What is it with the Catholic Church and homosexuality anyway? Maybe it’s just because I am a gay man who happens to be Catholic, and so I am particularly sensitive to this issue, but it seems to me that four out of every five times the Church is involved in controversy, it has to do with homosexuality.
Earlier this year, the lesbian parents of two children attending a parochial school in Boulder, Colorado were told that they would not be allowed to renew the enrollment of the children for the 2011-2012 school year.
Responding to the uproar that resulted, the Archbishop of Denver, Charles Chaput, offered the following explanation for the school’s decision: “Our schools are meant to be ‘partners in faith’ with parents. If parents don’t respect the beliefs of the church, or live in a manner that openly rejects those beliefs, then partnering with those parents becomes very difficult, if not impossible.”
I am sure the parents of the two children affected by this decision had no difficulty explaining the archbishop’s point of view to their youngsters.
Recently, a lesbian woman who was teaching music on a one-year contract at Little Flower Academy, a Catholic girls’ school in Vancouver, B.C., was put on paid leave* by the school for the rest of her contract because of the teacher’s “violation of the Catholicity clause in her contract.”
The teacher had advised the school that her partner was going to have a baby. An editorial in the current issue of the archdiocesan newspaper, The B.C. Catholic — one of two front-page articles on this story in the paper — states that employment contracts with British Columbia Catholic school teachers “require that they exhibit conduct in harmony with the teachings of the Church.”
(The catechism of the Catholic Church, the main vehicle for the transmission of Catholic teaching, says the following about homosexuality: “…homosexual acts [are] acts of grave depravity…tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered’….They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.” )
It is disturbing that during the current sex-abuse crisis, The B.C. Catholic has never published a front-page article that humbly acknowledges the sinfulness of the Church and apologizes openly and without reservation to the victims of clerical abuse.
Just over two weeks ago I sent an e-mail to my parish priest advising him that I could no longer be a member of the parish, a parish that I have grown to love since I returned to Catholicism four years ago.
My decision to “leave the Church” was the result of an article in the April 19 issue of The B.C. Catholic. The headline of that article was “Homosexuality, pedophilia related: cardinal.”
The content of the article made it quite clear that the headline was not tongue-in-cheek; in fact, it was clearly the intent of the paper to link homosexuality and pedophilia in the minds of its readers, a link which has never been proven to exist. Such a connection would, of course, serve to discredit homosexuality.
In my message to my pastor I said that I understood the newspaper to be the voice of the archdiocese, and “if the page 12 article is a reflection of the message of love in the Gospel, a message which it is part of the mission of any diocese to deliver to the faithful, I, a simple Christian who hungers for that message, did not find it on page 12.” I have not had a response from the priest.
I have argued elsewhere, as have many others far more qualified than I, that it is the Church’s teaching on homosexuality that is disordered, not homosexuality itself.
The Catholic Church simply refuses to acknowledge a fact of modern life: gay people are just like left-handed people in that we are a minority but there is nothing sinister about us. Putting those arguments aside for the moment, I ask why the Church is so focused on homosexuality.
One parent of children in the Boulder Catholic school wondered why his three children had not been asked to leave the school as he and his wife had been married outside the Catholic Church. Other parents in the parish have wondered why their children were not singled out as well because the parents have been divorced and remarried without Catholic annulment of their first marriages.
There is a Catholic apostolate, Courage, that serves to help people with “same-sex attraction” lead lives of chastity and even encourages them to undergo (the largely discredited) reparative therapy to become heterosexual. In addition, there is an offshoot of Courage, called Encourage, which helps parents to deal with children “afflicted with” same-sex attraction.
Yet I am not aware of an apostolate, which might be called Restraint, for those suffering from the disorder of masturbation. Or one named Rhythm for those plagued by the disorder of using artificial birth control. And what would the authorities at Little Flower Academy do if they discovered that a teacher or student was actually engaging in these disordered behaviours?
The answer is that they would likely not take the same action that was brought against the lesbian teacher. And here is a big reason why: scandal. Scandal is the difference between the sin that you can see and the sin you cannot see.
