Fornicators beware: sodomy, condoms and pornography are the work of the devil.
That's the message of a speech posted online last week by the Catholic Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, John C. Nienstedt. A controversial religious leader with a stridently anti-gay stance, Nienstedt originally made the comments while speaking to the conservative Napa Institute Conference on August 2. The speech detailed the importance of family, as well as the devil's multiple attempts to weaken the institution of heterosexual marriage.
"Today, many evil forces have set their sights on the dissolution of marriage and the debasing of family life," Nienstedt said. "Sodomy, abortion, contraception, pornography, the redefinition of marriage, and the denial of objective truth are just some of the forces threatening the stability of our civilization. The source of these machinations is none other than the Father of Lies. Satan knows all too well the value that the family contributes to the fabric of a good solid society, as well as the future of God’s work on earth."
In Nienstedt's opinion of course, "family" means specifically a union "comprised of one man and one woman." Delivered one day after Minnesota began issuing same-sex marriage licenses, the Napa Institute speech is consistent with the archbishop's public statements condemning gay marriage, notes The New Civil Rights Movement.
Voted Minneapolis blog City Pages' Best Villain of the Twin Cities in 2013, Nienstedt has "used his position to bully proponents and demonize fellow Catholics who disagreed with him," wrote the blog's Jesse Marx. "He donated more than $650,000 of church money to the anti-gay-marriage cause."
In October of 2012, Nienstedt found himself at the center of a similar controversy when a letter he wrote surfaced in which he tells the mother a young gay man that she must reject her son or go to hell herself.
"I write to inform you that the teaching of the Catholic Church on homosexuality, as described in paragraphs 2357 and 2358 and 2359 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is rooted in Scripture and based on the Natural Moral Law," Nienstedt wrote, according to ThinkProgress. "Catholics are bound in conscience to believe this teaching. Those who do not cannot consider themselves to be Catholic and ought not to participate in the sacramental life of the Church... Your eternal salvation may well depend upon a conversation of heart on this topic."
CORRECTION: A previous draft of this piece implied John Nienstedt is the archbishop of all Minnesota. In fact, he is the archbishop specifically for Minneapolis and St. Paul.
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