Madrid, Spain, Oct 11, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).
Father Johan Verschueren, the general counsellor and delegate for the Interprovincial Houses and Works of the Society of Jesus in Rome, expressed his support for the “LGBTQ Catholics” event held recently at the general house of the Society of Jesus in the Eternal City.
Within the context of the Synod on Synodality, the Jesuits hosted an event Oct. 8 in which a group of LGBTQ-identifying people (lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transsexuals, and queer) shared their testimonies and requested greater participation in the ecclesial community.
Verschueren expressed to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, his “moral support” for the event, although he said he did not attend it.
Referring to the members of this group, he said in a conversation with ACI Prensa that “their gender identity was not a moral choice” and claimed that “they were born that way.”
He also reiterated that “they are equally called and loved by Our Lord and Savior, and invited to follow him” and added that “it’s good to hear them give their witness.”
Panel titled ‘What Is the Experience of LGBTQ Catholics?’
The event, titled “What Is the Experience of LGBTQ Catholics?”, was organized by America Media and the pro-LGBT group Outreach, whose founder is Jesuit Father James Martin, who is participating in the Synod on Synodality by appointment of Pope Francis.
The event was opened by Father Antoine Kerhuel, secretary of the Society of Jesus, in the hall of the General Curia, located on the busy Borgo Santo Spirito street very close to the Vatican.
Moderated by Martin, the panel included other guests such as Christopher Vella from the LGBT Catholic organization Drachma in Malta. “Let us allow love to express itself,” Vella urged.
Also participating was Juan Carlos Cruz, a Chilean activist, abuse victim, and member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, who condemned the support that some Church leaders “have given to controversial laws that stigmatize LGBTQ people, especially in places like Uganda.”
Janet Obeney-Williams, a lesbian who lives with another woman in London and was married to her in a civil ceremony, also spoke.
A retired doctor, Obeney-Williams recounted her “conversion” to Catholicism following the welcoming words of Pope Francis.
Several prelates and cardinals also took part, including the Jesuit bishop of Hong Kong and delegate to the synod, Cardinal Stephen Chow, who led an opening prayer for the event, which read in part:
“O Holy Spirit, send us your guiding light of truth, so that our ignorance and prejudices can melt away through this synodal encounter, and a new morn marked by mutual respect and empathic understanding can take shape in our Church for our LGBTQ+ sisters and brothers, as well as for ourselves and our Church as a whole,” the cardinal prayed.
Joanita Warry Ssenfuka, a lesbian Catholic from Uganda who heads the organization Freedom and Roam Uganda, said that Jesus’ message “was one of love” and urged Church leaders “to see LGBT Catholics as human beings and not as the sum of their sins.”
Ahead of the synod, both Martin and Father Timothy Radcliffe, OP, spiritual assistant at the synod and cardinal-designate, published personal reflections on pastoral approaches for Catholics who experience same-sex attraction.
Over the years, critics have accused Martin of rejecting Catholic teaching on the sinfulness of homosexual acts, but he has insisted that he does not reject Church teaching.
The Church’s consistent teaching on homosexuality is outlined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church in Nos. 2357 and 2358, which state that while people with homosexual tendencies must be welcomed “with respect, compassion, and sensitivity,” homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered” and “under no circumstances can they be approved.”
Who is Father Johan Verschueren, SJ?
Verschueren studied botany at the Catholic University of Louvain and later philosophy in Paris. He taught for two years at the Centre for Research and Promotion of the Peasantry in Peru.
He also studied theology at the Catholic University of Louvain from 1991 to 1995 and was superior of the Jesuits in the European Region of the Netherlands.
Since February 2020, he has been general counsellor and delegate for the Interprovincial Houses and Works of the Society of Jesus in Rome.
Verschueren was also the superior of Father Marko Rupnik, a well-known Jesuit accused of committing sexual abuse and whose case is being investigated by the Vatican.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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God is love. Love is not sin. All are welcome to repent.
The best interpretation of these side events, also including two recent articles written by Radcliffe and James Martin, might be that the apparatchiks sense their agenda has crested at the central-committee synod and isn’t going anywhere.
Hence the chorus of swan songs? A long shot, but who knows, maybe the real Holy Spirit isn’t bound to the sophomoric oath of synodal secrecy and has something to say after all. As the saying goes, “God is never late, but He’s never early, either!”
