Pelosi silent on pro-abortion attacks: ‘I’m very Catholic and I support abortion’

Washington D.C., Aug 30, 2019 / 01:00 pm (CNA).- After a major scientific study found there is not a singular genetic marker for homosexualty, a Catholic theologian explained that the findings are fully in accord with Catholic teaching.

The study was published Aug. 30 in Science. It examined data from several large genetic databanks in multiple countries, and surveyed nearly half a million people about their sexual partners and preferences. Previous studies on the matter have only examined sample groups of hundreds of people.

“From a genetic standpoint, there is no single [genetic distinction] from opposite-sex to same-sex sexual behaviors,” said Andrea Ganna, a geneticist at Finland’s Institute of Molecular Medicine, and the study’s lead author.

Speaking to Scientific American, Eric Vilain, a geneticist at Children’s National Health System in Washington, D.C., called the study’s result “the end of the ‘gay gene’” theory.

In recent decades, many of those involved in the LGBT movement have advanced the argument that sexual orientation is genetically determined, and that people who experienced same-sex attraction are born with a fixed orientation.

In a June interview, Fr. James Martin SJ, author of “Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity,” said that “most reputable psychologists, psychiatrists, biologists, social scientists say that people are simply born this way.” 

In a commentary published along with the study, Oxford University geneticist Melinda Mills noted an “inclination to reduce sexuality to genetic determinism” in support of sociological or ideological positions.

“Attributing same-sex orientation to genetics could enhance civil rights or reduce stigma,” she wrote. “Conversely, there are fears it provides a tool for intervention or ‘cure.’”

Still, Mills said the results of the study show that the use of genetics to predict same-sex attraction, or to change it through some kind of gene editing, is “wholly and unreservedly impossible.”

Commenting on the report Friday, Martin told CNA that “the study shows that a variety of factors, including genetic factors, influence human sexuality.” 

“For me, the most helpful quote came from a geneticist who was one of the lead researchers, who talked about how ‘natural’ homosexuality is,” Martin said, quoting Dr. Benjamin Neale of MIT.

Neale told the New York Times that same-sex behavior is “written into our genes and it’s part of our environment… this is part of our species and it’s part of who we are.”  

“That seems to sum up the results of the study accurately,” said Martin.

The research showed five distinct genetic data points which appear common among individuals who reported at least one same-sex encounter. Two of these markers appear linked to hormones and smell, factors in sexual attraction. 

But the five markers together explained less than 1% of differences in sexual activity among the population, the results found.

“Although they did find particular genetic loci associated with same-sex behavior,” Mills said, “when they combine the effects of these loci together into one comprehensive score, the effects are so small, under 1%, that this genetic score cannot in any way be used to predict same-sex sexual behavior of an individual.”

Noting that the study results highlight considerable differences by generation and the influence of cultural norms on sexual behavior, Mills concluded that future research was best focused on “how genetic predispositions are altered by environmental factors.”

“Once again it’s also important that we listen to the lived experience of LGBT people, as we minister to them in the church,” Martin said.

Dr. Kevin Miller, assistant professor of theology at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, told CNA that the results are in accord with the Church’s existing teaching about homosexualtiy.

“The Catechism treats homosexuality in nos. 2357-2359. Early in this treatment we read that its ‘psychological genesis remains largely unexplained.’ The new study does not change this.”

The study draws a distinction between people who engage in homosexual acts and those who identified as “gay” or “homosexual,” a distinction Miller noted was already central to the Church’s teachings.

The Catechism teaches that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered” and “under no circumstances can they be approved.” This is because, Miller said, only sexual acts oriented by their nature to the possibility of procreation and set within marriage are “compatible with the essential moral virtue of chastity and – as St. John Paul II emphasized in both his pre-papal and papal writings – love.”. 

“Any others are – independent of the subjective dispositions of those who take part in them – objectively hedonistic and selfish, rather than authentically loving. Obviously there are many types of sexual acts that could fall into this category – homosexual acts are by no means the only type.”

Homosexual tendency or inclination, often called same-sex attraction, is defined by the Catechism as “objectively disordered,” Miller said. This is because a desire which, if acted on, would lead to immoral acts is by its nature disordered, he said. 

But, Miller noted, the desire or inclination itself is not “morally wrong,” since a person does not choose to have an inclination or exercise their free will over having it.

Central to understanding the distinction between sexual inclinations and acts, Miller said, is that all sexual acts are freely chosen; even if a person has an interior disposition toward engaging in homosexual acts, they have the same freedom to pursue them or not as a person inclined towards immoral acts with someone of the opposite sex.

“One can see that in this explanation of the Church’s teaching, there is no reference of any sort to the cause of the homosexual tendency or disposition. This is simply irrelevant to the analysis of the moral goodness or evil of homosexual acts, and of the ordered or disordered character of the homosexual tendency or disposition.”

Miller explained that the origin of a person’s sexual orientation, whether biological, environmental, or experiential, had no bearing on what the Church teaches about the morality of acting on a particular sexual urge. 

“These teachings do not depend on any assumption regarding the cause of the tendency or inclination,” he said.

“Even if it could be shown that a homosexual tendency or orientation is wholly biologically determined, this would not affect at all the logic underlying the Church’s teaching.”

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Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas. / null

CNA Newsroom, Jun 25, 2023 / 11:11 am (CNA).
The Vatican’s Dicastery of Bishops has completed a formal investigation of Bishop Joseph E. Strickland and the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, according to m… […]

National Catholic Register, Sep 5, 2024 / 14:40 pm (CNA).

When you are in need of an answer to prayer but time doesn’t permit a multi-day petition, you may want to follow the example of St. Teresa of Calcutta — whose feast day is today, Sept. 5 — who turned to the Virgin Mary and prayed her “Flying Novena.”

Monsignor Leo Maasburg, her friend and spiritual adviser, explains in his book “Mother Teresa of Calcutta: A Personal Portrait” that it was “Mother Teresa’s spiritual rapid-fire weapon. It consisted of 10 Memorares — not nine, as you might expect from the word ‘novena.’ Novenas lasting nine days were quite common among the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity. But given the host of problems that were brought to Mother Teresa’s attention, not to mention the pace at which she traveled, it was often just not possible to allow nine days for an answer from Celestial Management. And so she invented the ‘Quick Novena.’” 

Maasburg calls it by this name rather than the “Flying Novena,” which her Missionaries of Charity continue to use and pray.

Here are the words of the centuries-old Memorare:

“Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To you I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your clemency hear and answer me. Amen.”

Maasburg writes that Mother Teresa said this novena all the time — “for petitions for the cure of a sick child, before important discussions, or when passports went missing to request heavenly aid when the fuel supply was running short on a nighttime mission and the destination was still far away in the darkness. The Quick Novena had one thing in common with nine-day and even nine-month novenas: confident pleading for heavenly assistance, as the apostles did for nine days in the upper room ‘with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the women’ (Acts 1:14) while waiting for the promised help from the Holy Spirit.”

Maasburg goes on to explain why Mother Teresa always prayed 10 Memorares. “She took the collaboration of heaven so much for granted that she always added a 10th Memorare immediately, in thanksgiving for the favor received.”

Typical quick answer

Father Brian Kolodiejchuk of the Missionaries of Charity, who served as the postulator of the cause for Mother Teresa’s canonization, shared an example of what happened when Mother Teresa prayed this 10-day novena as the need arose or a difficulty presented itself. 

He quotes Mother herself describing one of many instances: “In Rome during the Holy Year (1984), the Holy Father was going to celebrate Mass in the open, and crowds of people were gathered. It was pouring rain, so I told the sisters, ‘Let us say a flying novena of nine Memorares to Our Lady in thanksgiving for beautiful weather.’ As we said two Memorares, it started to pour more rain. We said the third … sixth … seventh … and at the eighth one, all the umbrellas were closing, and when we finished the ninth one, we found all the umbrellas were closed.”

Novena opens Vatican locks

Maasburg also recounts in his book the time he drove Mother Teresa and one of her sisters to the Vatican for Pope John Paul II’s private morning Mass. Arriving very early while all was still locked up, Maasburg describes how together they prayed the entire rosary and novena of Memorares while waiting in the car.

“No sooner had we finished the Quick Novena than the Swiss guardsman knocked on the steamed-up windshield and said, ‘Mother Teresa, it’s time.’ Mother Teresa and the sister got out.”

Maasburg said he’d wait in the car for her, but she turned around and called, “Quick, Father, you come with us!”

Mother Teresa was already on her way to the elevator; she swept aside the timid protest of the Swiss guardsman with a charming “Father is with us!” and a grateful twinkle of her eyes.

“The rules were unequivocal: Only those who were on the list of announced guests could enter. And only the names of Mother Teresa and one other sister were on that list. … Even in the company of a saint I would not get past the elevator attendant — much less the civil police in front of the entrance to the Holy Father’s apartment,” Maasburg recalled.

“Mother assured the hesitant elevator attendant … ‘We can start now. Father is with us’ … I had already tried again and again to explain to Mother Teresa in the elevator that it is not only unusual but absolutely impossible to make your way into the pope’s quarters unannounced. But even my resistance was useless…”

Two tall policemen in civilian clothes stood at the door to the papal apartments.

“The older of the two policemen greeted the foundress of a religious order courteously: ‘Mother Teresa, good morning! Please come this way. The padre is not announced. He cannot come in.’ He stepped aside for Mother Teresa, whereas I had stopped walking,” Maasburg continued. “She gestured to me, however, that I should keep going, and explained to the policeman, ‘Father is with us.’”

“‘… Mother, your padre has no permission; therefore he cannot come with you.’”

“… She stood there calmly and asked the policeman in a patient tone of voice, ‘And who can give the priest permission?’” Maasburg recounted.

“The good man was obviously not prepared for this question. With a helpless shrug of his shoulder he said, ‘Well, maybe the pope himself. Or Monsignor [Stanisław] Dziwisz….’”

“’Good, then wait here!’ was the prompt reply. And Mother Teresa was already … heading for the papal chambers. ’I will go and ask the Holy Father!’”

“A short pause, then Italian-Vatican common sense prevailed and Mother Teresa had won. ‘Then the padre had better just go with you!’”

“Turning to me, he said, ‘Go. Go now!’” Maasburg said.

Not only did Maasburg get to the Mass, but Mother Teresa told Dziwisz, the pope’s private secretary, later the  archbishop of Krakow and a cardinal, that the priest with her would celebrate the Mass with the Holy Father. And Maasburg did. (Read all the details here.)

Impossible becomes possible

Mother Teresa “definitely inspired the same devotion in her sisters, but also in others,” Kolodiejchuk affirmed.

Father Louis Merosne, the pastor at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Anse-à-Veau, Haiti, shared his own amazing experience with the Flying Novena. 

Once he had planned to join the Missionaries of Charity priests, had been accepted, and spent two years with them in Mexico before he said God made it clear he was to serve in Haiti instead. Active with youth and young adult conferences, in 2008 he was going to World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia. On his return he was to have a one-day stop in Boston, then catch a flight to the Netherlands, where he was to speak at a conference.

“I went to the consulate in Boston to apply for their visa,” he said. “They told me I would have to leave my passport in order to put the visa on it. I couldn’t because I had to leave for Sydney.” Boston insisted the central office could not process anything until they had his passport. “I told them I’m going to the Netherlands and I had one day in between my two travels. They said, ‘Sorry.’”

Calling from Sydney about the visa, he got a surprise. “They told me, by the way, they don’t do urgent, express applications. They need at least two weeks once they get the passport.” He told them the conference would be over by then. 

Returning to Boston, he took an early train to New York City to the main consulate office. He continued: “I went to the office to explain the situation again, but they said, ‘You can leave your passport and pick it up in two weeks. We’re very sorry.’”

This was the day he was to travel to the Netherlands, and he had to get back to Boston and board his booked flight that evening, which would then fly back to New York on the first of two legs to the Netherlands.

“Maybe if I call the airline, they would allow me to get on at New York for the Netherlands flight,” he thought. The airline’s answer? “No, we don’t do that. If you don’t get on your flight in Boston, your entire flight will be cancelled. You cannot get on in New York.”

Still in the consulate, he called the airlines a second time hoping to find a sympathetic listener. But again he was told the airline could not cancel one leg of the flight.

At that point Merosne knew it was time to say a Flying Novena. He said: “‘Only you, Blessed Mother, can help me do this if it is God’s will.’ I said the novena.”

Shortly after he finished, “the representative from the consulate called me over and said, ‘Give me your passport.’ And within minutes I had my visa! And I called the airlines a third time, and this time the lady said, ‘We don’t do this, but we’ll do this once for you. Get on the plane in New York.’”

“Once I said that [Flying] Novena, it was all over for them,” Merosne said with much joy. “That which was impossible for man was quite possible for our Blessed Mother.”

“I am a believer,” he said of the Flying Novena.

About the Flying Novena

Kolodiejchuk noted that Mother Teresa taught: “Get into that habit of calling on her [Mary]. She interceded — at the wedding feast, there was no wine. … She was so sure that he will do what she asks him. … She is mediatrix of all graces. … She is always there with us.”

One of the Missionaries of Charity sisters explained that the Flying Novena wasn’t hard and fast in some ways. For instance, the nine Memorares might be for our Blessed Mother’s help in getting a house, or nine Memorares in thanksgiving for that (rather than one 10th Memorare) because the house was already attained.

The spiritual situation and the time come into account.

She said the sisters use the Flying Novena from the simplest things such as getting out of traffic when they are stuck in it to serious life-and-death things.

The Memorare is so powerful, she said. We are to pray the Memorares with confidence and in thanksgiving knowing Our Lady will grant this.

“The Memorare is a prayer that effectively expressed Mother Teresa’s trust in the power of Mary’s intercession as the mediatrix of all graces,” Kolodiejchuk explained. “It flowed from the love and confidence she had in Mary and was a simple way to present her petitions to her. The speedy response she received inspired her with ever-greater confidence to have recourse to Mary with the words of the Memorare.”

Mother Teresa wanted everybody to learn and use this prayer. “Mother said [to] teach the poor to pray the Memorare. Write it down for them and teach them,” the sister said. Praying it, Our Lady will be gloried and Jesus will be glorified.

There’s always a reason for the Flying Novena.

This article was first published Aug. 30, 2016, by the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, and has been adapted by CNA.

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