By CatholicVote | Created at 2025-01-29 01:24:42 | Updated at 2025-01-30 07:01:40
1 day ago
CV NEWS FEED // The Archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, on Jan. 22 apologized for his “own lack of courage to bring healing and hope” and for others’ past actions that have caused hurt and scandal among “our LGBTQ brothers and sisters.”
Cardinal Gregory explained that even though he has struggled with doubts and questions, his faith as a Catholic has not been shaken. However, he said he feels “sorrow and embarrassment” over various issues.
“I have felt the sorrow of scandals that have touched and seriously damaged our Catholic Church and the humiliation that has visited my life because of the disgrace that religious intolerance and bigotry visits on all Christian churches,” he said. “I have been ashamed because of the flawed example that we Catholics have given to the world because of our increasingly harsh treatment of one another — rejecting people because of race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnic origins, or any other distinctions.”
The dissident organization “Outreach,” self-described as “an LGBTQ Catholic Resource,” published a transcript of Cardinal Gregory’s Jan. 22 talk, which he gave at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in D.C.
>> Cardinal Gregory praises controversial LGBT Outreach Conference for its ‘synodality’<<
Cardinal Gregory also stated that “Catholics on both sides of the ideological spectrum have heaped vicious and cruel condemnations upon all others who do not view the church as they themselves have decided to be the only valid vision of the Body of Christ.”
This infighting, he said, has turned many people outside and inside of the Church to give up on considering or staying a member of the Church.
“And while the ideologues may believe themselves at opposite points of the ecclesial spectrum, they are joined at the hip in the damage that they have inflicted upon this Church that Christ himself founded,” he said. “We bishops and clerics have played more than our share in bringing shame to this precious Church of Christ by our sinful weaknesses and lack of courageous and effective leadership in response to the sins of clerics.”
Catholics leaving the Church has been troubling, he said. Various reasons for leaving, he said, include “Marriage problems, insensitive pastoral encounters with ministers of religion, widely publicized church scandals, anemic worship and callous attention to the spiritual needs and aspirations of people because of their gender identity.”
Many fallen away Catholics have gone to other religions where they felt better served, he said. He asked those present and reflectively to himself how they have failed to witness Christ, causing people to leave.
“There is no room for religious bigotry that is largely fueled by lack of knowledge and ignorance on the part of peoples who may call themselves religious but whose behavior violates the basic tenets of most of the great faith traditions of the world,” he said.
He later spoke about his priestly vocation, and explained, “I have never for one moment doubted that I have made the correct journey of faith within Catholicism, but I have been deeply distressed by the state of things in the world in which the Church must witness to the Risen Lord.”
“I apologize for my own failure to emulate Christ’s compassion. The way that we have treated our LGBTQ brothers and sisters has brought them tears and too many of us disgrace,” he concluded. “I apologize from the heart for the hurt that has resulted in the loss of so many of our family members who belong to God no less than I do. I apologize not only for those whose past actions have scandalized and wounded these men and women. I apologize for my own lack of courage to bring healing and hope, and I ask forgiveness.”