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out” (1 John 4:1).
I hope you are correct. I pray daily that God will protect His Church from these sadly deludedand dangerous forces.
“Father” Johan Verschueren’s statement that gays “were born that way,” is neither proven nor pertinent.
No genetic markers for gayness have ever been identified. And they are not likely to be, since gay “couples” do not reproduce. So the likelihood of such a condition being passed on from one generation to the next is just about nil.
But even if it were true, the “born that way” argument is absurd. Every day, people are born with clubfeet, cleft palates, sickle cell anemia and countless other congenital abnormalities.
We do not deny them help because they are “born that way.” Nor do we encourage them to define themselves by their disorder as we do with gayness.
That a “top” Jesuitical would make such a ridiculous argument does not reflect well on the Jesuitical order. Or on this persistently Dark Vatican.
I’m sure you know this also but sickle cell trait is a mutation that occurred thousands of years ago and is beneficial to its carriers in areas where malaria is endemic. It protects them from malaria.
(It’s not such a good thing for those who inherit the trait from both parents of course. )
💯!!
“O Holy Spirit, send us your guiding light of truth, so that our ignorance and prejudices can melt away through this synodal encounter, and a new morn marked by mutual respect and empathic understanding can take shape in our Church for our LGBTQ+ sisters and brothers, as well as for ourselves and our Church as a whole,” the cardinal prayed.”
Being the eternal little boy in Andersen’s Emperor’s New Clothes story, I’ve asked this question over and over and over and over and over and over again to people who believe sexual perverts are automatically saintly: What exactly is so pure and graceful and holy and “faithful” about being a “bisexual.”
Still waiting for an answer.
Yea verily, here is your awaited “answer”…or, better yet, a question for further synodal “listening” and perpetual dialogue.
…the early emotional/childhood genital abuse leading to much of LGBTQ+ as a whole, has this now metastasized into the cerebral/institutional abuse of the “Church as a whole”?
“Joanita Warry Ssenfuka, a lesbian Catholic from Uganda who heads the organization Freedom and Roam Uganda, said that Jesus’ message “was one of love” and urged Church leaders ‘to see LGBT Catholics as human beings and not as the sum of their sins.’ ”
Well Joanita, how about you see Church leaders as human beings and not as the sum of their stereotyped caricatures of coldblooded cruelty towards those refusing to find their way to repentance despite the benevolent invitations to do so by these leaders you treat with insulting reductionisms.
Never trust a Jesuit who doesn’t have a show n EWTN or who doesn’t publish his books through Ignatius Press.
“Born that way” has been refuted.
This guy needs to get with it.
I’ve long held that the trouble with most liberals is that they’re usually so far behind the times. They tend to become frozen in what passed for liberalism in their youth and young adult years, and then fail to notice that the clock has advanced since then. The race to find a “gay gene” was all the rage 30+ years ago, but it’s no longer the early ‘90s.
If you added up the combined ages at some of the Synod tables would probably total a millennium.
🙄
Much of what we are hearing are First World concerns from the last century’s liberals.
Maybe. But if they were closeted creatures who “come out” and admit their fear of societal damnation, why would they accept their fate by “choosing” that lifestyle? We say “love the “sinner”, but not their sin”. I agree, but how do we do that without isolating them? Today, we have failed miserably. Like current politics, they are seriously threatened by our rhetoric. They are unworthy “fags”, they are “weird”.
We are blessed that our two boys are “straight”. I cannot believe how a parent who is “unlucky” fares.
Mr Morgan, in the current popular culture parents of children who identify against the norm gain more attention and social approbation. And so do ther children.
People choose all kinds of things. Societal acceptance or rejection is irrelevant. Why are you intentionally and consistently defending a lifestyle that is diametrically opposed to biblical teaching? Why are you defending homosexuality?
We all generally agree that there are sins that people commit that warrant partial isolation. That is why we have prisons.
I have a hard time believing that people who are LGBT who do not act on their disordered desires are deliberately isolated by your typical Catholic. For one thing, most won’t be aware of it. For another, I know traditionalist Catholics who have gays as friends. The trouble starts arising when people start talking in support of the sins, and parents have a need to protect their children from their irrational and abominable rhetoric. But that applies even if the speaker isn’t gay.
