Bishop Bruskewitz - Prudence No Excuse for Not Addressing Church's Teachings on Homosexuality

Bishop Bruskewitz clearly isn't worried about pleasing the PC gang. He is more concerned about seeing that the truth is being taught by the priests of the diocese. Clearly he is concerned as chief shepherd of the diocese for the souls of all those in his care.

He is right to make it clear that he isn't saying don't use proper prudence. clearly the topic of homosexual acts shouldn't be one for a group of grade school or younger children. But beyond that the question isn't if, but how do you tailor the message for the audience while being faithful to the authentic teaching of the Catholic Church. It has to be "clear and precise" as he points out. & that means making it clear that “Homosexual acts are intrinsically evil, and if one does them with full knowledge and consent, they’re mortal sins and place one’s eternal salvation in the gravest of jeopardy.”

Bishop Bruskewitz practices what he preaches, including posting a talk about "Homosexuality" on the diocesan website. The talk gives an excellent template for how to approach teaching on the subject. It includes calling homosexual acts sinful, including the situations where they are mortal sins. But he doesn'rt leave it there. He also makes clear that God's mercy & forgiveness are available for those who sin. But there needs to be repentance.

Another thing he mentions in the talk that will PO the PC gang is that it is just discrimination when Christians refuse to rent to homosexual couples. As he says: "Christians have not only a right, but a duty to avoid placing people in occasions of sin. Rent discrimination, for example, to homosexual couples is, in my view, a very just and rightful form of discrimination which Christians not only can, but should, exercise, refusing for instance to rent apartments or rooms to persons who are obviously in an intrinsically disordered arrangement in regard to their sexual lives."

Bishop Bruskewitz is setting an example that far too few Bishops are following. He is obviously not worrying about pleasing man. Rather he is doing what he should as Bishop because he is concerned about pleasing God. Sadly he will be retiring soon as he is 75. But I suspect even that won't stop him from speaking out the truth.

Nebraska bishop: Don’t make ‘prudence’ an excuse to avoid preaching boldly on homosexuality

LINCOLN, Nebraska, April 15, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Priests should not use concerns over “prudence” as an excuse to avoid speaking boldly on the immorality of homosexual acts, says Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska.

“Caution and prudence are important, but I don’t think they should be excuses for not properly speaking when speaking is necessary or extremely important pastorally,” the bishop told LifeSiteNews this week.

He said priests may be reluctant to address homosexuality because “there’s a lot of intimidation in various places,” but he stressed that the wide promotion of openness to homosexuality in our culture demands that they present the Catholic Church’s teachings clearly. “In a culture in which this kind of activity is broadcast all over, I think it’s important that the teaching of the Church be clear and precise,” he said.

“Homosexual acts are intrinsically evil, and if one does them with full knowledge and consent, they’re mortal sins and place one’s eternal salvation in the gravest of jeopardy,” he added.

Those who experience same-sex attractions must “resist that inclination,” he said. “There are people who are inclined to start fires, or to kill people, or to rob or something, and they can’t give into their inclinations. They have to struggle against them and restrain them.”

“Similarly, people who have such an inclination, however they obtained it, must maintain what God wants us to do in regard to the way human sexual activity and human reproductive activity takes place.”

Bishop Bruskewitz lamented that “in recent times things that were unspoken, or basically unspeakable, are now broadcast all over the media.” “We have a proliferation of every sort of pornography on the internet, and there’s a general cultural deterioration in that direction,” he said.

While there’s a need to present the Church’s sexual teachings clearly, the bishop also stressed that priests must make a “pastoral judgment” in determining the appropriate context for these discussions. “I think there’s a time and place to do these things. Sometimes there’s a certain delicacy, I think, and modesty in speaking and referring to sexual matters that has to observed,” he explained.

Discussions on homosexuality would be “inappropriate” with certain audiences, he said, but “there’s others where it would be not only appropriate but sometimes necessary to speak about them.”