The Catholic Church is an almost unique stutn — shunng homosexualy but havg so many gay men s ranks, wr Andrew Sullivan. The Vatin’s failure to reckon wh their sexualy has created a crisis for Catholicism.
Contents:
- ST. JOHN HENRY NEWMAN: THE FIRST OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC SAT?
- GAY SATS?
- WHEN I ME OUT AS A GAY CATHOLIC, SATS AUGTE AND MONI HELPED ME GROW CLOSER TO MY MOM — AND GOD
- SERGI AND BACCH: THE GAY SOLDIERS WHO WERE MA SATS BY THE CHURCH
- OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC PRIT DISCS POPE FRANCIS' APPEAL FOR LGBTQ PROTECTNS
- SAT SEBASTIAN AS A GAY IN
- THE LGBT AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: A SECRET HISTORY OF GAY SATS
- THE GAY CHURCH
ST. JOHN HENRY NEWMAN: THE FIRST OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC SAT?
His wrgs nvced historians John Boswell and Brian Patrick McGuire that Aelred was a gay man, albe one who still disuraged any sexual activy outsi the bounds of marriage. Several relig anizatn, s cludg the Natnal Anglin Catholic Church and Integry the Epispal Church the Uned Stat have regnized Aelred as the patron sat of such gay-iendly groups as the Orr of St. An abbot medieval France, Bernard of Clairvz mataed a lengthy personal relatnship wh the archbishop Malachy, acrdg to gay liberatn theologian Richard Cleaver.
Boris would go on to hold special signifince for gay Christians bee of his apparently romantic relatnship wh his servant, Gee the Hungarian.
GAY SATS?
This 16th-century Spanish sat was prone to g homoerotic imagery poetry exprsg his love of Christ, most notably his poem "On a Dark Night. By that terpretatn, such scripture as referenc to the disciple reclg upon the bosom of the Lord have spired homoerotic art pictg the relatnship between Christ and John as romantic. While no tal actually exist providg rmatn about Sebastian's love life or sexual orientatn, the fact so much Renaissance art picts him homoerotic pos monstrat a strong nnectn to LGBT people.
Of urse, the two men uld be gay and have had a strong affectnate and timate relatnship whout beg sexually active, jt as many gay men the prithood and relig life today mata their promis and vows of celibacy. Defendg Newman’s non-homosexualy by sayg that the prit was affectnate relatnships wh both men and women tri to expla away Newman’s love for St. While some people thk that homophobia agast gay men om a revulsn about male sex acts, I thk that for many people the more horrifyg and sndalo phenomenon is men beg emotnally sensive, tenr, and affectnate wh one another.
Of urse, such gentle and timate rpons by men is only a problem if one suffers om tense homophobia or believ the enforcement of strict genr expectatns that men should not be emotnal and rg toward one another. ” In the 21st century world, there is an unspoken expectatn afoot that to be “openly gay” means havg ma some very public statements about one’s orientatn and inty. Yet, I thk a good se n be ma for Newman beg the “first openly gay” Catholic sat for the simple reason that we know so much more about him and his relatnship than we do about the other exampl.
WHEN I ME OUT AS A GAY CATHOLIC, SATS AUGTE AND MONI HELPED ME GROW CLOSER TO MY MOM — AND GOD
Anyone—whether heterosexual or homosexual— who liv a chaste life and one of heroic virtue fah, hope, and love n be clared a you like this ntent? My nfsn to my mom raised a lot of qutns for both, voted as we both were to our fah and aware and fearful as we both were of that fah’s stance on homosexualy.
SERGI AND BACCH: THE GAY SOLDIERS WHO WERE MA SATS BY THE CHURCH
Christiany’s history of discrimatn agast the gay muny is wily known, and the irratnal aversn on the part of Christians towards same-sex relatnships and marriage is unfortunate, to say the least. What is clear, however, is that the two sats were fact venerated for centuri startg the 5th century, and their close relatnship has spired many gay Christians, who’ve now taken them as the patron figur of homosexualy Christian non.
And so this ll for the civil regnn and protectn of gay civil unns, 's really an affirmatn of the humany of gay and lbian persons - that he's sayg that bee gay and lbian persons are human begs, that society, that the state, that ernments have an obligatn and a duty to protect their basic human Do extendg the right to a civil unn and acknowledgg that LGBTQ people should be allowed to have a partner their life through a civil unn and a fay - do that mean children? Now, may seem to be a semantic difference, but I thk what the pope is sayg is that he is not opposed to the legal regnn of fay life and the right for gay and lbian persons to raise and have As a gay Catholic yourself, I mean, as a man of fah, as a Catholic, is somehow ls signifint, I would image, a civil unn than beg able to be married the church?
