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Wednesday, September 23, 2015
POPE FRANCIS FACES "ROGUES GALLERY"~VATICAN RECOILS AT WHITE HOUSE INVITATION LIST COMPRISED OF GAYS, TRANSGENDERS, PRO ABORTION CATHOLICS
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
"I can't wait to host him because I think it will help spark an even broader conversation of the sort that we're having today." President Obama gushed this sentiment regarding Pope Francis last May at Georgetown University during a panel discussion entitled Conversation on Poverty.
Yet the Pope's meeting with President Obama is already sparking intense debate, days before the scheduled event. The White House is planning a welcome ceremony on the South Lawn the morning of Wednesday, September 23. Though it is not clear how many impoverished Americans have tickets to this invitation-only event, Obama has invited homosexual activists, dissenting Catholic groups, an openly gay Episcopalian bishop, and a pro-abortion Catholic sister reprimanded in 2012 by the Vatican for her "radical feminist" views.
"According to a senior Vatican official," writes Francis Rocca for the Wall Street Journal, "the Holy See worries that any photos of the pope with these guests ... could be interpreted as an endorsement of their activities." Rocca reported that White House press secretary Josh Earnest "cautioned against drawing any conclusions on specific guests 'because there will be 15,000 other people there, too.'" But Earnest denied knowing individual names on the guest list.
Others do not so readily dismiss the Vatican's objections. In his American Thinker blog, Rick Moran notes:
Is Obama ignorant of Catholic doctrine regarding same-sex marriage, transgenderism and abortion? Of course not. This is the gigantic pettiness of the man, who seeks to embarrass his guest to make a domestic political point about "tolerance" and "diversity."
The Catholic Church is not a democracy. The pope can't "change his mind" about gay marriage like most Democrats. The Catholic Church will never alter its position on abortion, nor will it recognize a human being's "right" to alter his sex whenever he feels like it.
It's like inviting a neo-Nazi to meet Benjamin Netanyahu. The inappropriateness of the gesture is astounding. But all the Vatican can do is protest — unless they cancel Francis' visit, which isn't going to happen.
The controversial invitees include retired Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, who made headlines when he was ordained in New Hampshire in 2003, becoming his denomination's first openly homosexual bishop. In response, hundreds of parishes broke away from the Episcopal Church, forming the Anglican Church in North America. Last year Robinson divorced his partner of 25 years, Mark Andrew. This was his second divorce, the first taking place in 1985 from his wife, with whom he has two children. Their split was over his homosexuality.
Also slated to welcome Pope Francis at the White House is Matteo Williamson, former co-chair of Dignity USA Transgender Caucus, a dissenting Catholic group that aims to change Catholic teaching on homosexuality. Born female, Williamson now "identifies as a transgender male," according to her bio on the organization's website. Williamson has received funding from leftist organizations such as the Davis-Putter Foundation and the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists for "efforts to create awareness about spiritual abuse" toward LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people.
Joining Williamson is Aaron Ledesma, a biological man who authors a blog called The Gay Catholic. After receiving his invitation from President Obama, Ledesma wrote on the Huffington Post, "SCOTUS legalized gay marriage in the United States this year and we have a Pope who speaks of compassion, love and less judgement [sic] of the LGBT community. The two governing bodies I love and believe in are coming together. Both of which have expressed acceptance and support of the LGBT community. That's why I want to be there at the White House."
Obama has also invited the LGBT activist group GLAAD, which unsuccessfully petitioned the pontiff to meet with them during his U.S. tour. Among GLAAD's representatives will be Frank DeBernardo and Sister Jeannine Gramick, both of whom earned a Vatican rebuke in 1999 for their involvement in homosexual advocacy with their organization, New Ways Ministry. Other dissenting Catholic organizations slated to attend include Call to Action, which advocates for a number of measures in defiance of Church teaching such as women priests, an end to priestly celibacy, and acceptance of homosexuality in the Catholic Church.
