Theological error, they called it.
The Pilot, the journal of the Archdiocese of Boston, published a column written by Daniel Avila, policy director for marriage and family at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
This is what Avila had to say about the root of homosexuality.
“Whenever natural causes disturb otherwise typical biological development, leading to the personally un-chosen beginnings of same-sex attraction, the ultimate responsibility, on a theological level, is and should be imputed to the evil one, not God.”
“Scientific evidence of how same-sex attraction most likely may be created provides a credible basis for a spiritual explanation that indicts the devil.”
The Pilot has since retracted the article and apologized “for having failed to recognize the theological error in the column before publication.” For sure, concupiscence is a human thing and we don’t need the devil to choose wrong.
All that said, here is the real take away. Somebody at the USCCB believes in the Devil. Hooray!!! Who’da thunk it?
November 3, 2011 at 1:31 pm
I appreciate the candour of believing in the existence of the Devil, but to be honest, this idea that the Evil One is responsible for the developmental disorder of homosexuality is stupid and disconnected from good thinking theologically, psychologically and experientially.
On a theological level, it would require that the Devil be given the blame for the Fall, since that breakdown and resultant concupiscence underlies homosexuality. On a psychological level, the dynamics (or most of them) are explored in Joseph Nicolosi's works and while Nicolosi isn't opposed to spiritual aspects, they don't feature in the dynamics themselves.
And on an experiental level, I can't think of anything but the most despairing of homosexuals attributing their condition to the Devil. Those that refuse the label 'gay' and recognize their condition as an obejctive disorder are not going to do so, since dealing with the underlying issues requires an honesty about how and when these things happen. Those who accept the label 'gay' … well, I need not say anything.
Daniel Avila needs to go and read a little more about what the Church has said in the Catechism, and talk to Catholics who are both homosexual and seeking after holiness. The Devil, I'm afraid, is the periphery here, not the main show.
And yes, I'm Catholic, yes, I have same-sex attraction, and yes, I seek holiness. I have no authority to speak for any other man, but this man right here says the Devil is not a helpful aspect to explaining homosexuality. Fighting it, yes, but not explaining it.
November 3, 2011 at 1:38 pm
Perhaps Satan doesn't 'make' people gay, but certainly he is involved in the agenda.
November 3, 2011 at 2:08 pm
This person was very recently hired and will no doubt be leaving the USCCB shortly. For those counting on a Catholic priesthood infiltrated by homosexuality to defend marriage, it should be a wake up call.
I have been thinking about Pope Paul VI's statement that the smoke of Satan had entered the temple, i.e.the dwelling place of God, the Church, and yet he did nothing to cast it out. Whereas in Mark, Jesus' first miracle is casting out an unclean spirit from a man in a synagogue, 1:23-27, the Vatican II "reformation" was to stop ordaining priests as exorcists.
I was recently talking to my little sister and when I said the Mass was a sacrifice she looked shocked. She said she had never been taught that even though she attended Catholic school 1-8th grade. The priest who was pastor of our parish at that time is now rector of St. Matthews Cathedral in Washington DC. At our parish, one of his innovations was to have built a bathtub like construction that he placed in the sanctuary next to the altar on Sundays when he was holding baptisms during Mass. He would raise naked babies over his head and then plunge them into this bathtub. The babies would scream and all the ladies would gasp. When I started looking for the flash of the knife in his hand to plunge into the baby during these "baptisms" is when I realized priests wear vestments because they make sacrifice (like I was taught the Mass was). A former Catholic told me he no longer goes to Catholic churches because he once saw demons dancing in the sanctuary. I thought he was crazy or exagerating, but now I think I too have seen demons in the sanctuary. During this priest's tenure, it was also found that the scoutmaster had the scouts performing homosexual acts for badges during scout meetings – a father discoverd it by looking in the window when coming to pick up his son. Our parish rose up and threw this priest out – but see where he reappears.
Unfortunately, the demonic homosexuaol possession of the Catholic Church is not a joke. When you are taught that it is not the Church's position to impute evil to the devil and that lust is not a sin, that sodomy is now "same sex attraction" and speaking against it is "UNJUST discrimination" and the promotion of "UNJUST violence", beware who you are being taught to worship, love, and serve. What can a homosexual practicing or tolerant priesthood promulgate, but sin and death?
"The Church opposes, as I do too, all unjust discrimination and the violence against persons that unjust discrimination inspires. I deeply apologize for the hurt and confusion that this column has caused."
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=12247
November 3, 2011 at 2:57 pm
folks, I repeat, there is no Church that says being a homosexual is sinful. But it does say that homosexual acts are! Please learn to know the difference between the two.
November 3, 2011 at 5:17 pm
I think that sin can be an objective thing even if the author does not consent to it or he is not even aware that he is committing a sinful act. I think that people like to identify the being a non active homosexual with having same sex attraction. Suffering of SSA is a moral disorder, it is about having a desire (action)and not being something (nature). SSA is not a mortal sin and I would say that it is not an intentional sin either; however it can still be a sin (see CCC 1750-1755)because it is not moral.
