To Be Catholic or Not To be Catholic - by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz

Revised October 7, 2009

I was asked a very important question today about remaining Catholic or not. Below is my reply.

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Hi Joe,

Delighted to hear from you. God love you for contacting me. I hope you are happy and are in love, as I think you are. It is a blessing from God.

You present a most important question, one that should not be taken likely. It is such a basic question I will post my reply on the Thalamus Center though not your request or name, I will use Joe. You have helped me to formalize something wonderful about Marriage Equality in my mind, for which I thank you.

I certainly understand your feelings wholeheartedly, believe me. With all due repsect, I guess that is why I am staying in because this present state of Benedict XVI and the hierarchy is NOT Catholic. It is quite the opposite. It is evident they have neglected to do a thorough study of human sexuality and have based their pronouncements on ignorance and fear.

We should be teaching people how to love and not teaching them how to stop loving human beings. MSK

I would not advise you to go anywhere where you are being mistreated. Life is tough enough without having to put up with harmful abuse where you go to pray and to be renewed. I think try to hear Jesus words when he said to come away for awhile with me and you will find rest. Wherever that peace is found for you is where you may want to be. It is not healthy spiritually or psychologically to subject ourselves to unnecessary harm and abuse. With all due respect, the Vatican, Benedict XVI and the hierarchy have indeed been harmful and abusive, this definitely is not from God. God is love – not abuse and harm.

Marriage Equality

I think Marriage Equality is bringing the LGBT population to a healthy state mind and well-being, where it belongs. I think in truth and soon more significantly by research we are going to find that the general population is more LGBT as a whole, than not. I say this from being a bartender, priest, pastor, psychologist and now an activist of the LGBTI people. My life has always been surrounded by a diversity of people, still there are so many people yet to get to know, and so much I do not know. As researchers are showing us more and more that gender identity, sexual orientation, etc. are on continuums. This means that nearly everyone is a mixture of LGBT components to some degree. And the harsh ignorant antiLGBTI social and religious norms just keeps us separated from one another because of what we cannot accept in our themselves. When we have educated the world population about the truths of the complexities that make up human sexuality that each person is a unique mixture of components of LGBT including Intersex, we will then fine peace among the diversity of people and a lot of happiness. It will increase our human potential in the world by leaps and bounds, finding cures of all kinds of diseases and much more. It has that unshakeable feel of the powerful words of Martin Luther King, Jr. "I have a dream" speech. video 7,627,869

Human beings are meant to be one with each other - that is the way God made it to be. Martin Luther King, Jr, his words are universal and they remain true for us all today and will remain so throughout the ages to come and that is what Catholic means - no segregation but being one together. I think that we should listen to his profound words, they are tried and true, a blueprint on how to become one.

Love Remains Constant

And even though we are a mixture of LGBTI components love remains constant. The principles of love never change. So when two people decide to get marry and they are individually well aware of their unique mixture of LGBTI components then marriage will take on its’ true meaning. Then when pledging our love to one person we will be aware that this means that we will not leave our beloved for anyone else in the world. For example, if we are fully aware and accepting that we have a bisexual orientation, then when we pledge our love to one person, we realize it is to that one particular person we will love and never leave, no matter how may other people we maybe attracted to, men or women. If you think about it that means we pledge our love to one person among everyone else in the world. A pretty powerful commitment, would you not say?

Opponents to Marriage Equality

Because the opponents to Marriage Equality never base their objections on any well founded facts, but only resort to name calling and fear tactics makes me believe that they have a mixture of LGBTI components in themselves that they have dissociated from, likely since early childhood. Again, the truth will set us free not ignorance and fear. Formally studying the facts about human sexuality at almost a graduate level will be most beneficial for them and for us all.

So, maybe do not resign from the Catholic Church, because in truth what you are resigning from is that which is not Catholic in the first place. You may be in exile for awhile but God will be with you both and you will fine rest and be refresh. Then maybe at some other time you will be able to speak about what changes need to be change in the governing of the Catholic Church. You will have a clear example how it can work better and be more in tune with Christ.

