Why are there so many homosexual priests in the Church?
An important new book has just been released that will help Catholics understand and oppose the homosexual subversion inside the Church. Titled The Breached Dam: The Fiducia Supplicans Surrender to the Homosexual Movement, the book documents and explains what is happening in the Church in light of the recent Vatican document Fiducia supplicans.
Published by the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), the book is being published in eight languages—English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Polish and Spanish. Its foreword is written by the Most Rev. Rob Mutsaerts, the auxiliary bishop of ‘s-Hertogenbosch in The Netherlands. The authors, José Antonio Ureta and Julio Loredo, are members of the Tradition, Family, Property movement in Europe. They are influential pro-life and pro-family activists, writers and speakers. Their writings on the Church and modern society have appeared worldwide. In 2023, the two scholars published The Synodal Process Is a Pandora’s Box: 100 Questions and Answers with a foreword by Cardinal Raymond Burke. “This book is intended to help everyone understand how much Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández’s Fiducia supplicans represents a Vatican surrender to the pressures of the homosexual movement,” says author José Antonio Ureta. The 128-page book documents the gradual process of how the homosexual movement “subverted the Church with homoheresy.” It sadly relates the efforts of Church officials to introduce the normalization of homosexual sin. However, it also outlines the more recent documents and declarations of other officials affirming the perennial teachings of the Church. The Breached Dam refers to the blessing of homosexual partnerships allowed by Fiducia supplicans that will permit everything in the name of “radical inclusion.” The book asserts the right of the faithful to resist (not revolt against) teachings contrary to those of the Supreme Magisterium of the Catholic Church. “This book is a must-read for those looking for direction in the face of the crisis in the Church,” says TFP vice president John Horvat. “The topic could not be more urgent and timely. We anticipate a huge demand for the work.”
In 1994, TFP founder Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira denounced a top-down effort by authorities in the Catholic Church and civil society to impose same-sex “marriage.” With Catholic moral teaching on homosexuality being clear and irreformable, he could see this authoritarian action triggering a split: “Then there will be an internal clash within the Church, and this internal shock will produce one of the greatest upheavals in history.” The Breached Dam by José A. Ureta and Julio Loredo shows how and why the Vatican’s recent Fiducia supplicans declaration hastened the coming clash.
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To Our Lady of La Salette in reparation for the grave offenses to God and the angelic virtue of purity that made her cry.
The Fiducia supplicans declaration (FS) has caused a stir worldwide, not least because of the confusion it creates. FS provides for the possibility of blessing same-sex couples when, two years earlier (Responsum 2021), the Vatican had clearly spoken out against this possibility. The view that FS is consistent with this Responsum and the doctrine and tradition on the subject is untenable. FS presents obvious contradictions. The Bible and Tradition are perfectly consistent when it comes to the moral implications of homosexuality. FS breaks with this by offering the possibility of blessing a sinful relationship in God’s name. Of course, the fact that this blessing may only last a few minutes and is not given near an altar does not change this truth. There is no basis in Scripture or Tradition for such a blessing. Cardinal Fernández said the doctrine of marriage remains unchanged. But that is not the question. The question is: Can a priest give his blessing to a union that the Bible considers sinful? This is a rhetorical question. Surely, you are asking God’s blessing to heal the brokenness in your life, not to perpetuate your disordered situation. One cannot reject God’s judgment and moral demands and still appeal to His mercy. The problem lies mainly in the fact that FS does not address the moral dimension of the relationship. FS refuses to name evil. In this respect, it is in tune with the current zeitgeist: The denial of sin, which is a consequence of the dominant subjectivism and relativism today, and the denial of truth, which, by definition, applies to everyone at all times. Another problem is that mercy is proclaimed without repentance. Everyone is welcome. Todos, todos, todos,* everyone, Pope Francis incessantly shouts. Is everyone welcome? Certainly. But not unconditionally. God makes demands. The entire Bible could be summed up as a call to repentance and a promise of forgiveness. One cannot be separated from the other. Everyone is welcome, but not everyone accepts the invitation. We certainly know the parable of the king who invites everyone to his son’s wedding feast. There comes a time when the door is closed. In hell, a different scenario prevails. There, everyone is unconditionally welcomed. The devil’s slogan is: Come as you are.** You do not have to change. You do not have to ask for forgiveness. You do not have to lift a finger to help others with their needs. Everyone is welcome in hell. Todos, todos, todos. Mercy exists because sin exists. Mercy exists because judgment exists. Mercy exists because hell exists. Where sin is hidden, the essence of mercy is also hidden. The aim of mercy is not to tell others how bad they are but to tell them about the forgiveness of sins. All you have to do is ask sincerely. There are no strings attached. I thank God every day for His infinite mercy. I see so much anger and aggressiveness in our times. People would not be as aggressive and angry if they knew about God’s forgiveness. However, asking for forgiveness implies acknowledging sin. This is the key to peace of mind and heart. Nothing works so disastrously as denying evil. Usually, things go from bad to worse. It seems that FS wants to make peace with secular society, but peace at the expense of morality and truth is the most merciless “peace” imaginable. God loves everyone. He loves all sinners, but He hates your sins. He fervently hopes that you will return to Him, just as He hoped for the Prodigal Son’s return. He wants nothing more than for you to share in His love. For these reasons, I welcome the clarification provided by the timely book The Breached Dam by José Antonio Ureta and Julio Loredo. It fully demonstrates how Fiducia supplicans is the result of a process prepared by a very well-organized pressure group within the Catholic Church.