I personally - and I know many others, gay and lbian persons and those who are alli and who love - would want the church to be able to one day regnize the lovg mments of LGBTQ persons the sacrament of marriage. And what the pope is dog wh this kd of claratn - he's clearly puttg the Catholic Church on the si of agast the crimalizatn of behavr and favor of protectg the human digny of gay and lbian But help me unrstand this bee 's my unrstandg that the Catholic Church still nsirs homosexualy to be a s, not somethg that should be enuraged a liftyle. In this untry, there have been efforts to say that Catholics, Catholic stutns n't be volved or the adoptn - or allowg gay and lbian parents to adopt children.
OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC PRIT DISCS POPE FRANCIS' APPEAL FOR LGBTQ PROTECTNS
And I thk that this really giv a different lens for that kd of nversatn that go on the Catholic Church that we're basilly sayg that, no, gay and lbian persons n, you know, have a right to a fay. In more recent terpretatns, the Christian fixatn wh the sirable bodi of s sats and the permeable boundari between the bodily flh and the dive have been seen as homoerotic or queer.
In 1976, Derek Jarman appropriated the tradn story of Sat Sebastian through a queer lens his homoerotic historil thriller film Sebastiane. Brish pater Keh Vghan (1912–1977) also ma e of the myth of Sat Sebastian to exprs and explore his homosexual sire, a mon theme throughout his work. People look at the munn of the sats, we should be able to see someone who looks like I sat there the church wh my guts, lookg up at all the betiful imag, sudnly h me that not a sgle one of the people has been intified as gay, lbian, bisexual or transgenr, though undoubtedly some of them were.
Not jt straight people, whe people or men— is this tth of our fah, fact, that allowed Francis to say, when asked a qutn about gay prits, “If a gay person is eager search of God, who am I to judge them?
SAT SEBASTIAN AS A GAY IN
Catholics, Sister Gramick’s se for over 50 years; or to ve a group of transgenr people to the Vatin to receive their Covid vacce; or to rtore the openly gay theologian Father Jam Alison to active mistry after two s of what he scribed as a “Kafkaque” nightmare which he was not allowed to know what the charg agast him were, uld not make legal reprentatn of his se and was not allowed any appeal. His life was a profound wns of service, simplicy and never publicly intified as gay; om his journals is clear that his ongog stggle to tegrate his sexualy to his life was a difficult burn that he rolved only his latter years. While no tal actually exist providg rmatn about Sebastian’s love life or sexual orientatn, the fact so much Renaissance art picts him homoerotic pos monstrat a strong nnectn to LGBT people.
THE LGBT AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: A SECRET HISTORY OF GAY SATS
Although John of the Cross is famo for his fg the ncept the “dark night of the soul, ” his poem entled “On a Dark Night, ” which exam this spirual realy, explicly homoerotic language. ”A former high school teacher, Archbishop Wter said bullyg n be pecially toxic for young people who are tryg to e to terms wh their sexual orientatn, pecially when eher they or others misterpret church teachg on homosexualy to nvey the notn that beg gay self is Catholic Church teach that homosexualy is “objectively disorred” and nmns sexual acts between people of the same sex as sful.
Catholics who gathered at Newark’s Cathedral Basili of the Sacred Heart, and 2019, he told NBC News that he found the church’s language around homosexualy to be “very unfortunate” and “hurtful. Acrdg to the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn, lbian, gay and bisexual youth are bullied and attempt suici at higher rat than their heterosexual peers. In the Uned Stat, however, where there are 37, 000 prits, no pennt study has found fewer than 15 percent to be gay, and some have found as many as 60 percent.
A church that, sce 2005, bans prits wh “ep-seated homosexual tennci” and officially teach that gay men are “objectively disorred” and herently disposed toward “trsic moral evil” is actually posed, ways very few other stutns are, of gay men.
THE GAY CHURCH
The llapse of the closet public and private life the past three s has ma the disproportnate homosexualy of the Catholic prithood much ls easy to hi, ignore, or ny. This cultural and moral shift has not only changed the nscns of most Amerin Catholics (67 percent of whom support civil marriage for gay upl) and gay prits (many of whom are close to qutg) but also broken the silence that long shroud the subject.
“I replied wh another qutn: ‘Tell me, when God looks at a gay person, do he endorse the existence of this person wh love or reject and nmn this person?
” In the fal draft of the 2014 Synod on the Fay, Francis clud explic mentn of the “gifts and quali” of homosexuals, askg, “Are we pable of welg [them]? Alarmed by the possibily that divorced and remarried people might be weled as well as gays, tradnalists lnched a fierce rearguard mpaign agast the new papacy, wh a foc on what some lled a “Lavenr Mafia” nng the church, and broke new ground nnectg this directly to the horrifyg revelatns of sex abe that me to light 2002. In creasgly direct ways, they have argued that the root of the sndal was not abe of power, or pedophilia, or clerilism, or the distortive psychologil effects of celibacy and stutnal homophobia, but gayns self.