The way that gays typically cannot help being isolated is when it comes to matrimony. Everyone with any sinful inclinations is required to sacrifice something, whether to overcome them, or to live with them while resisting them. Some sacrifice more, some less, in different areas. Most of us deal with some form of isolation, for some length of time.
The Pontiff Francis and the Jesuits (and others) mentioned above are in an eternally failing mission: they are pretending that their sexual disorientation is benign and their sexual behavior is virtuous, and that they know something Jesus didn’t know (so says “His Eminence” Cardinal Hollerich, SJ).
What Jesus wants, surely, is that these men and women be transformed, that they put on the mind and heart of Christ.
And in obedience to Jesus, and for the sake of these men and women, I join all others who are praying (and wherever possible working) that they turn toward the voice of The Good Shepherd, and turn away from the falsehood that enslaves them.
As to their standing in the Church, they are to be confronted and entreated to follow Christ, who is the only Way, for all of us.
And as to any Church or Vatican building or diocesan office occupied by people who think and talk and act in alliance with these disoriented Jesuits, may God empty out every single one of those Churches and buildings and diocesan offices, and the doors close behind them.
A priest friend of mine once was discerning a vocation with the Jesuits. He left, he told me, when he was “hit on” by homosexuals in the community once too many times. It’s a dying order because it’s become morally corrupt.
St Ignatius would not be happy with today’s Jesuits. The order, in and of itself, is awesome. But it’s been perverted and twisted into the face of the LGBTQ+ Alphabet, XYZ, etc wing of the Church.
Pope Francis a couple months ago was asked what he’s say to someone who would consider a vocation to the S.J. His joke was that he should be a Dominican instead! Even though Francis is a Jesuit, and more liberal than his predecessors, I think even he knows that the Jesuits have gone off their rocker.
I love the idea of the Jesuits, but they have gone astray from their original purpose.
Take the Carmelites for example. They rock. The Jesuits are crumbling FROM the Rock.
Were those homosexuals Catholic priests?
Ecumenical New Church is open to all religions being equal, all pagan lifestyles being acceptable. Ecumenical New Church – which squats the eclipsed Catholic Church – is a Freemasonic Construct with a liturgy rescripted by freemasons.
This is NOT the Catholic Church but as Apostate Ape of the Church.
Predictable response from conservative Catholics, the kind that are reasonably orthodox meaning that they’re open [to degrees depending on on’e intransigent concept of Christianity] to change as described by Vincent Lerins or Benedict XVI, change that enhances the conveyance of truth. Not heresy as espoused by the Jesuit in command.
What the Jesuits, apart from the saints within the order who need to be saints in a sea of heresy are guilty of is intellectualism, the same ideological culprit that’s infected the minds of the German Synodale Weggers [yes. I’ve invented a new word]. For the Jesuits it seems to extend back to St Francis Xavier and his admonitions to his confreres studying in Rome, rather than bring Christ to the foreign missions. Pride as usual took over, when we make our intellect the determiner of truth. Germany is complex, although intellectualism there seems related to German success, one might justifiably add superior success in technology and scientific research. World recognition is a heady thing to handle with humility.
As with the Jesuits the mind becomes one’s God, in that their intellect is so grand that it has to be right. So we had the Bultmanns, the Hegels, Engels, Heideggers and on and on until we arrived at the far less talented but similarly arrogant Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Bishop Georg Bätzing. Although the Germans have hope with men like Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki who CNA reported 9.25. 23 was ‘under fire’ for reprimanding a priest who blessed a same sex couple. Unfortunately the Jesuits don’t have anyone as significant. And more unfortunate is that the movement toward homosexualization of Church and world is engineered by a Jesuit Roman Pontiff. Although I believe in hope, not the bromide kind, rather the theology of Hope as a necessary response along with sanctifying resistance.
Stat crux dum volvitur orbis.
“While the world changes, the cross stands firm.
St Bruno.
Conserving the deposit of faith whilst baptising the nations through time is Catholicism’s mission: Catholicism is quite simply the Conservative’s religion.
There is much abuse of the term “love,” particularly when used in relation to God. The Father is love and yet the Son, Jesus the Christ, still submitted completely to the will of the Father and bled from every pore and was crucified. Love is the invitation to come unto Christ and repent.
