Above Rick Price

Today is NOT All Souls Day. Today, Sunday Nov 2nd is both the commemoration and a possible Holy Day of Obligation. For those unaware, I present the following:

All Saints Day falls on Saturday, November 1, 2014. While All Saints Day is normally a holy day of obligation, that obligation is abrogated in the United States and some other countries when it falls on a Saturday or a Monday. (See Is All Saints Day a Holy Day? for more details.) Therefore, Catholics in such countries do not have to attend Mass on All Saints Day in 2014. Catholics in other countries may still be required to attend Mass; you should check with your parish or diocese to determine whether you must attend.

LGBTQ stands for lesbian gay bisexual transsexual and queer. I woke up this morning to find those subjects dominating my Jesuit newsletter. Much of the available information was concerning Notre Dame University. That's where I go to church at online Mass. It works for housebound in winter. It doesn't work well for receiving sacraments.

Today November 1 headline "Notre Dame's Gay in Christ 

 

conference gains for Fidelity", but speakers embrace gay identity. That's happening today November 1 all of this while a Boston priest puts up LGBTQ rainbow flag on the Catholic chapel. Something happening here. Buffalo Springfield.

I've seen the LGBTQ rainbow a number of times and it does not represent the rainbow of promise that we will never have a flood problem. It's different than Roy G. Biv . I'll explain that later I guess red., orange, yellow, green etc. Wait! I have it! Red, orange, yellow, green, blue. Indigo, violet. Just about what I'm saying I found here on the Internet the following quote, "Roy G. Biv is an acronym for the sequence of hues commonly described as making up a rainbow: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. That says it the way I think I understand it. That's the way I've always known the rainbow. That's the rainbow crossing behind the church steeple picture that I have made so famous. The LGBTQ rainbow is not the same. 

The point is not the color of the rainbow. The point is that a traditional Catholic church is allowing a priest to put the LGBTQ rainbow on the Catholic Church. Are there repercussions? Probably,  but what about Notre Dame? There have been all sorts of interesting things going on at Notre Dame which consider the LGBTQ society group. The archbishop has begun to speak out against some of the things that are happening .....as should be, considering the way the church is normally run and has been running for 2000 years. Frankly I'm quite surprised to see it go through the changes and have them accepted/allowed as they are at this time.

There was a group called "We're here and We're Queer". I first heard about that group when my kids were going to college some 23 years ago. At that time I was a pretty radical liberal. We do become more conservative the older we get. I know I did. What I don't understand is the speed with which change is happening. I am only 69 years old. It isn't as though I had Alzheimer's for a while and then came out of it into a different world of OZ. And then I'm not one of those guys who is caught up on any of the trilogies, sextuplitgies, I can say I read the whole Left Behind series. I heard from people who saw the movie with Nicholas Cage. Knowing Nicholas Cage I doubt whether it followed the books very well.

Is it proper conduct all these activities at the Catholic University on the grounds. Is it proper to conduct them near the grotto at Notre Dame. Is it proper to conduct them in the Basilica. The Basilica of the Sacred Heart. It just doesn't sound right. Does it sound right to you?

I felt somewhat uplifted when Pope Francis decided he was going to make some room for understanding gays in the church. He understood that they had things to offer. He wanted to listen. He wanted to give them some space. That doesn't mean that he accepted all that they do. It just means a change in the church and perhaps a change slowly in the direction they can make all parties happy. Personally I condemn the act, but accept the actors.

I realize I'm not saving the world nor am I saving churches. There are hundreds of Catholic churches in this country alone and thousands around the world. I'm just one stuck housebound guy who's had a rare syndrome keeping him in a wheelchair watching TV and reading the newspaper. I can still form opinions. People can disagree with them. I welcome that disagreement. Chances are the people that disagree with me are more likely mad at me because somehow they think I have betrayed them. I haven't I'm just coming out in my own way.