A Family Resemblance | CatholicVote.org

A Family Resemblance | CatholicVote.org:



I remember this great act by a Pope in 1987 (read the article link first, we'll still be here when you hit the Back button).  I remember just a few years after, in conservative Klamath Falls, OR in 1991, attending a "The Body of Christ has AIDS" vigil.  Holy Priests stepped up and started AIDS Hospice centers (I know of a few still operating).  An entire monastery of monks stepped up to be infected- just to increase knowledge of the disease.


By 1997, they were paid back completely not in kind, when Holy Redeemer was vandalized by AIDS activists, but still many of us campaigned for civil union laws.


By 2002, in Oregon, we had passed a civil union law.  


In 2004, 3 out of 4 Multnomah County Commissioners defied the law and started us on the path to same sex marriage- since then it has gotten incredibly ugly.  I've seen churches vandalized, priests and nuns attacked.  I've been called a breeder for my only child having special needs (because of course, all people with disabilities should be aborted, right?).  The culture war turned hot- and as we all know on June 26, 2015, we all lost.


How I so much wish we could return to the simple act of charity for those in pain - even those in pain because of actions we disagree with.  No, ESPECIALLY those living out the temporal consequences of their sin.  There is no higher calling for a Christian than to love the sinner.