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	The Passing of Religion Journalist Gerald Renner; Catholic Activist Stephen Brady Recovering from Injuries; Priest Comments on Catholic Blogger's 'Empathy' for Homosexuals By Matt C. Abbott Renew America October 26, 2007 http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/abbott/071026 Religion journalist Gerald Renner has died of cancer. I quoted Mr. Renner in this 2006 column. Stephen Brady, president of Roman Catholic Faithful, is out of the hospital and recovering from serious injuries he received in a motorcycle accident several days ago. He writes: "I still have no memory of what happened. The first officer on the scene said my bike was on one side of the road, a dead deer on the other and I was lying in the middle of the road unconscious in a pool of blood.... "Great to be home." Mr. Brady is best known for his work exposing corruption in the Springfield, Ill., Catholic diocese and for exposing the infamous St. Sebastian's Angels Web site of homosexual clergy. He was also advised by the late Father Alfred Kunz (whose 1998 murder remains unsolved) and was involved in certain investigations pertaining to the Chicago archdiocese. Gerald Augustinus has a good Catholic blog called The Cafeteria is Closed. This recent post of his, however, concerned me a bit, so I asked Father Richard Perozich, pastor of St. Mary Catholic Church in Escondido, Calif., to comment on it. The following is Father Perozich's response (slightly edited): 'The post by Gerald Augustinus has among its elements an appeal for acceptance of the human person and understanding by those who do not share same sex attractions (ssa). The post also has a mix of slippery slope argumentation wherein sympathy can lead to false understanding and lack of true compassion with the substitution of acceptance of falsehood. 'Certainly loneliness is a strong emotion in someone with ssa. Loneliness is a failure to connect with and identify with others in a sense proper to one's gender and place in human society and in the Church. 'True helpful connections and identifications are made by common interests and experiences. Bonding with one's own gender is achieved through risk taking, competition, and maturation in same gender games, sports, non-genital interaction, shared good experiences and struggles during the prepubescent and pubescent years. 'A homosexual connection by sexual contact may provide an emotional respite from the loneliness, but will never satisfy the need to bond, connect, and identify with those who have matured into men who identify with their gender. 'The dangerous precipice for men and women with ssa can be language of the false identity as a 'gay' or as a 'lesbian,' such as Gerald uses here. When a person with ssa has self identified as a 'gay' or as a 'lesbian,' a host of unspoken false assumptions all or in part may be taken on with the identity: immutability, predestination, genetically coded, just like everyone else except for the sexual orientation. This traps the man or woman more deeply in the false identity. These words, common among those who have accepted a homosexual identity, should be considered as odious as 'sodomite' and other words that I won't mention here. 'The identification of others with ssa by use of these names also is hurtful and insulting. It rejects the truth of the human person and of God's ability to redeem one from the disorder of homosexuality. 'Disorder is a term which refers to the object choice and does not say that the person is disordered in his entire being. The Church really calls it an evil since it is not from God and can deprive the person of true peace, even if others around him laud homosexuality as good. Self-loathing is intrinsic in that deep down a person with a sexual disorder does not want this. 'The homosexual desire is a perversion of the marital act of a man and woman. The term 'perverse' cannot be taken away and applied only to adults who have attractions for children. A man with ssa who does not realize this has small hope for redemption and acceptance of sexual identity as a man, and sexual integration, which is a life-long process for all people. Repeated masturbation, pornography, acting out cause great harm and work in the disorder. 'A tendency among self-proclaimed homosexuals is to blame others for non-acceptance of the condition, for the resultant feelings of rejection. These are part of the whole evil and deception of homosexuality. 'Jesus Christ is the answer. A Catholic man or woman with ssa has to disengage from the gay and lesbian world, those who define themselves according to their sexual feelings. The Catholic needs to draw near to the Lord in the Church, to hear the truth that homosexual desire is not from God, and that with prayer, love of the Church — part of which is correction from error — the Word and sacraments will bring one to peaceful self-acceptance and integration.'
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