I Am Glad We Split From England...

[Dan]

2,000 years of history, teaching, moral leadership, and we are the ones who are wrong???




=+=+=

Catholic Church must "Rethink" the Family: Head of Church-Funded Marriage Counselling Service to Homosexual Activists



By Hilary White

LONDON, July 15, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Homosexuals can "lay equal claim to their married heterosexual counterparts when bringing up children in stable relationships" the head of the highly regarded British Catholic marriage counselling service, Marriage Care, will tell a gathering of homosexualist activists this weekend.

Marriage Care is registered as a Catholic charity whose president is the sitting Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, who is represented on the board by Fr. Michael Cooley. The organization, formed after the Second World War, calls itself "a Christian organisation, developed from within the Catholic community." The group operates from 80 locations and 53 relationship counselling centres in England and Wales.

Terry Prendergast, Chief Executive of Marriage Care, is to be keynote speaker at the annual conference of the homosexualist organisation Quest, a group that is trying to convince the Catholic Church to abandon its "policies" on sexuality and the nature of marriage. Prendergast will call upon the Catholic Church to "rethink" the nature of the family this weekend.

"Statistically, children do best in a family where the adult relationship is steady, stable and loving," Prendergast will tell the group in his prepared remarks. "Note that I stress adult, not married, since there is no evidence that suggests that children do best with heterosexual couples," he will add.

In a press release, Quest said it was looking forward to the appearance of Prendergast at its annual conference this coming weekend, the theme of which is "We Are Family: New Thinking for the Twenty First Century." Quest describes Prendergast's upcoming talk as focusing on the "romantic image" built up by the Church of a "golden age of the nuclear family" which excludes those who "do not fit." These, the group says, include single parent families, "and also co-habiting and same-sex families."

The group describes marriage as "a covenant between two people" that can include same-sex partnerings. The group's website openly admits that it supports homosexual liaisons, saying "we accept those who come to the organisation for help, support or education without any judgement or discrimination in relation to their marital status, creed, race, age, gender or sexual orientation."

Of its annual £900,000 income, the portion received from Catholic parishes and dioceses directly is £89,000, with one diocese paying the rent for the counselling centre.

Terry Prendergast told LifeSiteNews.com in an interview that a significant source of the group's funding and other support comes from Catholic dioceses, one of which pays the rent for offices, and from individual parishes across the country. But, he said, the group's purpose is not necessarily to uphold the Catholic teaching on marriage and family.

He wants to speak to the Quest conference this weekend, he said, on the "debate that needs to start" between the "teaching Church" and the "needs of those who find themselves marginalized in the Church."

Catholic teaching, he said, is not necessarily compatible with the lived experience of those in the Church. Prendergast blamed the insistence by the "teaching Church" on adherence to "the rules" on sex and marriage for the large number of people dropping the practice of their faith in England and Wales.

Prendergast said his group has been praised by a high-ranking member of the English Catholic hierarchy for being "ideally placed to reach out to people on the margins where the teaching Church finds it difficult to go." These people, he said, are those in "what the Church identifies as irregular situations" like being divorced and remarried without annulment or who are in active same-sex relationships.

He vehemently denied that the "teaching Church" and the "pastoral Church" are one and the same thing.

"There are pastoral concerns," he said, "that conflict with the Church's teaching. I think priests and bishops are faced with that kind of dilemma every day."

To contact the archdiocese of Westminster with concerns:

Archbishop Vincent Nichols
Vaughan House,
46 Francis Street,
London SW1P 1QN
Phone: (+) 020 7931 6007
Fax:
mauramcbride@rcdow.org.uk

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Gay Masses Continue in Archdiocese of Westminster
[url="http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08090807.html"]http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/sep/08090807.html[/url]

[princessgianna]

Some days I wish we could split from America and it's problems but I guess nothing is perfect!

[Archaeology cat]

Yes, it can be difficult being Catholic here. In Oxford there's a memorial for martyrs of the CofE which says they were martyrs "to the errors of Rome". The Church here was underground until 1832, as well. It's not perfect here, but as long as I'm here, I plan on fighting.