However, Sister Simone Campbell is perhaps the most controversial name on the President Obama's guest list. Campbell, a liberal activist who directs the left-leaning Catholic lobby group NETWORK, made waves in 2010 by penning the infamous "Nun's Letter" in support of ObamaCare. President Obama praised the sisters involved for helping to pass the Affordable Care Act, despite opposition from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The year before, Campbell had enthusiastically lobbied for pro-abortion legislation so offensive to church doctrine that the USCCB denounced it as "the Planned Parenthood Economic Stimulus Plan." In 2012, the Vatican reprimanded Campbell for her "serious doctrinal problems" and "radical feminist themes incompatible with the Catholic faith."
What's the point of Obama's political indecorum, inviting opponents of Catholic teaching and raising the ire of the Vatican on the eve of the Pope's visit? Kevin Jones of the Catholic News Agency notes that each of these "activist allies" is "working to target Catholic beliefs and to influence the Synod on the Family." The synod Jones refers to will be held at the Vatican in October and is the second of two meetings — the first held last October. The pope has convened these summits to "respond to new challenges of the family," according to the first synod's working document, Instrumentum laboris. Though it merely sets an agenda for this October, Catholic religious and laity worldwide are complaining that out of it, “much confusion has arisen concerning Catholic moral teaching.” Many believe it gives an unprecedented papal nod to contraception, sodomy, and
Communion for divorced-and-remarried individuals.
Below is the pontiff's U.S. itinerary, marking the first time in his life Pope Francis has visited this country. The USCCB is providing live streaming coverage of all the events of the Holy Father's visit. To access this live coverage, click here.
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
President Obama will apparently test just how far Pope Francis’ notorious tolerance will go by inviting a rogue’s gallery of people opposed to Catholic teaching to greet the pontiff at the White House during his visit next week.
In a stunning show of political indecorum, Obama has invited a series of individuals who publicly flout Catholic teaching, including a pro-abortion religious sister, a transgender woman and the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, along with at least two Catholic gay activists.
The White House was illuminated in gay pride colors on June 26, 2015, after the Supreme Court legalized gay same-sex marriage.
One of the invitees, retired Episcopal bishop Gene Robinson, made history by becoming the first openly gay episcopal bishop in 2003 and subsequently the first to divorce his gay partner in 2014, after having previously separated from his wife of 14 years. He has attended a number of religious events with the Obama administration, offering a prayer at President Obama’s inauguration in 2009 and taking part in the 2014 National Prayer Breakfast.
Mateo Williamson, a cross-dressing woman and former co-chairman of the Transgender Caucus for Dignity USA, has also received an invitation to the White House for Pope Francis’ visit. Williamson says that though she now thinks of herself as a man, she continues to be attracted to males. “Today I identify as a gay man and before that was difficult to understand because I thought that in order to be transgender, in order to be a transgender male that I had to be attracted to females but I never have throughout my entire life.”
Though Pope Francis has said that he doesn’t believe in judging persons and is ready to welcome anyone in Christ’s name, he has also said that Catholics do not accept the modern mentality of transgenderism and once said that gay marriage is the devil’s “attempt to destroy God’s plan.”
“The acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift,” Francis wrote in his encyclical letter on the environment, “is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation.”
Earlier this month, the Vatican officially prohibited transgender persons from being baptismal godparents posing as the opposite sex from which they were born.
In its response, the Vatican Doctrinal Congregation said that “transsexual behavior publicly reveals an attitude contrary to the moral imperative of resolving the problem of one’s sexual identity according to the truth of one’s sexuality.”
Another White House invitee for the Pope’s visit, Sister Simone Campbell, is the pro-abortion executive director of the social justice lobby NETWORK. Campbell fought against the U.S. bishops when Obama’s Affordable Care Act was originally being debated, in an attempt to undermine their abortion and conscience concerns.
Sister Campbell will attend two events: the White House reception and Pope Francis’ address to Congress on Wednesday. Campbell famously helped organize the “Nuns on the Bus” a tour by Catholic religious women to protest the budget of then-Senator Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)
An intermediary for several of the invitations to greet the Pope was Vivian Taylor, a 30-year-old male transvestite who acted as Executive Director of Integrity USA, a homosexual and transgender activist wing of the Episcopal Church, until last March.
