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Archbishop Nienstedt Denies Communion to Same-Sex 'Marriage' Advocates

"Homosexuality shall always be condemned, because it is against the nature of man; and it is a violation of all human morality, and shall not be tolerated by the Eternal Father in the Trinity." - Our Lady of the Roses, October 5, 1985

LifeSiteNews.com reported on October 6, 2010:

The Archbishop of St. Paul-Minneapolis has denied communion to members of a group that included three nuns and a priest, who wore symbols expressing their opposition to Catholic Church teaching on marriage and homosexuality.

The group expressed frustration after Archbishop John C. Nienstedt withheld the sacrament from them because they wore rainbow buttons and sashes signaling their support for same-sex "marriage" and homosexuality. The archbishop, who was celebrating his first student Mass at St. John's on September 26, instead gave a blessing to members of the group, which included students from St. John's University and the College of St. Benedict, as well as three nuns and a priest. Rainbow Sash Movement leader Brian McNeil said the group acted independently of his organization.

Elizabeth Gleich, a St. Benedict sophomore and board member of People Representing the Sexual Minority (PRiSM), said that her group had intended to "make a statement" against the archbishop's support for traditional marriage. She criticized Nienstedt for "mak[ing] these extreme statements" by denying the group communion. Gleich, who was wearing a sash, was given communion in another line at the same liturgy.

Another PRiSM member, Ana Seivert, complained in a Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) report that the archbishop's action was "political." "We weren't the ones who made it political," she said. "Once the archbishop denied communion, he made it political."

Archdiocese spokesman Dennis McGrath said the church has told the Rainbow Sash Movement "for years" that members "cannot receive communion if you wear the rainbow sash, because it's a political statement, a sign of protest," according to the Star Tribune. "Going to the communion rail is the most sacred part of our faith, the Eucharist. We don't allow anybody to make political statements or any kind of protest."

"It's a symbol of the GLBT movement en masse, and it was intended as a protest," McGrath told MPR. "It was pretty obvious."

Rev. Rene McGraw, a philosophy professor at St. John's, said that he celebrated a small Mass later that evening and gave all the members of the group communion. "My understanding of church law is that one is not to deny communion to anyone unless he or she is a public sinner, and that has traditionally been interpreted very narrowly," said McGraw, according to the AP. "My instinct was these are people who were in need, I'm supportive of them, therefore I'm happy to say mass for them."

However, the Vatican has confirmed that Rainbow Sashers cannot receive communion while publicly standing in opposition to Church teaching on sexuality, as stated by Cardinal Francis Arinze, the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, in 2005.

Cardinal Francis George, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote in 2004 that: “The policy of the U.S. Bishops’ conference, a policy I did not invent, was to refuse Communion to anyone who used its reception as an occasion to protest against the Church’s teaching.”

St. Paul-Minneapolis Archbishop Emeritus Harry Flynn, prior to his retirement, had been singled out for praise from the Rainbow Sash Movement for welcoming members to communion in his diocese. Nienstedt succeeded Flynn upon the latter's retirement on May 2, 2008.

Rainbow Sash wearers have successfully approached the rail in other areas, most notably the dioceses of Rochester, New York, Los Angeles, California, and Detroit, Michigan. The organization usually gears up every year on the Catholic holy day of Pentecost to launch a coordinated effort to receive communion while wearing the sashes, and have even been known to snatch the host and distribute it to members when ministers were reluctant.

Patrick Reilly of the Cardinal Newman Society, a Catholic college watchdog group, criticized the schools for failing to stand in solidarity with the archbishop.

“As long as the University sponsors a club that blatantly opposes Catholic teaching with events like ‘Freedom to Marry Day,’ I can only foresee more embarrassing and scandalous situations like this arising," Reilly told LifeSiteNews.com Wednesday.

"This is an opportunity for University leaders to explain Catholic teaching, clarify the institution's Catholic identity, and act in communion with the Archbishop. To remain silent would seem to condone the students' actions.

