The Vatican said on Monday that priests cannot bless same-sex unions and that such blessings are not valid, in a ruling that disappointed gay Catholics who had hoped their Church was becoming more welcoming under Pope Francis.

In some countries, parishes and ministers have begun blessing same-sex unions in lieu of marriage, and there have been calls for bishops to institutionalize de facto such blessings. Conservatives in the 1.3 billion-member Roman Catholic Church have expressed alarm over such practices.

“We members of the Parish Priests Initiative are deeply appalled by the new Roman decree that seeks to prohibit the blessing of same-sex loving couples. This is a relapse into times that we had hoped to have overcome with Pope Francis,” the Austrian-based group said in a statement.

“We will — in solidarity with so many — not reject any loving couple in the future who ask to celebrate God’s blessing, which they experience every day, also in a worship service.”

The Parish Priests Initiative led by Father Helmut Schueller has long been a thorn in the side of the Vatican. The group wants Church rules changed so that priests can marry and women can become priests.

It has said it will break Church rules by giving communion to Protestants and divorced Catholics who remarry.

Founded in 2006 by nine priests, the initiative says it now has around 350 members from the ranks of the official Church and more than 3,000 lay supporters.

The Vatican in 2012 cracked down on Schueller, stripping him of the right to use the title monsignor and saying he was also no longer a “Chaplain of His Holiness”.

Schueller, a former deputy to Vienna archbishop Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, had been given the honorary title in his capacity as head of the Austrian branch of the Catholic charity group Caritas.

The post Rebel priests defy Vatican, vow to bless same-sex couples first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

A top cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church on Friday took exception to Pope Francis’ controversial support for the display of a Pan-Amazonian “Pachamama” wooden idol on a church altar at the Vatican.

“There isn’t any role for a statue of a pagan goddess on the altar,” declared Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, former bishop of Regensburg, Germany, and Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope Benedict XVI.

Mueller spoke in Washington D.C. Friday at a forum hosted by the International Organization for the Family (IOF) and The Sacramental Institute.

On the eve of the three-week Amazonian Synod (conference) of Catholic bishops at the Vatican, four two-foot-tall statues of a pregnant woman were brought to a church where the group of primarily Latin-American bishops would worship.

Experts said the statue was of Pachamama (Mother Earth), a fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting, embodies the mountains, and causes earthquakes.

Last week, the indigenous statues were stolen from the church and dumped in the Tiber River. The Pope promptly apologized for the vandalism and said, “I ask forgiveness to anyone who was offended.”

On Friday, it was announced that local police had recovered the statues and that they would be displayed in church at the closing of the synod on Sunday.

Mueller, 71, sees things differently than the Pope. In his words, “The difference between paganism and faith is clear.”

Citing the words of St. Paul to the Romans, he said that paganism is “the adoration of created things” rather than God.  He reminded the audience that “St. Peter [the first Pope] died because he didn’t accept the Roman emperor as a god.”

Considered the right-hand man of fellow German Pope Benedict, Cardinal Mueller stepped down as Prefect in 2014.  Three years later, Pope Francis made him a cardinal—the highest position within the Catholic Church (except for Pope) and one that permits him to vote for the next Pope when there is a vacancy.

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.

Source: https://www.newsmax.com/john-gizzi/RomanCatholic-PopeFrancis-pagangoddess/2019/10/26/id/938848/

The post Top Cardinal Breaks With Pope Over ‘Pagan Goddess’ at Vatican first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.