Gay rights and the Catholic Church make strange bedfellows, to put it mildly.
My religion teachers have taught me that homosexuals and the Church are somehow compatible, emphasizing that Catholics hate the sin and love the sinner. Homosexual inclinations are just fine, as long as one doesn’t act upon them.
It certainly does sound nice when the Church says that they welcome homosexuals, but is it true? And, if it’s not, is there a way to change this?
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to think such a statement is accurate if one listens to the Church’s top leaders.
Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons” that “although the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin, it is a more or less strong tendency ordered to an intrinsic moral evil, and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes homosexuality in a similar way, calling it “intrinsically disordered.”
In 2003, the Pope also wrote in “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons” that, “In those situations where homosexual unions have been legally recognized or have been given the legal status and rights belonging to marriage, clear and emphatic opposition is a duty. One must refrain from any kind of formal cooperation in the enactment or application of such gravely unjust laws and, as far as possible, from material cooperation on the level of their application.”
You don’t have to go to the Pope to find such bigotry, though. When Maryland’s gay marriage bill was struggling to pass in the House of Delegates, Cardinal Edwin O’Brien took it upon himself to personally call delegates to vote against it. This isn’t something unique to Maryland, either. Whenever a state votes on gay rights, the Church is guaranteed to get involved.
Given all this, can the Catholic Church be taken seriously when it says that it welcomes homosexuals?
The Church thinks that it can separate a person from his or her own sexuality. I wonder if people really believe this when it applies to themselves. Don’t they consider the relationship with their own significant other an integral part of their lives?
Furthermore, if a group who had no knowledge of your relationship with your partner not only campaigned against your right to be with him or her, but also preached that your love life is disordered and that your sex life is evil, would you still think that group sane if they said they accept you in the same breath?
This is not real acceptance. One cannot claim to accept a group of people while at the same time working to make sure they don’t have equal rights.
Despite the Church’s uncomfortable relationship to homosexuals, hope exists for a future of true equality. While most Church leaders fight gay rights, many Catholic laypeople endorse it. According to the Public Religion Research Institute, “nearly three-quarters of Catholics favor either allowing gay and lesbian people to marry (43 percent) or allowing them to form civil unions (31 percent). Only 22 percent of Catholics say there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship.”
Groups also exist to attempt to reform the Catholic Church’s teachings on homosexuals. DiginityUSA is among the most famous of these organizations. Besides advocating for change in the Church’s views on homosexuality, they also support an AIDS ministry and help form LGBT Catholic groups in countries such as South Africa, Poland, and Columbia.
New Ways Ministry, located in Mount Rainier, Maryland, is another one of these groups that promote LGBT rights. Since 1977, New Ways Ministry has provided publications, workshops, and newsletters on homosexuality and the Church. Co-founders Fr. Robert Nugent and Sr. Jeannine Gramick were silenced in 1999 and again in 2000 by the Vatican, but the organization continues to provide a “gay-positive ministry of advocacy and justice for lesbian and gay Catholics.”
Some may think that hoping for the Church to change its teachings sounds naïve at best. History, however, would prove them wrong.
At one time, the Church found little perversity in the practice of slavery. Certain passages in the Old Testament sanction it. Many people owned slaves, including Archbishop John Carroll, the Catholic leader who our school is named after. Yet, in 1965, the Second Vatican Council declared slavery an “infamy” without any qualification.
People are so much more than who they love. I dream of the day when students are no longer taught that being gay is disordered and teachers don’t pray in front of their classes that gays won’t receive equal rights. I want telling someone that you’re gay to be as inconsequential as telling someone that you’re a Capricorn. Most of all, I hope that when I ask questions like “Does the Church welcome homosexuals?” I can truly believe the answer is yes.
Scott Novak is an Opinion Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.