We have previously mentioned what it’s website calls “Historic St. Paul Roman Catholic Church,” at 425 West Short Street in Lexington, Kentucky, and not in a positive way. St Paul’s has an active homosexual ministry, something which cannot ever be approved.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, concerning homosexuality:

• §2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity^[1]Cf. Gen 191-29; Rom 124-27; 1 Cor 6:10; 1 Tim 1:10. This is footnote 141 in the original., tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.”^[2]CDF, Persona humana 8. They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
• §2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
• §2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

What part of “under no circumstances can they be approved” do some priests and bishops find unclear? Sadly, our local bishop, His Excellency, The Most Reverend John Stowe, O.F.M. Conv., supports the unsupportable.

His Holiness, Pope Francis, has given various, if somewhat ambiguous, signs that he also supports some acceptance of homosexuality. And then there’s this, from the Lexington Herald-Leader:

Lexington man who leads LGBTQ ministry was ‘shocked’ at personal message from the pope

By Karla Ward | Saturday, October 21, 2023 | 6:15 PM EDT

A Lexington man who is dedicated to helping the Catholic Church reach out to the LGBTQ community has received a personal note from Pope Francis.

Stan “JR” Zerkowski, who works in both local and national outreach efforts, said he wrote the pope earlier this month, and two days later received a handwritten response from the pontiff.

“I was shocked,” said Zerkowski, a layman who leads LGBTQ outreach for the Diocese of Lexington and at St. Paul Catholic Church on Short Street. “I never thought I’d get a personal response.”

The note, addressed to Zerkowski and attached to an email from a staffer as an image, reads, “Dear brother, Thank you very much for your email. Thank you very much for your ministry. I pray for you, please continue to do so for me. May the Lord bless you and the Madonna watch over you. Fraternally, Francis.”

With the current Synod, the Catholic Church is teasing at the edge of schism, and Pope Francis, who apparently is all in favor of allowing homosexual unions, has pushed the envelope:

Pope suggests blessings for same-sex unions may be possible

October 3, 2023 | 1:49 AM EDT

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has suggested there could be ways to bless same-sex unions, responding to five conservative cardinals who challenged him to affirm church teaching on homosexuality ahead of a big meeting where LGBTQ+ Catholics are on the agenda.

The Vatican on Monday published a letter Francis wrote to the cardinals on July 11 after receiving a list of five questions, or “dubia,” from them a day earlier. In it, Francis suggests that such blessings could be studied if they didn’t confuse the blessing with sacramental marriage.

New Ways Ministry, which advocates for LGBTQ+ Catholics, said the letter “significantly advances” efforts to make LGBTQ+ Catholics welcomed in the church and “one big straw towards breaking the camel’s back” in their marginalization.

New Ways Ministry might think that this is the “one big straw towards breaking the camel’s back”, but it might be the one big straw breaking the camel’s back of the entire Catholic Church.

It must be my inferior understanding which keeps me from seeing the obvious brilliance of a proposal to allow priests to ‘bless’ what the Bible states is wholly sinful. But several Protestant denominations have broken apart due to precisely this subject, and that ought to worry His Holiness the Pope.

There’s just no wiggle room in the Bible, the holy book that all Catholic priests profess to believe is the revealed Word of God. Not only is homosexual activity defined as an abomination in Leviticus 18:22, but in Leviticus 20:13, the specified penalty is death! Several passages in the New Testament also refer to homosexual activity as gravely sinful, and though there are no recorded words of Jesus directly on the subject, in Matthew 5:17-19, he states that not one letter of the old law shall pass away until heaven and earth themselves pass away.