Homosexuality and the Catholic Church Update

I was supposed to be taking a few days off from blogging but I thought this would be better to post sooner rather than later and so this post  is an extension to an earlier post here which discussed two articles on homosexuality including a recent one by by James Martin S.J. 

Also an article from Michael Bayly at Wild Reed here refers to a previous article from James Martin's in 2009 on homosexuality which states "

"Recently (that's 2009), on the blogsite of America magazine, James Martin, S.J., listed all the things that gay people “are not to do according to the teaching of the [Roman Catholic] church.” They include: Enjoy romantic love, marry, adopt a child, enter a seminary, and work for the church and be open.

Martin also notes that gay people in the church are frequently reminded that they are “objectively disordered,” and that their sexuality is “a deviation.”

He concludes his piece with the following:

Taken together, [all of this] raises an important pastoral question for all of us: What kind of life remains for these brothers and sisters in Christ, those who wish to follow the teachings of the church? Officially at least, the gay Catholic seems set up to lead a lonely, loveless, secretive life. Is this what God desires for the gay person?

Although the points Martin raises are important, I’m nevertheless disappointed that he makes no attempt to offer answers to the critical questions he poses. There’s also no acknowledgment that the “teachings of the church” regarding homosexuality are discerned by many Catholics - both gay and straight - as being at odds with the gospel message. Indeed, after often long and difficult journeys of discernment, many, in good conscience, dissent from these teachings and trust instead their own experience of God mediated in and through their lives and relationships."

I recommend the rest of Michael Bayly's article.

 Priest and theologian James Alison believes that there are bright glimmers of hope to be found in the Catholic Church's wrestling with issues around homosexuality, but he also repudiates the term objective disorder.

He reflects on his own experience as a gay Catholic, on the givenness of sexual orientation, and on what he calls "the shape of God's affection".

James Alison: Sexuality, Certainty and Salvation

Click here for the audio recording 

Complete transcript of the recording is here

Related articles

• James Alison's Message to Gay Catholics: Be the Best That You Are (queeringthechurch.com)
• where this report from the Spectator says this : "Alison made clear distinctions between the views of the laity and the views of the Catholic hierarchy post-World War II, and points to the fact that while issues like gay marriage have been openly adopted in heavily Catholic countries, church officials have been slow to bring about open dialogues in addressing the issue.
•  
• "It puts the church in the rather difficult position of living 50 years out of date," Alison said. "In the last 50 to 60 years we've had a collapse of the ‘Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy in lay society, but not the church hierarchy."
• 
  To help combat this prevailing sense of homophobia in Catholic hierarchy, Alison is quick to point out the church's own teachings which can be utilized to help fight this attitude. He looks to the Catholic idea that "Grace Perfects Nature," or the idea that followers of the faith can flourish where they are in life. However, for this to happen, church authorities must go beyond a negative view of homosexuality to accept the idea that homosexuality is not a defect in social behavior before "flourishing" can happen.
• 
  Alison points to the fact that many lay Catholics today have already embraced this idea, shown in the legalizing of gay marriage in places like Brazil, Mexico and even New York.
  "They understand the idea that ‘If that's what they are, they must be the best of what they are,' and can see the reality of what that means," Alison said.
  Alison also challenges future generations to better understand what same-sex marriage means in a Catholic setting, and what the "shape of God's blessing," means in that setting.
• 
  While Alison acknowledges that change will only come about at a slow pace to the hierarchy, he notes the "marked change of the past 15 years" and hopes that the conversation is able to develop in creative ways."
• 
  Coffman echoes Alison's sentiments, hoping that people, especially in the United States, will continue to engage in a discussion that recognizes the openness of the Catholic faith, and that it emphasizes a gospel of love.
• 
  "It's a matter of time before the church recognizes that we have a responsibility to be in partnership with our homosexual brothers and sisters and be bound up in their own flourishing, because their flourishing is bound up in ours. We are no longer the us and them, we are now we."
   
• When Courage Fails (newwaysministryblog.wordpress.com)
• Homosexuals and the Catechism (queeringthechurch.com)

Jesuits address issue of homosexuality in the clergy (mumbailaity.wordpress.com) 

Reading this and then comparing it to James Alison's hopes for the church shows what a long way there is to go on this. 

I am not gay but I have many friends who are and all of them say that they knew they were gay at a very early age.

Many of my friends, gay and straight are disgusted at the use of the term objective disorder to describe homosexuality. What sort of harm do they imagine this does to a child's perception ??

I was struck at what Brother Dan in a post at dating God today has to say about the difference between God's way of seeing and our own. 

Whilst he does not refer specifically to homosexuality his words are applicable when he refers to "Natural Law."

"Christians in general, but especially Roman Catholics, tend to become too much like the Pharisees in the Gospel, too much like Jesse in the Old Testament. We live our lives by standards of our own making, playing them off as "God's Law" (or "Natural Law" or "Divine Law" or "Canon Law" and so on).

We exclude others when we should include them;
we condemn others when we should forgive them;
we harm others when we should heal them;
we judge others when we should embrace them;
and we leave people in darkness when we should bring light to them.

The Wisdom that comes to us in Sacred Scripture today challenges us to see with the eyes of God and not with our own set of myopic lenses. The world looks very differently when we try to look into the hearts of others as God does to us and not make our decisions based on appearances alone."

Perhaps the image and quote from Erik Erikson says it best.

"Someday, maybe, there will exist a well-informed, well considered and yet fervent public conviction that the most deadly of all possible sins is the mutilation of a child’s spirit.”