Avera Maria’s letter to the Catholic Church




Dear bishops of the Holy Catholic Church,

When I was made aware of the efforts being made by pro-“LGBT” groups trying to persuade Catholic bishops to change Church teaching on homosexuality, specifically at this year's youth synod, it devastated me.

As someone who has not only grown up in the Church, but has also come to love her and her teachings for myself, I would hate to see her teachings altered in any way, especially in a way that could cause such a grave amount of damage.

I wish then to lay my heart bare, and to share some of my story and my convictions with you, dear bishops of the Holy Catholic Church, and plead with you to keep the Church's teachings on homosexuality good, true and beautiful.

I am a 22-year-old young Catholic woman that experiences same-sex attractions. While I was growing up, I heard very little, if anything at all, on homosexuality, even though I attended Catholic school from Pre-K to 12th grade.

When I finally came to terms with the fact that I was romantically interested in other women, it terrified me. I didn't know where to turn, who to speak to, or if I could speak about it at all! The fear paralyzed me into silence for quite a while.

As time went on, I began to learn more and more about the teachings of the Catholic Church on homosexuality, and, for some time, I didn't understand them. I wasn't sure what the words “objectively” and “intrinsically disordered” meant, and truth be told, I had the feeling that I didn't want to know. It wasn't until I was around the age of 20 that I finally began to understand.

I’ll admit, I didn’t like what I heard, but I knew it was what I needed to hear.
Recently, I came across a quote from Abbot Jean-Charles Nault, O.S.B. that spoke a great deal of truth to me. It read:
 “For the philosophers of antiquity, and for the whole Christian Tradition, freedom is the ability that man has — an ability belonging jointly to his intellect and will — to perform virtuous actions, good actions, excellent actions, when he wants and as he wants. Man’s freedom is, therefore, his capacity to accomplish good acts easily, joyously and lastingly. This freedom is defined by the attraction of the good.”

Time and time again, we will hear phrases such as “I just want the freedom to love whomever I want” from those within the “LGBTQ” community. This desire is an inherently good one, when it is rightly ordered.

Man is only truly free when he can choose to do as he ought, not simply as he wants, for the things that we may want aren’t always good for us.

I use[d] to want to be in a same-sex relationship. The desire was overwhelming at times, to the point where I could see no other way to get through the day. But I know now, from the good and gracious teachings of God through his Church, that such a relationship hinders not only my freedom to love authentically, but also my ability to achieve holiness.
Taking it a step further, being in such a relationship could ultimately block me from spending my eternity with my one true love, Jesus.

My dear bishops, there is no one on this earth that isn’t called to a life of chastity; that includes my brothers and sisters who experience same-sex attractions. This is not because the Church is oppressive and wants us to be miserable and passively submissive to her, but because each and every one of us is invited to enter into the divine life of our Creator, a life where no sin can remain.

The Catechism states, in Paragraph 2331, that “God is love, and in himself he lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human race in his own image ... God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion.”

Not only should I be reminded that, as a Christian, I am called to love as Christ loved us, but I also have the capacity to do so. I am capable of authentic love!

Telling me that my cross of same-sex attraction is too heavy for me to love as Christ calls me to is not just degrading; it is also a lie. God did not abandon me when man first sinned in the beginning, and he will not abandon me now.

He has called me, and each and every one of us, to himself, and I intend to return back to him, no matter how burdensome my cross may be.

Like Christ remembered me from the cross, I pray that you would remember me, and my brothers and sisters like me, dear bishops, as you pray about and discuss how to help young people in matters of faith and vocation, especially in regards to the topic of homosexuality.

Please remember that, as St. Thérèse the Little Flower, a dear patron of mine, so greatly put it, “My vocation is to love.”

Yours in Christ,

Comentarios

Publicar un comentario

Entradas populares de este blog

A PATH TO A RENEWED CHURCH

Imagen
No, we do not intend to have a New Church. The Catholic Church is the body of the Lord, it's his presence on earth. It is just that it seems to need to go back to the essentials, those that we find in the Bible: a loving and caring community based on the practice of the teachings of the apostles (the scripture). the Fathers of the Church, the Councils (Vat. 2), the Pope's guidings, and the sacraments.  What we find now is a Church that tríes to be faithful to the Lord in the participation in the sacraments and in the correct beliefs but not in their praxis. Not in the real practice of the main commandment: “In this they will know that you are my disciples: if you love one another”, (John 13, 35) because, how could you love someone you don’t know? Those are empty words.  We see  Catholics have been taught the gospel in a wrong way. The doctrine and the sacraments are intact, but the way we live them has turned empty as empty have turned words like love and charity, humilit...
Leer más

POR AMOR A LA IGLESIA TRABAJAMOS PARA ELLA

Imagen
Venimos por amor a la Iglesia y por amor a la Iglesia trabajamos por y para ella. No necesitamos éxitos, no necesitamos cambios, no necesitamos nada distinto a esta visión de ella que Dios nos da y el cálido sentimiento de su llamado. Mañana tras mañana despierta mi oído para escuchar como los discípulos (Is 50, 4).  A nosotros nos corresponde la disponibilidad, el esfuerzo, la entrega. A Dios, el éxito o fracaso de nuestra empresa que lo que al guerrero lo forma, lo llena y lo construye no es el éxito sino la lucha. Al fin de cuentas que nuestra meta no está en este mundo.  Lo que vemos está plasmado en tantos escritos anteriores. Lo que proclamamos está escrito en la Biblia, en los pensamientos de los Padres de la Iglesia, en los documentos de los Concilios y de los Papas. Nosotros solo proponemos poner por obra “en espíritu y en verdad” lo que las palabras nos dicen. ¿Las palabras? Quizás sea más que las palabras, quizás sea La Palabra, el Verbo eterno de Dios quien habla e...
Leer más

EL GRAN DESPERDICIO

Imagen
  Salvados para Salvar “Venid en pos de mí y os haré pescadores de hombres”.  Mc 4, 19 Este es el llamado que hace Jesús al pasar por el lado de los hombres. Es a esto a lo que nos llama, a lo que nos invita. Nos invita a ser como él, es decir, a ser pescadores de hombres. Y este es, por supuesto, un llamado universal. No es un llamado para unos pocos escogidos, para unos pocos con “vocación”. Es el llamado, es la vocación para todos aquellos que “escuchen su voz y le abran la puerta”, (Apoc. 3,20), porque es a esto a lo que Jesús ha venido al mundo: a salvar a los hombres. A ser Pescador de Hombres. Así el llamado es para todos los bautizados y aún más, es para los no bautizados porque ese es el sentido profundo de la conversión: ser pescadores de hombres. Si la Iglesia llega a comprender esto va a descubrir el inmenso potencial que tiene guardado, perdido entre sus filas. No va a tener, como hoy, un apóstol, un pescador, un sacerdote por cada diez mil personas, sino que va a...
Leer más