Gay weddings can be performed by military chaplains, Pentagon says – The Federal Eye – The Washington Post

September 30, 2011 — Terence Weldon

 With lesbians and gay men now serving openly in the US military, the next step is to ensure parity in employment conditions. One part of this is equal access to chaplaincy services. This has just come a little bit closer, with a Pentagon announcement that military chaplains will now be permitted to officiate at same-sex weddings – but only in the states where these are legally sanctioned, and where they are permitted by their religious denominations. The emphasis is also on “permitted”, not “required”. That’s quite a small opening then: even in liberal Massachusetts, there will be no military gay weddings by Catholic priests, and none by United Church chaplains in Virginia. Even where church regulations and state law agree in permitting same-sex nuptials, the couple’s desire to walk down the aisle in church could still be stymied by a local chaplain who is not willing to play ball.

It remains an important step though for at least some servicemen and women. As marriage equality spreads to more states and to more churches (as it will).

 

The Pentagon will permit military chaplains to perform same-sex marriage in states that legally recognize gay marriage, it said Friday.

Defense Department guidance issued to military chaplains said they may participate in ceremonies on or off military bases in states that recognize gay unions. Chaplains are not required to officiate at same-sex weddings if doing so is counter to their religious or personal beliefs, the guidance said.

And regardless of the Pentagon guidance, military chaplains will still need to take cues from their religious order, said Gary Pollitt, spokesman for the Military Chaplains Association.

“Just because the Department of Defense says this can happen, the chaplains perform such rites in keeping with their ecclesiastical authorization. Period,” Pollitt said.

 - The Washington Post.

When a similar announcement was made by the US Navy back in April, it was met with howls of outrage from conservative commentators, and from Republican politicians, who promised to introduce legislation to prevent it. In June, the Navy revoked the earlier guidelines, “pending additional legal and policy review” and closer coordination with the Army, Air Force and Coast Guard.

Now that DADT is officially history, it was inevitable that the question would arise once more. Conservative opposition will once again be intense – but will get nowhere, as even some GOP lawmakers are realising that discrimination is no longer a guaranteed vote-getter, and in some districts may even be a political liability.

Next stop: equal access to military family housing.

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Equality is a Family Value: Support Brazilian Mums

September 29, 2011 — Terence Weldon

I have just received an email from a friend, which took me to a website for “Equality Moms”, to challenge hate and discrimination in Brazil.

“I’d rather have a dead son than a gay son.” These words, recently spoken by a prominent member of Congress as an appeal to Brazil’s “family values,” made Eleonora Pereira angry. 

Eleonora’s son, Jose Ricardo, was murdered a year ago—victim of a rising tide of homophobic and transphobic hate crimes in Brazil.

Eleonora told us that the family values she knows are those shared by mothers all over the world: refusing to see your child insulted, injured, or even killed simply because of who they are. And Eleonora is not alone. 

On September 29th, our group of “Equality Moms” in Brazil are traveling to Congress to demand support for a proposed Anti-Homophobia bill that would protect ALL Brazilians from violence and discrimination.

Will you take a moment to sign and share the statement the moms will deliver to Congress—and to their fellow Brazilians—affirming EQUALITY as the true family value? 

www.allout.org/maespelaigualdade

 Hate is not a family value, nor is it part of Catholic teaching – although many of those promoting this kind of hatred and violence claim to be doing so to protect family values (as the Brazilian congress quoted), or Catholic teaching, completely overlooking the parts of Catholic teaching we don’t hear often enough:

It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the objects of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church’s pastors wherever it occurs…. The particular orientation of the homosexual is not a sin. (emphasis added).

-CDF Pastoral Letter

Lend your support to the Brazilian Moms for Equality. Cross to the website, sign and distribute the petition:

BECAUSE EQUALITY IS A FAMILY VALUE

With homophobic and transphobic attacks and murders on the rise, Brazil is fast becoming a world leader — in anti-LGBT hate crimes. It’s time for the country that celebrates its diversity to be a world leader in offering full equality to ALL of its citizens. 

I stand proudly with this movement of courageous, outspoken “Equality Moms” of Brazil, as they speak out against the hate, and demand an end to discrimination and violence.

 

I just did

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Bishop vows gay marriage ‘will prevail’

September 29, 2011 — Terence Weldon

 

Church leaders who oppose same-sex marriage will eventually be shown to be on the wrong side of history, former Bishop of Edinburgh Richard Holloway said today.

He said churches had, however slowly, changed their minds on issues such as slavery and the status of women.

He said: “The same will happen in the campaign for gay equality in religious institutions.

“It will be resisted, as the liberation of women was, and is still being, resisted, and many of the same arguments will be marshalled against it, but it will prevail.

