The following is the KUAM story, copy and pasted, with JW's notes in red:
Lieutenant Governor Josh Tenorio broke his silence on being rejected as a godparent candidate by the Catholic Church. Tenorio this morning on The Link said he was chosen to be a confirmation godparent - he is already a nino many times over - over the summer, but after attending a practice for the ceremony, he says a parishioner made a complaint about him taking part in that practice.
- Sorry KUAM, but you're late to the party. Tenorio "broke his silence" (or at least went public) several days ago on K57.
- "...he is already a nino many times over."
- And that's part of the problem. There is a checklist to become a godparent in the Catholic Church, so either Tenorio lied about his lifestyle on the checklist or the pastors involved looked the other way. It was probably the latter.
- Even in the present case, it apparently took a parishioner to object, when it was the pastor's duty to privately engage Tenorio (and anyone else who doesn't meet the "checklist") in the first place.
- Note: Tragically, most pastors do not involve themselves in preparations for sacramental reception, they notoriously delegate the duty to otherwise well-meaning lay persons. Seriously, do you want a nice guy walking in off the street to prep you for surgery? That's what pastors are permitting and that is really what the Tenorio story is exposing.
Tenorio, our island and nation's first openly-gay lieutenant governor, said he later was told by church officials he would not be allowed to become a nino again, and it wasn't necessarily just because he is openly gay.
"I think it's more because I'm in a relationship. So I think the church is fine if you're gay, but you're not supposed to do anything about it. So you know, pretend it's not happening. The church - they are entitled to discriminate the way they want to based on their belief systems," he commented.
- Credit to Tenorio. While PNC tried to make this about "being gay," Tenorio, both in the PNC story and in this one, insists that it is because he is in a same-sex relationship. The proper term for it - in the eyes of the Church - is "an irregular relationship," which applies equally no matter one's sexual orientation.
- Tenorio's choice of the word "discriminate" is probably not premeditated. "Discriminate" is one of those loaded terms which opens up the door for all sorts of bad stuff, such as "hate crimes." However, Tenorio is actually right on the mark. Jesus himself told us that discrimination would be the cost of following Him:
Matthew 10:21-23:21 “Brothers will turn against their own brothers and hand them over to be killed. Fathers will hand over their own children to be killed. Children will fight against their own parents and will have them killed. 22 Everyone will hate you because you follow me. But the one who remains faithful to the end will be saved. 23 When you are treated badly in one city, go to another city. I promise you that you will not finish going to all the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes again.
Tenorio said the church has a different set of rules for straight persons in relationships, adding, "For unmarried straight couples who are in a situation to be godparents, they usually will let them do it because within the faith, there's a pathway to get married. The priests use this as an opportunity to minister to them so that they could get married in church. Unfortunately for the gays, that is not the case and it will never be the case, marriage in that context as a religious ceremony. But in the legal government context it is a civil right."
- Tenorio is right about one thing: a sacramental marriage between two persons of the same sex "will never be the case." But he is incorrect about "unmarried straight couples who are in a situation" (i.e. sexual or cohabitation relationship) being permitted to be godparents - though there are some pastors who look the other way at this too.
- No one can be a godparent in the Catholic Church who is openly in an irregular sexual relationship - or more to the point: any person who is not leading the life they are swearing to foster in the person they are sponsoring as a godparent.
- It is simply a matter of having the qualifications for the job. The job of a godparent is explicit:
Can. 874 §1.3: (A godparent must) "be a Catholic who has been confirmed and has already received the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist and who leads a life of faith in keeping with the function to be taken on..."
- So it's sort of like wanting to fly an airplane because you like airplanes and the passengers like you, but you don't qualify to fly an airplane. It's that simple, but when it comes to sexual anarchy, all bets of any logic are off.
- However, the other key word is "openly." And this is where Tenorio wants it both ways.
- Earlier Tenorio is quoted as saying: "So I think the church is fine if you're gay, but you're not supposed to do anything about it."
- That is not true. Neither, the Church nor anyone else can tell a person's sexual orientation by looking at that person.
- A "gay" person has to make his or her orientation publicly known in one way or another.
- This is why many black people reject the homosexual agenda tag of "civil rights." A black person is a black person because he or she is a black person. It's not an orientation or a lifestyle, it's a physical characteristic.
- "Gays, etc." cannot be identified as "gay" unless he or she chooses to make it publicly known. Tenorio has chosen to make it publicly known.
Tenorio added that with the new conservative complexion of the US Supreme Court, he anticipated local legislation may be in the works to reverse the legalization of same-sex marriages, and that he would fight such efforts every step of the way.
- It's hard not to title this whole KUAM news item "tilting at windmills."
- Just WHO??? would introduce "local legislation?"
- We can't get anyone to introduce anything of consequence let alone what Tenorio conspiratorially suggests, especially in the face of the fact that the majority of Guamanians not only do NOT consider same-sex marriage an issue, they actually support it!
- And local Guamanians (most of whom are Catholic) are not alone:
- In fact, does our Lt. Governor even know that it was a Catholic U.S. Supreme Court justice, Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the majority opinion in the Obergefell decision?
- SMH. Talk about "tilting at windmills." Apparently Tenorio has nothing else to do...and doesn't read.
"It's possible that you could get the COVID-19 virus from sexual activities that expose you to fecal matter. There is currently no evidence that the COVID-19 virus is transmitted through semen or vaginal fluids, but the virus has been detected in the semen of people who have or are recovering from the virus."
NOTE: "Semen and vaginal fluids." Apparently hetero-sex is safer. Stay say, Lt. Governor.
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