I find from the other Christian denominations that a diversity involved in their governing is truly more to the way Christ wants us to be. Catholic means universal not just an extremely very small group of celibate men governing with absolute no input from anyone else. They have proven that they are unable to protect children. Kid are being hurt!!! That does not sound like Christ, does it? Everyone has to have a voice in the Catholic Church for it to remain Catholic, this means all our Christian sisters and brothers as well as, non-Christians. We are meant to be one, many though we are. It sounds a bit like the Holy Trinity.

I hope this helps some. You asked a very important question more input is still needed.

With all best wishes,

Marty

Written by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz

Important note: I mean no disrespect to Pope Benedict XVI or the hierarchy, the one and only concern is the safety and well-being of children.

Kids are being hurt!!!

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

I Have a Dream - Address at the March on Washington

August 28, 1963. Washington, D.C.

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. [Applause]

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity.

But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual,

"Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream Speech

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Maine Bishop Fights Marriage Equality - By Julie Bolcer - Advocate.com & Bangor Daily News

The Bishop of Portland recorded a special message that was played in at least one church on Sunday to help raise funds for the campaign against marriage equality. Photo

The Roman Catholic Church in Maine continued to collect donations for the campaign against marriage equality over the weekend, aided by a recorded message from the Bishop of Portland that played during a Sunday service at least one church…

“Same-sex marriage is a dangerous sociological experiment that many of us believe will have negative consequences for society as a whole,” said Malone in the message, according to the Bangor Daily News. “Children need the love of a mother and a father.”
 Read more – Advocate.com

Comment by Fr. Marty Kurylowicz

“Same-sex marriage is a dangerous sociological experimentthat many of us believe will have negative consequences for society as a whole,” he said. “Children need the love of a mother and a father.”Bangor Daily News

This statement is cruel and untrue. People against Marriage Equality do not base their public statements on facts either from science or the bible. It is a repeat of the time the Vatican was condemning Galileo, because they insisted that Galileo was going against the bible that it is the sun that revolves around the earth.

Children need people who are honest and truthful. Children are not safe around people who publicly speak out against Marriage Equality, because in truth these people have had no formal study in human sexuality or the bible and yet they without any intellectual thought speakout and harm innocent people. This is irresponsible adult behavior, which is harmful for children to witness. This has been proven to have “negative consequences” for children, consult developmental psychology.

With all due respect, it is without a question that Bishop Malone would not be able to pass graduate course exams on human sexuality, sexual orientation, and gender identity or biblical studies. Prove me wrong!!!

And if Bishop Malone cannot pass these exams today, than before God he needs to publically retract what he said against Marriage Equality. If not, then Bishop Malone needs to go back to the seminary to study moral theology.

The best thing to do for the well-being and safety of all children would be if people against Marriage Equality spent their money to academically study human sexuality, sexual orientation, gender identity and the bible. This is what children need the truth. People speaking out on such life and death issues should not speak out of ignorance and fear, thus spreading hatred and violence that indiscriminately is severely harmful to all children.

The truth will set you free - not ignorance and fear.

Fr. Marty Kurylowicz

Learn more - Protect Maine Equality, 550 Forest Avenue, Portland, ME 04101

Threats, Silence, Harm and Disposal of Catholic Personnel Supportive of LGBT Adults and Children - Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s Directives To Hierarchy

Has been moved 
http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/09/threats-silence-harm-and-disposal-of.html

Commentary: My life as a 'Mighty Hermaphrodite' By Hida Viloria, Special to CNN

CNNhealth.com

Hida Viloria is a writer who holds a degree in Gender and Sexuality from U.C. Berkeley. She is also an activist for intersex people -- (formerly known as hermaphrodites) Her memoir "Mighty Hermaphrodite" will be published next spring.

SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- A lot of people have been outraged by the gender verification testing that South African athlete Caster Semenya has been put through, and have been trying to be supportive of her; but in doing so, they often further prejudice against the very thing which she appears to be: intersex.

Intersex people (formerly known as hermaphrodites) are those born with bodies that are difficult to classify as either "male" or "female."

Since results of Semenya's tests were apparently leaked, it seems that her body doesn't conform to the definition of "female" as one who has ovaries.

I'm intersex because, while I have ovaries, menstruate and can get pregnant, my genitalia is somewhat male-looking (simply put, I have a clitoris that's much larger than average.)

Throughout my childhood, I never thought I was anything other than "female" because that's what I was labeled and raised as. While I felt more aggressive than other girls, I didn't think that anything other than male and female could exist. So I just thought of myself as a "different kind of woman." Ultimately, my assessment was pretty accurate.

I was raised in a strict Catholic home, where nudity and sex talk was unheard of, so having no one to compare my genitals to, I was unaware that mine were different.

I'm very lucky to have escaped the "corrective" surgeries and/or hormone treatments that are the norm for intersex infants, because my father went to medical school before these practices began (in the mid-late '50's), and knew that you shouldn't operate on a baby unless it's absolutely necessary.

Read complete article – by Hida Viloria – CNNhealth.com

Catholics for Marriage Equality, by Michael A. Jones

Much has been said about just how heavily involved the Roman Catholic Church in Maine is with trying to take away marriage rights for gays and lesbians in the state. The Maine Church has lent their public relations guru, Marc Mutty, to help direct efforts to repeal rights from gays and lesbians, and has helped fundraise for discrimination by hosting special collections in churches up and down the coast. Thankfully, not all Catholics are siding with the official church line.

A smaller but outspoken group of Catholics are starting to organize in Maine to push back against the discriminatory rhetoric coming out of the official church in Maine. As SeacoastOnline points out, these Catholics are trying to reclaim a bit of their Church identity, by pointing out that "God is love," not "God is discriminatory."

The group has started to circulate a petition to organize Catholics around the issue of marriage equality and equal rights. Part of the petition reads: "As faithful Roman Catholics and citizens of the state of Maine, we believe that the right of every citizen to practice freedom of religion is based on the principle of respect for the dignity of each individual."

Better yet, the petition points out that Catholics were once denied certain civil rights because of their identity. For the Catholic Church to now push discrimination instead of acceptance is an ugly ironic twist. Read complete article & more – Michael A. Jones

A Memo to the GOP: God Doesn't Choose You to Legislate Discrimination, by Michael A. Jones

When it comes to Republican politics nowadays, the word "God" is invoked about every fifteen seconds. This weekend, with the Family Research Council's "Value Voters Summit" happening, you can expect that rate to jump drastically. But while it's certainly expected that religion might inform one's politics, only a downright fool would suggest that God chose someone for office so that they could pass anti-gay laws.

Yet that's what's happening in Arizona. Gov. Jan Brewer, who took office earlier this year after former Gov. Janet Napolitano was appointed Secretary of Homeland Security, took a bold anti-LGBT action and decided to repeal all domestic partner benefits for statewide LGBT employees. The move kills domestic partner benefits for about 800 statewide workers, many of them same-sex couples. The Governor followed up her anti-LGBT action with a shot of religious craziness.

"God has placed me in this powerful position as Arizona's governor' to help the state weather its troubles," said Gov. Brewer. Then she goes on to thank the Lord that she lives in a country of Christianity. Because that's in the Constitution....er, wait. No it isn't. We're a country that supposedly celebrates the separation of religion and state.

Not to be outdone by the Governor of Arizona, former Miss California Carrie Prejean strutted into the Values Voter Summit to announce that God chose her to oppose gay marriage on national television. Prejean, celebrating her opposition to same-sex marriage, said about her beauty pageant answer trashing marriage equality, "I’m so proud of the answer that I gave. God chose me for that moment." Read complete article & more – Michael A. Jones

Sin of Presumption

A Sin Against The First Commandment

It is a sin of presumption, to presume to know the mind of God or equating one’s own mental capacities to be equal to that of God's.

