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<h1>Pope Francis thanks ministers, teachers for ‘what you do’ at pro-LGBT LA Religious Ed Congress</h1>
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<span>Tue Feb 23, 2021 - 4:20 pm EST</span></div><div><span><a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-francis-thanks-ministers-teachers-for-what-you-do-at-pro-lgbt-la-religious-ed-congress?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com&utm_campaign=f33b8a6a2c-Daily%2520Headlines%2520-%2520U.S._COPY_742&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_12387f0e3e-f33b8a6a2c-401828513">https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pope-francis-thanks-ministers-teachers-for-what-you-do-at-pro-lgbt-la-religious-ed-congress?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com&utm_campaign=f33b8a6a2c-Daily%2520Headlines%2520-%2520U.S._COPY_742&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_12387f0e3e-f33b8a6a2c-401828513</a></span>
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</div><div>Pope Francis addresses the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress via video address, Feb. 18, 2021.
</div><p>LOS ANGELES, California, February 23, 2021 (<a href="http://lifesitenews.com/" target="_blank">LifeSiteNews</a>)
– <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>Pope Francis praised the pro-LGBT Los Angeles Religious Education
Congress last week for its “long and fruitful journey” over the past 65
years, thanking <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">the various dissident “ministers and teachers”</span> at the
event “for<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> what you do.</span>”</b></span></p>
<p>“Dear brothers and sisters, a warm greeting to all the participants
in the Congress on Religious Education sponsored by the Archdiocese of
Los Angeles, which is celebrating its 65th anniversary,” the Pope said
in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjWWl2YcKiQ" target="_blank">February 18 video address</a> to the conference which is sponsored by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles headed by Archbishop José Gómez.</p>
<p>“Congratulations for these initiatives, which have already undertaken
a long and fruitful journey, and which are currently taking place in
virtual form,” he added (read full address <a href="http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/messages/pont-messages/2021/documents/papa-francesco_20210219_videomessaggio-educazionereligiosa.html" target="_blank">here</a>).</p>
<p>The congress, forced to go online this year due to COVID-19
restrictions, is billed as the largest annual gathering of Catholics in
the U.S., sometimes drawing as many as 40,000 people for the three-day
event. <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>Celebrating its 65th anniversary this year, the conference has a
history of <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/pro-abortion-maria-shriver-to-speak-at-l.a.-archdioceses-religious-educatio" target="_blank">providing a platform for dissident Catholic speakers</a>, <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/los-angeles-archdiocese-promotes-lgbt-agenda-at-religious-education-congres" target="_blank">pushing for the normalization of homosexuality</a> within<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> the Catholic Church</span>, and <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/annual-la-religious-ed-conference-once-again-flouts-church-teaching" target="_blank">promoting liturgical novelties</a>.</b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>Last year, the <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/priest-who-painted-sodomite-christ-to-exhibit-artwork-at-huge-la-religious-conference" target="_blank">congress displayed works</a> by openly homosexual Jesuit priest William Hart McNichols whose <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jesusinlove/4445665651" target="_blank">portfolio includes</a>
“AIDS Crucifixion” which is an image of<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> the crucified Christ</span> in
underwear with the sign “AIDS, homosexual, faggot, pervert, sodomite”
pinned on top of <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the cross.</span></b></span></p><p>The theme for this year’s event was “Proclaim the promise.”</p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>Speakers at the conference included pro-LGBT Jesuit priest Fr. James Martin; Jesuit priest Gregory Boyle, who <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/notre-dame-to-give-highest-honor-to-jesuit-priest-who-supports-gay-marriage" target="_blank">openly dissents</a>
from </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Church teaching</b> </span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">on</span> homosexual “<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">marriage,</span>” women <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">“priests,</span>” and <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">
worthiness to receive Holy Communion</span>; </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>and San Diego’s pro-LGBT bishop
Robert McElroy, who has <a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/1-in-3-us-bishops-at-fall-meeting-vote-against-calling-abortion-pre-eminent-issue" target="_blank">challenged</a><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)">
abortion </span></b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>being labeled as t<u>he “preeminent” issue</u> by his <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">brother bishops</span>
in the U.S. election. </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>McElroy’s keynote address at this year’s event
was titled “What is Truth?”</b></span></p>
<p>It does not come as a surprise that Pope Francis would speak at an
event with a reputation for pro-LGBT activism. Last year, the Pope in
