The rally, scheduled for Sunday, January 10, 2016, 8:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m,, across the street from Mother Seton Catholic Church, where Higgins worked, located at 19951 Father Hurley Boulevard Germantown, Maryland, is organized by DignityUSA and Dignity/Washington, You can get more information by clicking here.
Citing his own pastoral letter, “Being Catholic Today,” he added that “when we give bad witness, we can lead people away from Christ.” Absent is any pastoral concern for Jeffrey Higgins, his husband, the affected parish community, or Catholics generally who are hurt by discrimination in our church.
Third, Winters commented on the ministerial exemption by stating the church leaders should not simply call all employees ministers “in hopes of increasing legal wiggle room to terminate employees as needed.” Catholics can expect that the church expands its theological and pastoral understandings of ministry without demanding expansions in unrelated legal matters.
Where Winters falls most short is his belief that a case-by-case handling of church worker issues is the right solution to respecting their dignity. Nondiscrimination policies applicable to LGBT and Ally church workers should become standard, so space for discretionary discrimination by a particularly zealous pastor or principal is eliminated.
Jeffrey Higgins and other fired LGBT church workers served the church in their positions and they serve the church in protest, as well. The Catholics standing outside Mother Seton Church on Sunday are demanding that the church be a faithful witness to Christ’s truth and love, rather than ceding our institutions to discrimination and prejudice.
“if one persists or effectively insists that they are right and the Church is wrong…” The Church is not wrong. The bishops are wrong.
“It is not a question of personal private activity, but the social consequences of conduct which undermines the Church’s ability to fulfill her mission…” And just what is the mission of the Church? To persecute and demonize gay people? When did attacking the relationships of gay people become the central doctrine or mission of the Church? Certainly not with Jesus, if the Gospels are any indication. It seems that the central moral doctrine of the Church in the teaching of Jesus is to treat others as we wish to be treated; and to care for the needs of the least, such as the homeless, the hungry, the thirsty, the sick.
I hope no one is surprised by Wuerl’s response. Remember he’s the who took the Archdiocese of Washington out of the foster care and adoption services to avoid having to place children with same-gender couples And if he is “the Pope’s man in Washingon” the Pope is in trouble.
The institutional church no longer stands for the message of Jesus, in many situations. This new firing follows a hard line of adhering to outdated teaching. formulated in a day when much less was known of the human condition and the sexual continuum many human beings find themselves on. To ostracize a faithful Catholic for not following a prejudicial and discriminatory policy that breeds hates and dissension, not charity and acceptance, is to contradict Jesus’ message in favor of adhering to long out-dated and unfair human pronouncements. No good can come of it.
What if the catholics showing up for the Rally were to go to mass and put I.O.U.’s into the collection plate, pledging to give a certain amount of money if he is re-instated?
So very sad. Where is the heart of Christ? That’s what really matters. Where there is love… As he inaugurated the “Year of Mercy,” the Holy Father prayed at the closed doors of the Vatican Basilica. We are called to mercy, by opening up church doors around the world, especially to all for whom the doors have long been shut. Let us open wide the doors to Christ, the very Mercy of God, whose Love is complete and unconditional.