NuChurch Bishop in Paris Calls for Church Teaching on Homosex to Evolve

Fr Longenecker takes a look t the NuChurch schism to which this non-Catholic Bishop belongs and explains why they don't simply leave the Church.

From Fr Dwight Longenecker

In this article from New Ways Ministry it is reported that the new Archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich is calling on the Catholic Church to revise her teaching about homosexuality. The language of the Catechism is out of date according to the NuChurch Archbishop.

What is NuChurch? Well, perhaps you’ve heard of the “Old Catholic Church”? This is the name of a breakaway sect from Holland in the nineteenth century. NuChurch is the New schism in the Catholic Church that follows the Zeitgeist instead of the Holy Ghost. NuChurch clergy, bishops and laity don’t actually have the courage to breakaway and form their own sect. To do that they would have to believe something–anything–strongly enough to take such a step. NuChurch schismatics don’t actually have anything positive to adhere to. All they can do (like their Protestant predecessors) is react against the things they don’t like in the Catholic Church. The big difference is Martin Luther and his gang had the courage and convictions to actually be honest and breakaway to form their own church. The members of NuChurch are staying put to undermine the Catholic faith from within.

Take the issue of homosexuality, for example. Members of NuChurch don’t actually endorse anything positive. Instead they are against the simple, practical definition of homosexuality expressed in the catechism. Oh yes, they will paint their negativity with a sugar coating of compassion and concern for the marginalized as if this is something positive. But this is phony compassion and is nothing particularly new. We have always been called to be kind, to reach out to the marginalized, to accept sinners who come in repentance and to welcome all to the narrow way of being Christ’s disciple.

But this is not what the members of NuChurch mean by compassion and welcome to all. They mean to normalize homosexuality. The author of the article in New Ways Ministry is astute in recognizing that Archbishop Ulrich doesn’t actually specify how we are to “evolve the catechism”. There is always a lot of fuzzy wuzzy language in these discussions, but nobody actually has the gumption or the guts to state specifically and concretely what they mean.

We know what the homosexuals activists are against, but what are they actually for?

Does the Archbishop wish for the Catechism to say something like, “Homosexuality is God’s gift to humanity–a creative and positive alternative to his first creation of man and woman in Eden”? What exactly does NuChurch Archbishop mean? Does he mean to say, “Sexual intercourse between two men is a beautiful act of consummation of their love according to God’s will and the order of creation”?

Does he mean to say that homosexuality is a positive moral good or just that it is a weakness that we must tolerate? If it is a weakness then we’re back to saying it is “intrinsically disordered”. If it is a weakness then it is inferior and that is still unacceptable. If the Archbishop believes homosexuality is a positive moral good, then he should say so. And if homosexuality is a positive moral good, then it must be a universal moral good. If a thing is good it is good for all people. We don’t say “Honesty is good for some people and not for others.” We don’t say “Stealing is wrong for some and not for others.” If a thing is a positive moral good it is a good thing for all people. A moral good cannot be good only for some people and not for others. Does the Archbishop mean to say, “Homosexuality is a universal moral good–and all humanity must seek to live out this moral good?”

Happily I don’t need to have an opinion on the matter. The Catechism language is both clear and compassionate. It says homosexual desire is intrinsically disordered (something everyone knows if they stop to consider the biology) and that we must treat people who experience same sex attraction with concern, care and acceptance. and that “every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”