Saint John the Evangelist, a parish in San Diego’s homosexual Hillcrest neighborhood notorious for its promotion of pro-sodomy initiatives, advertises a 5:00 PM Sunday Mass hosted by the church’s LGBTQ Ministry. The parish also offers an LGBTQ monthly social/potluck, LGBTQ prayer and support group, and other activities, and has marched in San Diego’s “gay pride” parade.
Since learning about the Sunday “LGBTQ liturgy celebration,” the faithful have been showing up every Sunday at 4:30 PM to pray the Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy in reparation for this error.
Led by Ofelia Olguin, the prayer warriors have been growing in number as more Catholics find out about this abomination. “We really want to be here in June when Pride Month is celebrated,” says Andres Wong, who has been praying faithfully for the conversion of those in the parish who are misled.
“There is no reason for any parish to hold an ‘LGBTQ liturgy celebration’ or ‘LGBTQ’ anything,” says another prayer warrior who wishes to remain anonymous. “There is only one Mass, and only male or female human beings. There are male and female Catholics who struggle with various sins, and some of them struggle with homosexual temptations that they must fight to overcome. Why is homosexuality such a special sin that it deserves its own Mass and ministries? I suspect the reason is because that sin is being condoned, not discouraged.”
The parish website contains a link to San Diego Cardinal Robert McElroy’s January article in America Magazine calling for ‘radical inclusion’ for “L.G.B.T. people, women and others in the Catholic Church.” In the article, McElroy posits that the Church is a field hospital and the Eucharist is medicine, implying it should not be denied to anyone, regardless of the state of their soul. The cardinal also talks about “reverence for conscience in the Catholic faith” and states it is “conscience that has the privileged place” while omitting that conscience must be well-formed in accord with Church teaching. In effect, McElroy’s article can be used by pro-homosexual congregations as an imprimatur to promote sodomy.
St. John’s website conveniently omits mentioning paragraph 2357 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which states, “Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ’homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.”
Those who pray fear that the leaders of the “LGBTQ Ministry” are active in the homosexual lifestyle and endanger parishioners who are not being catechized properly to realize that this is a heretical and sinful activity.
These recent Masses and “LGBTQ” events are not new to St. John’s. In 2017, then-Bishop McElroy and then-auxiliary Bishop John Dolan, now bishop of Phoenix, celebrated a Mass there to commemorate the 20th publication anniversary of the U.S. bishops’ controversial document Always Our Children. The LGBTQ ministry itself was established by a “gay,” civilly-“married” man, Aaron Bianco, who worked at the parish with the full blessing of McElroy.
Many are concerned that Cardinal McElroy is using St. John’s as a template to spread his vision of “radical inclusion” to all the other parishes and cause great harm to the faith in San Diego. Springfield, Illinois Bishop Thomas Paprocki, commenting on Cardinal McElroy’s article in America Magazine, suggests that the Cardinal is a heretic. And, by proclaiming heretical statements, McElroy has effectively excommunicated himself. Someone guilty of heresy, the bishop continues—citing Canon 1364—separates himself from the Church. He reaches the sobering conclusion: “Thus a cardinal of the Catholic Church, like any other Catholic who denies settled Catholic teaching, embraces heresy, the result of which is automatic excommunication from the Catholic Church.”
We are praying for the conversion of Cardinal McElroy and for those at St. John to be correctly taught the beauty and truth of our Catholic faith.
Photos below from the parish website. https://www.sjesandiego.org/lgbtq
