When I was invited by LGCM to look at this issue for their 35th anniversary conference, my first response was to question, “When, exactly, was 35 years ago?” The answer of course, was 1976 – which has two deeply personal resonances for me. June 1976 was the start of the Youth Revolution in South Africa, where I spent most of my life against the rise and fall of apartheid, and in March 1976 my daughter Robynn was born. Thinking about each of these has influenced my thinking for today: the South African experience on where we are now, and Robynn on where we might be going.
But before considering those matters, let’s take a look at other features of 1976 more immediately relevant to all of us here.
LGBT Catholics: the promise of 1976
In addition to the founding of the LGCM in the UK, that year saw the publication of John McNeill’s groundbreaking “The Church and the Homosexual”, Sr Jeannine Gramick and Fr Robert Nugent hosted a workshop that led to the formation of New Ways Ministry, and in the UK, Quest adopted a formal constitution and its name.
These were promising starts, and to a degree that promise has been fulfilled. McNeill’s book has been followed by a steady stream of further writing, so that gay and lesbian theology, and its successor queer theology, have moved from oxymorons to recognition as specialist academic disciplines (with Patrick Cheng’s “Radical Love”, there is now even an introductory text book to queer theology, just as Elizabeth Stuart had earlier provided an introduction to gay and lesbian theology). However, after the publication of “The Church and the Homosexual”, McNeill was initially forced to suspend further writing on the subject, and later to leave his Jesuit order when he could not, in conscience, remain silent.
New Ways has flourished, but its two founders were instructed by the CDF to cease their ministry. Nugent now works in entirely different areas, while Jeannine Gramick continued with similar work as a matter of conscience, but less directly, and only after being forced to leave her religious community for another.
Dignity and Quest remain as strong, active organisations operating across the US and the UK respectively, but both have lost some early recognition by the Church authorities.
LGBT Catholics: the disappointments following 1976
As we look at the intervening years from the perspective of the institutional church, the picture may appear even more depressing. Just a year before 1976, the Vatican had published Persona Humana on human sexuality, which initiated a notably strident tone on homosexuality. This became worse from 1978 with the accession of John Paul II, and culminated in the notorious Hallowe’en letter of 1986. The emergence of the sexual abuse scandals over the next two decades just made matters worse, with gay priests widely blamed as scapegoats, and initially the primary response to the problem seemed to be simply to ban gay candidates from entering seminaries. For many of us, the election of Benedict XVI to succeed John Paul was met with suspicion – it was his signature on the Hallowe’en letter. There were more hopeful signs – such as the US bishops’ more pastoral in their 1988 document, “Always our children”, a continuing, even accelerating flow of books by emerging gay and lesbian theologians, and in the UK the emergence of the Soho Masses as a visible sign of at least some greater degree of acceptance and inclusion in Westminster diocese, but overall, most people would probably judge these years as a time of darkness for sexual and gender minorities in the Catholic Church. Many would probably see no sign of change any time soon.
To assess these years only on the basis of what was going on by the big, landmark events within the institutional Catholic Church is misleading. I suggest that substantially more important are the ripple and incidental impacts of some earlier events, and of developments in other denominations. Looking at this bigger picture, I suggest, leads to a more hopeful outlook.
Three Crucial Events Prior to 1976
Three crucially important developments in the years leading up to 1976 were the meetings of the Second Vatican Council from 1962 -65, the publication of the encyclical on contraception, “Humanae Vitae” in 1978 – and the Stonewall riots of 1969. None of these concerned queer Catholics exclusively, but each has had continuing and expanding impact, with far-reaching implications for the future. Most people would agree that under the last two popes, there has been a determined rolling back of Vatican II, in spirit and in specifics. Nevertheless, some of the effects of the council are changes that cannot be undone – what Sr Joan Chittister once described as “ticking time bombs”. Toothpaste cannot be put back into the tube, genies cannot be forced back into the bottle. Humanae Vitae was written to address the specific issue of contraception, but its underlying core principle, that all sexual activity must be open to procreation, also underpins all of Vatican doctrine on sexual ethics. The notable failure of this doctrine to be accepted by the Church as a whole, in ever increasing degrees, simply calls into question the underlying principle – and with it, the entire structure of Vatican sexual doctrine. Stonewall on the face of it, had nothing to do with Catholicism, but the continuing degree to which we have responded by coming out publicly, coupled with the advances in equality and protections under secular law, are leading to an abundance of very visible queer families in our parishes, neighbourhoods and schools – families which frequently stand in total contradiction to the negative stereotypes that gave rise to so much prejudice in the past.
Parallel Developments in Other Denominatons
Alongside these time-delayed impacts from earlier years, we must also consider the impact of developments in other churches. In 1968, Troy Perry had founded the MCC with a handful of supporters in his own living room. Today, this is said to be one of the fastest -growing of all Christian denominations, with a world-wide presence. In small, incremental steps throughout the period, women’s ordination has been gaining ground. For example, in 1974, the first batch of women were ordained in the US Episcopal church – but without legal provision for it in church rules. But once it had been done without approval, pressure mounted for a change in the rules, which came two years later. This in turn put pressure on all other denominations to follow suit, which most did.
A similar process is now under way with the ordination of lesbian and gay clergy. Until recently, most denominations had clear rules against LGBT ordination, based on the assumption that homoerotic sexual activities were obviously sinful, and many good people were excluded from seminary, or expelled after ordination, on these grounds. This has changed dramatically in recent years, notably with the decisions by the ECLA and PCUSA to remove barriers, even for men or women who were both openly gay or lesbian, and partnered – provided that these partnerships were committed, faithful, and publicly accountable, in a manner comparable to conventional marriage. The largest Methodist denomination, the UMC, has not yet followed them, but pressure is building.
This in turn is bound to lead to approval, probably soon, for same-sex church weddings. Already, the Swedish and Icelandic Lutherans, which are both state churches, approved church weddings when laws providing for them alongside civil weddings took effect. Elsewhere, some local jurisdictions and local congregations have approved either full weddings, or blessings for same sex unions. The most dramatic of these was the January wedding of two Episcopal lesbian priests, both very senior in the diocese, in Boston Cathedral.
Legal provision for gay marriage (or near – marriage) has been spreading around the world, and is now available or promised on all continents. Accompanying the visibility of married or legally partnered gay couples, others are living together more openly in informal relationships, often with children. (It is estimated that there are now two million children in the US being raised by gay parents). In many instances, these queer families are moving out of the traditionally gay-friendly neighbourhoods, and moving into the suburbs, where -surprise – their lives are pretty much the same as anybody else’s.
35 Years as LGBT Catholics: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
