BISHOPS CRITICISE THE LGBT CAMPAIGN
The campaign ‘Let’s pass over the sign of peace to one another’ blurs the clear requirements of the Gospel
In the recent time organizations connected with the so-called LGBT trend – supported by groups of the newspapers ‘Tygodnik Powszechny’, ‘Więzi’ and ‘Znak’- began a media campaign entitled ‘Let’s pass over the sign of peace to one another’. This action is addressed to believers and – as organizers say – ‘its purpose is to remind people that Christian values suggest a necessity of a respectful attitude, openness and a friendly dialogue towards all people, including the homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals’ (source: www.znakpokoju.com). As long as all actions aimed at promoting a social agreement deserve acknowledgement, in the context of the aforementioned initiative, it is necessary to remind about fundamental issues which are proclaimed by the Church in an unchangeable way.
1. The very liturgical sign of peace – to which organizers of the campaign refer – expresses readiness to conciliation with another man and accepting him in the holy community of sinners. After all, we all are sinners, which we also express in the repentance act in the very beginning of every Liturgy. The hand stretched out to another man means accepting a person, not – approval of his sin, regardless of what nature he is. It should be emphasized that members of the community gathered at Liturgy have a permanent duty to repent, that is, getting adjusted to requirements of the Gospel and turning away from one’s sins. There is a concern that the action ‘Let’s pass over the sign of peace to one another’, by taking out the gesture of the stretched out hand from the liturgical context, gives it a meaning which is incompatible with the teaching of Christ or the Church.
2. LGBT groups often accuse the Church of depriving homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals of their dignity by bringing them the Gospel. Therefore it must be clearly emphasized that the Church is the only institution which has been proclaiming the human dignity without any exceptions for over two thousand years. This unchangeable teaching does not change towards the aforementioned people. The Church has never divided people according to their sexual orientation, but it makes them aware that as the ones created ‘to the image of God’, are God’s beloved children – sisters and brothers in Christ – and hence they enjoy their equal dignity. Therefore – together with the Holy Father Francis – ‘we want to say that every person, regardless of their sexual orientation, must be respected, with care, to avoid ‘any sign of unrighteous discrimination’, and especially all forms of aggression or violence. In relation to families – they should be provided with respectful help, so that people of homosexual tendency would have necessary help in understanding and fulfillment of God’s will in their life’ (Francis, ‘Amoris laetitia’, 250).
3. Respect for human dignity of everybody is incompatible with homosexual acts, though. They are objectively morally bad and they cannot be accepted by the Church as such. It is similar with postulates raised by some people, concerning equal rights of homosexual and heterosexual couples. This kind of postulates are harmful for societies and individuals, especially in the era of a deep crisis of families.
AA
„Niedziela” 39/2016