Subject: Fw: Fr. Sylvain's Letter to The Tablet (Oct. 25, 2003) Fr. Sylvain wrote "you portray gay and lesbian love experiences as unhealthy & not love such as "normal" people experience." The Tablet is not the first to say this, as you know:
 
". . . the men also, having abandoned the natural use of the woman, have burned in theirlusts, one toward another, men with men doing shameless things & receiving in themselves the fitting recompense of their perversity." (Romans 1:26-27);  ". . . Sodom & Gomorrah . . . commited sins of immorality & practiced unnatural vice, have been made an "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." (2357) To conceal God's warnings from one drawn to an immoral lifestyle is indefensible. "But if one of you asks his father for a loaf, will he hand him a stone?. . . " (Luke 11:11).

 Father said that quoting the Bible & Church Teachingis pointing the finger of judgment at someone else. No, Father, it's offering a hand of friendship. Fr. said "regardless of one's feelings concerning the morality of homosexual acts we must welcome all as God's children." Amen to the second part, but, to call our beliefs "feelings" denies objective truth, turning "compassion" into "concession". The Apostles preached truth, as defined by God. Further, Fr. calls all gay & lesbians "beloved children of God" (true) but then uses this title to imply approval of any immoral, unnatural conduct, never mentioning remorse or atonement for sin. WOW! How can we join this club? We're God's kids, too, you know.

To gain compassion for this sinful lifestyle, Fr. displays a one-sided coin, imaging a gay man, Matthew Shepherd, who was brutally murdered for being gay. I would add the reverse to this coin: 

•   Jesse Dirkhising (Arkansas), 13 years old: tied up by 2 men & criminally attackedfor 5 hours before suffocating.
• Mary Stachowicz (Illinois), elderly Mass attendee: murdered for telling someone his lifestyle was condemned by the Bible.
•  Thomas Scott Allen (Missouri) 16 years old: two men, after he refused a sex act, beat him with a tire iron, shot him 3 times & ran over him with a car.

All three horribly murdered-by homosexual men!

Faithful Catholics don't judge others, but are obligated to explain & defend their Catholic Faith. In closing, Fr. said "once the Catholic Church becomes the sacrament (sic) of charity & compassion (am I hearing a "judgment"?), maybe we will have begun to really be defenders of our faith (sic)" How so? If we quote the Bible or Church Teaching he'll again charge us with "finger pointing". . . and that's why I wrote in the first place! PS: Space limits me from addressing other portions of Fr.'s letter.                     Mr. Quinn included the original letter of Fr. Daniel Sylvain, SA, but copyright laws prevent your Web Master from publishing it here. The priest is from Brooklyn, New York.