If you listened to what was said recently by representatives of New Ways Ministry, a gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transsexual activist group and Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit, the answer would be a definite yes.

Bishop Gumbleton opened his session using a "published" pastoral letter from the U.S. bishops called "Always our Children". He explained this letter was addressed primarily to parents of homosexual children as well as to the homosexual community and to ministers as a way for the church to offer them an enormous spiritual resource. In a previous talk at a Call to Action annual conference he said the U.S. bishops chose to delete several sentences from the final draft of the letter. The sentences that were deleted read, "Judging the sinfulness of any particular act is a matter ultimately between God and the individual person. This is the function of one’s conscience, which the Second Vatican Council described as the divine voice echoing in our depths, as a law written by God in human hearts. A person must always obey the certain judgment of his or her conscience." Bishop Gumbleton forgot to mention that only the bishops on the committee that wrote the letter, not the entire bishop’s Conference, endorsed this letter. Nor did he mention that the Vatican recalled the document.

(Throughout the three-day symposium primacy of conscience, fully developed conscience and fully- informed conscience were used consistently in the defense of homosexual sexual activity.)

During his presentation, Bishop Gumbleton read several letters. The first letter was from a lesbian who had been married for 15 years. She left her husband for another woman. In her letter she talked about how difficult it is to reconcile her love for this woman with the condemnation of homosexuality that she had been taught by the Church. Bishop Gumbleton commented that the Church’s rejection of the homosexual life style is conveyed to parents in such a way that they must reject the child. "The worst and most evil advice ever given to a parent."

The second letter was written from a friend whose son died from AIDS. The friend’s son never told his parents about being gay because of the Church’s position and the parent’s lack of knowledge about homosexuality. The parent now knows that, because of the Church, he had failed his son.

Bishop Gumbleton next commented on what the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" says about Homosexuality being a disorder. The Catechism (2357) says, " Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." He said in other words we have a moral disorder, we are evil and unworthy of Christ. He followed this up by asking the question, "Who can tell us that we are unworthy of Christ?" Bishop Gumbleton said we must reject the church’s position on homosexuality. He also said homosexuals are psychologically healthy people not disordered people and in some ways even more psychologically healthy than heterosexuals. He went on to say, "Somewhat surprisingly, they (homosexuals) make love more humanely, largely because they are better able empathetically to feel what their partner is feeling."

Gumbleton said homosexuals develop very deep spirituality and they can bring this deep spirituality to our church. He went on to explain the need for a clear understanding about homosexual people especially that their sexual activity is acting with God. He said the church says no to gay and lesbian sexual activity but there can be errors in church teachings and that church teachings develop over time. To support this he said that marriage was not acknowledged as a sacrament until the Council of Trent in the 16th century.

Bishop Gumbleton asked. "How do homosexuals come to dealing with themselves? How do they answer the question "Who Am I?" He said this is the function of one’s conscious. The conscious is what speaks in the depth of our hearts. We form a well-formed conscious from scriptures, prayer, and tradition but the ultimate decision is between God and me. He said we must not take the scriptures literally because of the time and the culture. Genesis and the "story" of creation is not true as are Genesis’ moral codes because of time and culture. "The Catholic Church has a problem with sex." The best kind of scriptural teaching we can’t disregard entirely but we can’t take the scriptures literally.

Gumbleton emphasized that if we follow our well-informed conscience we cannot be put out of the Church. He gave the following examples of people going against the teachings of the Church but they have not been barred from the Church or denied Holy Communion.

• Supreme Court Judge Scalia is a Catholic in good standing with the church while he supports the death penalty even though Pope John Paul II has spoken out against the death penalty.

• Catholic Americans who support the War on Terror, even though Church teachings proclaimed in Vatican Council II say that any act of war to destroy is a condemnation. Catholics serving on a nuclear submarine know when they start their duty that they will on a moments notice obey orders that will kill and destroy; yet they are not denied Holy Communion.

Here are other comments made during the symposium to support a yes answer to the above question.

• "The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because heterosexual men were sexually abusing others (having sex with other heterosexual men) not because homosexual people were expressing their true love for God and for one another(through homosexual acts)."

• In response to a question from the audience concerning when the church will accept homosexual "marriage’ Bishop Gumbleton answered, "My hope is within 2 years."

Bishop Gumbleton is preaching against Catholic Church teachings. He had an audience of hundreds who wanted to hear that their life style, or the life style of their children, was blessed by God and if it is blessed by God then the Catholic Church is in error for its position on homosexuality, bisexuality and transsexuality .

Much more frightening is his message that we should never take the Bible literally and the Book of Genesis is a myth, even though the Catholic Church teaches that Adam is not merely a symbol of man but a real man and St. Paul referred to Jesus as a second Adam…..

• So, if there is no first Adam then there can be no second Adam.

• If there was no real Adam then there is no Original Sin.

• If there is no Original Sin, then there is no need to be redeemed from Original Sin.

• If there is no Original Sin then there is no Baptism just "Initiation."

• If there is no need for Redemption, then what really happened on Good Friday on Calvary?

• If there is no Original Sin, there is no fall from grace and no need to be restored into grace.

• If there is no Calvary then there is no sacrifice.

• If there is no sacrifice then there is no Sacrifice of the Mass.

• If there is no Sacrifice of the Mass then there is no Holy Eucharist just a meal of thanksgiving.

• If there is no Holy Eucharist then there is no need to keep the word sacrifice when referring to the Mass.

• If there is no Holy Eucharist then there is no need to keep the word Holy when referring to the Eucharist, then we can just refer to the Sacrifice of the Mass as Eucharist.

• If there is no Holy Eucharist then there is no need ___________________ (fill in the blank).

So, too, it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living being," the last Adam a life giving spirit.
1 Corinthians 15:45