Priest accused of ‘anti-gαy indoctrination’ for teaching Catholic view of ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity in class

By Rebecca Millette        

Mar 29        

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, March 29, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Catholic priest has come under fire from ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ activists for “anti-gαy indoctrination” after he taught his students what the Catholic Church teaches about ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity in his high school course on gαy “marriage.”

Equality Matters, a media and communications group for ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ rights, on their website accused the chaplain of Indianapolis’ Cardinal Ritter High School of “spouting a stream of homophobic and offensive falsehoods about same-sex marriage and gαy people in general to a classroom full of students.”

Fr. John Hollowell, chaplain and teacher at the private Catholic high school, had posted the videos of the lectures on YouTube and his personal blog last week.

In the lectures he explains Catholic teaching on ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity. However, his presentation was denounced as “anti-gαy lecturing” by the media watchdog group, who said that the priest “calls ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ acts ‘an abomination’, advocates for ex-gαy therapy, and rails against same-sex adoption and marriage by comparing ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity to alcoholism and prostitution.”

The priest is currently in Rome and says he won’t be able to respond to the accusations until his return.

In the videos, however, Fr. Hollowell is seen challenging his students to think about and discuss the “difficult” issues of ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity and ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ “marriage.”

He points out that the Bible, in Leviticus 20:13 and other places in the New Testament, calls “ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ acts” an “abomination.” “You have two options,” he says, “God is cool with ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity, ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ acts, I should say … or what the Bible and the Church say about it is correct … There’s no middle ground on that issue.”

The priest refers to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the official book of the teachings of the Church, which states that ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖs “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity,” and condemns any form of “unjust discrimination” against them.

However, the Catechism also states that ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ inclinations are “objectively disordered” and ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ acts are “acts of grave depravity.”  “Under no circuмstances can they be approved,” it says, explaining that people with the ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ inclination are called to chastity.

Fr. Hollowell points out that human beings are able to choose either to act or not to act on given inclinations.  Those who experience ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ attraction, he said, are called upon to refrain from acting on their inclination.  Just because someone has an “inclination to something” (for example, drinking alcohol, ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ acts, etc.) does not make them “less culpable for acting on it,” he said.

Equality Matters claims that 70 percent of Catholics and the majority of Americans now believe that messages such as Fr. Hollowell’s lead to higher rates of ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ teen ѕυιcιdє.

Hollowell, however, argues that the position he advocates is one of compassion. “If you’re struggling with ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ attraction, the Church’s first message is compassion,” he told his students, “helping them overcome it is not the first inclination.”

Programs such as Courage are in place to help people “who want it,” he said, “we’re not out there telling people they need to change.”

Fr. Hollowell also described the “key Catholic social teaching” on ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity and its relation to the “common good.”  By common good is meant “what every human person does affects me and affects everyone else,” said Fr. Hollowell, explaining why students should be concerned about ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ “marriage” legislation in other states. “The Church sees society as one body, therefore all are affected,” whether we realize it or not."

This is absurd.  He is a Catholic priest teaching in a Catholic school.  What should he teach, Hinduism?