Cardinal Burke destroys Cupich’s claim that pope’s exhortation is a ‘game changer’

VOCAL - Here is a great article to reclaim calm among Catholics spiritually exhausted by the seeming lack of protection of their Soul by their Shepherds.  Many lay Catholics feel their spiritual freedom in the Church is treated without respect and the Church they love is changing in the wrong way.  Take heart.  

April 11, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Cardinal Burke’s first reaction to Pope Francis’ controversial post-synodal exhortation Amoris Laetitia takes aim at those who claim it is a “revolution” in the Church’s practices.

The most notable advocate of that view in the U.S. is Chicago’s Archbishop Blase Cupich, who called the exhortation a “game changer” that could relax the Church’s approach to Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried and those in same-sex relationships.

Cupich’s take was echoed by German Cardinal Walter Kasper, the leading proponent of the practice. “There are openings there, clearly,” for Holy Communion for the divorced and remarried, Kasper said, according to the German Bishops’ official website. He called the exhortation a “remarkable document.”

In his article for the National Catholic Register today, Cardinal Burke criticizes those who see the exhortation as “a revolution in the Church, as a radical departure from the teaching and practice of the Church, up to now, regarding marriage and the family.”

He continues: “Such a view of the document is both a source of wonder and confusion to the faithful, and potentially a source of scandal not only for the faithful but for others of good will who look to Christ and his Church to teach and reflect in practice the truth regarding marriage and its fruit, family life, the first cell of the life of the Church and of every society.”

In an interview with the Chicago Tribune on Friday, Cupich argued that Amoris Laetitia could normalize his approach to those living in what the Catholic Church considers to be objectively sinful situations, such as second marriages when a first marriage hasn’t been declared null and same-sex relationships.

Cupich told the Tribune, “There's not really any doctrine as such that's changed, but there is, I think, a very fresh way that will strike Catholic people in the pews and the priests about how we pastorally deal with people, especially those people whose lives are really very complicated.”

The Tribune reported that although Amoris Laetitia doesn’t grant comprehensive permission for the divorced and remarried to receive Holy Communion, “it invites them to a conversation and discernment process with their pastors that could lead them to communion one day.”
Cupich said:

There is a mindset within the life of the church among Catholics that if in fact they do have marriage breakups and they get into a second marriage that [it’s] kind of over for them unless they can get an annulment. The pope is saying that's not the case. I do think that maybe some priests have been working with people in their own counseling. This is an official way in which we're being encouraged to stay close to those people and reach out to them.

Catholic doctrine specifically teaches that unless those who are divorced and re-married have had previous marriages annulled or are living as brother and sister with their second spouse, then they are committing adultery and should not receive Holy Communion.

The Tribune reported, “Cupich said he hopes the pope's guidelines show divorced and remarried Catholics that they do still belong in the church and give license to priests, like himself, who have been taking that approach for a while.”

Cupich implied that Amoris Laetitia should also open the door to the potential for Holy Communion for those in same-sex relationships. The Tribune writes:

Cupich said that although the pope clarifies that same-sex marriage is not analogous to the church’s definition for marriage, when it comes to inclusion in the life of the church, the same guidelines apply.
“You can’t have one particular approach for a certain group of people and not for everybody,” the archbishop said.  “Everyone has the ability to form their conscience well.”

Cupich failed to clarify that the Catholic Church teaches that, “A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself. Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed.  This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man ‘takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin.’ In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits” (CCC 1790 - 1791).

Cardinal Burke, the patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the former Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, offered a sharp contrast to Kasper’s and Cupich’s claims.

In his article at the National Catholic Register, Burke wrote that Amoris Laetitia must be read through the lens of magisterial Catholic doctrine:

With the publication of Amoris Laetitia, the task of pastors and other teachers of the faith is to present it within the context of the Church’s teaching and discipline, so that it serves to build up the Body of Christ in its first cell of life, which is marriage and the family. In other words, the post-synodal apostolic exhortation can only be correctly interpreted, as a non-magisterial document, using the key of the Magisterium as it is described in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (85-87).

Burke argued that Pope Francis’s exhortation contains the pope’s thoughts but doesn’t change Church teaching or practice. “The Catholic Church…never held that every utterance of the Successor of St. Peter should be received as part of her infallible magisterium,” he wrote.

“Pope Francis makes clear, from the beginning, that the post-synodal apostolic exhortation is not an act of the magisterium (No. 3),” Burke wrote. “The very form of the document confirms the same. It is written as a reflection of the Holy Father on the work of the last two sessions of the Synod of Bishops.”

Burke adds that the Church takes care that "a personal reflection of the Pope, while received with the respect owed to his person, is not confused with the binding faith owed to the exercise of the magisterium."

“Certain commentators confuse such respect,” which is rightly due to the Pope, “with a supposed obligation to ‘believe with divine and Catholic faith’ (Canon 750, § 1) everything contained in the document,” says Burke. “But the Catholic Church, while insisting on the respect owed to the Petrine Office as instituted by Our Lord Himself, has never held that every utterance of the Successor of St. Peter should be received as part of her infallible Magisterium.”

"Catholic Colleges Embrace ‘Demonic’ Gender Ideology in Housing Policies"

For Catholic parents with college-bound students please take note of the changes in policy that will very much effect your child if you/or they are paying for their further education.  There are many viable alternatives if you find a college that is having an identity crisis.  VOCAL

By Adam Cassandra   See more at www.cardinalnewmansociety.org

 

The College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit, Catholic institution in Worcester, Mass., will implement a new housing policy in the 2016-2017 academic year that embraces gender ideology, which Pope Francis has called “demonic” and a threat to the family.

The updated housing policy “will allow students of different sexes to room together based on gender identity,” according to an April 29, 2016, report in the campus newspaper The Crusader.

At the University of San Francisco (USF), the gender-inclusive housing description was recently updated to indicate that students at the Jesuit-run institution should develop their own understanding about gender identity, including recognition that “human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth.”

The College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit, Catholic institution in Worcester, Mass., will implement a new housing policy in the 2016-2017 academic year that embraces gender ideology, which Pope Francis has called “demonic” and a threat to the family.

The updated housing policy “will allow students of different sexes to room together based on gender identity,” according to an April 29, 2016, report in the campus newspaper The Crusader.

At the University of San Francisco (USF), the gender-inclusive housing description was recently updated to indicate that students at the Jesuit-run institution should develop their own understanding about gender identity, including recognition that “human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth.”

Pope Francis, a Jesuit, reportedly called gender ideology “demonic” in an exchange with Austrian Bishop Andreas Laun. And the Holy Father has stated that the promotion of this ideology — which rejects the creation of human beings as male and female in the image and likeness of God — contributes to the destruction of the family.

Holy Cross says its housing of students on the basis of gender identity is “required by applicable law,” and cites Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972 in the policy section. Students who want to request housing based on gender identity are asked to contact Assistant Dean and Director of Residence Life and Housing Ed Coolbaugh.

The full section related to gender identity in the student housing agreement reads:

The College maintains separate housing for the different sexes as permitted by applicable law, including Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. The College also assigns housing on the basis of gender identity as required by applicable law. Please contact the Assistant Dean/Director of Residence Life and Housing, Ed Coolbaugh, at (508) 793-2664 or by email at ecoolbau@holycross.edu to request a housing assignment on the basis of gender identity and to obtain further information. Requests for assignment in accordance with gender identity must be sent in advance of the applicable published housing selection deadline. The Office of Residence Life & Housing will for each housing selection process cycle establish a date in advance of the applicable housing selection deadline by which requests for assignment in accordance with gender identity must be received by that office. The deadline for the 2016-2017 academic year is April 1, 2016.

The Cardinal Newman Society asked Coolbaugh about the promotion of gender ideology with the implementation of this policy. Coolbaugh was also asked if there was any discussion at Holy Cross about requesting a religious exemption from Title IX with the U.S. Department of Education to protect the college from implementing gender identity policies. Religious colleges and schools can request exemptions from Title IX if the law’s requirements conflict with their religious tenets. No response was received by time of publication.

The Crusader reported that the policy change at Holy Cross was spearheaded by a student who was concerned about the housing policy “as someone who identifies as genderqueer, neither male nor female.” The article also revealed that the College includes a “transgender designation on housing forms” for freshmen.

Gender-Inclusive Housing at USF

Last February, the Newman Society reported on a pilot program launched for the 2015-2016 academic year at USF to offer “gender-inclusive housing” to students who “identify as transgender” or “do not wish to be identified by any sex or gender identity.” A representative of the University told the Newman Society the program was scheduled to continue in the next academic year.

USF has since updated the description of their gender-inclusive housing, calling it “a safe, affirming, and inclusive community living option for students of the following identities and lived experiences”:

-Transgender students

-Gender queer students

-Students who are currently transitioning from one gender to another (i.e. transitioning from male to female or female to male)

-Students who do not conform to society’s expectations of their assigned gender at birth

-Students who do not wish to be identified by any sex or gender identity

-Students who are in the process of discovering their gender identity

-Students who appreciate and respect people with the above identities and lived experiences, and who would prefer to live in a community comprised of such

In addition to allowing biological males to room with biological females, USF’s gender-inclusive housing encourages male and female students to use the same bathroom facilities. “The bathroom is a communal bathroom and is shared by all members of the community (regardless of gender, gender identity, gender expression, or sex).”

Among the “community standards” for the gender-inclusive housing is recognition that human beings are not created male and female, contradicting the words of Genesis and the teachings of the Church: “’God created man in his own image . . . male and female he created them.’”
The standards include:

-Modeling behavior that reflects a positive value and respect for gender as a non-binary construct (human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth)

-Openness and desire to develop one’s own understanding about gender identity, sexual orientation, and other differences

-Working to create and promote a safe, affirming, and inclusive community for all students

-Use of inclusive and socially just language and the preferred names and gender pronouns of community members

-Education of guests about the values and community expectations of the gender inclusive community

Gender Ideology and Church Teaching

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) compiled a number of Pope Francis’ statements on the harms of gender ideology in a resource document published in December 2015. The document includes excerpts from various sources citing Church teaching on gender ideology.

The resource quotes Pope Francis from an address given in March last year calling gender ideology a
“mistake of the human mind.”

“The crisis of the family is a societal fact. There are also ideological colonializations of the family, different paths and proposals in Europe and also coming from overseas.” he said. “Then, there is the mistake of the human mind — gender theory — creating so much confusion.”

The document also points to a statement made by the Holy Father in April 2015 saying the embrace of gender ideology “creates a problem, not a solution.”

He said gender theory is “an expression of frustration and resignation, which seeks to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it. Yes, we risk taking a step backwards. The removal of difference in fact creates a problem, not a solution.”

Additionally, the resource points to statements made by U.S. bishops against the embrace and promotion of gender identity.

In a July 2014 statement responding to President Obama’s executive order on “gender identity discrimination,” Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore and Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo, N.Y., speaking on behalf of the USCCB, called gender identity a “false idea that ‘gender’ is nothing more than a social construct or psychological reality that can be chosen at variance from one’s biological sex.”

The bishops added that this understanding of gender identity presented “a deeply flawed understanding of human sexuality, to which faithful Catholics and many other people of faith will not assent.”

In his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia released last month, Pope Francis used language from his 2015 encyclical letter Laudato Si’ to explain the duty of Catholic educators to teach young people about the biological realities of God’s creation:

[T]he young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created, for “thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation… An appreciation of our body as male or female is also necessary for our own self-awareness in an encounter with others different from ourselves. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment.” Only by losing the fear of being different, can we be freed of self-centredness and self-absorption. Sex education should help young people to accept their own bodies and to avoid the pretension “to cancel out sexual difference because one no longer knows how to deal with it.”

Title IX

In April 2014, the Obama administration expanded Title IX  to include “discrimination based on gender identity or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity.” The expansion of the law was done without any action by Congress.

“Congress did not intend, when it adopted Title IX in 1972, to reach the question of gender identity. If Congress wants to change that, they can, but it’s inappropriate for an administrative branch agency to rewrite the law under the guise of interpretation,” Greg Baylor, senior counsel and director of the center for religious schools at Alliance Defending Freedom, previously told the Newman Society. He added that Congress also decided in 1972 “that if compliance with Title IX would be inconsistent with a school’s religious tenets, then the schools will be exempt from those requirements that are in conflict with their religious beliefs.”

The Department of Education published a searchable database last week of all the colleges that have requested religious exemptions to Title IX. LGBT activist groups urged the Obama administration to publish the list of colleges, which the activists claim are engaging in “discrimination.”

Since the changes to Title IX in 2014, four Catholic colleges have been granted religious exemptions by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights: Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, N.C., St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee, Okla., and John Paul the Great Catholic University in Escondido, Calif. A waiver request made by the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas, is still pending. All five colleges are recommended as faithful Catholic institutions in The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College.  (VOCAL changed font to bold type)

Abbot Placid Solari, O.S.B., chancellor of Belmont Abbey, told the Newman Society last December that the broadening of Title IX to include gender identity threatened the College’s religious mission, and would force the College to advocate practices that are “spiritually harmful.”

“A policy which would legitimize gender identity issues … would, first of all, abdicate the responsibility of the college community as a whole to act in accord with its fundamental identity as a community which publicly identifies itself as in communion with the Catholic Church,” he said. He added that such a policy “would contradict fidelity to the Christian message as it comes through the Church” and “would abdicate responsibility to serve the transcendent goal of life by advocating practices which, according to the Church's teaching, are spiritually harmful.”

The Newman Society has called on all Catholic colleges to apply for the Title IX exemption to protect their Catholic identity.

“Catholic colleges have a duty to uphold Catholic teaching about the human person, especially in the area of residence life,” said Adam Wilson, managing editor of The Newman Guide and author of the report Visitation Policies at U.S. Catholic Colleges. “In one respect, it comes as no surprise when Catholic colleges that set no hour limits for opposite-sex visitation, such as College of the Holy Cross and USF, drift further from Catholic ethos. But by catering to trends that contradict the faith, such institutions are cheating students of precious opportunities to grow in virtue through authentic Catholic formation.”

The College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit, Catholic institution in Worcester, Mass., will implement a new housing policy in the 2016-2017 academic year that embraces gender ideology, which Pope Francis has called “demonic” and a threat to the family.
The updated housing policy “will allow students of different sexes to room together based on gender identity,” according to an April 29, 2016, report in the campus newspaper The Crusader.
At the University of San Francisco (USF), the gender-inclusive housing description was recently updated to indicate that students at the Jesuit-run institution should develop their own understanding about gender identity, including recognition that “human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth.”
Pope Francis, a Jesuit, reportedly called gender ideology “demonic” in an exchange with Austrian Bishop Andreas Laun. And the Holy Father has stated that the promotion of this ideology — which rejects the creation of human beings as male and female in the image and likeness of God — contributes to the destruction of the family.
Holy Cross says its housing of students on the basis of gender identity is “required by applicable law,” and cites Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972 in the policy section. Students who want to request housing based on gender identity are asked to contact Assistant Dean and Director of Residence Life and Housing Ed Coolbaugh.
The full section related to gender identity in the student housing agreement reads:
- See more at: http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/4880/Catholic-Colleges-Embrace-%E2%80%98Demonic%E2%80%99-Gender-Ideology-in-Housing-Policies.aspx#sthash.AfnsXIx9.dpuf

Catholic Colleges Embrace ‘Demonic’ Gender Ideology in Housing Policies

May 3, 2016, at 3:26 PM  |  By Adam Cassandra  | 

The College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit, Catholic institution in Worcester, Mass., will implement a new housing policy in the 2016-2017 academic year that embraces gender ideology, which Pope Francis has called “demonic” and a threat to the family.
The updated housing policy “will allow students of different sexes to room together based on gender identity,” according to an April 29, 2016, report in the campus newspaper The Crusader.
At the University of San Francisco (USF), the gender-inclusive housing description was recently updated to indicate that students at the Jesuit-run institution should develop their own understanding about gender identity, including recognition that “human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth.”
Pope Francis, a Jesuit, reportedly called gender ideology “demonic” in an exchange with Austrian Bishop Andreas Laun. And the Holy Father has stated that the promotion of this ideology — which rejects the creation of human beings as male and female in the image and likeness of God — contributes to the destruction of the family.
Holy Cross says its housing of students on the basis of gender identity is “required by applicable law,” and cites Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972 in the policy section. Students who want to request housing based on gender identity are asked to contact Assistant Dean and Director of Residence Life and Housing Ed Coolbaugh.
The full section related to gender identity in the student housing agreement reads:

The College maintains separate housing for the different sexes as permitted by applicable law, including Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. The College also assigns housing on the basis of gender identity as required by applicable law. Please contact the Assistant Dean/Director of Residence Life and Housing, Ed Coolbaugh, at (508) 793-2664 or by email at ecoolbau@holycross.edu to request a housing assignment on the basis of gender identity and to obtain further information. Requests for assignment in accordance with gender identity must be sent in advance of the applicable published housing selection deadline. The Office of Residence Life & Housing will for each housing selection process cycle establish a date in advance of the applicable housing selection deadline by which requests for assignment in accordance with gender identity must be received by that office. The deadline for the 2016-2017 academic year is April 1, 2016.

The Cardinal Newman Society asked Coolbaugh about the promotion of gender ideology with the implementation of this policy. Coolbaugh was also asked if there was any discussion at Holy Cross about requesting a religious exemption from Title IX with the U.S. Department of Education to protect the college from implementing gender identity policies. Religious colleges and schools can request exemptions from Title IX if the law’s requirements conflict with their religious tenets. No response was received by time of publication.
The Crusader reported that the policy change at Holy Cross was spearheaded by a student who was concerned about the housing policy “as someone who identifies as genderqueer, neither male nor female.” The article also revealed that the College includes a “transgender designation on housing forms” for freshmen.
Gender-Inclusive Housing at USF
Last February, the Newman Society reported on a pilot program launched for the 2015-2016 academic year at USF to offer “gender-inclusive housing” to students who “identify as transgender” or “do not wish to be identified by any sex or gender identity.” A representative of the University told the Newman Society the program was scheduled to continue in the next academic year.
USF has since updated the description of their gender-inclusive housing, calling it “a safe, affirming, and inclusive community living option for students of the following identities and lived experiences”:

-Transgender students

-Gender queer students

-Students who are currently transitioning from one gender to another (i.e. transitioning from male to female or female to male)

-Students who do not conform to society’s expectations of their assigned gender at birth

-Students who do not wish to be identified by any sex or gender identity

-Students who are in the process of discovering their gender identity

-Students who appreciate and respect people with the above identities and lived experiences, and who would prefer to live in a community comprised of such

In addition to allowing biological males to room with biological females, USF’s gender-inclusive housing encourages male and female students to use the same bathroom facilities. “The bathroom is a communal bathroom and is shared by all members of the community (regardless of gender, gender identity, gender expression, or sex).”
Among the “community standards” for the gender-inclusive housing is recognition that human beings are not created male and female, contradicting the words of Genesis and the teachings of the Church: “’God created man in his own image . . . male and female he created them.’”
The standards include:

-Modeling behavior that reflects a positive value and respect for gender as a non-binary construct (human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth)

-Openness and desire to develop one’s own understanding about gender identity, sexual orientation, and other differences

-Working to create and promote a safe, affirming, and inclusive community for all students

-Use of inclusive and socially just language and the preferred names and gender pronouns of community members

-Education of guests about the values and community expectations of the gender inclusive community

Gender Ideology and Church Teaching
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) compiled a number of Pope Francis’ statements on the harms of gender ideology in a resource document published in December 2015. The document includes excerpts from various sources citing Church teaching on gender ideology.
The resource quotes Pope Francis from an address given in March last year calling gender ideology a “mistake of the human mind.”
“The crisis of the family is a societal fact. There are also ideological colonializations of the family, different paths and proposals in Europe and also coming from overseas.” he said. “Then, there is the mistake of the human mind — gender theory — creating so much confusion.”
The document also points to a statement made by the Holy Father in April 2015 saying the embrace of gender ideology “creates a problem, not a solution.”
He said gender theory is “an expression of frustration and resignation, which seeks to cancel out sexual difference because it no longer knows how to confront it. Yes, we risk taking a step backwards. The removal of difference in fact creates a problem, not a solution.”
Additionally, the resource points to statements made by U.S. bishops against the embrace and promotion of gender identity.
In a July 2014 statement responding to President Obama’s executive order on “gender identity discrimination,” Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore and Bishop Richard J. Malone of Buffalo, N.Y., speaking on behalf of the USCCB, called gender identity a “false idea that ‘gender’ is nothing more than a social construct or psychological reality that can be chosen at variance from one’s biological sex.”
The bishops added that this understanding of gender identity presented “a deeply flawed understanding of human sexuality, to which faithful Catholics and many other people of faith will not assent.”
In his apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia released last month, Pope Francis used language from his 2015 encyclical letter Laudato Si’ to explain the duty of Catholic educators to teach young people about the biological realities of God’s creation:

[T]he young need to be helped to accept their own body as it was created, for “thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation… An appreciation of our body as male or female is also necessary for our own self-awareness in an encounter with others different from ourselves. In this way we can joyfully accept the specific gifts of another man or woman, the work of God the Creator, and find mutual enrichment.” Only by losing the fear of being different, can we be freed of self-centredness and self-absorption. Sex education should help young people to accept their own bodies and to avoid the pretension “to cancel out sexual difference because one no longer knows how to deal with it.”

Title IX
In April 2014, the Obama administration expanded Title IX  to include “discrimination based on gender identity or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity.” The expansion of the law was done without any action by Congress.
“Congress did not intend, when it adopted Title IX in 1972, to reach the question of gender identity. If Congress wants to change that, they can, but it’s inappropriate for an administrative branch agency to rewrite the law under the guise of interpretation,” Greg Baylor, senior counsel and director of the center for religious schools at Alliance Defending Freedom, previously told the Newman Society. He added that Congress also decided in 1972 “that if compliance with Title IX would be inconsistent with a school’s religious tenets, then the schools will be exempt from those requirements that are in conflict with their religious beliefs.”
The Department of Education published a searchable database last week of all the colleges that have requested religious exemptions to Title IX. LGBT activist groups urged the Obama administration to publish the list of colleges, which the activists claim are engaging in “discrimination.”
Since the changes to Title IX in 2014, four Catholic colleges have been granted religious exemptions by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights: Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, Belmont Abbey College in Belmont, N.C., St. Gregory’s University in Shawnee, Okla., and John Paul the Great Catholic University in Escondido, Calif. A waiver request made by the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas, is still pending. All five colleges are recommended as faithful Catholic institutions in The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College.
Abbot Placid Solari, O.S.B., chancellor of Belmont Abbey, told the Newman Society last December that the broadening of Title IX to include gender identity threatened the College’s religious mission, and would force the College to advocate practices that are “spiritually harmful.”
“A policy which would legitimize gender identity issues … would, first of all, abdicate the responsibility of the college community as a whole to act in accord with its fundamental identity as a community which publicly identifies itself as in communion with the Catholic Church,” he said. He added that such a policy “would contradict fidelity to the Christian message as it comes through the Church” and “would abdicate responsibility to serve the transcendent goal of life by advocating practices which, according to the Church's teaching, are spiritually harmful.”
The Newman Society has called on all Catholic colleges to apply for the Title IX exemption to protect their Catholic identity.
“Catholic colleges have a duty to uphold Catholic teaching about the human person, especially in the area of residence life,” said Adam Wilson, managing editor of The Newman Guide and author of the report Visitation Policies at U.S. Catholic Colleges. “In one respect, it comes as no surprise when Catholic colleges that set no hour limits for opposite-sex visitation, such as College of the Holy Cross and USF, drift further from Catholic ethos. But by catering to trends that contradict the faith, such institutions are cheating students of precious opportunities to grow in virtue through authentic Catholic formation.”

- See more at: http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/4880/Catholic-Colleges-Embrace-%e2%80%98Demonic%e2%80%99-Gender-Ideology-in-Housing-Policies.aspx#sthash.u4SebjPx.dpuf

The College of the Holy Cross, a Jesuit, Catholic institution in Worcester, Mass., will implement a new housing policy in the 2016-2017 academic year that embraces gender ideology, which Pope Francis has called “demonic” and a threat to the family.
The updated housing policy “will allow students of different sexes to room together based on gender identity,” according to an April 29, 2016, report in the campus newspaper The Crusader.
At the University of San Francisco (USF), the gender-inclusive housing description was recently updated to indicate that students at the Jesuit-run institution should develop their own understanding about gender identity, including recognition that “human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth.”
Pope Francis, a Jesuit, reportedly called gender ideology “demonic” in an exchange with Austrian Bishop Andreas Laun. And the Holy Father has stated that the promotion of this ideology — which rejects the creation of human beings as male and female in the image and likeness of God — contributes to the destruction of the family.
Holy Cross says its housing of students on the basis of gender identity is “required by applicable law,” and cites Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972 in the policy section. Students who want to request housing based on gender identity are asked to contact Assistant Dean and Director of Residence Life and Housing Ed Coolbaugh.
The full section related to gender identity in the student housing agreement reads:

The College maintains separate housing for the different sexes as permitted by applicable law, including Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. The College also assigns housing on the basis of gender identity as required by applicable law. Please contact the Assistant Dean/Director of Residence Life and Housing, Ed Coolbaugh, at (508) 793-2664 or by email at ecoolbau@holycross.edu to request a housing assignment on the basis of gender identity and to obtain further information. Requests for assignment in accordance with gender identity must be sent in advance of the applicable published housing selection deadline. The Office of Residence Life & Housing will for each housing selection process cycle establish a date in advance of the applicable housing selection deadline by which requests for assignment in accordance with gender identity must be received by that office. The deadline for the 2016-2017 academic year is April 1, 2016.

The Cardinal Newman Society asked Coolbaugh about the promotion of gender ideology with the implementation of this policy. Coolbaugh was also asked if there was any discussion at Holy Cross about requesting a religious exemption from Title IX with the U.S. Department of Education to protect the college from implementing gender identity policies. Religious colleges and schools can request exemptions from Title IX if the law’s requirements conflict with their religious tenets. No response was received by time of publication.
The Crusader reported that the policy change at Holy Cross was spearheaded by a student who was concerned about the housing policy “as someone who identifies as genderqueer, neither male nor female.” The article also revealed that the College includes a “transgender designation on housing forms” for freshmen.
Gender-Inclusive Housing at USF
Last February, the Newman Society reported on a pilot program launched for the 2015-2016 academic year at USF to offer “gender-inclusive housing” to students who “identify as transgender” or “do not wish to be identified by any sex or gender identity.” A representative of the University told the Newman Society the program was scheduled to continue in the next academic year.
USF has since updated the description of their gender-inclusive housing, calling it “a safe, affirming, and inclusive community living option for students of the following identities and lived experiences”:

-Transgender students

-Gender queer students

-Students who are currently transitioning from one gender to another (i.e. transitioning from male to female or female to male)

-Students who do not conform to society’s expectations of their assigned gender at birth

-Students who do not wish to be identified by any sex or gender identity

-Students who are in the process of discovering their gender identity

-Students who appreciate and respect people with the above identities and lived experiences, and who would prefer to live in a community comprised of such

In addition to allowing biological males to room with biological females, USF’s gender-inclusive housing encourages male and female students to use the same bathroom facilities. “The bathroom is a communal bathroom and is shared by all members of the community (regardless of gender, gender identity, gender expression, or sex).”
Among the “community standards” for the gender-inclusive housing is recognition that human beings are not created male and female, contradicting the words of Genesis and the teachings of the Church: “’God created man in his own image . . . male and female he created them.’”
The standards include:

-Modeling behavior that reflects a positive value and respect for gender as a non-binary construct (human beings are not necessarily male or female as ascribed by their assigned gender at birth)

-Openness and desire to develop one’s own understanding about gender identity, sexual orientation, and other differences

-Working to create and promote a safe, affirming, and inclusive community for all students

-Use of inclusive and socially just language and the preferred names and gender pronouns of community members

-Education of guests about the values and community expectations of the gender inclusive community

Gender Ideology and Church Teaching
- See more at: http://www.cardinalnewmansociety.org/CatholicEducationDaily/DetailsPage/tabid/102/ArticleID/4880/Catholic-Colleges-Embrace-%e2%80%98Demonic%e2%80%99-Gender-Ideology-in-Housing-Policies.aspx#sthash.iHdibxy2.dpuf

Physician-assisted suicides up once more in Oregon

Numbers of Oregonians requesting — and using — lethal prescriptions to kill themselves show a steady increase since the law was enacted in 1998. Oregon Public Health Division graph The latest “Death with Dignity” report shows a sharp spike in the number of Oregonians both requesting and using lethal medications. The number of those requesting the drugs increased from 155 to 218, and the number actually using the medications jumped from 105 to 132. The numbers this past year are nearly a ten-fold increase since 1998, when the law was enacted. That year, 24 individuals requested the drugs and 16 people actually used them. Oregon was the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide, with 51.3 percent of voters passing Ballot Measure 16, “the Death with Dignity Act,” in 1994 despite the Archdiocese of Portland, the Diocese of Baker, and many other faiths educating and lobbying against its passage. The catechism of the Catholic Church states: Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable. Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded.” (CCC 2277) In 1997, Oregonians got another chance to vote on the issue; however, 60 percent of voters rejected Ballot Measure 51, which would have repealed the Death with Dignity Act. Assisted suicide is illegal in most states, but legalization has spread to Washington, California and Vermont, and a handful of other states are considering legalizing the practice or are enmeshed in legal cases concerning its legality. Worldwide, assisted suicide is legal in a number of countries, including the Canadian province of Quebec, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland and the Netherlands. Oregon returned to the national spotlight with the death of Brittany Maynard, the young California woman who was stricken with incurable brain cancer and moved to Oregon in order to end her life on Nov. 1, 2014. Last year, Canada’s Supreme Court legalized assisted suicide, paving the way for the government to introduce legislation legalizing the practice. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote in response: “Suicide and euthanasia are contrary to the most profound natural inclination of each human being to live and preserve life.”

Female Doctor tells Pope to his Face: “Evil, in this world, comes from sin. Not from income disparity or “climate change”.

From the Remnant Newspaper and Lifesite News

Finally, after waiting in vain for bishops to confront the Pope regarding his inversion of priorities in Laudato Si, his deserving rebuke came from a female Romanian doctor at the Synod.

Sometimes in history, when men in the Church are too cowardly to do their duty, God shames them by calling a woman to do it for them. St. Joan of Arc and St. Catherine of Sienna come to mind. Her family having suffered persecution by the Communists, this Catholic woman was not intimidated at all by the presence of the Pope and told him precisely what all of us wish we could have. I only hope that this rebuke acts to convict him and all likeminded “progressive” prelates of the scandal their acts have inflicted on the Church and to start carrying out the purpose of their offices.

 Dr. Anca-Maria Cernea

As Lifesite News reports, Dr. Anca-Maria Cernea, Doctor at the Center for Diagnosis and Treatment-Victor Babes and President of the Association of Catholic Doctors of Bucharest (Romania) made the following speech to the Synod last Friday:

Your Holiness, Synod Fathers, Brothers and Sisters, I represent the Association of Catholic Doctors from Bucharest.

I am from the Romanian Greek Catholic Church.

My father was a Christian political leader, who was imprisoned by the communists for 17 years. My parents were engaged to marry, but their wedding took place 17 years later.

My mother waited all those years for my father, although she didn’t even know if he was still alive. They have been heroically faithful to God and to their engagement.

Their example shows that God’s grace can overcame terrible social circumstances and material poverty.

We, as Catholic doctors, defending life and family, can see this is, first of all, a spiritual battle.

Material poverty and consumerism are not the primary cause of the family crisis.

The primary cause of the sexual and cultural revolution is ideological. Our Lady of Fatima has said that Russia’s errors would spread all over the world.

It was first done under a violent form, classical Marxism, by killing tens of millions.

Now it’s being done mostly by cultural Marxism. There is continuity from Lenin’s sex revolution, through Gramsci and the Frankfurt school, to the current-day gay-rights and gender ideology.

Classical Marxism pretended to redesign society, through violent take-over of property.

Now the revolution goes deeper; it pretends to redefine family, sex identity and human nature.

This ideology calls itself progressive. But it is nothing else than the ancient serpent’s offer, for man to take control, to replace God, to arrange salvation here, in this world.

It’s an error of religious nature, it’s Gnosticism.

It’s the task of the shepherds to recognize it, and warn the flock against this danger.

“Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

The Church’s mission is to save souls. Evil, in this world, comes from sin. Not from income disparity or “climate change”. The solution is: Evangelization. Conversion.

Not an ever increasing government control. Not a world government. These are nowadays the main agents imposing cultural Marxism to our nations, under the form of population control, reproductive health, gay rights, gender education, and so on.

What the world needs nowadays is not limitation of freedom, but real freedom, liberation from sin. Salvation.

Our Church was suppressed by the soviet occupation. But none of our 12 bishops betrayed their communion with the Holy Father. Our Church survived thanks to our bishops’ determination and example in resisting prisons and terror.

Our bishops asked the community not to follow the world. Not to cooperate with the communists.

Now we need Rome to tell the world: “Repent of your sins and turn to God for the Kingdom of Heaven is near”.

Not only us, the Catholic laity, but also many Christian Orthodox are anxiously praying for this Synod. Because, as they say, if the Catholic Church gives in to the spirit of this world, it is going to be very difficult for all the other Christians to resist it.

Santa Rosa Bishop Robert Vasa says pope’s proclamation does not change church doctrine

MARTIN ESPINOZA

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | April 8, 2016

Santa Rosa Bishop Robert Vasa on Friday called Pope Francis’ landmark proclamation on marriage, sex and family life — titled “Amoris Laetitia,” Latin for “The Joy of Love” — an intriguing, engaging, and delightfully challenging expression of hope for married love. But he said it was no end-run around existing church doctrine on behavior that is “not consistent with the moral law.


The 264-page exhortation encourages church ministers to “accompany” those who are out of step with church teachings, such as unmarried couples living together, same-sex partners or divorced and remarried couples. But Francis does not in any way change church doctrine opposing such arrangements, Vasa noted.

“It does not change any doctrine,” he said. “Marriage is still very beautifully defined as permanent, faithful and directed to the generation and upbringing of children.”

In the case of divorced and remarried couples, Vasa said those who are reading the pope’s exhortation as an easy remedy around the lengthy and rigorous church annulment process are mistaken. “That marriage does not go away. It has its own intrinsic perpetual nature,” he said.

“That being said, the path forward is to accompany that couple, affirming what is good in their relationship, and the Holy Father makes this point,” he said, adding that perhaps for ministers there can be a focus on the new couple’s present fidelity to each other.

“We tend to focus on the infidelity to the other spouse — that is a reality,” he said. But the exhortation asks church leaders to “encourage them to be caring parents to the children of this marriage and or the children of a previous marriage.”

That pastoral path, he said, could lead those who have remarried after a divorce to present themselves to the church tribunal for consideration of an annulment, a process that deeply examines the marriage, from its courtship to its unraveling. It requires a finding that the marriage is “substantially defective,” not just the wishes of a couple that has fallen out of love or doesn’t want to be married, he said.

The pope’s exhortation — the product of two synods of bishops, one in 2014 and one in 2015 — makes it clear that Francis affirms that marriage is between a man and a woman, Vasa said. The great lengths that Francis goes to encourage compassion and empathy does not signify an “anything-goes mentality,” he said.

Vasa pointed to a paragraph of the exhortation, where Francis writes, “the Synod Fathers observed that, ‘as for proposals to place unions between homosexual persons on the same level as marriage, there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.’ ”

Vasa said that “nonetheless we have to strive to accompany everyone to see their own innate goodness and at the same time acknowledge that sometimes our behaviors are not consistent with the moral law.”

Vasa said the bulk of the document is likely to be criticized by more progressive Catholic Church voices.

“He’s not watering down the truth, he’s urging a compassionate education and catechesis on what the church teaches and why,” he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @renofish.