Indonesia: Prison Time for Gays, By Christopher Mangum - Advocate.com

One Indonesian province passed a law this week mandating that individuals found guilty of homosexual conduct receive lashings and fines, or prison time.

One Indonesian province passed a law this week mandating that individuals found guilty of homosexual conduct receive lashings and fines, or prison time.

According to the legislation, "Any person deliberately performing homosexuality or lesbianism is threatened with up to 100 cane lashes and a maximum fine of 1,000 grams of fine gold, or imprisonment of up to 100 months," reports the Associated Press.

The law also calls for capital punishment against those involved in premarital sex, adultery, pedophilia, or rape. The most severe punishment is reserved for adultery, for which the law calls for death by stoning. Read complete article – Advocate.com

Treatment of Alan Turing was “appalling” – PM Gordon Brown of Britain

Thursday 10 September 2009

The Prime Minister has released a statement on the Second World War code-breaker, Alan Turing, recognising the “appalling” way he was treated for being gay.

Alan Turing, a mathematician most famous for his work on breaking the German Enigma codes, was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ in 1952 and sentenced to chemical castration.

Gordon Brown’s statement came in response to a petition posted on the Number 10 website which has received thousands of signatures in recent months.

Read the statement

2009 has been a year of deep reflection - a chance for Britain, as a nation, to commemorate the profound debts we owe to those who came before. A unique combination of anniversaries and events have stirred in us that sense of pride and gratitude which characterise the British experience. Earlier this year I stood with Presidents Sarkozy and Obama to honour the service and the sacrifice of the heroes who stormed the beaches of Normandy 65 years ago. And just last week, we marked the 70 years which have passed since the British government declared its willingness to take up arms against Fascism and declared the outbreak of World War Two. So I am both pleased and proud that, thanks to a coalition of computer scientists, historians and LGBT activists, we have this year a chance to mark and celebrate another contribution to Britain’s fight against the darkness of dictatorship; that of code-breaker Alan Turing.

Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most famous for his work on breaking the German Enigma codes. It is no exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the history of World War Two could well have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war. The debt of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that he was treated so inhumanely. In 1952, he was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ - in effect, tried for being gay. His sentence - and he was faced with the miserable choice of this or prison - was chemical castration by a series of injections of female hormones. He took his own life just two years later.

Read complete statement – Number10.gov.uk - http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page20571

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Related Links:

Posthumous Apology to Gay Code Breaker Who Helped Defeat Nazi Germany – by Robert Mackey – The Lede – The New York News Blog

Threats, Silence, Harm and Disposal of Catholic Personnel Supportive of LGBT Adults and Children - Ratzinger/Benedict XVI’s Directives To Hierarchy

This post has been moved:
http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/09/threats-silence-harm-and-disposal-of.html

Gay Marriage Doesn't Harm Kids. But Lies Do. By Michael A. Jones

PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 16, 2009

Opponents of marriage equality in Maine took to the airwaves yesterday with an advertisement that said LGBT people (specifically, in their words, "homosexual marriage") would be a threat to children and taught in schools. The advertisement is dishonest, plays up on fears, and distorts the truth about Maine's same-sex marriage law. So what's an activist to do?

Hit back with an advertisement that completely disarms the negativity and misrepresentations championed by people who hate on same-sex marriage. That's what the No on 1 Campaign did today, with a new ad that tells the truth about same-sex marriage, and what will and won't be taught in Maine's public schools.

The ad features Maine teacher Sherri Gould, who has been teaching in Maine since 1983. According to Gould, what's taught in the classroom is fairness and decency. "We teach respect and Maine values. That will never change." Read complete article & view video - Michael A. Jones

Related link:

FREEDOM TO MARRY