What has always been of concern with each of these supporters of heresy is the absence of any discussion about repenting, penance, submission, and self-sacrifice. This philosophy can only exist when the focus is on the self, the purpose of this mortal existence is set aside, and sexual gratification becomes the sole reason for being.
What is the experience of those who frame a question in terms of “what is the experience” of those addressing a particular value in the human experience as if “experience” is what matters? I suspect it takes a great deal of experience with human foolishness to have not understood that human experience includes delusional foolishness and delusional refusals to come to terms with one’s lapses into willful evil.
If this guy is a “top” Jesuitical, it boggles the mind to imagine what the *bottom* Jesuiticals must think.
Predictable response from conservative Catholics, the kind that are reasonably orthodox meaning that they’re open to change as described by Vincent Lerins or Benedict XVI, change that enhances the conveyance of truth. Not heresy as espoused by the Jesuit in command.
What the Jesuits, apart from the saints within the order who need to be saints in a sea of heresy, are guilty of is intellectualism, the same ideological culprit that’s infected the minds of the German Synodale Weggers [yes. I’ve invented a new word]. For the Jesuits it seems to extend back to St Francis Xavier and his admonitions to his confreres studying in Rome, rather than bring Christ to the foreign missions. Pride as usual took over, when we make our intellect the determiner of truth.
Germany is complex, although intellectualism there seems related to German success, one might add superior success in technology and scientific research. World recognition is a heady thing to handle. As with the Jesuits the mind becomes one’s God, that the intellect is so grand that it has to be right. So we had the Bultmanns, the Hegels, Engels, Heideggers and on and on until we arrived at the less talented Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Bishop Georg Bätzing. However, we mustn’t forget Germany gave us the great Benedict XVI , arguably the finest theologian in a century. His Jesus of Nazareth a masterful testament to our Lord and Messiah.
Germans have hope with men like Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki who CNA reported 9.25. 23 was ‘under fire’ for reprimanding a priest who blessed a same sex couple. Unfortunately the Jesuits don’t have anyone as significant. And more unfortunate is that the movement toward homosexualization of Church and world is engineered by a Jesuit Roman Pontiff. Although I believe in hope, not the bromide kind, rather the theology of Hope as a necessary response along with sanctifying resistance.
To be Catholic is to be conservative.
Liberalism is a sin (AD33-AD1958)
I was born enthusiastically heterosexual. Well, maybe not enthusiastic until I reached puberty, but so what? We are all called to chastity, whether clergy, religious, married or single. The Church should welcome all who aspire to be chaste, and preach repentance to those who do not.
This is no surprise as it is consistent with the counterfeit magisterium and it’s counterfeit pope who denies The Office Of The MUNUS, the “forever” office, grounded in Sacred Tradition , Sacred Scripture , and the teaching of The True Magisterium, grounded in sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, The Deposit Of Faith that Christ Has Entrusted to His Church glory The Salvation Of Souls that affirms the Sanctity of the marital act within The Sacrament Of Holy Matrimony consistent with The God’s intention for respect for The Sanctity of all human life as God intend. Sexual acts that deny the inherent Dignity of the human person as a beloved son or daughter are not and can never be acts of authentic Love, but are in essence a perversion of authentic Love because Love, which is always rightly ordered to the inherent personal and relational Dignity of the persons existing in a relationship of Love, is devoid of lust and thus every form of demeaning sexual act.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVuM66ASKP4
You can no longer move forward as if the error of the counterfeit church with its counterfeit pope , which is attempting to create a counterfeit magisterium, that is anti Christ, has not been fully exposed.
God Save The Papacy !
The Faithful can no longer remain silent in the face of the counterfeit church of apostasy attempting to subsist within The One Body Of Christ.
“Canon 188 §4 states that among the actions which automatically (ipso facto) cause any cleric to lose his office, even without any declaration on the part of a superior, is that of “defect[ing] publicly from the Catholic faith” Canon 750 1. Those things are to be believed by divine and catholic faith which are contained in the word of God as it has been written or handed down by tradition, that is, in the single deposit of faith entrusted to the Church, and which are at the same time proposed as divinely revealed either by the solemn Magisterium of the Church, or by its ordinary and universal Magisterium, which in fact is manifested by the common adherence of Christ’s faithful under the guidance of the sacred Magisterium. All are therefore bound to avoid any contrary doctrines. 2. Furthermore, each and everything set forth definitively by the Magisterium of the Church regarding teaching on faith and morals must be firmly accepted and held; namely those things required for the holy keeping and faithful exposition of the deposit of faith; therefore, anyone who rejects propositions which are to be held definitively sets himself against the teaching of the Catholic Church.[new]”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVuM66ASKP4
Too much of this «neo jesuitical» navel gazing is very bad for the eyesight.
