Featured Post, Gay Catholics/ Christians, Ministry, Church structure

An Exciting Time to be Gay and Catholic?

A few years ago, I wrote about James Alison’s view that it was becoming an exciting time to be gay and Catholic - because the overwhelming evidence that same - sex affectional orientation is an entirely natural and non-pathological part of the human condition, occurring in a sizeable but minority proportion of the population in all cultures and all periods of history, would in time force Vatican theologians to take account of this in formulating their ideas of moral theology and sexual ethics.

What I would like to share with you is a sense of fun. I think being Catholic is huge fun. A huge roller-coaster ride into reality propelled by God, borne up on safe wings, gestated by the loving self-giving of Our Lord in his crucifixion, watched and smiled over by his Holy Mother, played into being like a virtuoso first performance of an unknown masterpiece by the adventurous coaxing of God’s Holy Spirit.

And right now one of the best places from where we can get a rich sense of how much fun this adventure is, is by looking at matters gay and their incidence in the life of the Church.

- James Alison, quoted at QTC October 2009.

For a time, this view may have seemed misplaced: in the years since then, the global expansion of marriage equality, and campaigns towards equal marriage, have produced strong backlash campaigns from a number of Catholic bishops and organisations. Many LGBT Catholics, instead of feeling excitement at signs of greater understanding, will instead have felt badly under siege. And yet, and yet….

What has gone largely unnoticed as so many Catholic voices have been raised against gay marriage, is that there has been correspondingly less animosity expressed against gay people, or against our relationships. I suspect that attempting to produce coherent arguments against full marriage equality, has in many cases forced the opponents either to accept that there are not in fact any sound arguments against the relationships themselves - or that acceptance of what they might see as the lesser of two evils might be strategically prudent. This was stated explicitly by the Portuguese bishops, who proposed civil unions as an alternative to full marriage equality legislation (but lost), and later by the bishops of New Hampshire, who originally campaigned against civil unions, but later argued in their favour, in support of attempts to repeal legislation providing full marriage (they also lost that battle).

But since then, others have been more specific in support for relationships as a positive good, and not just a campaign tactic. After Cardinal Christoph Schonborn suggested that it might be time to shift the emphasis in Catholic teaching from genital acts to the quality of gay relationships, a number of bishops began to repeat much the same message. Later, Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, the French Bishops’ subcommittee on marriage and family, and the Vatican head of the pontifical commission on the family, as well as others, have stated directly that they can see positive value in legal recognition (but not marriage) for same - sex couples. In this, I have no doubt that they are being influenced by the mounting scientific evidence that Alison referred to, but also other factors - polling evidence that ordinary Catholics overwhelmingly support some form of legal recognition for gay couples, the increasing strength of support for either civil unions or full marriage from leaders of other churches, and the evidence presented before them by real people in real relationships - and the obvious soundness and health of their families. It’s becoming obvious that while the documents have not changed, the outside of the marriage wars, the situation on the ground is becoming less hostile, and in some places, decidedly welcoming. All of this shift in emphasis has been at a time when the CDF documents clearly oppose any form of recognition at all for same - sex relationships - and when Pope Benedict, who signed this and other hostile documents as head of the CDF, was in office. It is likely that mindful of papal opposition, there may be many more bishops who sympathised with a more supportive pastoral approach, but did not dare to speak up publicly.

Now, following the election of Pope Francis with his clear preference for sensitive pastoral provision over doctrinal rigidity, there’s even more reason for optimism. It’s been widely reported that although he opposed legislation for full marriage and family equality in Argentina, he did propose civil unions as a realistic compromise - but could not get the support of his fellow bishops. As knowledge of his attempts at compromise is spreading, some commentators (Michael O’Loughlin at Religion News, for instance) are going so far as to call Francis “ A Pastor for Gay Catholics“. Orthotoxic Catholics however, who have for long used religion as an excuse for discrimination, are far less happy - and some are downright apoplectic - in part, because his opposition to equal marriage in Argentina was seen by the locals as half- hearted, too little and too late;

Since Pope Francis’s selection, blogs that celebrate the grand, ancient Catholic music and prayers have been busy with hand-wringing that he is a closet liberal.

“I know that I sound like a broken record, but Bergoglio is about the worst choice for pope we traditionalists could have got,” one commentator wrote on rorate­ -caeli.blogspot.com, a thought echoed by dozens of others this week.

- Washington Post

With extensive reform of the Curia now a real possibility, and the example of a very different kind of pope to follow, we can realistically expect many more bishops and theologians to find the courage to speak up in support of a new approach to matters of sexuality.

Indeed, it is more than ever, an exciting time to be gay and Catholic.

