Always Our Children: Flawed & Defective

Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children and Suggestions for Pastoral Ministers is a statement of the NCCB Committee on Marriage and Family. It was prepared in the Secretariat for Family, Laity, Women, and Youth under the supervision of the above committee. Publication was approved by the Administrative Committee on September 10, 1997.

1)The Committee on Marriage and Family of the U.S. bishops conference published this document without the majority of the American Catholic bishops given the opportunity to comment on its pastoral usefulness or on its contents.

2)This document fails to take into account the latest revision in the authentic Latin version of The Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding homosexuality.

3)Always Our Children fails to quote several sentences from the Catechism in order to pretend that the Catechism says homosexuality is a gift from God and should be accepted as a fixed and permanent condition.

4)The document supports homosexuality by neglecting to cite the Catholic doctrine set forth by the Holy See which teaches that the homosexual orientation is "objectively disordered."

5)The documents gives a distorted view of virtue and practice of chastity.

6)The document counsels parents not to intervene, but rather to adopt a "wait and see" attitude when they find their adolescent children "experimenting" with homosexual acts. This ignores a parents duty to protect their children from committing a homosexual act that is not only dangerous to their health but to their immortal soul.

7) The document never states Homosexual acts are mortal sins which can send ones soul to eternal damnation.

8) It advices parents to "accept" their children's homosexual friends.

9)The document avoids distinguishing between minor children from adult children in its advice to parents.

10) "Calamity and frightening disaster" are terms which are not too excessive to describe this document. It is my view that this document carries no weight or authority for Catholics, whom I would advise to ignore or oppose it." Most Rev. Fabian W. Bruskewitz