As noted here, Gio Benitez, an openly homosexual news anchor known for his work on Good Morning America, World News Tonight and 20/20, has joined the Catholic Church and reaffirmed his "faith" - Whatever that's supposed to mean. The ABC personality stood with his "husband" Tommy DiDario, who also served as his sponsor. In an essay on the meaning of evangelization, Father Vincent Miceli, S.J. wrote, "Being the work of God and man in cooperation, it must ever be a thrilling and awesome adventure. We can say, however, that this sanctifying activity proclaims Christ to those who do not know Him, preaches the Gospel to them through catechesis and missionary sermons, confers Baptism and other sacraments and tirelessly exhorts converts to scale the heights of sanctity. Jesus Christ, Himself, the Good News of God, was the very first and greatest evangelizer. He proclaimed an absolute Kingdom of God, making everything else relative. He proclaimed salvation, namely Fr. Miceli then explains …
'Confirmed' into what, precisely? While we cannot judge the souls of one another, that it has been staged as a 'public event' (with the ever 'publicity addicted' James Martin in attendance) rather than a private and personal one speaks volumes about what it was actually about.
Exactly! I alluded to such in another post: "It would be interesting to ask a legit canonist if the sacrament was actually conferred. In my mind, I would wonder if this man had proper intent. Was he "joining" the Church for reasons of the actual Faith or to make some political statement or attention-seeking stunt?"
@Orthocat The news reports are inaccurate. Gio Benitez was not "joining" the Catholic Church; he is already a member of the Catholic Church, being baptized into the Church at age 15. Somewhere along the way he stopped practicing, for obvious reasons. This was his Confirmation ceremony. Nevertheless, it was a sacrilege. I believe his "husband" was also baptized Catholic.
Oh that puts it in a different light. If he was baptized Catholic then he shouldn't have had such a (to use Cupich's words) spectacle that implied some kind of 'entering full communion'. Instead what really happened was pretty typical in this faithless age. It's occurred to several of my relatives. One cousin was planning her wedding which her parents insisted - since they were footing the bill - be in the Church. She was surprised that, since she skipped her Confirmation in her teen years, she couldn't get married in the Church until she had ALL her sacraments. The fix was easy, the parish priest got faculties from the local bishop to confer the sacrament PRIVATELY!
It's blindly obvious for "those who have eyes to see" that a so-called 'church' that confirms people like this is NOT the True Catholic Church founded by Jesus Christ and built on apostolic teaching!