Holy Week and Easter posts on the Queering the Church blog - do such things mock what we hold sacred?

Seeing that Easter is a season of immense joy and the triumph of Christ's love for us, I have seriously wondered whether not it is appropriate to post this following item - for it might dampen our celebration of the holy Resurrection. After some thought and prayer, though, I decided it was better to highlight this issue than to collude with those who seem to think that mocking Christ is something that will have no consequences for their souls. St Paul warns that "God is not mocked" (cf Gal 6:7), so I feel we have a duty to speak openly when others try and turn the most wonderful Good News of Life into what appears to be a mockery or even a celebration of sin.

One of the catechists from a leading Westminster parish told me during Holy Week that she has attended the (pro-"LGBT") Soho Masses, "in order to support the mission to homosexuals". Knowing that this woman is devoted to the things of God and was honestly seeking to help these men live chaste lives, I asked her what she made of these pro-homosexual events. She told me that at first she believed that the Archbishop of Westminster wouldn't allow a Diocesan organisation to promote the "gay agenda", but that some of what went on at the Masses had challenged this view. She told me that she'd also met a few of those who ran the Soho Masses, including Terence Weldon (whose in charge of extraordinary ministries there). So I directed her to the posts on Weldon's blog, called Queering the Church. To say that she was horrified when she learnt about this blog would be an understatement. In fact, this poor soul told me she would never again attend the pro-gay Masses, and felt very let down by the Vicar General (in whose parish the Soho Masses are held, and who fully supports these events).

Well, over the weekend, I decided to see whether or not Terence Weldon had posted anything about Holy Week and Easter. Surely, I thought, I've been too harsh on these men who are trying, in their way, to work out their own salvation? So, I visited his blog, rather innocently, expecting maybe a few images of the Crucified Christ and a note about the joys of Easter. What I came across on Queering the Church, though, were what I consider to be some of the most blasphemous things I have ever seen in my entire life. During the holiest of Christian weeks, the man in charge of readers and extraordinary ministers at the Soho Masses, and who has a link to his blog on the Soho Masses website, seemed to be celebrating the "Queer Christ"!

The Queering the Church post for Easter Sunday had a very homoerotic image of "Christ" by an artist called Douglas Blanchard. This painting seemed to depict Our Lord as a muscle-boy (or "gym-bunny"?), surrounded by other muscle-men who look like members of the Village People (are they meant to represent the disciples?). Terry Weldon explained this image by posting something from The Queer Bible Commentary by Thomas Bonhache. This book quotes a "queer theologian", called Robert Goss, who said: “On Easter, God made Jesus queer in his solidarity with us. In other words, Jesus came out of the closet and became the ‘queer Christ”.

On Good Friday (in a post called "The Temple Veil Was Torn in Two"), Terence Weldon wrote that "...those who have acquired power in the Church have steadily sought to re-establish precisely the same kind of authoritarian, rule-book religion that the passion destroyed." In a manner that would embarrass even an obsessed devotee of Luther, he went on to castigate the Catholic Church for having "...a dual caste system: the familiar priestly caste with its layers of clerical and episcopal rank, and a sexual caste system that places (celibate) prelates at the apex of purity, followed by lay virgins, then fertile married couples, and sexual transgressors way down below." According to Terence Weldon, "we" have "to challenge the Church to set aside these artificial constructs, and re-establish the kind of Church that Christ left behind – not the one that he resisted." Apparently, Weldon seems convinced that the "early Christians followed Jesus in their inclusivity [whatever that means], welcome to all", whereas the Catholic Church is run by so-called "rule-book" oppressors who want to stop people from having fun. If this is what he really thinks, then why doesn't he become a Protestant?

Weldon goes to to say that, "For queer Christians, it is common to see in the passion and death of Jesus a mirror our own persecution by civil and religious authorities." Christ's Passion, then, seems to be predominantly read in the context of some kind of liberation theology for Terence Weldon. In fact, he also mentioned in the Easter Sunday post (quoting a blog called Jesus in Love), "that The [sic] mystery of resurrection replaced the law of cause and effect with a new reality: the law of love. Jesus lives in our hearts now. Just as he promised, he freed people from every form of bondage. Captives are released from every prison. LGBT people are liberated from every closet of shame." It seems that the Resurrection is not only (or predominantly) about freeing men from sin and death according to this vision, but is really about the promotion gay politics!

