April 18, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Homosexual groups are seeking the prosecution of a Spanish bishop after he gave a sermon repeating the Catholic Church’s teaching associating the gay lifestyle with the suffering of hell, and then an interview in which he endorsed psychological treatment for homosexual behavior.
Bishop Juan Antonio Reig Plà
Bishop Juan Antonio Reig Plà of the diocese of Alcalá de Henares began the brouhaha on Good Friday earlier this month, when he gave a sermon on the death of the soul as a result of sin.
Referring to various kinds of sinful behavior, including adultery, theft, and failure to pay wages to workers, Reig Plà added homosexual behavior to the list as well. With regard to each example of sin, the bishop spoke of the act itself, and the resulting destruction of the soul.
With regard to homosexual behavior, Reig Plà said: “One must not corrupt people, not even with false messages. I would like to say a word to those people carried away by so many ideologies that end up failing to properly guide human sexuality. They think that since their childhood they have had an attraction to people of their same sex and, sometimes, to prove it they become corrupt and prostitute themselves or go to homosexual nightclubs. I assure you that (there) they find hell.”
After expressions of outrage regarding the bishop’s statement, which reflects the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church on sexual deviance, Reig Plà gave an interview to the Internet news service Religion en Libertad (Religion in Liberty), in which he explained his statement in more detail, and added that homosexual tendencies can be cured through therapy.
In contemporary society, we are confronted with “a program of calculated ‘deconstruction’ that is tolerated in every setting (in education from the earliest stages of childhood, in part of the media, in work and leisure, etc.) which additionally includes the promotion and protection of a great number of evil laws and some powerful lobbying groups that determine what is politically correct, and therefore, socially acceptable,” said the bishop.
“Based on these factors, many children, adolescents, and adults are increasingly invited to question their sexual identity, and eventually they are urged to ‘verify and prove’ their ‘sexual preferences’, and some fall into the trap,” he added.
“Those of us priests who know about the private lives of people, listening to and helping those faithful who request it, know that the consequences for many people are suffering and destruction, coloquially speaking a ‘hell’ in their lives.”
Forgiveness and therapy for those who suffer homosexual tendencies
The bishop pointed out that those who are entangled in the homosexual lifestyle and other forms of sin are not without hope, and can find spiritual healing in the sacraments and teachings of the Catholic Church. Moreover, psychological therapy is available to those who suffer from homosexual tendencies.
“Always with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, who proceeds us in everything, it is possible to initiate the journey of return to the House of the Father,” said Reig Plà. “The Church makes available to all the treasures that Christ has deposited in her: the word of God, the sacraments (in particular those of Penance and the Eucharist), prayer, etc.”
“With the help of the grace of God and accompanied by priests, counselors, and catechists, and in some cases, by professionals, people with SSA (Same Sex Attraction) can live in chastity (dominion over one’s self); not without combat, but the life of every Christian who wants to live according to the will of God includes fighting against temptation until the very day of death,” he said.
Reig Plà noted that both the assessment of homosexual attraction as “intrinsically disordered” and homosexual behavior as “intrinsically evil,” as well as the possibility of therapy for homosexuals, are upheld by the documents of the Catholic Church.
“I have to humbly say that everything that I explained in my homily responds to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church,” said the bishop, who noted that the Catechism of the Catholic Church requires that people with homosexual attractions should “be received with respect, compassion, and delicacy” and that “All trace of unjust discrimination regarding them is to be avoided”.
However, he noted, the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, under the the then-Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, stated in 1986 that such attractions represent “a tendency, more or less strong, towards a behavior that is intrinsically evil from the moral point of view” and are therefore “objectively disordered.” The Catechism, he added, states that homosexual acts “do not proceed from a true affective and sexual complementarity” and “they cannot receive approval in any case.”
Quoting another Vatican document, entitled Human Sexuality: Truth and Meaning, Reig Plà agreed that “parents, for their part, when they notice in their children, at the stage of childhood or adolescence, some manifestation of said tendency or such behavior, should seek out the help of people with expertise and qualifications to give him all possible help” and that “many cases, especially if the practice of homosexual acts has not become deep-rooted, can be positively resolved with appropriate therapy.”
Homosexual and socialist groups seek prosecution
For his statements upholdingCatholic teaching on the immorality of homosexual acts, a number of homosexual and socialist organizations are denouncing Reig Plà and calling for his prosecution, for “homophobia” and “inciting hate.”
The Spanish Confederation of Associations of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transsexuals (COLEGAS) has already presented a formal accusation with Spain’s General Prosecutor, and the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals (FELGTB), with the Gay Collectives of Madrid, have said they also plan to file charges with the Provincial Prosecutor of Madrid for “inciting discrimination and hate,” according to the leftist Spanish newspaper El Pais.
COLEGAS additionally claims that therapy for homosexuals “applied generally in the United States as well as in certain European countries, constitute a clear violation of the charter of the Rights of the Child, as well as the most elemental culture of respect for diversity” and asserts that “the Catholic Church cannot continue using the protection of the Constitution as a permanent defense that permits it to promote segregation and discrimination based on positions abandoned long ago by society.”
The bishop has received support, however, from Catholic organizations, including the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC), pro-life and pro-family groups such as Spain’s influential Hazte Oir (Make Yourself Heard), and the Catholic blogosphere.
For his part, Bishop Reig Plà says he is not backing down.
“I don’t want to offend anyone, but I won’t renounce speaking the truth in charity,” he told Religion in Liberty.
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