At any rate, the only possible reason for the report - aside from a very slow news day - is because Freml left the Church because of her teachings on homosexuality, that and because "Freml believes the church not accepting the LGBT community may be to blame" for a decrease as much as 30% in some parishes in Mass attendance between 1996 and 2011. Never mind that some parishes also saw an increase of as much as 82% in the same time period, but, again, this is not an important detail for the story.
WICS quotes Freml:
Probably I think that's the primary reason, but of course Catholics simply don't agree with the hierarchy of a lot of social teachings. Not only on LGBT issues but contraception or on women's ordination.In his assumption, Freml is quite incorrect.
The report references "a survey sanctioned by the church." Had the reporter bothered to consult this report - Joy and Grievance in an American Diocese: Results from Online Surveysof Active and Inactive Catholics in Central Illinois - he or she would have clearly seen that Freml is only correct that LGBT issues (where's the Q?) are not the only reasons why Catholics have fallen away from the Church or lapsed in the practice of the faith.
In fact, on page 18 of this report, a chart clearly gives the theological disagreements behind people's decision to leave the Catholic Church:
As you can see, the Church's teachings on homosexuality ranked as the 6th reason why people chose to distance themselves from the Church. The main theological difficulty people have with the Church is her teachings on artificial contraception.
What this shows is that homosexuality is not as prevalent in people's thoughts as the leaders of the gay movement would like us to believe. Only among those younger than 35 years of age was homosexuality the principle reason why someone chose to leave the Church.
This might have been important to include in the report, but it wouldn't, of course, support the aim of the "story," which is really nothing more than yet another attack on the Catholic Church in general and on Bishop Paprocki in particular.
The reporter then makes the odd suggestion that "change could be coming" to the doctrine of the Church regarding homosexuality, which is, of course, impossible.
Lisbeth Melendez Rivera of the Human Rights Campaign is quoted as saying:
We hope that Bishop Paprocki pays attention to our prayers. That he listens to what he has to say so when he is discerning. He goes through the same journey the cardinal took when the become Pope Francis.Maybe someone should tell her that Pope Francis did not actually the journey she thinks he did.