+ Rob Mutsaerts
[Ed.: Most Rev. Rob Mutsaerts is the auxiliary bishop of ‘s-Hertogenbosch in The Netherlands.]
* [Trans.: In Spanish in the bishop’s Dutch original.] ** [Trans.: In English in the original.]
Introduction
Revolutions are like dam breaks. Rather than an unforeseen increase in the volume of contained water, it is the weakening of its restraining structure due to undetected deterioration that causes the sudden opening of breaches through which the liquid mass’s tumultuous flow drags away ever-larger portions of the vast engineering work designed to contain it. Similarly, the gradual progress of revolutionary tendencies and ideas, fueled by unruly human passions, feeds a reservoir of discontent and desires for change. But its volume is contained by traditional convictions, customs, and institutions acting as a dam. However, under the corrosive pressure of new trends, cracks begin to appear in the barrier of resistance, weakening its cultural support base, until a spiritual storm fueled by psychological and ideological factors (sometimes accompanied by a powerful preternatural influence) hits society, causing a burst, a devastating wall of floodwaters, and a subsequent reconfiguration of the religious, cultural, and political landscape. In Western society, the Catholic Church is the great dam that protects the strongholds not yet conquered by the neo-pagan revolution. Based on the immutable precepts of the Gospel and Natural Law, its moral teachings prevent the paroxysm of unruly passions from producing the field of ruins sought by far-left ideological currents. This is particularly true about the homosexual movement and the transgender ideology, whose demands, if successful, will lead to the dissolution of the family and the erasure of the fundamental moral principles on which any civilization worthy of the name rests. Unfortunately, however, intellectual corruption and the Sexual Revolution have opened up cracks in the once solid and compact doctrinal dam of Catholic moral theology that are now in the process of becoming massive breaches. All it takes is one storm and the ensuing accumulation of discontent for the torrent of unruly passions to tear down the human structures of the sacred edifice that is still the bulwark of what little remains of Western Christian civilization.
Preliminary Remarks
The authors of this book have no intention to defame or disparage anyone and are not moved by personal hatred against any individual. In intellectually opposing individuals or organizations promoting the homosexual agenda within the Church, their only intent is the defense of Catholic doctrine on chastity and marriage. As practicing Catholics, they are filled with respect for those who struggle with same-sex attraction and pray for those who fall into homosexual sin out of human weakness. They are conscious of the enormous difference between them and those who present their homosexual lifestyle as a reason for pride and seek to impose its acceptance on the Catholic Church. While doing everything permitted by Catholic morality and civil law to block their efforts, the authors also pray for the radical activists pushing the homosexual agenda inside the Church and for the ecclesiastical authorities surrendering to them.
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The indiscriminate use of the word homosexual and its synonyms has generated much confusion in the public. Many times, it is unclear if it refers to someone with same-sex attraction only or if it refers to someone who practices homosexual acts. This confusion favors the homosexual agenda. We cannot equate people with same-sex attraction who resist it and are chaste with those who engage in homosexual behavior. These are two distinct and essentially different moral realities. Thus, we will use the term homosexual to refer only to those who practice homosexual acts and thereby deserve moral reprobation.