the documentary “Francesco” called for the creation of a “civil union
law” for homosexuals, which is contrary to Catholic teaching, so that
“they are legally covered.” He also allowed Fr. James Martin to speak at
the 2018 World Meeting of Families and met with him personally in an
audience in 2019. Pope Francis began his pontificate with his
now-infamous “who am I to judge” comment in 2013 when asked about
homosexuality.</p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>Terry Barber, founder of Saint Joseph Communications and Lighthouse
Catholic Media, told LifeSiteNews</b></span> that it “makes sense” that Pope
Francis would be invited to speak at the congress and that the Pope
would accept the invitation.</p>
<p>“Pope Francis is welcomed to a congress like this because he
represents a lot of those people thinking that the ‘spirit of Vatican
II’ is here in Francis, even though that ‘spirit of Vatican II’ has
nothing to do with Vatican II.”</p>
<p>Barber, who currently runs The Terry and Jesse Show on Virgin Most
Powerful Radio, said that he has been thrown out of the LA religious
education congress “many times” since he first started attending it in
1973 as a vendor in his attempt to bring some orthodoxy to the event. </p>
<p>“There are so many dissenters who speak at this congress,” he said.</p>
<p>He pointed out <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>that Francis is “not giving Catholics a good example of what his predecessors have taught.”</b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>“Pope Francis does not teach the perennial teachings of the Church.
As a successor of Peter, he is supposed to confirm us in the faith, and
unfortunately, he is not confirming us in the faith in coming up with
different teachings in morality, as in <em>Amoris laetitia</em>.”</b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>Barber said that the Pope speaking at the congress will only lend credibility to the dissident positions it advocates for.</b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>He said that <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><u>Catholics need to pray for the Pope.</u></span></b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>Pope Francis told young people participating in this year’s congress
that they must become “the poets of a new human beauty, a new fraternal
and friendly beauty.”</b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>While the Pope did not explain what he meant by a “new human beauty,”
he did quote extensively in his 553-word address from his latest
encyclical <em>Fratelli tutti</em> where he writes about human brotherhood.</b></span></p><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>
</b></span><p><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>He also spoke about the COVID-19 outbreak as an occasion to “build
tomorrow,” a theme that<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> has been taken up by global elites who champion
what they call the “great reset.”</span></b></span></p>
<p>“The pandemic has marked the life of the people and history of our
community. Faced with this and other situations, it is necessary to
build tomorrow, to look to the future and, to do so, it takes effort,
strength and dedication on the part of everyone,” the Pope said.</p>
<p>“Crises confront us with the need to choose and to commit ourselves to a path,” he added later in his address.</p>
<p>Francis greeted young people “especially,” inviting them to “hope.”</p>
<p>“I greet young people especially. I invite you to hope, which ‘speaks
to us of something deeply rooted in every human heart, independently of
our circumstances and historical conditioning’ (Fratelli tutti, 55).
You young people, be the poets of a new human beauty, a new fraternal
and friendly beauty!”</p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>Catholic U.K. commentator Deacon Nick Donnelly had hoped that Pope
Francis would use the occasion of his address to help steer the
conference back toward authentic Catholicism.</b></span></p>
<p>“<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>The LA Congress has a history of promoting dissent from </b></span>t<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>he
doctrines of the Faith</b></span>,<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> especially by giving a platform to LGBT
activists who publicly repudiate</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Church teaching on</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>the immorality of
homosexual sex,”</b></span> he said in comments earlier this month.</p>
<p>“Pope Francis has a real opportunity in his online appearance to
address and correct this scandal. It would give hope to faithful
parents, teachers and clergy who have had to endure this annual assault
against the Faith for decades. However<span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b> tragically for the US Church,
this pope has professed himself unable to judge on such matters.”</b></span></p>
<p>“<span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>Under his pontificate <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">emboldened clergy, such as Fr. James Martin SJ
and Bishop McElroy, have sunk to new depths of subversion against</span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the
dignity of human sexuality safeguarded by natural law and divine
revelation</span>,” Donnelly continued.</b></span></p>
<p>“I fear that instead of a chastened LA Congress we will witness it
descending into even more extreme defiance of God and His Church. <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>This
will have very dangerous consequences for <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the children </span>subjected to this
corrupted vision of<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> Catholic </span>education,</b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>” he concluded.</b></span></p>
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