Two gay or lesbian parents showing up in church or at school events, or a teacher who is open about her sexual orientation to students and parents, are highly visible examples of “sinful” behaviour; in the eyes of Church authorities, it would be a scandal if the Church were seen to be condoning homosexual behaviour by not taking some kind of action against the sinners. Divorce, masturbation, use of artificial contraception, and abortion — all mortal sins according to Church teaching — are not outwardly apparent and do not therefore invite scandal. So they can be conveniently ignored.
Only the most naively faithful believers can fail to see the hypocrisy of Church authorities in how they deal with the real scandal in Roman Catholicism — the shameful cover-up of the sexual abuse of children by members of the Catholic hierarchy — by making excuses, blaming modern society, assigning culpability to the victims, or making homosexuality the scapegoat.
It is not my intention that the Church’s obsession should become my obsession; there are many issues in Catholicism and in religion in general that invite study, reflection, and discussion. Nevertheless, when the Church’s obsession reflects the hypocrisy and deliberate ignorance of its leaders and causes pain to the sheep who are most in need of the care of the shepherd, a light must be shined upon it.
Photo Credit
“Our Church is the #1 OPPRESSOR of our GAY Children & Families” Andrew Cisscel @ Flickr.com. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.
“NO VAT” Facciamo Breccia @ Flickr.com. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.
“Fur-lined Priest” Akuppa @ Flickr.com. Creative Commons. Some Rights Reserved.
Recent Ross Lonergan Articles:
- The Film-School Student Who Never Graduates: A Profile of Ang Lee, Part Four
- The Film-School Student Who Never Graduates: A Profile of Ang Lee, Part Three
- The Film-School Student Who Never Graduates: A Profile of Ang Lee, Part Two
- The Film-School Student Who Never Graduates: A Profile of Ang Lee, Part One
- Bullying, Fear, And The Full Moon (Part Four)
Dear Debra:
Thank you for taking the time to read my article and thank you for your comment. The teaching of the Catholic Church on homosexuality is based on a very selective reading of both the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. There are many laws in Leviticus that we would consider to be ridiculous today and that we would have no qualms about ignoring, so why do we focus on upholding just one? And what did Jesus himself say about homosexuality? Absolutely nothing.
It is very sad that in a world where corporate greed, social injustice, brutal dictatorship, poverty and hunger are causing such real suffering, we feel that we must focus on the so-called immorality of love between two people of the same sex when such love can cause no harm; I might argue, in fact, that the more freely we are allowed to love the more like the loving Christ we can be.
Blessings to you, Debra.
Sorry, but the flesh act that homosexuals participate in is the sin that the Church teaches through Christ is wrong. Anyone who fornicates outside of the sacrament of marriage is living in mortal sin this includes heterosexuals too.
No one has any hatred toward a person or persons that talks, walks or dresses differently. It is the sin of the flesh they participate in that is abhorent.
This is the demon you fight and you must win over it.
Bravo! I’ve thought about this very issue so many times, and was horrified by the suspension of the teacher at Little Flower.
It’s wonderful to read these thoughts that come from the “inside” as I am neither Catholic or gay, but stunned by the ignorance exhibited by Catholic authorities. To link homosexuality with pedophilia is such blatant ignorance that I question the fitness of the leadership.
Thanks for your honest analysis.
Maggie, thank you for your comment. I am continually wondering about the disconnect between the humility of Jesus and the hubris of those in the hierarchy of the Church who claim to speak in his name. Boys and girls, can we all say “Pharisee”?.
I enjoyed this post, Ross. It brings forward a linear, concrete argument that manages to personalize yet not be emotionally defensive. The Catholic Church’s stance on homosexuality is one of many that perplex me. I’ve think you’ve really hit the nail on the head with the “outwardly apparent” and risk of “scandal.” I will admit that I am deeply curious as to why you would choose to return to the Catholic Church … so I guess I better check out your personal blog too!
Thanks so much for your comment, Julie. I am really pleased that you enjoyed this article. You can indeed find some reflections on my return to the Church on my blog. As for the Church’s stance on homosexuality, there are probably many explanations, but one is a profound distrust of modernity that stems from the Enlightenment, the French Revolution and the introduction of democracy, the growth of socialism and communism – all of which brought about a steady erosion of the material, psychological, and spiritual authority of the Church.