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For documentation purposes, we reference some websites and publications with objectionable content and, therefore, feel obliged to warn the reader. The great tragedy is that many within the Catholic Church, whose duty is to preserve the integrity of the Faith and morals, are working themselves to turn the dam cracks into breaches. They are doing the opposite of predecessors, who warned of the danger of infiltration and tried to strengthen and waterproof the dike walls with timely documents recalling the Church’s traditional teaching. Among them stands out the Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons, published in October 1986 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the signature of its prefect, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. It complained that in Catholic circles debating the issue of homosexuality, “an overly benign interpretation was given to the homosexual condition itself, some going so far as to call it neutral, or even good” (no. 3).1 A new exegesis was proposed claiming, “that Scripture has nothing to say on the subject of homosexuality, or that it somehow tacitly approves of it, or that all of its moral injunctions are so culture-bound that they are no longer applicable to contemporary life” (no. 4). The document further deplored that “the movement within the Church, which takes the form of pressure groups of various names and sizes, attempts to give the impression that it represents all homosexual persons who are Catholics” (no. 9). In reality, however, it “brings together under the aegis of Catholicism homosexual persons who have no intention of abandoning their homosexual behavior” (no. 9), and “who either ignore the teaching of the Church or seek somehow to undermine it” (no. 9). The CDF’s Letter signed by Cardinal Ratzinger described with great clarity the modus operandi of this doctrinal subversion: “One tactic used is to protest that any and all criticism of or reservations about homosexual people, their activity and lifestyle, are simply diverse forms of unjust discrimination” (no. 9). Its final instruction to the bishops was that “all support should be withdrawn from any organizations which seek to undermine the teaching of the Church, which are ambiguous about it, or which neglect it entirely. [Because] such support, or even the semblance of such support, can be gravely misinterpreted” (no. 17). Unfortunately, the vast majority of bishops in Europe, the Americas, and Australia, regions where homosexuality became widespread in the wake of the Sexual Revolution of the Sixties, failed to comply with these prudent 1986 instructions from the Holy See. In many countries in this large part of the world, along with the legal recognition of civil unions and homosexual “marriage,” pressure groups sprung up outside and inside the Church demanding the full integration of Catholics living publicly in stable relationships with same-sex partners into Church life. The first step for such gravely immoral unions to achieve full recognition was to find priests who would bless same-sex pairs (pseudo-couples) on special occasions such as Saint Valentine’s Day, then to do so in pseudo-liturgical ceremonies after the registration of a civil union or “marriage” in a municipality. Last December 18, the new Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith took a highly symbolic half-step on this long road toward full recognition by publishing the declaration Fiducia supplicansbearing the signature of its prefect, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández. This declaration authorizes priests to bless cohabiting, adulterous, and same-sex pairs who request it, as long as this is done “non-ritually.” Although the Vatican insisted that this did not represent a change in doctrine regarding marriage and sexual morality, the mainstream media and public opinion interpreted this permission as the Church’s first openness to recognizing same-sex unions. Thus, the “non-ritual” blessings authorized by Fiducia supplicans opened a big breach in the dam of Catholic morals and represented a victory for the homosexual movement to the extent that this impression took hold in the minds of the public, especially Catholics. As Most Rev. Joseph Naumann, archbishop of Kansas City, Kan., states in The Leaven, his archdiocesan publication, “Gay rights activists pushed hard in their demands for secular society to grant them marital status. These same activists have also sought from the church the blessing of same-sex unions as an affirmation of the propriety of their sexual activity and as an eventual step to granting marital recognition of their relationships.” He reiterated, “Why has there been such a strong reaction to a change that some might consider to be simply semantics? The confusion regarding ‘Fiducia Supplicans’ was predictable. Gay rights activists within and outside the church have been demanding the church’s blessing of same-sex unions as a necessary step to the church ultimately conforming to the culture and embracing same-sex marriages.”2 Some people might find it exaggerated to link the Fiducia supplicans declaration with the homosexual movement either because they were young when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s Letterto the Bishops triggered considerable media discussion or because they did not follow Church issues closely at the time. This book is intended to help all who lack this historical perspective understand in a concise and panoramic view how much Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández’s Fiducia supplicans constitutes an unusual Vatican surrender to the pressures of the homosexual movement inside and outside the Church. Catholics who earnestly hold fast to the teachings of divine Revelation and traditional morality need to be aware of the scope of the clash and for how long it has been going on so they can react with conviction and energy. First, however, we need to uncover, albeit briefly, the true amplitude of this half-step by Fiducia supplicans toward full recognition of homosexuality.
1 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons” (Oct. 1, 1986), Vatican.va / roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html [Trans.: In this book, all translations from foreign language source citations are our own.] 2 Joseph F. Naumann, “‘Fiducia Supplicans’ Does Not Change Perennial Church Teaching,” The Leaven, Jan. 12, 2024, theleaven.org / fiducia-supplicans-does-not-change-perennial-church-teaching