Books:

(links to Amazon.co.uk, United Kingdom)

Books:

(links to Amazon.com, United States)

Related articles
Enhanced by Zemanta
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

6 comments for “An Exciting Time to be Gay and Catholic?”

  1. William
    March 22, 2013 at 8:00 pm

    I’ve seen much excitement with such themes in the online world such as Michelango Signorile’s huff post article (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelangelo-signorile/is-pope-francis-secretly_b_2924954.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices) posing a question if Pope Francis could be secretly pro-gay.

    Sadly I’ve also seen much animosity towards those who have been been expressing excitement. Even sadder, those expressing animosity are on the same side of the LGBT-debate arena. The greater contention being that church doctrines don’t change so we shouldn’t count on them to.

    Do you know of any resources we could look into to really find out whether or not church doctrine is indeed immutable? Some say, it’s only the practices that change but the teachings don’t.

    Reply
    • William
      March 22, 2013 at 8:04 pm

      I think many are so hung up with infallibility. But does the Church really have to be infallible? Perhaps a way of making the Church once again a significant part of people’s everyday lives is to accept that it’s not perfect and that it is okay that it isn’t because as even the Church would teach, only God is perfect. This way, “regular” people could identify more with the Church instead of holding it distantly up high that they find it no longer worth the effort to identify with.

      Reply
      • Terence Weldon
        March 25, 2013 at 8:34 am

        Agreed. The church really does not (and in my view, should not) claim to be infallible. At Catholic school, I was taught that the doctrine applies only to statements made formally “ex cathedra”, and that only two such statements have ever been made. The papacies of JPII and B16 have gravely distorted this, with a practice of creeping infallibility by which they claimed infallible authority for opinions which simply do not warrant it (most notably, on the ordination of women).g

        Somehow, I cannot see the Pope Francis, with his evident humility and emphasis on service over brute power, continuing in this way. My guess is that we’ll be hearing much less about infallibility from now on.

        Reply
    • Terence Weldon
      March 25, 2013 at 9:28 am

      Apologies for the late reply. Certainly, teaching changes. The best known examples are on slavery (once accepted as biblically sanctioned, now fiercely opposed) and charging interest on financial loans (fiercely opposed as “unnatural”, now practised by the Vatican bank). There are also numerous less familiar, rather bizarre examples. Eating chocolate was once prohibited because it was associated with sexual passion, and then there’s this, which I came across just yesterday.

      The 4th Century Council of Elvira was the earliest council to even appear to rule on “homosexuality”, by stating that “corrupters of boys” should be denied communion. (In fact, of course, “corrupters of boys” refers to paedophiles, not to loving adult relationships. To put even this into context, consider these two canons:

      50. If any cleric or layperson eats with Jews, he or she shall be kept from communion as a way of correction.

      67. A woman who is baptized or is a catechumen must not associate with hairdressers or men with long hair. If she does this, she is to be denied communion.

      Reply
  2. Mark T,
    March 23, 2013 at 11:43 pm

    Man, you guys can sure take a long time to come up with such gibberish.

    Look it’s really simple. Christianity - like every other major religion - teaches that homosexual acts are not right. You know that. But we’re all sinners and homosexual sins are no different from any other sin. You go to confession, you ask for God’s forgiveness and you try to do better. There’s no need to change the Church because of your particular sin. Geez, you all can come up with some pretty convoluted and overly lengthy tomes just to avoid going to confession.

    I’ve never met a Christian who didn’t sin. There’s nothing different about your situation as homosexuals from anyone else. It’s as if you suppose that Christianity is only hard on you and you alone. It’s not. We all stand before God knowing how weak we are.

    Wouldn’t it be simpler and a lot less work to just go to confession? Though I strongly suspect that anyone whose sole religious impulse is to “queer” the Church and who wants to place homosexual men in positions of confidence and trust over teenage boys is probably not in a place to listen to common sense. So be it. I do feel sorry for you, lost as you are. But Jesus said that not everyone will listen to him and I’m increasingly at peace with that. But I do feel sorry for you.

    Reply
    • Terence Weldon
      March 24, 2013 at 9:49 pm

      Agreed, we’re all sinners. We know that. The real question is ….. just what IS the sin? We know what the doctrine is, but is it right? Church doctrines have been found to be unsound in the past (even Pope Benedict has written about the existence of a “distorting tradition” in church history, against which we must be on our guard).

      We also know that church teaching insists that homosexuals must be treated with respect, compassion, and sensitivity - and should be free from all unjust discrimination, and must not be the victims of any malice or violence - in actions or in speech. The bible also tells us to judge not, that we be not judged.

      SO - there are many different kinds of sin. We should ALL examine our consciences - and respect the decisions, in conscience, of others.

      Reply

Leave a Reply