Minnesota's bishops revealed last month that they would be mailing hundreds of thousands of DVDs to Catholics in the state explaining the Church's position against gay "marriage," and urging them to support candidates who favor protecting traditional marriage.

See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Homosexual Activists Disturb Masses, Some Denied Communion, Some Steal It Anyway
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2005/may/05051701.html

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Fallout from Gay ‘Marriage’ Demands Marriage Amendment: Minnesota Archbishop

LifeSiteNews.com reported on May 3, 2010:

The leader of Minnesota’s Catholics, Rev. John Nienstedt, has called for an amendment to the Minnesota constitution defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The archbishop of Minneapolis and St. Paul recently penned a column in the Star Tribune saying that the legalization of same-sex “marriage” will have even more unintended consequences on marriage and society than the legalization of no-fault divorce, and will mean that the government no longer recognizes that the ideal situation is for a child to have a mother and a father.

"Why should Minnesotans care about passing a marriage amendment?” wrote Nienstedt. “Marriage matters to every Minnesotan, whether or not we choose to marry personally, because it is the natural way we bring together men and women to conceive and raise the next generation.”

Nienstedt said that although the idea of marriage as a “a lifelong, committed, life-giving union between one man and one woman” has been long-established, it has been severely challenged – and not solely through same-sex “marriage.”

The legalization of no-fault divorce ushered in enormous unintended consequences in society, with women unfairly forced to do solo-parenting, and fatherless children bearing the brunt of the burden, he said.

“Children suffer, but so does the whole society, when marriage fails in its irreplaceable task of bringing together mothers and fathers with their children,” he continued.

“We might learn caution from experience. Back in the early 1970s, the experts told us that no-fault divorce would liberate women from bad marriages without affecting anyone else. We now know that as many as one-third of women fall into poverty with their children as a result of divorce. Social science caught up late with the common-sense wisdom that children need a mom and a dad working together to protect them.”

Nienstedt said that same-sex “marriage” would bring “a whole new level of challenge and uncertainty” to the institution of marriage. It would transform the “core meaning of marriage” by reducing it to “simply a union of consenting parties.”

However, the happiness of adults is not why the state has an interest in promoting marriage, because the state is looking to provide for the common or public good, explained Nienstedt. “Marriage exists in civil law primarily in order to provide communal support for bringing mothers and fathers together to care for their children. Same-sex unions cannot serve this public purpose.”

“We all know that not all children live in the ideal situation. Many parents are doing a magnificent job working hard to raise children in less than ideal circumstances,” said Nienstedt. “Every son or daughter is a child of God who deserves our concern. But gay marriage would certainly be a declaration by the government that we have officially abandoned the ideal that children need both a mom and dad.”

He explained that the law would also teach children that “moms and dads are interchangeable and therefore unnecessary,” that marriage has nothing to do with bringing children into the world and raising them, and that the complementary influences of a mother and a father also do not matter.

Nienstedt argued that the decision of activist courts like that in Iowa that overturned state law protecting natural marriage, “clearly demonstrates that an amendment is needed,” in spite of Minnesota leaders saying there is no danger of same-sex “marriage” being introduced.

“The only way to secure the definition of marriage as a union of one man and one woman is to follow the lead of other states and put a simple definition of marriage in our state Constitution, beyond the reach of activist courts,” he said.

“A question as important as the future of this great, social institution called marriage should not be decided by a few, narrow elites, but by the people of Minnesota themselves. A marriage amendment is the only just and respectful resolution.”