[OraProMe]

Most of my family is CofE. The anglo-Catholic parish in town is amazing. I am SO jealous.

[heavenseeker]

CofE?

[OraProMe]

Church of England.
Episcopalians.

[heavenseeker]

[quote name='OraProMe' post='1922536' date='Jul 17 2009, 03:38 AM']Church of England.
Episcopalians.[/quote]
i knew that. i feel like an idiot for asking

[OraProMe]

Maybe I'll do some research and join the local CofE parish. I've been to the liturgies and their beautiful.

Will have to do a lot of studying first though.


yeah

[heavenseeker]

[quote name='OraProMe' post='1922543' date='Jul 17 2009, 03:44 AM']Maybe I'll do some research and join the local CofE parish. I've been to the liturgies and their beautiful.

Will have to do a lot of studying first though.


yeah[/quote]
i dont see how anyone can stand being part of a church that was started out of selfish reasons. how could you seriously be proud of being part of a church that was founded because the king wanted a devorce. what if someone asked you about the history of your religion, you would have to tell them "King Henry VIII of England founded it just because the Pope said he couldn't have a devorce." If i had been born into the CofE i would have left it as soon as i found out that fact.

[Resurrexi]

[quote name='heavenseeker' post='1922549' date='Jul 17 2009, 03:05 AM']i dont see how anyone can stand being part of a church that was started out of selfish reasons. how could you seriously be proud of being part of a church that was founded because the king wanted a devorce. what if someone asked you about the history of your religion, you would have to tell them "King Henry VIII of England founded it just because the Pope said he couldn't have a devorce." If i had been born into the CofE i would have left it as soon as i found out that fact.[/quote]

OraProMe would have to convince himself of the Branch Theory or something similar.

Edited July 17, 2009 by Resurrexi

[OraProMe]

[quote name='heavenseeker' post='1922549' date='Jul 17 2009, 03:05 AM']i dont see how anyone can stand being part of a church that was started out of selfish reasons. how could you seriously be proud of being part of a church that was founded because the king wanted a devorce. what if someone asked you about the history of your religion, you would have to tell them "King Henry VIII of England founded it just because the Pope said he couldn't have a devorce." If i had been born into the CofE i would have left it as soon as i found out that fact.[/quote]

No, I agree. I actually said something very similar to that to my grandmother yesterday.

[Ash Wednesday]

As many of you know, I'm an American living in England. I see so many gorgeous churches here. I know it comes across as snobby but I often find myself thinking "What a beautiful church. Shame it's Protestant"

[Varg]

[quote name='heavenseeker' post='1922549' date='Jul 17 2009, 03:05 AM']i dont see how anyone can stand being part of a church that was started out of selfish reasons. how could you seriously be proud of being part of a church that was founded because the king wanted a devorce. what if someone asked you about the history of your religion, you would have to tell them "King Henry VIII of England founded it just because the Pope said he couldn't have a devorce." If i had been born into the CofE i would have left it as soon as i found out that fact.[/quote]It's because Protestantism is a lot easier to follow then Catholicism. There are less rules

[OraProMe]

Try telling that to a Puritan or Calvinist.
It's not a matter of being easier to follow or less rules. It's a matter of Truth.

[OraProMe]

[quote name='heavenseeker' post='1922549' date='Jul 17 2009, 03:05 AM']i dont see how anyone can stand being part of a church that was started out of selfish reasons. how could you seriously be proud of being part of a church that was founded because the king wanted a devorce. what if someone asked you about the history of your religion, you would have to tell them "King Henry VIII of England founded it just because the Pope said he couldn't have a devorce." If i had been born into the CofE i would have left it as soon as i found out that fact.[/quote]

The CofE claims that they originate from St. Augustine, who founded the See of Canterbury. Very few will say that the religion was founded by the King. Basically they believe that all the bishops are equal and the only things that we owe the assent of faith to are scripture and the creeds.

Edited July 17, 2009 by OraProMe