Another Good Friday offering on Queering the Church, entitled "The Queer Passion, in Art: The Crucifixion", had yet another image of a homoerotic "Christ" (who looks more like a 'rent-boy' being arrested for importuning) by Douglas Blanchard. Terence Weldon's reflection for Good Friday included this passage, which seems full of what I'd term "Catholic self-hatred":

While the persecution of sexual and other minorities is real, we must remember that a major part of the success of this persecution comes from the way in which we too are forced to carry our own crosses, by internalizing the homophobia as self-hatred and guilt. This is taken to extremes in the Catholic Church and the argument that homoerotic attraction is a cross that we must carry (a claim that Bart [who is apparently a "gay priest"] countered in his post early this week), but it is not our orientation or gender identity that is the cross we bear. There is no sin in love, or in being true to our identity. The cross we carry is built from the prejudice and hatred directed against us. We must not add to the weight of that cross, our own self-loathing. (emphasis mine)

So, it would seem that at least one vocal member of the Soho Masses Pastoral Council believes that it is the Church that's wrong, as opposed to the pro-homosexual agenda of our times. Apparently, all those saintly Christian men and women who have accepted the fact that their same sex attraction is disordered, and carry this cross by living chaste lives (with all the joys and struggles that involves), are merely "self-loathers" according to Weldon. But, surely, he is the one who loathes himself for being Catholic? Aren't people who try and exchange the truth for a lie, believing they can over-ride God's law, and who claim to be Catholic yet hate the Church, just suffering from internalised anti-Catholicism?

The same posting talks a lot about being "victimised" and belonging to a "minority", but Weldon isn't talking about the prejudice that exists against the Catholic Church in Britain, or about the fact that our morality is now something held only by a minority. Neither is he talking about the global persecution of Christians, many of whom weren't allowed to celebrate Easter in places like China, or who have been killed for their love of Christ in places like Pakistan. No, he's talking about homosexuals and how they are somehow being victimised by what one can only assume he sees as a cruel or nasty Church.

In another Holy Week posting on Queering the Church, called "The Queer Passion, in Art: 'They Killed a Faggot'", Terence Weldon seems to liken the tragic murder of a couple of homosexuals and a drag queen to Christ's Passion. No-where in his post does he appear to equate the murder of countless Christians around the world every year to the Cross of Our Lord. As heinous as the (very rare) killing of homosexuals is (for being different, that is - as opposed to the more common murder of homosexuals by their partners or 'rent-boys'), I feel that equating their deaths with the Crucifixion, especially whilst ignoring Christians who have died for their faith in Christ, is very misguided. Yes, Christ's death is mystically united to all our deaths, and to human suffering in all its guises, as well as to our sins - but, those who die for his sake, in his name, in his love, do so as real sharers in his Passion, Cross and, more especially, his Resurrection. As a Jesuit priest preached recently during Mass in Farm Street, "we cannot unite our sufferings to Christ's unless we are in a state of grace".

In relation to the above, the California Catholic Daily reported yesterday that "homosexual activists in California have used the Easter season to mock Catholicism", which apparently they do every year. The article contains descriptions of the "Hunky Jesus Contest", held in San Francisco’s Dolores Park by the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence". I felt that I could not repeat some of the disgusting things that happen at this annual event, as, needless to say, the whole thing revolved around sexual promiscuity - which is something homosexuals seem to be in denial about concerning their life-style. The California Catholic Daily also mentioned that "various homosexual organizations participated in the 'Palm Sunday Big Bulge Vigil'" in San Diego last week. It seems that this blasphemy was intended to mock both Palm Sunday and the Easter Vigil. Although I am sure Terence Weldon did not intend to mock the Passion and Resurrection of Our Lord, one wonders whether he is able to see how many ordinary Catholics would be offended by his words and by images such as those painted by Douglas Blanchard?

It would be good to see blogs such as Queering the Church condemn these heinous acts by the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence" against Christ and his most beloved Bride, the Church. But the question I would really like to ask those behind groups such as the Soho Masses or "queer theology", or Terence Weldon himself, is: which do you love the most, the Church or the gay agenda? For, surely, "a house divided against itself will fall" (cf. Lk 11:17). Or, as Our Lord said in another place, "one cannot serve two masters" (cf. Mt 6:24).

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Some words of wisdom from Archbishop Fulton J Sheen.

Love is not tolerance

"Christian love bears evil, but it does not tolerate it. It does penance for the sins of others, but it is not broad-minded about sin.

The cry for tolerance never induces it to quench its hatred of the evil philosophies that have entered into contest with the Truth. It forgives the sinner, and it hates the sin; it is unmerciful to the error in his mind.The sinner it will always take back into the bosom of the Mystical Body;
but his lie will never be taken into the treasury of His Wisdom.

Real love involves real hatred: whoever has lost the power of moral indignation and the urge to drive the buyers and sellers from the temples has also lost a living, fervent love of Truth.

Charity, then, is not a mild philosophy of 'live and let live'; it is not a species of sloppy sentiment. Charity is the infusion of the Spirit of God, which makes us love the beautiful and hate the morally ugly."

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From the Exsultet

Huius ígitur sanctificátio noctis fugat scélera, culpas lavat:
et reddit innocéntiam lapsis
et mæstis lætítiam.
Fugat ódia, concórdiam parat
et curvat impéria.

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Christ is Risen! He is Risen, indeed! Alleluia!

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NB - all references at "queer" are directly taken from the Queering the Church blog. I would never use such language. In fact, it would seem to me to be the language of those who hate homosexuals, or those who hate themselves.

[Image: "Jesus Rises" from the “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision” set of 24 paintings by Douglas Blanchard; source: Jesus in Love Blog (also found on Queering the Church, see above)]