“Whatever they say, Christians who oppose gay marriage will, in time, be shown to be on the wrong side of history.”

Bishop Holloway was among a group of religious leaders who today gave their backing to same-sex marriage. Others included Rev Maud Robinson, Rabbi Mark Solomon, Phil Lucas and Rev Jane Clarke.

 - Edinburgh Evening News.

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European Parliament Votes Overwhelmingly on Human Rights for Gays and Transgender People Worldwide

September 28, 2011 — Terence Weldon

In June, the United Nations adopted a resolution affirming the human rights of all LGBT people, worldwide – a welcome, but largely symbolic gesture. UN resolutions frequently make good sound-bites, but have no teeth and are routinely ignored by precisely those countries at which they are directed. The UN resolution will have no impact at all on countries like Iran and Sudan, which still impose the death penalty for homosexuality.

The European Parliament however, is a different matter entirely. The very similar resolution on LGBT rights they have just adopted has an importance which is much more than merely symbolic. This adoption will inevitably place increased political pressure on countries such as Poland, which have been notoriously laggard on in applying even basic rights to queer citizens, and also increase the political pressure for family and marriage equality.

I would also expect this declaration will give impetus to the existing movement to greater recognition of LGBT rights in the legal sphere – in the deliberations and verdicts of the European Commission of Human Rights. This is an important development, which will impact directly on real lives in Europe – and possibly beyond.

European Parliament Votes Overwhelmingly on Human Rights for Gays and Transgender People Worldwide

The European Parliament today joined the United Nations’ call for safeguarding the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in the world.  The text was co-signed by 6 out of 7 political groups, and adopted with a very wide majority.

A total of 586 MEPs voted, with 442 in favour, 104 against and 40 abstentions.

Welcoming the adoption in June of the first-ever resolution on ‘Human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity’ at the United Nations Human Rights Council, the European Parliament confirmed its concern regarding “human rights violations and widespread discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, both in the European Union and [abroad]”.

With today’s text, the European Parliament welcomed the work done by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay for the human rights of LGBT people worldwide.

via UK Gay News

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Fr Gionet: Condemned by His Own Words.

September 28, 2011 — Terence Weldon

At Lifesite News and elsewhere,  commenters continue to defend Fr Gionet for allegedly doing no more than stating Catholic Doctrine. In his defence, they point to the following statement by him, in which he attempts to explain his words:

“I said: … ‘Today, it is we Catholics who are destroying our Catholic Church. We need only look at the number of abortions among Catholics, look at the homosexuals, and ourselves.’ (That’s when I pointed at my chest – through that action I wanted to say, we the priests) and I continued saying: We are destroying our church ourselves. And that’s when I said that those were the words expressed by Pope John Paul II. At that point, in the St-Leolin church only, I added: We can add to that the practice of watching ‘gay’ parades, we are encouraging this evil … What would you think of someone who seeing what was happening on (Sept.) 11, 2001, the crumbling of the towers, had begun clapping? We must not encourage evil, whatever form it takes.” (emphasis added).

=Big Blue Wave

(more…)

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Pope Benedict’s Remarkable Silence on Homosexuality

September 28, 2011 — Terence Weldon

A Reuters headline last week, taken up and repeated elsewhere,  had me disturbed and disappointed:

Catholics cannot accept gay marriage, pope says

My immediate reaction was to work out a response based on the obvious empirical falsity of the statement – the fact that Catholics can support gay marriage is easily demonstrated – because so many of them simply do. But before working out a detailed response, I thought I should first check on what he actually said, to attract the headline. On investigation, I found that there is absolutely no need to counter the Pope’s words – because he simply did not say them. Once again, the headlines about Pope Benedict’s words on gay marriage are a sub-editor’s invention.

(more…)

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Homophobic Priests: Doctrinally Correct, Pastorally Wrong.

September 27, 2011 — Terence Weldon

Last week, two priests at opposite ends of North America fell foul of the local bishops, apparently for their anti-LGBT actions. In Canada,  a visiting priest in  the diocese of Bathurst was barred from saying Mass by Bishop  Bishop Valéry Vienneau after making disparaging remarks about “homosexuals” and gay pride parades, in homilies during the local gay pride weekend. In Texas, Father Michael Rodriguez  was reassigned by his bishop, after taking out anti-gay political ads in local newspapers.

The rule-book Catholics are outraged. One comment after another to their post on the story has parroted that this is injustice to Fr     Fr. Gionet, as he has simply repeated orthodox Catholic doctrine. One commenter to my own post has observed that

the diocesan vicar-general admitted there was no doctrinal error in Fr. Gionet’s statements. 

This is irrelevant. The statements may be “doctrinally correct” in what was said – but they were pastorally dead wrong.

Just compare his statements to those of Pope Benedict in Berlin, who in numerous addresses, made numerous statements about the challenges facing German and European society today. In a country where sexual minorities are widely accepted, where legal gay marriage is clearly on the way, and in a city which is known internationally as a major centre for gay tourism, what did Pope Benedict have to say on the subject?

Answer: Nothing. Not a word*. This is not surprising. Contrary to popular opinion, same-sex relationships simply are not a central concern of the Catholic faith. Already, the clear majority of ordinary Catholics, and of a possible majority of Catholic theologians and priests, know that the doctrine is simply wrong, and must be changed.

I suspect that Benedict knows it too, and is very carefully avoiding saying anything, to prepare the way for the inevitable change in doctrine that will come.

(* I have been reading carefully the transcripts of every one of Pope Benedict’s public addresses, as reported at the Vatican website. What he did say, together with its importance for queer Catholics, I will report on later). 

Recommended Books:

Fr James A. Schexnayder: Setting the Table Preparing Catholic Parishes to Welcome Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People and Their Families.

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Beyond Male and Female: Gender Trouble, Biology Trouble.

September 24, 2011 — Terence Weldon

There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

-  Galatians 3:28

In the context of religion, we are familiar with the quotation from Galatians, even if in the Catholic Church we are unwilling to take the words literally, and apply them to ordination. From the world of science though, it is becoming clear that there is a truth in the words that goes way beyond a theological concept, and is instead, a substantial measure of quite literal truth. It may well be that there really is “neither male nor female”, at least not in the absolute binary sense that modern Western culture assumes. This has major implications for Christian sexual and gender theology.

(more…)

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Look Who’s Talking: Pope Benedict Warns Against the Abuse of Power/

September 23, 2011 — Terence Weldon

Pope Benedict XVI addressed Germany’s Parliament in the historic Reichstag building yesterday, warning that politicians must not sacrifice ethics for power and evoking the Nazi excesses of his homeland as a lesson in history.

 

 

Amid scattered protests outside and a boycott by some lawmakers, Benedict began his first state visit to Germany in a bid to stem the tide of Catholics leaving the church while acknowledging the damage caused by the clergy sex abuse scandal.

The pope spoke for 20 minutes in the Reichstag, which was torched in 1933 by Hitler. “We Germans know from our own experience’’ what happens when power is corrupted, Benedict said, describing Nazis as a “highly organized band of robbers, capable of threatening the whole world and driving it to the edge of the abyss.’’

But he said even under the Nazi dictatorship resistance movements stuck to their beliefs at a great risk, “thereby doing a great service to justice and to humanity as a whole.’’

 - The Boston Globe.

Now, whyever can he not apply the same caution to himself and his acolytes? The governance of the Roman Catholic Church is similar to that of an absolute monarchy; the history of recent papacies has been one of rolling back the collegiality introduced by Vatican II in favour of greater centralized control; his own record at the CDF and as pope has been one of attempting to muzzle dissenting theologians and stifle debate on women priests and compulsory clerical celibacy; and the abuse of power at all levels of the Catholic Church is widely believed to be one of the contributory factors behind the problems of clerical abuse that he so repeatedly apologizes for.

The warning against the abuse of power are sound – but will ring hollow until he greatly reduces the centralized, bureaucratic control exercised by his own office and Vatican power elites.

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Bishop reassigns anti-gay El Paso Priest for Anti-gay politicking!

September 23, 2011 — Terence Weldon

Yesterday, we had a report from Canada that a priest had been barred from saying Mass, after a series of homilies in which he atttacked “homosexuals” (while disregarding the Catechism instruction to treat them with understanding, dignity and respect). Today, we have a report from Texas of a priest who has been disciplined for engaging in anti-gay politicking. Both of these should of course, be welcomed.

The odd thing is, research shows that at the parish level, most Catholics report that they do not hear this kind of homophobia from their pastors. It is more likely to be certain bishops who engage in anti-gay politicking. Who will discipline them?

The Catholic bishop in El Paso has reassigned a priest who recently took out a series of anti-gay ads (right) in the city’s daily newspaper. Father Michael Rodriguez of  San Juan Bautista Parish has been transferred to another church in West Texas. In addition to taking out the ads in The El Paso Times — which were paid for by an unidentified Plano couple — Rodriguez recently challenged three city officials to a public debate over their decision to vote in favor of domestic partner benefits for employees. The three officials are currently the target of recall election petitions sponsored by an anti-gay group.

 - Dallas Voice.

Related Posts:

Priest’s Homophobic Homilies Get Him Barred From Saying Mass.

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