGBT_CAUSE_AT_HOME.doc
CARDINAL OSWALD GRACIAS CHAMPIONS LGBT CAUSE AT THE SYNOD ON THE FAMILY
COVER-UP OF ACTIVE HOMOSEXUAL PRIESTS IN THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BOMBAY
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/COVER-UP_OF_ACTIVE_HOMOSEXUAL_PRIESTS_IN_THE_ARCHDIOCESE_OF_BOMBAY.doc
YET ANOTHER PRIEST ARRESTED FOR SODOMY
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/YET_ANOTHER_PRIEST_ARRESTED_FOR_SODOMY.doc
A THIRD PRIEST ARRESTED FOR SODOMY ON CARDINAL OSWALD GRACIAS WATCH
GAY SEMINARIANS-TOO MANY HOMOSEXUALIST BISHOPS DON’T CARE
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/GAY_SEMINARIANS-TOO_MANY_HOMOSEXUALIST_BISHOPS_DONT_CARE.doc
ON HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE PEDOPHILIA ISSUE
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/ON_HOMOSEXUALITY_AND_THE_PEDOPHILIA_ISSUE.doc
MOST HOLY REDEEMER A GAY CATHOLIC PARISH-RANDY ENGEL
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/MOST_HOLY_REDEEMER_A_GAY_CATHOLIC_PARISH-RANDY_ENGEL.doc
ASHLEY TELLIS-HOMOSEXUAL LEADING GAY-RIGHTS ACTIVIST
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/ASHLEY_TELLIS-HOMOSEXUAL_LEADING_GAY-RIGHTS_ACTIVIST.doc
BABADOOK-THE DEMONIC ICON OF GAY PRIDE
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/BABADOOK-THE_DEMONIC_ICON_OF_GAY_PRIDE.doc
HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH-THE RITE OF SODOMY-RANDY ENGEL
AMORIS LAETITIA AND THE GAY MAFIA IN THE VATICAN 01
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/AMORIS_LAETITIA_AND_THE_GAY_MAFIA_IN_THE_VATICAN_01.doc
HOMOSEXUALITY INSIDE THE VATICAN
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/HOMOSEXUALITY_INSIDE_THE_VATICAN.doc
PROGRESSIVE CLERGY INTEND TO NORMALIZE THE SIN OF SODOMY
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/PROGRESSIVE_CLERGY_INTEND_TO_NORMALIZE_THE_SIN_OF_SODOMY.doc
UNDER POPE FRANCIS HOMOSEXUALISTS ARE NOW IN CONTROL OF THE VATICAN
DOMINIC DIXON CONVICTED IN USA DEPORTED FROM CANADA FOR SEXUAL MOLESTATION OF BOY
DOMINIC DIXON CONVICTED IN USA DEPORTED FROM CANADA FOR SEXUAL MOLESTATION OF BOY 02
CONVICTED PEDOPHILE DOMINIC DIXON TRIES TO SILENCE THIS MINISTRYS EXPOSES OF HIM http://ephesians-511.net/docs/CONVICTED_PEDOPHILE_DOMINIC_DIXON_TRIES_TO_SILENCE_THIS_MINISTRYS_EXPOSES_OF_HIM.doc
CONVICTED PEDOPHILE DOMINIC DIXON TRIES TO SILENCE THIS MINISTRYS EXPOSES OF HIM 02 http://ephesians-511.net/docs/CONVICTED_PEDOPHILE_DOMINIC_DIXON_TRIES_TO_SILENCE_THIS_MINISTRYS_EXPOSES_OF_HIM_02.doc
TESTIMONY OF A FORMER HOMOSEXUAL-01 RICHARD G. EVANS, REVERT [ASSEMBLIES OF GOD PASTOR]
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/TESTIMONY_OF_A_FORMER_HOMOSEXUAL-01.doc
TESTIMONY OF A FORMER HOMOSEXUAL-02 DAVID MORRISON
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/TESTIMONY_OF_A_FORMER_HOMOSEXUAL-02.doc
TESTIMONY OF A FORMER HOMOSEXUAL-03 ERIC HESS
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/TESTIMONY_OF_A_FORMER_HOMOSEXUAL-03.doc
TESTIMONY OF A FORMER HOMOSEXUAL-04 MICHAEL VORIS
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/TESTIMONY_OF_A_FORMER_HOMOSEXUAL-04.doc
TESTIMONY OF A FORMER HOMOSEXUAL-05 DEAN BAILEY
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/TESTIMONY_OF_A_FORMER_HOMOSEXUAL-05.doc
TESTIMONY OF A FORMER HOMOSEXUAL-06 DANIEL MATTSON
http://ephesians-511.net/docs/TESTIMONY_OF_A_FORMER_HOMOSEXUAL-06.doc
Categories: Liturgical Abuses
Related Articles
-
FRANCIS WON’T ABOLISH ‘HINDU RITE’ EUCHARIST
-
THE SPIRITUAL DECEPTIONS OF THE NEW AGE MOVEMENT AND WHAT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HAS PRONOUNCED ON THEM
-
Pope Francis’ New Age Holistic Health Conference on “Exploring the Mind, Body and Soul”
-
Cardinal Oswald Gracias’ ban on Aneel Aranha and Holy Spirit Interactive ministry precedes that of Bishop Paul Hinder of the Vicariate of Southern Arabia
EPHESIANS-511.NET- A Roman Catholic Ministry Exposing Errors in the Indian Church 
Leave a Reply