Monday, November 23, 2009

The Counter-Cathedral in the Castro.

San Jose Pastor Visits Most Holy Redeemer for Advice

In the August 24 article “Fr. Reese Comes to San Francisco: What Most Holy Redeemer Has come to Mean,” California Catholic Daily discussed the consequences of “tolerating” an openly homosexualist parish. The article noted that when in San Francisco, dissenters such as Bishop Kevin Dowling, Jesuit Fr. Thomas Reese, or Bishop Thomas Gumbleton make a beeline for Most Holy Redeemer. It has become San Francisco’s counter-cathedral, famous worldwide. The article also pointed out that such visits are not harmless. They certify the presence of a separate center of teaching authority in the Archdiocese of San Francisco, a counter-cathedral--at least when the subject is homosexuality. This is obvious to everyone who is not willfully blind; right now there is a student at Notre Dame University writing a paper on the “theology” of Most Holy Redeemer Church--as if a genuine Catholic parish could have its own theology! Allowing such a separate teaching authority to exist is proving to be a monumental failure of responsibility by the Archdicese of San Francisco, and predictable consequences have followed.

The current (November 18) issue of “Metro Active San Jose” has a long article called “Gay Catholics Come Out” by Ms. Jessica Fromm. The subheadline is “Secretly, San Jose is the most gay-friendly diocese in the nation. And now, one parish wants the world to know.”

The article profiled St. Julie Billiart Parish in San Jose and its pastor, Fr. Jon Pedigo. Ms. Fromm spends the first 3000 words or so discussing the situation in San Jose. It’s a familiar litany: the difficulty homosexualist Catholics have in accepting Church teaching on the reality of marriage and the intrinsic immorality of homosexual acts, how conflicted they are between their personal experience and the teaching of the Church (who isn't?) etc. etc. She interviews a familiar cast of characters: the former Jesuit priest James B. Nickoloff, who is same-sex “married” in the state of Massachusetts and is now a fellow at the (Jesuit) Santa Clara University; the Oakland Diocese’s Fr. Jim Schnexayder, co-founder of the Catholic Association for Lesbian & Gay Ministry; Mr. Bill Welch, former President of Dignity San Jose.

More importantly, Ms. Fromm relates what Fr. Pedigo did when he realized that many same-sex attracted Catholics were attending his parish:

“Pedigo said that as he started to notice the growing LGBT Catholic community that was coming to St. Julie's, he decided to consult the established gay Catholic community at the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in San Francisco's Castro District.” Instead of seeking advice from his bishop, Fr. Pedigo chose to consult MHR. That’s our point: MHR has become a de facto teaching authority--that’s why Fr. Pedigo consulted them, that’s why the Notre Dame student is writing a paper on their “theology." The Church hierarchy may deny that MHR has any actual authority, but Fr. Pedigo and others think they do, and are basing their actions on MHR‘s example.

Ms. Fromm continued, quoting Fr. Pedigo: "I said, 'Look, I'm a server in San Jose, and I have all these gay and lesbian people coming for baptism and wanting their babies to be baptized and raising their kids and their families Catholic. And we've got kids in the youth group who are sexual.' I asked, 'What do you guys do about this? What have you done?'"

What has Most Holy Redeemer done? It’s the church that from 2000-2008 hosted nearly-annual events by s/m groups in their parish hall; it's the church that allowed the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to receive the Blessed Sacrament; it’s the church that currently has at least six openly “same-sex married” parishioners serving at Mass as lectors, Eucharistic ministers, and acolytes; it’s the church whose Eucharistic minister/transgender activist “Lisa Rae” Dummer escorted the Young Adult Group to the 2007 Transgender Cotillion; it’s the church whose pastoral council member Matt Dorsey earlier this year condemned Archbishop Niederauer in the pages of the homosexualist Bay Area Reporter for his support of Proposition 8 and convinced the producers of San Francisco’s gay pride parade to award the Archbishop the “pink brick.”

According to Ms. Fromm, Fr. Pedigo has proved to be a good student: “From that time (when he consulted MHR) forward, Pedigo has freely acknowledged and supported the gay and lesbian Catholics who flock to St. Julie's. He publicly opposed Prop. 8, going so far as to post video interviews with gay Catholic families on his blog….”

Posted by Gibbons J. Cooney

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like it was an error to ordain Fr. Pedigo. His homilies and blog postings reveal a left-wing ideologue who pretends to be a Catholic by dressing up leftist ideology in the terminology and trappings of Catholic faith. Anyone who knows anything about the Diocese of San Jose knows that St. Julie's is a bastion of dissidence and liturgical abuse. May God remove the scales from Fr. Pedigo's eyes and bring him into the light. God can bring life out of death.

Anonymous said...

Check out this page on the Saint Julie's Parish website: http://www.stjulies.org/A%20Global%20Issues%20Gay%20Lesbian%20Catholics.htm

It has links to pro-homosexualist organizations such as Dignity and the Human Rights Campaign.

It's hard to navigate through the clutter of the parish website, but even a brief inspection of some pages and links is enough to show you that it's one confused place.

Anonymous said...

I informed my pastor about this article and asked him to intercede with either Fr. Pedigo or the diocese. After reading it, he said that he would, but who knows what will come of it.

San Jose Catholic

Anonymous said...

Is St. Julie's the "Most Holy Redeemer" of the South Bay? Judging by the picture of Fr. Pedigo at the top of the article, complete with a rainbow chalice and a rainbow background, the answer is yes.

Anonymous said...

Any chance that the bishop will take charitable and corrective action towards putting the priest and parish back on the right track? I don't know anything about the diocese or the bishop? Is San Jose really the gayest diocese in America like the article says? What kind of bishop do they have there in San Jose?

Anonymous said...

"And we've got kids in the youth group who are sexual.' I asked, 'What do you guys do about this? What have you done?'" The response I received: "Church teaching is that sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul, and that includes persons in the youth group. It especially concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others. Please be advised that homosexual persons are called to chastity. Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being. (CCC2337, 2359, 2332)"

Gibbons in SF said...

Anonymous 5:02 PM. Happy Thanksgiving! The response you describe was an incomplete citation:

"Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being."

The very next sentence of CCC 2337 (not included in the response) is:

"Sexuality, in which man's belonging to the bodily and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman."

The full text of CCC 2337 is:

"Chastity means the successful integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in his bodily and spiritual being. Sexuality, in which man's belonging to the bodily and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman.

The virtue of chastity therefore involves the integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift."

http://www.vatican.va/archive/catechism/p3s2c2a6.htm

Anonymous said...

Anon:

Bishop McGrath of San Jose is a "See no evil, hear no evil" type of bishop. Or an ostrich with its head in the sand. You won't find him openly promoting false ideas, but on the other hand he doesn't correct errant behavior unless he's forced.

San Jose Catholic