Pope Francis is perceived by many as 'radical and unpredictable'. The LGBT community praises him for being more 'open and unconventional' unlike his predecessors. Somehow they are caught in a wishful thinking that someday they will witness the Church approve of same-sex marriage in the name of 'mercy and compassion'. Admittedly, Pope Francis has made statements in the past that have created much confusion including his famous tagline "Who am I to judge?". We hope and pray that the Holy Father will clarify his stand on gay issues in an unambiguous manner and uphold the Church's teachings on human sexuality.
27 December 2014
His Holiness, Pope Francis PP.
Apostolic Palace, Vatican City
00120 Via del Pellegrino
Citta del Vaticano
Your Holiness:
We are members of the local chapter of the Courage Apostolate here in the Philippines. We are a spiritual support group of persons with same sex attractions that desires to live a chaste life in accordance with the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality.
We eagerly anticipate your visit here in our country just a few days from now. It is sad to note that being the prominent Catholic nation in Asia, we have fallen victims to the dictate of developed countries and a culture that is anti-Catholic and anti-Christian. Our government was coerced by Obama to pass the contraceptive bill (a.k.a. Reproductive Health) into a law, and still pushing other anti-life and anti-family bills such as the divorce and anti-discrimination bills. Our popular mass media floods our film, television, print and digital means of communication with pornographic images that glamorize marital infidelity, teenage sex, and homosexual lifestyles – raising celebrities that set bad examples to our young people. There are communists, feminists, and gay advocates in all walks of society promoting promiscuity and gay rights, coupled with many gay churches led by the Metropolitan Community Church that conduct same-sex marriages and ordains gay pastors (Order of St. Aeldred) garbed in Catholic vestments sowing confusion among the faithful.
As if outside forces aren’t enough, even within the ranks of the Catholic Church are growing dissenters of the faith especially on the teachings on family and life – such as Catholics for RH, and some renowned Jesuits (whose moral theologian is openly for condom usage and same sex marriage and adoption) and La Salle brothers and some religious orders handling schools and holding seminars, gay pride marches and supporting student organizations that promote the LGBT agenda. These groups deride, label and oppose our apostolate, even quoting you as saying “Who am I to judge?” without including your qualifier as “following God’s will”.
We earnestly beg you, dear Holy Father, to speak clearly to our people about the sanctity of life and of the sacrament of marriage between one man and one woman. Please give us words of encouragement to us who are struggling to remain chaste and follow God’s will for us as men and women designed after the Imago Dei. There are moments that we fall into despair, when these voices ring louder than God’s voice, and we think that our struggles to be holy are in vain when even members of the Catholic Church are pushing us to give up the fight and just embrace the gay identity. Please let us know we are doing the right thing – to realign our desires, to rediscover our design and rebuild our destiny – despite of every secular call to just let it go and let it “out”.
Thank you so much and hoping for your kind response. See you soon! We are praying for you!
Respectfully your son in Christ,
Rolando C. delos Reyes II
Adviser
Courage Philippines
www.couragephilippines.blogspot.com
www.couragerc.org
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