On the same day next week that Gov. Pat Quinn signs the same sex marriage bill in Chicago, Springfield Illinois Bishop Thomas Paprocki will offer "Prayers of Supplication and Exorcism in Reparation for the Sin of Same-Sex Marriage."
Catholic Governor of Illinois plans to sign into law same-sex marriage, then hears the news about damaging tornadoes across Illinois after probably attending Sunday mass to hear this reading from Sunday's November 17, 2013 Gospel of Saint Luke:
When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for such things must happen first,but it will not immediately be the end." Then he said to them,"Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be powerful earthquakes, famines, and plagues from place to place; and awesome sights and mighty signs will come from the sky.
"Before all this happens, however,they will seize and persecute you,they will hand you over to the synagogues and to prisons, and they will have you led before kings and governors because of my name.
Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 159
. . . and from CNS News:
“We must pray for deliverance from this evil which has penetrated our state and our church,” the bishop, who testified against the measure before the state legislature in January, declared in a statement.
Quinn, a Catholic, has announced he will sign the bill. “Marriage equality is coming to Illinois. I look forward to signing this landmark legislation on November 20 and celebrating a big step forward with the people of Illinois,” the governor said.
Let us now join Bishop of Springfield, Thomas Paproki in his prayers for deliverance from this evil and that the words of Sunday's Gospel and today's events may compel Catholic Governor Quinn to have a change of heart and choose to love God more than the zeitgeist.
excellent point.
ReplyDeleteI was unable to capture the comment made about how our salvation depends on how we are to treat one another, if I recall this correctly. I reply that yes, it is true, the Greatest Commandment is Love. God defines love and God desires it returned to Him and to one another. Because God is the Author of Love, then Love must be on His terms, not man's.
ReplyDeleteMan didn't create the sacred institution of traditional marriage, God did. Marriage was created by God and marriage is more than just about love. We know this because of what God has spoken to us through his representatives on earth. Like God chose Moses to represent Him in setting the Israelites free from the slavery bondage of Egypt's Pharoah, God speaks to us through the Church He has entrusted to His representatives in our midst. Pope Francis will not reverse what the Catholic Church teaches on homosexuality because he is God's representative, and God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The Church has never taught inequality and God never desires inequality, therefore what the Church defines as marriage is, in God's eyes, not man's, equal and fair.
Was able to retrieve the Anonymous comment and present it here:
ReplyDeleteAnonymous has left a new comment on your post "Illinois Tornado, Wednesday's Planned Same-Sex Mar...":
I have lived in Illinois for 34 years, my parents for 43 years, and I am an outspoken supporter of marriage equality for everyone, of a woman’s right to choose, and of the right for people to not believe in any God/s/ess or practice any religion as well as the right for people to believe and to practice the religion of their choice. I write many letters to the editor of my local paper and several essays for the www:religioustolerance.org website.
For you see it isn’t what religion a person follows or whether a person follows any religion what matters the most in this Life and for our salvation are our day to day actions, how we treat our fellow man all of them, especially those that are different from us whether because of their race or ethnicity or country of origin, their gender or sexual orientation, their beliefs or non-beliefs, their wealth or social status or educational level, AND about how we treat our planet it is the only one we have got.
In all my years here storms have gone around me, a tornado hit four miles north a few years ago, another 200 yards south, this last storm the town of Gifford that was hit so hard is a bit over an hour north of me. God has had plenty of opportunities to harm me IF he chose to do so.
What message is to be taken from this? Is there no God? Or does “God” support what I have to say and is keeping me safe so that I can continue to speak for the rights of everyone to be treated honorably and justly?
In reply to Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteLet's get to the crux of the issue. You are assuming that equality, fairness and human rights are defined by mob rule or a decision of a magistrate. However, we know that God and God alone magistrates what is equal and fair.
I am also gleaning that you believe religious practitioners should be isolated into a box while the judges, governors, magistrates, and rulers dictate to us how we should live regardless of how it violates our convictions or how it violates even the natural law of God that most people, religious and nonreligious acknowledge as true, equal, and fair.
Rape, pederasty, pornography, slavery, and murder, etc. all wrong, but according to who? We know these things are evil because we are taught so and because these things are repulsive to the core of every human being. Take pornography - there are apparent victims, but there truly are victims who fall for pornography, both those who waste their energies, time, and interests in something vile, including child pornography. We also know that an adult father and adult daughter, like the two examples we have today in Australia and Germany, expecting their consentual sexual relationship to be accepted by society. We know in our core and in the teachings of the Church that such relationships are evil and are misguided. Incest is inherently wrong even if the two claim to be consenting adults "in complete love" with each other. The same is true with homosexuality. The couples may claim to be in love, but love alone doesn't justify any act, like incestual love doesn't justify a father having sex with his daughter. There is a line to draw and many homosexual activists even acknowledge that incest is evil - there are indeed lines to be drawn and they should be drawn before they reach the stage of approving same sex marriage.