(LifeSiteNews) — After receiving a formal welcome from the cardinal archbishop of Madrid, a dissident LGBT Catholic conference told participants that “LGBTI rights are human rights” that “any Christian” should defend.
The Global Network of Rainbow Catholics (GNRC) is currently holding its annual meeting in Madrid after having received a welcome from the Archdiocese of Madrid last month.
One of the organizing bodies responsible for the conference was welcomed by Madrid Cardinal Jose Cobo Cano before the event, after which it stated that “we have shared with him the joy of co-organizing the next GNRC World Assembly and taken the opportunity to strengthen ties. … We continue to build bridges towards a more inclusive Church.”
The GNRC serves as an umbrella organization for LGBT groups worldwide, with some of its member groups – such as New Ways Ministry or DignityUSA – perhaps better known than the GNRC itself.
Addressing conference attendees this week, the joint presidents of the group reportedly stated, “LGTBI rights are human rights and any Christian should understand, and defend, that.”
GNRC’s two co-presidents are Marianne Duddy-Burke and Christopher Vella, both of whom are in separate same-sex relationships.
Although the group identifies as a Catholic umbrella organization, it and its daughter groups advocate for ideologies that contradict Catholic teaching.
Pushing for the acceptance of LGBT issues, GRNC writes that “we foster a culture of equal rights and acceptance. We promote the equality of women in the Catholic Church.”
The two leaders encouraged attendees to continue “on a path of openness, a path of Gospel, a path of justice.”
This year’s conference also has an ecumenical focus, according to local news reports. “The group, increasingly, tends to bring together different Christian sensibilities, not just Catholic ones,” Religion Digital wrote.
Part of the featured lineup of speakers is James Alison, an openly homosexual priest hailed in LGBT circles for his life of opposing the Church’s teaching on homosexuality. Ordained as a priest, Alison lobbied the Vatican for many years to be relieved of his clerical celibacy, arguing that he joined the priesthood based on a false acceptance of the Church’s teaching on homosexuality.
The openly homosexual priest received a letter from the Congregation for Clergy around 2010 in which he was informed of his eventual laicization after refusing to cooperate in previous attempts to laicize him. Angered by this decision, he wrote to Pope Francis, requesting to ignore the Congregation’s decision. Francis subsequently called Alison in 2017, appearing to give his approval to the homosexual priest, saying, “I want you to walk with deep interior freedom, following the Spirit of Jesus. And I give you the power of the keys. Do you understand? I give you the power of the keys.”
The Catholic Church does not exclude any individual but does call her members to adhere to certain requirements, moral standards and beliefs. The Church teaches that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered” and “contrary to the natural law.”
The Catechism is very clear that although temptations to homosexual activity are not sinful in themselves, the activity can never be approved, and repeats that “(h)omosexual persons are called to chastity.”
The Vatican’s 1986 document “On the pastoral care of homosexual persons” stated that a “truly pastoral approach will appreciate the need for homosexual persons to avoid the near occasions of sin.” The doctrinal office also noted that though homosexual inclinations were not sinful in themselves, such an inclination would be “a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.”
However, confusion about the teaching was further promulgated by Pope Francis during his pontificate, especially when meeting with GNRC leaders and encouraging them in their efforts.
Conference attendees will remain on site at the event until August 25.
