Queer Catholics Are Equally Blessed: Press Release

October 3, 2010 — Terence Weldon


EQUALLY BLESSED UNITES
CATHOLIC VOICES FOR MARRIAGE EQUALITY, JUSTICE

WASHINGTON, DC., Four longstanding Catholic organizations announced today that they have formed Equally Blessed, a coalition of faithful Catholics who support full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people both in the church and in civil society.

“As Catholics, we believe that all human beings are beloved children of God,” said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, an Equally Blessed member. “We are called to do our part in bringing about justice in the church and the world, and Equally Blessed will allow us to do that together.”

The coalition also includes Call To Action, DignityUSA and Fortunate Families. Together the four groups have spent a combined 112 years working on behalf of LGBT people and their families.

“Equally Blessed proclaims what most U.S. Catholics already believe,” said Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA. “The laws of our land and the policies of our church should mandate fairness, justice and equality for all.”

Leaders of Equally Blessed said they decided to work together in the wake of several recent civil and church situations that demonstrate the need for a faithful pro-equality Catholic voice:

  • ·      The Knights of Columbus have mounted an expensive campaign to oppose gay marriage in Minnesota, where it has become a gubernatorial campaign issue.
  • ·      Catholic dioceses spent extensively to overturn legalized same-sex marriage in Maine last year.
  • ·      In the Archdiocese of Denver last spring, Archbishop Charles Chaput sanctioned the expulsion of a lesbian couple’s daughter from a Catholic school.
  • ·      In Washington DC, Archbishop Donald Wuerl has recently withheld health benefits from the spouses of newly-hired heterosexual employees so that he could legally withhold such benefits from the spouses of gay or lesbian employees.

“A growing community of faithful Catholics believes that everyone, including LGBT people, are affirmed and welcomed in our church, and these unjust actions do not speak for us,” said Nicole Sotelo, coordinator of Call To Action’s JustChurch program. “We are called to follow the teachings of Jesus who welcomed everyone and challenged religious leaders when they fell short of that ideal.”

“In the wake of these injustices, we particularly urge straight Catholic allies to raise their voices against discrimination that targets our children, our friends, and our communities,” said Mary Ellen Lopata, co-founder of Fortunate Families, a ministry for Catholic parents with LGBT children. “The Gospel compels us to spread its message of love for all the children of God.”

Equally Blessed is a coalition of faithful Catholics who support full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people both in the church and in civil society. Equally Blessed includes four organizations that have spent a combined 112 years working on behalf of LGBT people and their families:  Call To Action, DignityUSA, Fortunate Families, and New Ways Ministry.

As yet, I have almost no information on the new initiative beyond this press release, so am not adding commentary just yet – except to note that the four participating organizations are well-respected, valuable bodies in their own right. I will have more to say later on their significance for the broader Catholic Church, and for the more general movement towards LGBT inclusion in church across all Christian denominations.
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  • Jordan

    While _Equality Blessed_ and other Catholic LGBT groups are on the right track in many respects, the affective, emotional, and psychosexual reformation of the Church must begin in the rectory and seminary. The malignant cancer that is destroying Catholicism from the inside resides not necessarily in the hyper-homophobic statements from the Vatican and the local hierarchy but in the maladjusted homosexual identity of many priests. Many clergymen that craft statements to wound the LGBT laity labor under an exquisite burden of sexual self-hatred. The abuse crisis in part represents an end result of the sadomasochistic tensions that hold the clergy in their place.

    We laity (both straight and LGBT) must continue to push for optional clerical celibacy and the freedom for the clergy to live in a sexually healthy and open environment. We the laity must be the catalyst for healthy sexuality in the clergy if the Church is unable or unwilling to reform itself from within. Until the clergy are liberated from the cynical emotional and psychosexual stunting that warps and destroys for the sake of ideology and power, there will be no end to the Catholic hierarchy’s shrill pronouncements against LGBT equality in civil society.

    • http://queering-the-church.com/blog terence@queerchurch

      Absolutely correct, Jordan. Universal priestly celibacy is a myth, widely ignored in practice, at all levels from ordinary priests to the Curia. It is not required of all priests, but only of those in the Roman rite, and not required of already married priests converting from other denominations. It is contrary to the explicit teaching of Paul, and the practice of the early church. It was originally introduced for financial, not spiritual reasons – which remains the real reason for its continuation. And as you point out, it is damaging to us all.

  • Mark from PA

    What are the sadomasochistic tensions that hold the clergy in their place? You have lost me here.

  • http://queering-the-church.com/blog terence@queerchurch

    I didn’t write that observation, Mark, and cannot speak for Jordan, who did. However, the remark is credible to me if you put the emphasis on the “-maso”, more than the “sado-”. The key is in the preceding words: “exquisite burden of sexual self-hatred”. This does not apply to all priests, but it certainly does to “many”, which is all that Jordan states, and is form of psychic/emotional masochism.

    The other side of it is that hand in hand with S/M culture is the parallel dominant/submissive phenomenon. It is intrinsic to the centralised, autocratic culture of the Church that clergy accept an excessively submissive relationship to the dominance of their bishops – and the bishops to the Curia, and the Curia to the pope.

  • Jordan

    I stand by the charge of “sadomasochism” in part, even if the term is not quite descriptive of the clerical behaviors I have witnessed. I (and doubtless other Catholics) have seen clerical psychosexual masochism coincide with homophobic actions or statements. While I cannot say for certain whether priests enjoy haranguing the laity with anti-gay sermons or victimizing LGBT laity with reparative therapy (i.e. Courage), I do not doubt that a number of gay priests derive enjoyment from persecuting fellow gay priests and/or the LGBT laity. I have witnessed a priest gleefully attack two gay priests with a barrage of anti-gay stereotypes designed to embarrass and discredit his colleagues. I cannot say that this experience is often found. Nevertheless, I suspect that an intra-gay priest persecution along stereotypical axes (butch/femme, conservative/liberal, high church/low church?) exists behind the rectory and seminary walls. Again, these are my personal prejudices and suspicions. They are not at all empirical.

    I agree with Terence’s assertion that the DS in BDSM is also a crucial part of the clerical sexual psychosis. The hierarchy model not only encourages psychosexual deformation through deceit but also the suppression of ethics and morals in the name of power. My support for optional clerical celibacy stems from a desire for all clergy to live among the laity and not above the laity. Until the clergy are immersed in the life of their parishes through dual participation in the lay and sacerdotal spheres, the sexual crime cover up will continue to occur unabated. Clerical marriage before ordination is not a solution in itself, but a positive step towards greater hierarchical transparency.

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