“A few months ago I received an invitation from the White House to attend the reception for Pope Francis,” Taylor told CNS News. “I was told I could bring several friends with me,” adding that he is “glad we can bring some LGBT representation to the event.”
VIVIAN TAYLOR, a 30-year-old male transvestite who acted as Executive Director of Integrity USA, a homosexual and transgender activist wing of the Episcopal Church, with "Vicki" Gene Robinson and Rev. Canon Susan Russell
Pope Francis Speaks During Welcome Ceremony at White House
Bill Donohue: Obama Shows ‘Contempt for Catholics’ by Inviting LGBT Guests to Pope Visit
Gay Catholics Seeking Church Acceptance Pin Hopes on Pope
White House guest list for the pope irks some conservatives
Published on Sep 22, 2015
With today’s arrival of Pope Francis in the United States, there is simmering controversy over the Obama administration’s guest list for his visit to the White House, especially among conservative commentators who believe that the president should not have invited people at odds with the Vatican’s positions on gay clergy, same-sex marriage and abortion.
On Monday, Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee waded into the debate with a tweet that said: “Classless decision by @POTUS to transform @Pontifex visit into a politicized cattle call is an insult to millions of Catholics.”
But the Vatican and White House played down reports of differences over the guest list, which includes the first openly gay Episcopal bishop, a leader for transgender rights, a gay Catholic blogger and a prominent nun-lobbyist who bucked the bishops on the Affordable Care Act — for an event on the South Lawn to be attended by about 15,000 people.
A Vatican source involved in the planning of the pope’s trip said it made sense not to “put him in an embarrassing situation.” It wasn’t a big worry, the source added, if there were a small handful of open church dissenters among the thousands.
Moreover, the pope has met with Catholics from the gay and lesbian community and has said he would refrain from judging them.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday, “there’s plenty of opportunity for others to inject politics into this situation. It certainly is a protected constitutional right of theirs to do that. But that's not what the president is interested in.”
Neither the White House nor the Vatican denied that there had been discussions about the guest list. An American source close to the planning said it seemed there was a “misunderstanding” that has been cleared up and that the crowd at the White House would be diverse in views.
Asked if anyone from the Vatican had raised the issue either with the White House or with the U.S. delegation, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, who is traveling with the pope, e-mailed this statement to The Post: “I can only say that the invitations are in the responsibility of the White House. There has been no official statement from the Vatican on this issue.”
The debate over the invitations has been fueled by online conservative critics. An article by Thomas Williams in Breitbart last week said, “In a stunning show of political indecorum, Obama has invited a series of individuals who publicly flout Catholic teaching.”
Ed Morrissey on a site called Hot Air said, “I’m curious. When the Saudis visited the White House this month, did Obama invite women’s-rights activists to dinner with them?”
And a Wall Street Journal article on Sept. 17 quoted a single unnamed Vatican source saying the Holy See was worried that any photos of the pope with guests at the White House welcoming ceremony on Wednesday could be interpreted as an endorsement of their activities.
But on Fox News on Sunday, the Rev. Thomas Rosica, who works in the Vatican’s press office, said, "If some Vatican officials unnamed have expressed concern, that's their issue and they should come forward and give their name.” He added, "There are 15,000 or so people invited to the White House and there are many pro-life people in that audience."
On Monday, Earnest referred reporters to Rosica’s comments and said “there is no plan or strategy that's been put in place to try to stage an event that will advance anybody’s political agenda.”
Meanwhile, people who have received invitations were excited at the prospect of seeing or meeting the pope and president. “I’m still in such shock over everything,” said Aaron Ledesma, who writes a blog called The Gay Catholic and who wrote to the White House office of correspondence and received an invitation.
Ledesma, 23, who came out two and a half years ago, said that the pope’s comments saying he would not judge gay and lesbian members of the church were important to him. “I struggled for a long time not just with my faith but also with being a gay man. If I had heard messages like this when I was 13, it would have changed everything,” he said.
Regarding those who have said that the president shouldn’t have invited people like him, Ledesma said, “what Pope Francis is going to see is America and that’s a nation of diversity.”
He added, “I was bullied as a kid. Nobody’s going to bully me out of my faith today.”