As is the anglosaxon prurient puritanism which gives rise to obsessing over matters sexual.
One would think these LGBTXYZ actors had invented the homosexual state so keen are they to explain it to world.
Does anyone still deny that the Catholic Church has a MASSIVE homosexual problem? First, there was a child abuse crisis. Everyone knew it was caused by homosexual priests. But everyone in the Catholic Writer’s world simply looked the other way. Gradually, the homosexuality crisis grew greater and greater, until Cardinal McCarrick was exposed, another homosexuality crisis became obvious, the entire American Episcopacy was revealed to have massive homosexuality problems – and almost no one would look into it or expose what was going on. Famous Catholics like George Weigel refused to even mention homosexuality in connection with the McCarrick crisis – it took months for him to even start to acknowledge the homosexual roots of the crisis. And then he would not use THE word – instead, he hid behind a vapid phrase “sexually deviant” which could have applied to anything. But trust me – everyone in the world knows the Catholic church has a homosexuality crisis – and now it has risen to a POPE who advances creepy crawly perverts like Radcliffe to be Cardinals. Proven homosexual perverts like Inzoli, Zanchetta, and others – not to mention Rupnik and James Martin are out actively promoting homosexuality. Even Bishop Barron stays mum on the issue, proving that we live in an age of cowards and yes men who dare not rock the boat. Pope Francis has made homosexuality an integral part of EVERY Synod, and he knows he can get many to accept homosexuality if he introduces it slowly enough, over a period of years – hence the expanded, fake synod and the elevation of numerous homosexuals into the top levels of the church. What are we going to do when the next pope comes out as an open homoosexual? I doubt anyone in the Catholic world has the stones to stand up to this. The church is on the verge of complete ruin, and everyone is whistling past the graveyard and hoping the homosexual alligator will eat them last.
So much anger and unchristian attitudes in the replies to this article. LGBTQ Catholics invited to share their story – – as Dr Amy did last week on this site. Any wonder LGBTQ children of God avoid our Catholic faith? Jesus came to redeem all who believe in Him – same sex attraction, opposite sex attraction and everywhere in between. I suspect Jesus would sit down with our LGBTQ brothers and sisters and listen to their faith journey stories.
Our sexual attractions do not define us, Mr. Steven. God forbid, lest we next have Minor Attracted brothers and sisters talking about their faith journeys. Or…The categories are endless.
Christ met everyone where they were but He didn’t leave people as He found them.
Alphabet ideology is opposed to revealed Catholic Truth. The ONLY point of contact is CONVERSION from Alphabet Victim to Catholicism.
Nazi ideology is opposed to revealed Catholic Truth. The ONLY point of contact is CONVERSION from Nazi victim to Catholicism.
In partial answer to your question, Christ probably would not say that “God made you that way.” He might even ask who did, and then possibly mention something about a millstone around their necks (Mt 18:6).
And, about “same sex attraction, opposite sex attraction and everywhere in between [say what],” this construction imposes an artificial and untrue equivalency between binary/complementary human sexuality and its ideological perversion which is not in the middle (“everywhere in between”) but very much at the margins. What some see as “anger and unchristian attitudes” is mostly resistance to this kind of confused, uninvited, and activist mind-bending as toward the parody gay “marriage” (2 Tim 4:3).
But, yes, the child victims of disrupted backgrounds do deserve to not be disdained. And, they are not, but are to be nurtured and counseled toward healing by specialists and the Divine Physician, and toward celibacy just like all the rest of the unmarried and so-called “opposite-sex attracted.”
In the name of all that’s good and holy, is there any good and faithful priests in Belgium? Are there any good Jesuits? I’m SICK, SORE AND TIRED of heating about priests like the above!!! Where’s the faithful are they scared in speaking out?