"Man shall not condone evil or rationalize sin. Homosexuality is an abomination in the eyes of God and man! The Creator condemns those who do not repent of this sin." - Our Lady of the Roses, August 5, 1977

"Are you so blind that you do not recognize the acceleration of sin among you? Murders abound, thievery, all manner of carnage, destruction of young souls, abortion, homosexuality, condemned from the beginning of time by the Eternal Father. Yet sin has become a way of life. Sin is condoned now, even unto the highest judge of your land and your lands throughout the world. As you have sown so shall you reap. Sin is death, not only of the spirit, but of the body. Wars are a punishment for man's sin, his greed, his avarice." - Our Lady of the Roses, August 14, 1981

Our Lady of the Roses Bayside messages:

These prophecies came from Jesus, Mary, and the saints to Veronica Lueken at Bayside, NY, from 1968 to 1995.

SIN IS INSANITY
"I have told you, counseled you in the past, that sin is insanity. Your world and its people are involved--they walk as on a treadmill, seeking power and money and material goods and pleasure. And they go round and about, never stopping as the world plunges faster to the abyss.” – Our Lady, August 4, 1979

FREE WILL
"I say unto you, as your God, I bring not your destruction. You will bring about your own destruction, for I leave you, as your God, to the exercise of your free will. In your free will, if you reject your God and the plan for man's redemption as given from the beginning of time, I say unto you, you will destroy yourselves.
"Sin is insanity; insanity shall be loosed upon your world. There will come a time, if you continue on your present path, so vile and evil upon mankind that those who are living will envy the dead.” – Jesus, May 18, 1977

THE GREAT FOUNDATION
"Pray constantly your Rosary, your beads of prayer to Heaven. Remain unified in your family lives. The institution of your country--the great foundation is based on family life. Destroy the family and you destroy your country. The enemies--the enemy is already within your country. Watch and pray well, My children." - Our Lady, June 18, 1980

READ YOUR BIBLES
"Your word of homosexuality can be explained by the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Read in your Bibles or consult your clergy. Find yourselves, My children, a humble, pious clergy. Many have fallen away from the Faith." Our Lady, October 6, 1992

PASTORS HELD RESPONSIBLE
"We hold the pastors of My Son's House, We hold them as being responsible for the fall of the children. Be ye warned now, My children, that woe to the man who has this responsibility upon his conscience and his soul. Scandals have been brought into the lives of your children. Perversion, homosexuality, immorality, perverted sex, My children-where shall you stop but at the abyss!" Our Lady, December 7, 1977

AN ABOMINATION
"Man shall not condone evil or rationalize sin. Homosexuality is an abomination in the eyes of God and man! The Creator condemns those who do not repent of this sin." Our Lady, August 5, 1977

BLACK CLOUD OVER AMERICA
"In the days of Sodom, so too were men giving themselves over to all the pleasures of the flesh: eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage. All manner of sinful lusts are being committed. Men shameful with men, women casting aside their role of motherhood and lusting after women. As it was in the days of Sodom, so now is this black cloud over America." Our Lady, July 14, 1979

SODOM: "WE DESTROYED IT"
"And the great issue now of homosexuality in your country, that shall be on the balance that Michael holds. Unless this balance is evened by removing this evil from your country and bringing in just laws to prevent the spread of homosexuality, you cannot be saved; your country cannot be saved. Because I repeat again, as I have repeated in the past: When a country has given itself over to immorality and all pleasures of the flesh, and abominations of the flesh, then that country will fall! If you do not believe Me, My children, I say: You will read your history books, and you will find out that there was a Sodom and Gomorrah. And what did We do to that abominable city, Sodom? We destroyed it! And what did We do to Gomorrah? We destroyed it! And We destroyed all who did not follow the plan for their redemption." Jesus, November 1, 1985

SIN: FORERUNNER OF WAR
"For sin is always a forerunner for war, My children: murders, persecutions, robberies, all manners of sins of the flesh, homosexuality, lesbianism, perversion, sodomy. Sodom and Gomorrah fell for less sins than you have committed now upon your earth. Noah took to the ark and the world was in a better state spiritually than your world now; for you have accepted a sophisticated manner of sin, based on man's reasoning and not God's truth." Our Lady, October 2, 1979

