We are to “welcome homosexuals”. The problem is, no one is really explaining what this means.

Welcoming Gays: 

How Do I Do That?

by Fr. Dwight Longenecker

The buzz word in the synod this month, and in the general discussion about homosexuals is the word “welcome”

We are to “welcome homosexuals”.

The problem is, no one is really explaining what this means.

I hope those who feel strongly about this matter–who have responded with visceral compassion on the poor homosexual persons who have been the victims of bullying will not mind examining the question with an open mind.

How, exactly, does one “welcome gays” and how is the welcome we offer gays any different than the welcome we give to every other person?

Furthermore, what do we mean by “homosexual” or “gay”?

For the sake of argument I’ll use “homosexual” to mean any person who experiences a predominantly same sex attraction.

I’ll use “gay” to refer to those who are sexually active and committed not only to sexual relations with a person of the same sex, but also to what might be called “gay activism”. In other words, their “gayness” is more than sexual activity. It also involves political activism and an ideological stance.

I realize it is more complicated than that, but the distinctions are useful for the sake of discussion.

If Catholics are called to “welcome gays” then it is obvious that this is impossible except in the case that the “gay person” begins the process of repudiating their false, anti-Catholic ideology and lifestyle. Gays would be welcome in the Catholic faith as a Communist would be welcome in the Republican party–welcome to change his mind; welcome to convert; welcome to adopt a different viewpoint, lifestyle and belief system.

The gay lifestyle is repugnant to any right thinking Catholic. The gay ideology is anti-Catholic and the gay manifesto is manifestly un Christian. Any attempts to meld the two and create some kind of gay Catholicism is unthinkable. It would be a new religion which could only exist through the destruction of the old.

In saying that, there is no cause for persecution of gay people.

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