The LORD God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone.
I will make a suitable partner for him.”
God knows us better than we know ourselves. He always has. He chose our partners, women and men, to be together. All of human history has witnessed the truth of God’s plan.
“This one, at last, is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
this one shall be called ‘woman, ‘
for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.”
That is why a man leaves his father and mother
and clings to his wife,
and the two of them become one flesh.
Let’s admit that the Devil is doing his handiwork. His signature is clever lies. Big lies. He wants all of us to doubt Holy Scripture. He is attacking traditional marriage in our culture. He is distorting traditional sexual identity. He is confusing our culture, especially our young people. But God has not been silent. He gave us His Word a long time ago to guide us.
This past week, Bishop Joe Vasquez convened the priests of our Diocese of Austin in an annual Convocation. He planned a timely discussion of topics essential to our pastoral work. He began by addressing the recent sex scandal once again. He invited a world-renowned expert, Dr. Monica Applewhite, the author of the “Protecting God’s Children” programs used in most of the USA and many other countries. Dr. Applewhite and Bishop Aymond made our Diocese the first in the world to put into practice our Ethics in Ministry program for protecting children. And, it is working. We must continue to implement it and reinforce it.
We must, also, not be afraid to talk about sexual issues in our parishes. Sex must not be a taboo subject.
For example, in recent years the subject of homosexuality and transgender has exploded in our media. Our children are being bombarded by teachings in public schools and culture that are just WRONG. The result is a great deal of distortion and confusion that parents are often not prepared to discuss.
Bishop Vasquez invited experts from the National Catholic Bioethics Center to speak to us about “transgender” issues. We reviewed the latest scientific studies. The science reveals that there is no scientific evidence to support that anyone was born homosexual. I repeat, no one was born that way.
All males have a Y chromosome. All females do not. Female brains are quite different from male brains. No amount of gender surgery or drug puberty suppression can change genetics or the brains we are born with. All sex change surgery treats only external, superficial factors. There are considerable psychological and emotional issues in people with transgender issues. Studies show that gender therapies do not change the rate of depression or suicide that accompanies these problems. Males who want to be females, and females who want to be males have to learn to accept their gender as “truth”. We have to learn ways to help them accept their objective truth. Science shows that no amount of medical treatment can change the genetic facts that were there at our conception. Instead, gender therapies and surgeries have become a tragic, massive human experiment being carried out, mostly on children, with no positive evidence. Instead, we are destroying human lives and failing to help people with this warped thinking in our culture. And people make big money doing these distortions, while we allow permanent destruction of healthy bodies.
What is the solution? Love the children. Tell them God loves them! Love those who think they are prisoners of the wrong sex. Do not treat them differently. Just love them. Include them. Do not reject or scorn them. Science shows that time heals most of these issues. Time. And love. Most homosexual tendencies fluctuate widely over time.
And talk! American families need to learn to talk openly about sex, without making judgments. The painful Supreme Court nomination process has taught us how important it is to help our children understand “consent”, that “No” means “No”. Parents must teach human dignity of females and males, children and adults. Learn to talk about sexual matters openly, without emotion or pain, and without judging.
Five years ago, Sacred Heart Parish held our first “Pro-Life/Pro-Family Fair”. God has blessed this project. Today, we have the most robust Pro-Life program in the Diocese, under the direction of Sister Olga. Every Pro-Life agency in Central Texas will have a booth in our cafeteria on Sunday, October 7, from 9am to 4pm. Tacos will be supplied by the Movimiento Familiar. It is NOT a Spanish program. Sonograms are not in Spanish. The Agencies are not Spanish agencies. This Fair is a program to anchor the most robust Pro-Life/Pro-Family year-round program in the Diocese. Every month we will have a different topic for the family. Come see sonograms of babies in their mother’s wombs.
The only way our race continues naturally is with males and females. God made it that way from the beginning.
For two thousand years our Church has taught the truth of sex and marriage, even if our culture tries to deny it and the Evil One spreads lies. Listen to Jesus once more speak of male and female and marriage. It doesn’t get clearer than this. Jesus said,
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate.”
In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this. He said to them,
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery.”
Deny these facts at your own eternal risk. If anyone wants to speak further about these topics, feel free to come see me. I want to talk about this. We have to talk about this. If the Church won’t speak out about the Truth, who will?