In March 1997, after attending a National Symposium of the New Ways Ministry that was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I learned that children as young as 4 and 5 years of age know that they are different. This feeling “different” is only identified in their adult years as being gay. However, the harmful influence of antigay social and religious norms -- in particular, for Catholics the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings -- are severe and are lasting throughout a child’s lifetime. The harmful effects are not isolated only to these children who grow up to be gay, but affects their families, siblings, friends and anyone who they might consider special in their life. It is a prescribed societal sentence of implicit isolation, which places at risk of suicide so many innocent adolescents and young adults. It stifles an enormous amount of human potential in the world that otherwise could be put to use for finding cures for diseases, offer better ways of maintaining peace among people and improve the quality of living for everyone in the world.
After the New Ways Ministry National Symposium in March 1997, in good conscience I felt intensely morally obligated to “come out” as a gay Catholic priest, to my parishioners, at Holy Family Parish, Sparta, Michigan USA, to draw public attention to this implicit form of child abuse. This abuse is caused by the harmful influence of antigay social and religious norms, in particular, for Catholics, the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings. My background study in this area is extensive, far beyond that of the average person. However, since I have come out, I have been subjected to overt as well as covert retaliation coming from the Vatican. I was ordered to be sent away to be re-educated regarding sexual orientation, to subject myself to conversion or reparative therapy, not a lobotomy but similar. I refused to consent to this inhuman treatment because of the obvious clinical research data. And because I did so in retaliation I lost my regular priest salary for the past 13 years, my earned sabbatical terms and my status for any future assignments in my Diocese of Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA.
At the same time, an insider to the Vatican warned me that I could really be hurt severely by people in the Vatican. And even though this person was dead serious, I passed this warning off as being someone’s overactive imagination that was a bit bizarre. I thought: after all, this is the USA, what do I have to fear? However, as time has shown, I was too naive about the tactics of Cardinal Ratzinger (later Benedict XVI, assuming that he was directing those tactics) and his accomplices both in and outside the Vatican to realize that this person was telling me the truth in order to protect me. However, this covert retaliation has been substantial. My car was repossessed in July 2009 and as of June 26, 2010, I will lose my home to foreclosure and literally be on the streets. There is no question that I have been steadily attacked, starting in 1997 and more so immediately after Benedict XVI became Pope in April 2005.
Like Lazarus at the gate of the Rich Man I need financial support. I believe the Thalamus Center has the potential to become the watershed that is thoroughly renewing to the Church. Why? Because the most likely reason there have been so many cover-ups of child sexual abuse by leaders of the Catholic Church is that no one heard the cries of those leaders when they were children, and so as adults they are completely unaware of the cries of children now. They are wrong when they try to blame homosexuals for the sexual abuse cases in the Church, but the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings may more than likely be the reason that led to the decades of their cover-ups.
The above sounds outrageous and utterly fantastic -– as any true risks taken in the name of Christ’s love tend to be. I suspect that Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, O.P. is well acquainted with this reality from experience. I want to thank Cardinal Schönborn, for the brave statement he made in his background conversation with reporters (as reported in The Church in the World by Christa Pongratz-Lippitt - 8 May 2010 – The Tablet).
We should give more consideration to the quality of homosexual relationships,” you said, adding: “A stable relationship is certainly better than if someone chooses to be promiscuous.
I was going to write an article about how promiscuous behavior that is likely a direct result of the harmful influence of the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teaching destroys a child’s ability to bond to another human being, which is severely disrupted in early childhood psychological developmental years growing up gay. However, I suspected that Cardinal Schönborn already might realize this likely possibility.
In deep appreciation for all children,
. . . .Written by Martin S. Kurylowicz, M.Div., M.S.
Edited by Madeline Wright, Ph.D., M.S. . . . .
“We will win with LOVE - not with guns…
the Nazis will disappear
because evil will devour itself.
But…
if LOVE does not win out –
the Nazis will just come back under a
different name…”
- Karol: A Man Who Became Pope -
Auschwitz - Christmas 2008
“Any IDEOLOGY that needs to attack
the thing that least threatens it,
is an ideology that
will not outlive its own generation.
INCLUSION
not Exclusion … is the key to survival”
Protect children and the entire world will be safe.
“Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well considered and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child’s spirit.” Erik Erikson
…whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
Matthew 18:6
Important note: No disrespect meant to Pope Benedict XVI or the hierarchy, the one and only concern is the safety and well-being of children.
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment