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| Msg John McSweeney |
Monsignor McSweeney, Pastor of St. Matthew’s Catholic Church in Charlotte, NC, is retiring. The following includes extracts from Charlotte Observer with commentary. While I am disappointed in many of the things which Msg. McSweeney says, I am NOT surprised in the least. This is typical for children of the smoke of Vatican Council II. This is what happens when one is first and primarily a businessman desirous of appealing to the popular culture so that the cash continues to flow into the parish from the rich folk living in the Ballantyne area. Nevertheless, let us proceed without further delay,
Let married men become priests, says pastor of America’s largest Catholic church
STATEMENT: His parting advice for Charlotte and its leaders: “Remember that it is a city for all people, not just a select few.”
COMMENT: Jesus had a different viewpoint.
For many are called, but few are chosen. Matthew 22:14
STATEMENT: During an interview with the Observer, he spoke candidly about a Catholic Church he thinks has often put the Book of Law before the Book of Love.
COMMENT: Jesus had a different viewpoint.
Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:17-20
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. John 14:15
STATEMENT: Echoing Pope Francis – the fifth pontiff to reign during McSweeney’s time as a priest – he’d like the church and the diocese to be more about hospitality and less about judgment. That means, he said, being more welcoming: Of divorced-and-remarried Catholics, of LGBTQ persons, and of others who have long felt excluded by the church.
Let married men become priests, says pastor of America’s largest Catholic church
STATEMENT: His parting advice for Charlotte and its leaders: “Remember that it is a city for all people, not just a select few.”
COMMENT: Jesus had a different viewpoint.
For many are called, but few are chosen. Matthew 22:14
STATEMENT: During an interview with the Observer, he spoke candidly about a Catholic Church he thinks has often put the Book of Law before the Book of Love.
COMMENT: Jesus had a different viewpoint.
Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:17-20
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. John 14:15
STATEMENT: Echoing Pope Francis – the fifth pontiff to reign during McSweeney’s time as a priest – he’d like the church and the diocese to be more about hospitality and less about judgment. That means, he said, being more welcoming: Of divorced-and-remarried Catholics, of LGBTQ persons, and of others who have long felt excluded by the church.
COMMENT: Jesus specifically forbade divorce and remarriage, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, St. Paul specifically proscribed sodomy and lesbianism.
He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery.” Matthew 19:8-9
He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery.” Matthew 19:8-9
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals (ουτε μαλακοι ουτε αρσενοκοιται – neither male receivers of male penetration nor male givers of male penetration), nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. 1st Corinthians 6:9-10
STATEMENT: With too few diocesan priests, including in Charlotte, where the Catholic population is booming, McSweeney said he’d also support the church re-opening the door to married priests by making celibacy optional – as it was the first 1,000 years of Roman Catholicism.
COMMENT: Marriage of clerics should be permitted because it is Scripturally allowed. However, the discipline of celibacy in the Latin rite also has a basis in Scripture.
Now a bishop must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, dignified, hospitable, an apt teacher…. Let deacons be the husband of one wife, and let them manage their children and their households well. 1st Timothy 3:2 & 12
I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own special gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I do. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion. 1st Corinthians 7:7-9
I want to free you from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. 1st Corinthians 7:32-34
STATEMENT: The monsignor – a title for priests who have rendered valuable service to the church – said he’s been around many married Protestant ministers who are “doing great work.”
COMMENT: Protestants are heretics, having rejected the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
STATEMENT: “And many men I was in the (Catholic) seminary with would be great priests today except for one thing,” he added, that one thing being their desire to get married.
COMMENT: Divorce rate among Protestant clerics is similar to that among the general population. There is no indication that allowing Latin rite clerics to marry will not result in the same. There are also additional problems with financially supporting a priest with wife and children. Finally, if the inducement to the priesthood is the prospect of conjugal relations in marriage, then one ought not to be a priest in the first place.
STATEMENT: Revolt brewing?
COMMENT: It is not revolt to return to the Sacred Traditions of two thousand years of Church history.
STATEMENT: McSweeney said he’s also “very concerned” that many of the priests graduating from seminaries these days are too conservative and could spur a revolt by Catholics in the pews against the priests’ efforts to stifle the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Also known as Vatican II, this council in the 1960s embraced church reform, including expanding the role for lay Catholics and celebrating the Mass in the local language more so than in Latin.
COMMENT: Marginalizing and demeaning conservative clerics for holding onto the Tradition of the Fathers of the Church is unbecoming. If the introduction of such priests cause liberal parishioners to leave instead of repenting of their liberalism (see Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Libertas and Dr. Don Felix Sarda Y Salvany’s El Liberalismo es Pecado), then let them leave and join the Episcopalian Church instead of trying to turn the Catholic Church into an imitation of a heretical Protestant sect.
STATEMENT: “The population that is the worshiping Catholic community have no understanding or history of pre-Vatican II,” he said. “They weren’t born (yet). The same with these young priests.”
COMMENT: If the laity do not know the history of the Church, then the priests must ensure it is taught through Catechism classes, RCIA, and adult apologetic studies. Furthermore, priests must preach the unvarnished Gospel of conversion and repentance, righteousness and holiness instead of catering to the whims and fancies of the popular culture.
STATEMENT: McSweeney said Vatican II called for active lay participation in the liturgy, or Mass. “What I see happening (at some parishes) is that is not happening,” he said. “It’s being stopped.”
Lay people, particularly women, are not being permitted, for example, to dispense Communion as Eucharistic ministers. Altar boys are allowed, but not altar girls.
These young priests, McSweeney said, “are trying to reform the reform. ... I don’t endorse what they’re doing to God’s people.”
COMMENT: The rubrics of the liturgy must be obeyed. Laity participate to the extent permitted and required by those rubics in their worship of the Living God. Laity do NOT come to Church to be entertained, but to give worship to the Creator and Judge of all mankind.
Furthermore, St. Paul would not permit altar girls, having written the following:
Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty. 1 Timothy 2:11-15
STATEMENT: Recently, at a Catholic church in Waynesville, which is part of the Charlotte diocese, the pastor resigned after many from the congregation left to protest his insistence, for example, of replacing popular hymns with the ancient Gregorian chant.
McSweeney said such rebellion could also happen in some Charlotte parishes, adding only half jokingly, “I’ll lead it.”
COMMENT: The elevator music which substitutes for Sacred Hymns nowadays is an affront and a stench in the nostrils of God. If laity wish to leave when ancient Gregorian chant is sung, then let them leave and join their Protestant brethren. We are Catholic, and we are called to obey, NOT rebel. A priest is expected and require to an example par excellence of such obedience.
STATEMENT: Bishop Peter Jugis, who heads the Charlotte diocese, is a conservative who seems less in sync with Pope Francis than with former Pope John Paul II, who named him bishop in 2003. Last month, Jugis ordained five new priests for the diocese, four of whom he had sent to the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, a school with a reputation for graduating priests with traditionalist views.
COMMENT: Thank you, Lord Jesus, and thank you, Your Grace, Bishop Jugis. The old Vatican II guard is dying out and God is raising up true shepherds to rein in His flock before being snared by the devil.
STATEMENT: McSweeney, whose many jobs over the years included being vicar-general and chancellor, or CEO, of the diocese, said he’d like to see Charlotte area churches get priests from a broader pool of seminaries, the way they used to.
“In our history, we would have men in training in different seminaries so we’d get a broader aspect of the church,” he said. “And I think that’s what should be done now. Not just one place.”
COMMENT: Jesus would have a different viewpoint:
Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
STATEMENT: To take over as pastor of St. Matthew, McSweeney convinced Jugis to appoint the Rev. Pat Hoare, who has most recently been pastor at St. John Neumann Catholic Church
“I had suggested very clearly to Bishop Jugis that (Hoare) might be my successor because of his sense of care of people and also because of his professional business background,” said McSweeney, who called Hoare a moderate.
Having a business background – Hoare has a master’s degree in business administration and was a commercial insurance underwriter at Liberty Mutual – can come in handy in running a megachurch. Before he became a priest, McSweeney worked in his family’s funeral and real estate businesses in Oneida, New York.
COMMENT: In the same fashion, is not Donald Trump a great President because he was first a business man and never a politician? Again, Jesus would have a different point of view about money changers in John 2:13-25, having whipped them out of the Temple. And St. Peter said:
I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. Acts 3:6.
Now a bishop must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, dignified, hospitable, an apt teacher…. Let deacons be the husband of one wife, and let them manage their children and their households well. 1st Timothy 3:2 & 12
I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own special gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I do. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion. 1st Corinthians 7:7-9
I want to free you from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. 1st Corinthians 7:32-34
STATEMENT: The monsignor – a title for priests who have rendered valuable service to the church – said he’s been around many married Protestant ministers who are “doing great work.”
COMMENT: Protestants are heretics, having rejected the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
STATEMENT: “And many men I was in the (Catholic) seminary with would be great priests today except for one thing,” he added, that one thing being their desire to get married.
COMMENT: Divorce rate among Protestant clerics is similar to that among the general population. There is no indication that allowing Latin rite clerics to marry will not result in the same. There are also additional problems with financially supporting a priest with wife and children. Finally, if the inducement to the priesthood is the prospect of conjugal relations in marriage, then one ought not to be a priest in the first place.
STATEMENT: Revolt brewing?
COMMENT: It is not revolt to return to the Sacred Traditions of two thousand years of Church history.
STATEMENT: McSweeney said he’s also “very concerned” that many of the priests graduating from seminaries these days are too conservative and could spur a revolt by Catholics in the pews against the priests’ efforts to stifle the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Also known as Vatican II, this council in the 1960s embraced church reform, including expanding the role for lay Catholics and celebrating the Mass in the local language more so than in Latin.
COMMENT: Marginalizing and demeaning conservative clerics for holding onto the Tradition of the Fathers of the Church is unbecoming. If the introduction of such priests cause liberal parishioners to leave instead of repenting of their liberalism (see Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Libertas and Dr. Don Felix Sarda Y Salvany’s El Liberalismo es Pecado), then let them leave and join the Episcopalian Church instead of trying to turn the Catholic Church into an imitation of a heretical Protestant sect.
STATEMENT: “The population that is the worshiping Catholic community have no understanding or history of pre-Vatican II,” he said. “They weren’t born (yet). The same with these young priests.”
COMMENT: If the laity do not know the history of the Church, then the priests must ensure it is taught through Catechism classes, RCIA, and adult apologetic studies. Furthermore, priests must preach the unvarnished Gospel of conversion and repentance, righteousness and holiness instead of catering to the whims and fancies of the popular culture.
STATEMENT: McSweeney said Vatican II called for active lay participation in the liturgy, or Mass. “What I see happening (at some parishes) is that is not happening,” he said. “It’s being stopped.”
Lay people, particularly women, are not being permitted, for example, to dispense Communion as Eucharistic ministers. Altar boys are allowed, but not altar girls.
These young priests, McSweeney said, “are trying to reform the reform. ... I don’t endorse what they’re doing to God’s people.”
COMMENT: The rubrics of the liturgy must be obeyed. Laity participate to the extent permitted and required by those rubics in their worship of the Living God. Laity do NOT come to Church to be entertained, but to give worship to the Creator and Judge of all mankind.
Furthermore, St. Paul would not permit altar girls, having written the following:
Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty. 1 Timothy 2:11-15
STATEMENT: Recently, at a Catholic church in Waynesville, which is part of the Charlotte diocese, the pastor resigned after many from the congregation left to protest his insistence, for example, of replacing popular hymns with the ancient Gregorian chant.
McSweeney said such rebellion could also happen in some Charlotte parishes, adding only half jokingly, “I’ll lead it.”
COMMENT: The elevator music which substitutes for Sacred Hymns nowadays is an affront and a stench in the nostrils of God. If laity wish to leave when ancient Gregorian chant is sung, then let them leave and join their Protestant brethren. We are Catholic, and we are called to obey, NOT rebel. A priest is expected and require to an example par excellence of such obedience.
STATEMENT: Bishop Peter Jugis, who heads the Charlotte diocese, is a conservative who seems less in sync with Pope Francis than with former Pope John Paul II, who named him bishop in 2003. Last month, Jugis ordained five new priests for the diocese, four of whom he had sent to the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, a school with a reputation for graduating priests with traditionalist views.
COMMENT: Thank you, Lord Jesus, and thank you, Your Grace, Bishop Jugis. The old Vatican II guard is dying out and God is raising up true shepherds to rein in His flock before being snared by the devil.
STATEMENT: McSweeney, whose many jobs over the years included being vicar-general and chancellor, or CEO, of the diocese, said he’d like to see Charlotte area churches get priests from a broader pool of seminaries, the way they used to.
“In our history, we would have men in training in different seminaries so we’d get a broader aspect of the church,” he said. “And I think that’s what should be done now. Not just one place.”
COMMENT: Jesus would have a different viewpoint:
Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.
STATEMENT: To take over as pastor of St. Matthew, McSweeney convinced Jugis to appoint the Rev. Pat Hoare, who has most recently been pastor at St. John Neumann Catholic Church
“I had suggested very clearly to Bishop Jugis that (Hoare) might be my successor because of his sense of care of people and also because of his professional business background,” said McSweeney, who called Hoare a moderate.
Having a business background – Hoare has a master’s degree in business administration and was a commercial insurance underwriter at Liberty Mutual – can come in handy in running a megachurch. Before he became a priest, McSweeney worked in his family’s funeral and real estate businesses in Oneida, New York.
COMMENT: In the same fashion, is not Donald Trump a great President because he was first a business man and never a politician? Again, Jesus would have a different point of view about money changers in John 2:13-25, having whipped them out of the Temple. And St. Peter said:
I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. Acts 3:6.
The Church is NOT a business. She is the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ. Focusing on money in the Church is the same as what liberals accuse Republicans of doing: focusing on money in government.
STATEMENT: McSweeney’s advice to his successor: “Stay out of the way a little bit and let God’s people do what they’re called to do. I’ve been quoted and I mean it, that the star here is not a priest.” It’s Jesus, he said, and the church is like a jigsaw puzzle, with each person fitting in in some capacity.
COMMENT: Jesus is not a star. Jesus is the Logos, the eternal only begotten Son of the Living God. To call Jesus “the star here” is to demean Him. We go to Mass to worship Him and to eat His Body and drink His blood. That ought to put fear and trembling into us for we as sinful human beings are unworthy of His omnipotent and omniscient greatness.
STATEMENT: McSweeney also points to the front of St. Matthew’s weekly bulletin, which calls the church “a welcoming parish” no matter what your status is with the Catholic Church or your current marital situation or your sexual orientation – to name just a few of the examples listed.
COMMENT: All are welcome at a Catholic Church – welcome to repent and amend one’s life. If one is in a state of adultery (divorce and remarried) or is an active sodomite or lesbian, then one is welcome to repent. Failure to repent will result in the damnation of hell. And failure to tell people that their behavior will jeopardize their eternal soul is demonstrably unmerciful, unkind, and unjust.
STATEMENT: Some may question McSweeney’s record on inclusion. In 2013, for example, St. Matthew bowed out of hosting Mecklenburg Ministries’ annual interfaith Thanksgiving service rather than formally invite music director Steav Bates-Congdon to help organize the event. Bates-Congdon had been fired the year before by another Catholic church after he traveled to New York to marry his longtime male partner and then put the wedding photos on Facebook.
McSweeney, who participates in celebrating an annual Mass for gay and lesbian Catholics in the the diocese, said his issue with Mecklenburg Ministries was “you don’t tell me who to invite.” Also, at the time, Bishop Jugis had just championed a 2012 campaign to amend the N.C. Constitution to reaffirm the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. (That ban was later thrown out by federal courts.)
COMMENT: The Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear:
2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.
STATEMENT: McSweeney also said he “won’t go there” in taking a stand on whether women should be ordained priests in the Catholic Church. Recent popes, including Francis, have said it will never happen, even though several large mainline Protestant denominations have been ordaining women clergy for years.
But McSweeney does favor letting women become deacons, which would give them the authority to preach at Mass, baptize and perform weddings.
And the monsignor said about 95 percent of his 63 staffers at St. Matthew are women, including the church’s chief financial officer, its chief of facilities and most of its clinical counselors.
‘Never say no to Jesus’
COMMENT: Pope John Paul II in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis explains in detail the prohibition on woman’s ordination. Basically, a woman cannot be man under any circumstance, and as such cannot be a Father or (hence) priest. It is not her function. And in 1st Timothy 2:11-15 St. Paul forbade women to have authority over men. This means that women cannot be deacons (because Christ ordained no deaconettes), priests (because Christ ordained no priestesses), or bishops (because Christ consecrated no bishopresses). It is not that the Church says no to Jesus as implied, but that the Church says yes to Jesus when the Holy Spirit forbade through St. Paul women to have authority over men.
STATEMENT: This weekend, 1,400 volunteers at St. Matthew will do what they’ve done every year for 15 years: Pack 335,000 meals bound for local food banks and for Haiti and Jamaica – the two countries McSweeney is considering as his next home.
He plans to work with the Missionaries of the Poor, a Catholic group at work on the ground in both countries.
McSweeney feels called.
“I’ve had the privilege of being in many different roles in ministry. ... But I think I need now to to experience (poverty),” McSweeney said. “I have a little motto: ‘You never say no to Jesus.’ And he keeps talking to me.”
COMMENT: Wonderful. Yet the command Jesus gave is NOT one of social justice but this:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you… Matthew 28:19-20
STATEMENT: McSweeney’s advice to his successor: “Stay out of the way a little bit and let God’s people do what they’re called to do. I’ve been quoted and I mean it, that the star here is not a priest.” It’s Jesus, he said, and the church is like a jigsaw puzzle, with each person fitting in in some capacity.
COMMENT: Jesus is not a star. Jesus is the Logos, the eternal only begotten Son of the Living God. To call Jesus “the star here” is to demean Him. We go to Mass to worship Him and to eat His Body and drink His blood. That ought to put fear and trembling into us for we as sinful human beings are unworthy of His omnipotent and omniscient greatness.
STATEMENT: McSweeney also points to the front of St. Matthew’s weekly bulletin, which calls the church “a welcoming parish” no matter what your status is with the Catholic Church or your current marital situation or your sexual orientation – to name just a few of the examples listed.
COMMENT: All are welcome at a Catholic Church – welcome to repent and amend one’s life. If one is in a state of adultery (divorce and remarried) or is an active sodomite or lesbian, then one is welcome to repent. Failure to repent will result in the damnation of hell. And failure to tell people that their behavior will jeopardize their eternal soul is demonstrably unmerciful, unkind, and unjust.
STATEMENT: Some may question McSweeney’s record on inclusion. In 2013, for example, St. Matthew bowed out of hosting Mecklenburg Ministries’ annual interfaith Thanksgiving service rather than formally invite music director Steav Bates-Congdon to help organize the event. Bates-Congdon had been fired the year before by another Catholic church after he traveled to New York to marry his longtime male partner and then put the wedding photos on Facebook.
McSweeney, who participates in celebrating an annual Mass for gay and lesbian Catholics in the the diocese, said his issue with Mecklenburg Ministries was “you don’t tell me who to invite.” Also, at the time, Bishop Jugis had just championed a 2012 campaign to amend the N.C. Constitution to reaffirm the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. (That ban was later thrown out by federal courts.)
COMMENT: The Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear:
2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.
STATEMENT: McSweeney also said he “won’t go there” in taking a stand on whether women should be ordained priests in the Catholic Church. Recent popes, including Francis, have said it will never happen, even though several large mainline Protestant denominations have been ordaining women clergy for years.
But McSweeney does favor letting women become deacons, which would give them the authority to preach at Mass, baptize and perform weddings.
And the monsignor said about 95 percent of his 63 staffers at St. Matthew are women, including the church’s chief financial officer, its chief of facilities and most of its clinical counselors.
‘Never say no to Jesus’
COMMENT: Pope John Paul II in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis explains in detail the prohibition on woman’s ordination. Basically, a woman cannot be man under any circumstance, and as such cannot be a Father or (hence) priest. It is not her function. And in 1st Timothy 2:11-15 St. Paul forbade women to have authority over men. This means that women cannot be deacons (because Christ ordained no deaconettes), priests (because Christ ordained no priestesses), or bishops (because Christ consecrated no bishopresses). It is not that the Church says no to Jesus as implied, but that the Church says yes to Jesus when the Holy Spirit forbade through St. Paul women to have authority over men.
STATEMENT: This weekend, 1,400 volunteers at St. Matthew will do what they’ve done every year for 15 years: Pack 335,000 meals bound for local food banks and for Haiti and Jamaica – the two countries McSweeney is considering as his next home.
He plans to work with the Missionaries of the Poor, a Catholic group at work on the ground in both countries.
McSweeney feels called.
“I’ve had the privilege of being in many different roles in ministry. ... But I think I need now to to experience (poverty),” McSweeney said. “I have a little motto: ‘You never say no to Jesus.’ And he keeps talking to me.”
COMMENT: Wonderful. Yet the command Jesus gave is NOT one of social justice but this:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you… Matthew 28:19-20
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