November 3, 2011 at 5:48 pm
Everything disordered is from the devil
November 3, 2011 at 5:49 pm
CCC 1750-1755 deals with the Morality of Human Acts. The CCC in no way supports your statement that SSA can still be a sin because it is not moral. If there is no act on the part of the person who has SSA there is no sin— neither mortal or venial.
November 3, 2011 at 5:58 pm
("All right, I'll leap into the fray," he said recklessly, readying his keyboard for "devil's advocate" mode…)
Just as a point to ponder: it's an undeniable fact that all evil in the world can be traced (though indirectly, in many cases) back to Satan; had he never tempted, our first parents would not have fallen, and the shattering of God's Sacred Order (including the preternatural protections which kept death, suffering, conflict between life-forms, etc., at bay) would never have happened. Homosexuality is an objective physical/psychological disorder, so it can be traced (indirectly) to the Fall (for which Satan bears heavy responsibility), like all other objective evils.
The so-called "money quote"–i.e. "Whenever natural causes disturb otherwise typical biological development, leading to the personally un-chosen beginnings of same-sex attraction, the ultimate responsibility, on a theological level, is and should be imputed to the evil one, not God."–is absolutely correct, if qualified heavily (as above) and understood correctly.
Now, if he meant instead that "every case of same-sex attraction disorder is a direct result of a direct and specific intervention of Satan"… well… then the fellow would be out to lunch, as they say.
November 3, 2011 at 6:01 pm
Pattymelt,
I'm not at all sure, but I suspect that Anonymous @ 1:17 might have been intending to say that homosexuality is objectively EVIL (i.e. not a sin, but still disordered, and still a privation/derangement of the good… which is quite true), but didn't have the specific terminology at hand. Just my guess, mind you…
November 3, 2011 at 7:25 pm
Jimmy Carter knows more about the Bible than you post VII Catholics – is there an action when you lust in your heart? Did Jesus call it adultery? Is adultery not a sin? This is how priests and bishops are caught with pornography all over their computer. How did they sin by looking at a picture? Does one know their heart? Go back to the Catechism of Trent before you end up in hell.
November 3, 2011 at 8:21 pm
ugh
November 3, 2011 at 8:41 pm
Jimmy Carter (all praise and worship be upon his most highness).
Ji'mmy' Akbar!!!!!
November 3, 2011 at 10:22 pm
God says your life follows your mind. Then God says get your mind out of the gutter, which is homosexuality. For Satan owns all perversion and that truth will never change.
Why do you think the homosexuals are filling up the graveyards?
November 4, 2011 at 12:09 am
Forget about natural causes, what about unnatural causes? Like Fr. Chester the Molester tampering with a boy's budding sexuality? Ah, but if we just blame it on the devil, we can't SUE the devil, can we?
I remember when JP2 called rape of children "mysterium iniquitas." Sorry, pal, but there is very little mystery in some pervert raping a boy and needing to be hanged. And then dug up and hanged again.
All this is just another way to shift blame and diminish personal responsibility. Sure, the devil tempts you. But you and you alone you are the complete idiot that goes along for that ride.
November 4, 2011 at 6:02 am
Is the original article anywhere online?
November 4, 2011 at 6:03 am
Did someone grab the article before it was taken down…or has anyone scanned the printed article?
November 4, 2011 at 10:48 pm
God created man in His image.
To attribute God creating man also as homosexual is blasphemy.
Three were punished at the Garden of Eden; Adam, Eve, and the Serpent.
Satan was not.
The Serpent was punished for allowing Satan to disguise himself within the Serpent's nature.
Adam and Eve could communicate with the creatures before their Fall. They also spoke with God, smashing the Evolution theory of man coming from amoeba and grunting until he evolved speech.
The first cause of Mankind is God. The first cause of Sin, including homosexuality and all other perversions, is Satan.
Too bad the Church officials did not have the courage to stand up to the Homo sick crowd.
Pray that God grant them courage, and Faith.
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November 5, 2011 at 4:05 am
Oops, this morning I had a comment at The Deacon's Bench quoting St. Catherine of Siena's Dialogue on this issue. Sometime during the day it was removed and I apparently have been banned from the site. Moral of the story: a Doctor of the Church (quoting the Lord in private revelation!) is no match in comboxes against the Church institutionalists who would prefer to ignore the studied ambiguity that surrounds SSA in AmChurch.
FrMichael
November 5, 2011 at 5:05 pm
Wow! AT least someone at the USCCB is calling gay sex a sin, and not suffocating the subject in a thousand equivocations and affirmations. No, the Devil does not 'cause' it, but he sure as Hell runs with it, does he? He did not 'cause'Adam's sin, either, but he was not exactly absent. If you want to get uppity about poorly explained teaching, there are a lot of other areas about sex and gay sex that more urgently ask for answering.
November 6, 2011 at 1:47 am
And so Dan Avila has resigned from the USCCB. So much for the demon infested Catholic Church defending marriage. It is the homosexual hierarchy that has brought homosexual marriage down on Western civilization. Anyone who doesn't believe need look no further than Cuomo, O'Malley, Jerry Brown etc. etc. etc.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/marriage-adviser-resigns-over-satan-homosexuality-column/2011/11/04/gIQAvk5SmM_story.html