In a brief entry under “News Notes” at Bondings 2.0, Francis DeBenardo refers to an entry in the University of Witwatersrand student newspaper, to a “gay -friendly Catholic Church”. This was guaranteed to catch my attention - it’s the single parish where I have been most deeply integrated into parish life, and where I learned whatever it is that I know about Ignatian spirituality (not enough, but something, which has served me well).
“The LGBTI group was formed five years ago when some parishioners came to tell me that do I know that there were gay people coming here and they feel marginalised and could we do something for them,” said Father Russell Pollitt, head parish priest at the church.
Group co-ordinator Dumisani Dube said they are not a “charity organisation” and the main aim of the group was to provide emotional support.
According to Pollitt, the Catholic Church is “quite traditional” in its views of homosexuality. However, he said there is a diversity of views within the church.
The Catholic Church has no issues with homosexual orientation, but it does not accept the “practice or lifestyle of homosexuality, i.e. any physical activity is taboo and not acceptable,” said Pollitt.
He adds: “I think the problem with religion is that we don’t think things through. We tend to think things in black and white…whereas human life is really grey.
Pollitt also said there are discrepancies between what religion upholds and experiences of people.
Many of the group members spoken to referred to the generally warm and open welcome they encountered - which, in accordance with church teaching, they should experience routinely in any Catholic parish, but so often do not. There were, however, some exceptions who resisted this call to openness and inclusion:
Pollitt said the road to embracing the LGBTI group at the church was met with anxiety. There was conflict with some church authorities and in some instances he received letters from people who disapproved or denounced the church’s stance on homosexuality.
“People were initially afraid…one or two people decided to go somewhere else because they felt I was trying to make this into a gay church… This place looks after many marginalised people…people left out from churches, because there is some stigma attached to them,” Pollitt said.
I was a parishioner at Holy Trinity some years ago, before I upped and moved to the UK. That was twenty years ago - long before the formal launch of the LGBT support group - but even then, when I considered returning to the Church after some years of absence, the then parish priest assured me that my partner and I would be fully welcomed by the parish, without any real risk of hostility on the basis of orientation. So it proved, and we participated actively in every part of parish life, including serving for four years, together as a couple, on the Parish Pastoral Council, with never an eyebrow raised. I was thrilled when I heard some years ago of the new group’s formation - and even more thrilled when I met Fr Russell last year, and heard from him some of the superb work they are doing.
Some highlights:
The lgbt group is equal in status to all the other parish groups and sodalities (in my day, that would have been the Catholic Women’s League, and the Society of St Vincent de Paul. ). A representative of the group sits ex officio on the PPC , alongside representatives of those other groups, and has a dedicated page under “ministries” on the parish website - http://trinityjhb.co.za/gay-lesbian/ ).
Although some meetings are understandably closed to group members, they also hold open meetings where any parishioners are welcome to attend. Fr Russell told me that sometimes people turn up with the intention of remonstrating with the “sinners” getting special treatment - and leave with a lot more to think about than they had expected, starting out.
When the group asked for approval for joining Johannesburg’s Gay Pride Parade as an identified church group, Fr Russell did more than give an OK - he joined them on the parade, in clerical collar, for that part of the route that went through parish boundaries.
South Africa is a paradox on LGBT equality: the first country in the world to write protection from sexual orientation discrimination into its constitution, and one of the first to provide in law for both equal marriage and civil unions for any orientation, it nevertheless ranks surprisingly low on measures of public acceptance - and lesbians are sometimes subject to the horrific practice of “corrective rape”, gay men to public derision, gay bashing and murder.
But in much of Catholic Church parish practice, and also in its national Catholic newspapers, there can be more and deeper real inclusion and equality for the lesbian and gay community than in many supposedly more tolerant and progressive countries.
Related articles
- Openly Gay Priest Speaks Out (queeringthechurch.com)
- Gay Priests: The Challenge of Honesty (queeringthechurch.com)
- Carla Hale Story Goes National Through Frank Bruni Column in New York Times: “Consider the Selectiveness of the Church’s Outrage” (bilgrimage.blogspot.com)
- Soho Masses Community Expanding LGBT Ministry (queeringthechurch.com)
- A Kairos Moment for British Gay Catholics? (questgaycatholic.org.uk)
- Are LGBT Catholics At Home In the Church? (newwaysministryblog.wordpress.com)