ANY COUNTRY
"Any country that allows homosexuals to roam and to seduce the young shall be destroyed." Our Lady, June 30, 1984

Directives from Heaven

D161 - The Great Apostasy PDF
D167 - The Family - Part 1 PDF
D168 - The Family - Part 2 PDF
D174 - Homosexuality, Part 2 PDF
D175 - Defilement of the Young PDF
D176 - Sodom and Gomorrah PDF
D177 - Seminaries PDF

Article:

Homosexuality a disorder:
"Homosexuality is not hardwired," concludes head of the Human Genome Project
http://www.tldm.org/News10/HomosexualityNotHardwired.htm

Expert research finds homosexuality more dangerous than smoking
http://www.tldm.org/News10/HomosexualityMoreDangerousThanSmoking.htm

What the Saints say about the sin of homosexuality
http://www.tldm.org/news7/homosexualitySaints.htm

Pope Benedict: homosexuals destroy themselves
http://www.tldm.org/News9/PopeHomosexualsDestroyThemselves.htm

Pope Benedict blasts 'dismal theories' on gays
http://www.tldm.org/News9/homosexualityPopeDismalTheories.htm

U.S. sexuality survey shows homosexuals 107% more likely to engage in criminal activities
http://www.tldm.org/News8/homosexualityCriminalActivity.htm

Great Britain study says 43% of gays, lesbians, and bisexuals have a mental disorder
http://www.tldm.org/news7/GayMentalDisorder.htm

Spanish Archbishop refers to homosexuality as an "epidemic" and a "fount of psychological problems and painful frustrations"
http://www.tldm.org/News7/homosexualityArchbishopSebastian.htm

Canadian Bishop: The State must curtail homosexuality for the common good
http://www.tldm.org/News7/homosexualityBishopHenry.htm

Homosexuality and Hope: excerpts taken from a document by the Catholic Medical Association
http://www.tldm.org/news6/ssa.htm

Ghana bans homosexual conference, says its "culture, morality and heritage totally abhor homosexual and lesbian practices"
http://www.tldm.org/News9/homosexualityGhana.htm

Gay marriage:

Vatican: Gay marriage evil
http://www.tldm.org/News10/AbortionTerrorismWithAHumanFace.htm

John Paul II calls gay marriage part of "ideology of evil"
http://www.tldm.org/news7/homosexualMarriageIdeologyOfEvil.htm

Top Vatican Cardinal: gay marriage is "a crime which represents the destruction of the world"
http://www.tldm.org/News8/homosexualityCardinalTrujillo.htm

Canadian Cardinal warns Senate of impending anti-Christian prosecution with gay 'marriage'
http://www.tldm.org/News8/homosexualityAnti-ChristianProsecution.htm

Maryland Catholic bishops identify "coordinated effort" in homosexual war on the family
http://www.tldm.org/News8/HomosexualWarOnFamily.htm

America: Slouching towards Gomorrah
http://www.tldm.org/news5/gomorrah.htm

John Paul II urges authorities to stop gay marriages
http://www.tldm.org/News6/homosexuality10.htm

Reversible:
NARTH psychiatrist says study claiming biological basis for homosexuality "absolute rubbish"
http://www.tldm.org/News9/homosexualityBiologicalBasisRubbish.htm

Ex-gays protest APA claim that homosexuality is irreversible
http://www.tldm.org/News9/homosexualityNotIrreversible.htm

Psychiatrist who maintained that homosexuality is a curable disorder dies at age 83
http://www.tldm.org/News8/homosexualitySocarides.htm

Study finds new evidence that childhood family factors influence sexual orientation
http://www.tldm.org/News9/homosexualityChildhoodFactors.htm

"Homosexuality is not hardwired," concludes head of the Human Genome Project
http://www.tldm.org/News10/HomosexualityNotHardwired.htm

AIDS:
Pope Benedict: Church has "the only failsafe way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS"
http://www.tldm.org/News8/PopeBenedictAIDS.htm