Thomas Peters writes:

Last updated on: December 31, 2014 at 2:36 pm by Mark Shea

Thomas Peters writes: 2014-12-31T14:36:54-07:00 Mark Shea

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Papist friends,

This week I was made aware of a disturbing plan put into action by a new group calling itself “Catholics for Equality.” I believe this move represents the new face of a systematic, well-funded effort to undermine the Church’s teaching on issues relating to marriage and cause more dissent among Catholics in America.

Aniello Alioto, one of their founding members of Catholics For Equality, explains their group’s strategic plan to undermine the Church – yes, even in the pews of our parishes (emphasis mine):

One of the most interesting aspects of this campaign is our understanding that we don’t need the consent of our hierarchy to effectively mobilize our fellow pro-equality parishioners inside our churches. This Christmas we will be rolling out the Catholics for Equality line of smartphone apps, which will allow supporters to connect with each other while they’re sitting in the pews or attending an after-church social. The apps will also allow them to report hostile activity in their parish or make a special contribution to the campaign as the Holy Spirit moves them.

Let’s be clear about what Alioto is saying: their organization plans to encourage its membership during Christmas to bring their phones to Church and to “report” from the pew whenever a priest or bishop dares to preach about the family or issues related to marriage, and to conduct fundraising in our sacred spaces. You can read Alioto’s full letter here.

It’s hard to imagine a more intrusive attempt to undermine the freedom of Catholic parishes and pastors to preach what the Church teaches to Catholics who are already constantly maligned outside of Mass about their views. Catholics for Equality has decided to take their fight against the Church into the very heart of our sacred worship spaces.

Furthermore, it goes without saying that I consider the claim that the Holy Spirit will move Catholics to fund — at Mass — organizations explicitly set against our priests and bishops to be blasphemous and offensive; a sin against the Holy Spirit, in fact.
For those of you who want to put together the pieces, Alioto is the Political Director for Progress Now, a George Soros-funded progressive organization. Catholics for Equality is being actively funded by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest and most powerful gay lobbying organization in America. This places Catholics For Equality firmly in the family of fake catholic organizations bent on undermining the Church’s identity and traditional teaching, and turning Catholic against Catholic.

So what do we do?

An attack of this magnitude, one which causes bishops, priests and Catholics to look over their shoulder before daring to proclaim what the Church believes about the meaning of marriage and family, even at Mass, deserves a vigorous response.

Archbishop Broglio has already stated publicly that Catholics For Equality “cannot be legitimately recognized as Catholic”, I call on more bishops to echo Abp. Broglio’s statement, beginning with Donald Cardinal Wuerl of Washington, DC (where Catholics for Equality is located). Gay activists are convinced this is the next stage in their efforts to foment dissent in the Church, if we do not respond quickly and firmly more damage to Catholic unity will be caused.

Catholics for Equality is hosting an open debate next Wednesday at Washington DC’s Georgetown University Intercultural Center Auditorium, 8:30-10:00PM. I call on local DC Catholics to show up and proudly support the Church’s teaching on these issues. Please help me spread the word and join this Facebook group if you can attend.

We haven’t heard the last of Catholics for Equality, or of outside groups attempting to undermine Catholic teaching and solidarity from the inside. Please join me in watching these pages over the next week for more on what we can do to defend our Church, and defend our right as Catholics to carry on the good news of Jesus Christ about marriage and family, in and out of season, and in the face of persecution.

For more thoughts on recent news relating to marriage, read my post on the subject here.

Oremus pro invicem.

Thomas Peters

I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, Peters is perfectly right that Catholics for Equality is one of those fake Catholic groups like Catholics United for the Common Good or Catholics for a Free Choice that are simply political action front groups bent on finding a way to attack the Catholic Church and its obvious and clear teaching. The goal of gay marriage, as I have said many times, is to create a legal basis for persecuting and, if possible, legally suppressing the Catholic Church. That’s the goal.

At the same time, though my reaction to any odious little Soviet apparatchik who comes to Mass to spy on, photograph and intimidate believers is “Bring it, punk!” I’m rather of the opinion that this cockamamie campaign by Catholics for Equality is only going to backfire.

Here’s why:

A) When was the last time you heard a discussion of gay marriage from the pulpit?

[insert crickets sound here]

Yeah. Me too. The homophobic hate isn’t exactly spilling out of the Church. So these “citizen journalists” of the left are going to be mighty disappointed.

B) If some little citizen journalist jerk for CfE does wind up covertly recording some Catholics in their natural habitat gabbing about DADT or expressing the forbidden thought that marriage is supposed to be between one man and one woman, does anybody seriously think that the Stupid Pet Trick of putting such people on Youtube for a 15 Minute Hate by their fellow CfE trolls is going to win converts to their Stalinist little cause? I can’t think of a faster way to alienate the average Catholic in the pew.

What this stunt tells me is that the people organizing it haven’t actually set foot in a Catholic parish in years and have only the most cartoonish notions of what happens at an average Mass. The upside of that is: people who have been away from the Church for years will be coming back to Mass. It could be that some will come to spy and remain to pray.

Charity believeth all things.

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