Bishop Strickland’s Pastoral Letter: Our Humanity, Rooted in God: ‘Same-Sex ‘Blessings’: God Does Not and Cannot Bless Sin’

We must be loving but clear, therefore, that those who carry the burden of same-sex attraction must not act upon these inclinations because such activities are contrary to the biological and God-given identity of the individual.

By Bishop Joseph E. Strickland, Bishop of Tyler, Texas, LifeSiteNews staff, Sep 26, 2023 – 3:01 pm EDT

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TYLER, Texas (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler, Texas, issued a new pastoral letter today, September 26, 2023. Below is the full text.

My Dear Sons and Daughters in Christ:

I write to you today to discuss more fully the fourth basic truth that I spoke of in my first pastoral letter issued on August 22, 2023, and to ask that we reflect more deeply on this important truth of our faith: “Every human person is created in the image and likeness of God, male or female, and all people should be helped to discover their true identities as children of God, and not supported in a disordered attempt to reject their undeniable biological and God-given identity.”

The reality that the human community is losing this thread of truth is one of the most surprising and devastating trends of our time. The confusion and the harm that come from forsaking our biological and God-given identity are rooted in the modern tendency to deny the sovereignty of God, and for many, to deny even His very existence—thereby making ourselves into ‘gods’ in our own minds. This denial of the true God is demonstrated in dramatic ways as we begin to lose the thread of who we are. To answer the basic question of our identity, we must turn to God and to the truth He has revealed to us. When we attempt to answer this question of who we are without first seeking an answer from God, we find ourselves immersed in the chaos which we see around us today. Thankfully, God has revealed a beautiful picture of who we are, and Sacred Scripture and the Sacred Tradition of our Catholic faith offer much to help us paint the wondrous picture of the human person. “So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Gen 1:27). ….

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