The Catholic Bishops will be voting on guidelines for ministry to gay parishioners. And the drafted guidelines show both the difficulty with the church’s conflicting principles and how the Catholic position varies from that of evangelical based ex-gay ministries.
The Church (along with some other Christian churches) has both a desire to be in ministry to gay people and a desire to hold to traditional anti-gay doctrine. These conflicting goals lead to somewhat schizophrenic pronouncements about homosexuality in all its disordered evil nature that simultaneously state that gay people are not morally defective.
And though the church seems to want to distinguish between gay persons and gay acts, it’s clear that even those contributing to the guidelines do not see homosexuals completely distinctly from homosexuality. Having same-sex attractions disqualifies Catholics from various levels of service, regardless of sexual activity. And under this Pope the Church has made as a primary target those civil laws which treat gay persons equal to straight persons.
However, the Church veers from the ex-gay position of the more evangelical based Exodus. Unlike pronouncements from Alan Chambers, Catholics are not considered sinful by recognizing their orientation. Identifying as gay seems to be less of a “sin” than engaging in behavior that the Church declares sinful.
This new document puts more emphasis on the church’s moral teaching about sexuality. It says that although having a “homosexual inclination” is not itself a sin, homosexual sex is a sin — as are premarital sex and adultery. The answer in all these situations is chastity.
Yet though having a gay identity isn’t condemned, the Church apparently finds it shameful or disruptive and to be kept secret.
It says that gay people may benefit from revealing their “tendencies” to friends, family and their priest, but should not make “general public announcements” about it in the parish.
However gay Catholics are not encouraged to seek therapy to become ex-gay.
The guidelines also say that gay men and lesbians have “no moral obligation to attempt” therapy, an apparent reference to therapy programs that claim to change gay people’s sexual orientation. It says that while “some have found therapy helpful,” there is “no scientific consensus” either on therapy or the causes of homosexuality.
I find the Catholic position to be both more honest and more consistent with their own teachings. But as a tool for ministering to gay persons, I believe it fails miserably. While the Pope wages a political war on the civil rights of gay Catholics in Europe, a document that says you should stay mostly closeted and should not be allowed full participation in the Church is hardly going to bring comfort to those gay Catholics who are living in faithful compliance with Catholic teachings on sexuality.
It’s clear that the Church has not given priority to the experiences, attitudes, and perspectives of actual gay persons in preparing this new document. Perhaps the New York Times’ opening paragraph best illustrates the problem the Church has:
The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops have drafted new guidelines for ministry to gay people that affirm church teaching against same-sex relationships, marriages and adoptions by gay couples, yet encourage parishes to reach out to gay Catholics who feel alienated by their church.
It’s pretty much in line with what is already expressed by the ministry Courage. But pulling back from the idea of change and reparative therapy will give those like Fr. John Harvey apoplexy. I may be wrong but I think he has been arguing that there is no such thing as homosexuality.
One of the first persons I told when I finally accepted that I was gay was my priest. The first thing he told me was don’t tell anyone else. And yet I wanted to shout it from the choir loft!
Acceptance is that one thing you can give yourself that no one else can ever in that very personal way. And when you accept yourself, you seek out those who would acknowledge your own acceptance of self. You don’t seek their acceptance, only their acknowledgement of your own. And they don’t have to agree with it, simply acknowledge it. Actually, not agreeing with it is an acknowledgement. So you win both ways, although a relationship might be severed in the win. That’s what make it real
Eh….
Restless is the heart until it rests in Christ Jesus.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.