Quebec priests attack the Church’s teaching

Quebec priests attack the Church’s teaching

Here’s a prime example of why we need guidance from Archbishop Levada. A group of 19 priests in Quebec have issued an open letter denouncing the Church’s teaching on homosexuality. (A French version is available; they are promising an English translation soon.)

The priests are trying to undermine the Canadian bishops’ conference’s recent attempts to lobby Parliament to prevent federal legislation creating same-sex marriage. They claim the teachings of the Church are “homophobic” and outdated. The priests are from Montreal, Joliette, Saint-Jean-Longueil, Gatineau, and Gaspe. None are from Quebec City where Cardinal Marc Ouellet, a Ratzinger disciple, is archbishop and who has been an outspoken defender of the Church’s teachings.

The leader of the group is Father Marc Gravel and he has an ... interesting background. According to some news articles that Diogenes linked to, Gravel was male prostitute and barman in a leather bar before becoming a priest. Now I have no problem with people who leave behind lives of sin and dissolution for forgiveness in Christ. But that’s the key: “leave behind.” Gravel has continued to be a constant critic of the Church’s teaching on homosexuality (and abortion, incidentally) and advocate of gay priests violating their vows.

Father Gravel said the Vatican is wrong to say that homosexuality is a deviance. “Everyone knows that sexual deviations are not exclusively related to gays, but to everyone who has to live his or her sexuality clandestinely. In this matter, the clergy has become masterful, as numerous priests frequent parks, saunas and public washrooms to let off steam,” he said in his letter.

Challenges to the bishop’s authority goes unanswered

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