Archdiocese criticized for implementing Courage

CWN - January 06, 2012

Gay activists in Connecticut and elsewhere are criticizing the Archdiocese of Hartford for its decision to start a chapter of Courage, an apostolate that helps those with same-sex attractions to live chastely.

“These are people in the Roman Catholic Church who need our care and love,” said Deacon Robert Pallotti, who worked to establish the chapter. “They need to be accepted, affirmed and supported as Roman Catholics trying to remain faithful to Church teachings.”

“I can’t tell you how many kids I work with who have been spiritually wounded by this and similar religious perspectives,” said Robin McHaelen of True Colors, a Hartford organization that hosts the largest gay and lesbian youth conference in the nation. “In my opinion, that's the abomination.”

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Show 5 Comments? (Hidden)Hide Comments
  • Posted by: bkmajer3729 - Jan. 06, 2012 7:51 PM ET USA

    Sin is sin. Let's call a spade a spade.

  • Posted by: ElizabethD - Jan. 06, 2012 7:00 PM ET USA

    People participate in Courage voluntarily! Courage members are by and large same-sex oriented faithful Catholics, and in my experience they get a due amount of respect from fellow Catholics. We all are obliged to chastity in our state in life. Chastity harms NO ONE. Courage is a help to its members to live a life of integrity, goodness and faith, in the Catholic Church. This article illustrates why that's needed, there are some who attack them just for choosing chastity and Catholicism. Absurd.

  • Posted by: Gaby - Jan. 06, 2012 6:49 PM ET USA

    What about all the kids who have been spiritually (and physically) wounded by the attitude that sex is a toy, being gay is ok, gay sex is ok -no mention of the greatly reduced life expectency and of course, all psychological and spiritual problems are the result of religious put-downs, not anything to do with ingrained sin. Their real beef with Courage: the can no longer act all self-righteous at the Church's "ignoring" or "condemning" or "ostracizing" gays.

  • Posted by: AgnesDay - Jan. 06, 2012 4:07 PM ET USA

    You know you are on to something good when you start meeting resistence. Kudos to the Hartford Archdiocese.

  • Posted by: Lucius49 - Jan. 06, 2012 9:58 AM ET USA

    This pastoral outreach is confronting the ideology and challenging it. The ideology like all such ideologies sees reality simply as the ideas in one's head rather than conforming to an objective norm or order. Hence nature, sexuality, etc. can be re-determined since it is simply a function of the human mind. This is why there is such an outcry against Courage and the notion of reparative therapy which is based on an objective order of truth and goodness.

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