Predicting the future is dangerous, and I have no desire to make wild guesses, so I will simply point out one observation on what we can consider to be fairly certain, and a few more on what will be highly probable.

Certain: Generational Change

The certainty is simple: By 2046, Benedict XVI will no longer be pope. Between now and then we will have at least one new pontiff (probably more), and with him a new set of bishops. We do not know who they are, but we do know that most of these will be men (and just conceivably, a few women) who are now in training, recently ordained, or not yet in seminary. Their training, and the world they have grown up in, is vastly different to that which applied to the priests in training around 1976 and earlier, which includes many of the current bishops.

This generation approximates to that of my daughter Robynn, who was born in 1976, the year that the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement was founded, and the starting year for the period of review covered by this series. Apart from her very early years, Robynn grew up knowing that in effect, she had two fathers. Her verdict on the experience, which she has frequently shared in public, is “Gay parents? I recommend them”. She has told me that when she sees a child accompanied by two moms or two dads, her immediate reaction is “lucky child”. Her reasoning is that based on her observation of here peers at school, she believes that she received a sounder grounding in moral values from her fathers, than her classmates had from their more traditional parents. The point is, that in the same way that she grew up conscious of the moral standards of her friends’ parents, they too were conscious of ours. There are estimated at present to be two million American children now being raised by gay or lesbian parents. The numbers will have been lower thirty years ago, but they will still have been substantial. Today’s younger priests, like Robynn’s friends, also grew up knowing people in queer families. They too will have reached conclusions about those parents, and collectively will know that some were excellent, some were poor, and most were middling - just like everyone else.

Less certain, but highly probable, is a continuation of some important social and political trends. I expect to see many more countries making legal provisions for same-sex marriage and gay adoption. This will be driven by a continuing increase in public support, as conservative opponents recognise the abundant evidence that the warnings that marriage equality will lead to social collapse, have simply not been supported by the evidence. Liberals, and the majority of Catholics in the US and Europe, already support equal provision for all families: in the years ahead, there will be increasing support from social conservatives and the mainstream Protestant denominations. Even more members of our community will be living fully out of the closet, and that will include out in church. In the Protestant churches, almost all will come to accept openly gay and partnered clergy, just as they now accept women in ministry. By 2046, it is likely that some of these will have reached positions of leadership in at least some denominations or regions.

Moving from probability to speculation, I would expect that even in the Catholic Church, we will begin to see more of our gay priests beginning to creep part way out of their closets.

Will There be Change in the Catholic Church on Sexual Issues?

This is the wrong question. For the Church as a whole, change has already begun. What Catholics really do believe, as opposed to what we are told to believe, is that sexual expression is about far more than simply making babies, is natural and healthy, and is no more sinful with same-sex partners than with traditional opposite-sex spouses. Catholics also no longer believe that they must follow blindly every command from Rome. Catholic theologians across a wide front now recognise that there is an urgent need for change, in sexual doctrine, in the church culture of excessive clericalism, on Vatican restrictions of ordination to celibate males, and even to the Vatican attempts to impose creeping infallibility. It is probable that a substantial proportion of bishops and cardinals also know this. The challenge they face, is how to acknowledge it publicly. It is never easy to admit that one has been wrong for years - still less, when there has been a pretence of omniscience and infallibility.

It is not change in the Church that we are waiting for, but more specifically change in the church leadership. The Catholic Church has already started to move on – now we are waiting for the Vatican to catch up.

The parental imagery: “Holy Mother the Church”, and “The Holy Father”.

Personally, I am uncomfortable with the traditional Catholic imagery which presents the pope and the “church” resents us as saintly, wise parents, and the rest of us as docile, obedient children. However, there is another way of looking at this image of family relationships. In human families, children often grow into rebellious adolescents. Many of us have been through a period of rebellion against the Church (or are still rebelling). Later, this develops into adult relationships of equality and mutual respect. Later still, we as adults care (lovingly?) for our ageing and frail parents.

 

QUESTIONS:

How can we, as adult and responsible queer Catholics, encourage and extend the change now occurring?

How can we:

i) help those who have not yet done so to grow beyond child-like automatic obedience or adolescent rebellion?;

ii) help and care for in love, our ageing parent, the Church?

 

*******

35 Years as LGBT Catholics: Looking Back, Looking Ahead

• Preamble
• 1: Where Have We Come From?
• 2: Where Are We Now? How the Church Has Changed
• 3: Internal Contradictions in Church Teaching
• 4) Where Are We Headed, and What Can We Do About It?

 

Related articles

• Won’t someone please think of the kiddies?
• Sexual Nature: Picture Gallery
• Stonewall, and the Progress to LGBT Inclusion in Church

• New York Victory and Unfinished Business: Catholic Church Still Anything but a Welcoming Place (Bilgrimage)
• New York Victory and Unfinished Business: Catholic Church Still Anything but a Welcoming Place (2) (Bilgrimage)