The Catholic Church Isn't Anti-Gay, but Are Its Bishops? | HuffPost Relign

Contents:

• 'WHY DO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HATE GAY PEOPLE?'
• THE CHURCH IS NOT ANTI-GAY
• WHAT SHOULD A GAY CATHOLIC DO?
• THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ISN'T ANTI-GAY, BUT ARE ITS BISHOPS?
• ‘IT IS NOT A CLOSET. IT IS A CAGE.’ GAY CATHOLIC PRITS SPEAK OUT
• WHEN CATHOLICS ARE A CSE OF ANTI-GAY DISCRIMATN, HOW CAN THE CHURCH RPOND?
• FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG
• SPINNING PRO-CHRISTIAN TO MEAN ANTI-GAY
• IS CHRISTIANITY ANTI-GAY?
• THE POPE’S ‘SHOCKG’ STATEMENT ON GAY MARRIAGE IS G AN UPROAR AMONG CATHOLICS

'WHY DO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HATE GAY PEOPLE?'

Pope Francis ma news recently by voicg his support for same-sex civil unns – legal arrangements that give gay and lbian upl many of the same rights as married oppose-sex upl.

THE CHURCH IS NOT ANTI-GAY

The statement stck many observers as a shift for the Vatin – which 2003 me out agast any “legal regnn of homosexual unns” – even as Francis did not change his long-standg opposn to gay marriage.

WHAT SHOULD A GAY CATHOLIC DO?

Around the world, Catholics vary their support for same-sex marriage and their acceptance of homosexualy general, acrdg to Pew Rearch Center surveys nducted recent years.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ISN'T ANTI-GAY, BUT ARE ITS BISHOPS?

In the wake of Pope Francis’ recent ment about same-sex civil unns, Pew Rearch Center nducted this analysis to better unrstand what Catholics around the world thk about legal regnn for same-sex upl and homosexualy general. The term “homosexualy, ” while sometim nsired anachronistic the current era, is the most applible and easily translatable term to e when askg this qutn across societi and languag and has been ed other cross-natnal studi, cludg the World Valu Survey.

Other untri around the world where most Catholics said society should be acceptg of homosexualy clud Spa (91%), Atralia (81%), the Philipp (80%) and South Ai (62%). In Eastern Europe, acceptance was weaker, wh roughly half or fewer of Catholics sayg that homosexualy should be accepted by society Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Lhuania.

In Argenta, Brazil, Germany, Mexi and the Philipp, Catholics are somewhat more likely than non-Catholics to say that homosexualy should be accepted by society. The Catholic Church teach that “homosexual acts are trsilly disorred” and lls on gay people to practice “chasty, ” though also lls on Catholics to treat gay men and women wh “rpect, passn and sensivy. The Vatin's msage ced Francis' own words om 2016, when he wrote, "there are absolutely no grounds for nsirg homosexual unns to be any way siar or even remotely analogo to God's plan for marriage and fay.

‘IT IS NOT A CLOSET. IT IS A CAGE.’ GAY CATHOLIC PRITS SPEAK OUT

Pope Francis has been viewed wh ut optimism by LGBTQ groups bee of remarks like his statement, wily published 2020, that homosexuals are "part of the fay" and that same-sex and other nontradnal upl need a "civil unn law. The Roman Catholic Church, the largt Christian nomatn the Uned Stat wh an timated 62 ln members, has weled celibate gay and lbian people to s church life but creasgly is beg more tolerant even of this populatn.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, a text which ntas dogmas and teachgs of the Church, nam “homosexual acts” as “trsilly immoral and ntrary to the natural law, ” and nam “homosexual tennci” as “objectively disorred. The 1986 Letter stat, “Although the particular clatn of the homosexual person is not a s, is a more or ls strong tenncy orred toward an trsic moral evil; and th the clatn self mt be seen as an objective disorr. A 2005 Vatin document, approved by then Pope Benedict XVI, stcted that the Church “nnot adm to the semary or to holy orrs those who practice homosexualy, prent ep-seated homosexual tennci or support the so-lled ‘gay culture.

WHEN CATHOLICS ARE A CSE OF ANTI-GAY DISCRIMATN, HOW CAN THE CHURCH RPOND?

” Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego, CA wrote, “This tragedy is a ll for as Catholics to bat ever more vigoroly the anti-gay prejudice which exists our Catholic muny and our untry. In 1997 the Commtee on Marriage and Fay Life of the Uned Stat Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) released the document “Always Our Children: A Pastoral Msage to Parents of Homosexual Children and Suggtns for Pastoral Misters.

In 1992 the Congregatn for the Doctre of the Fah (CDF) released “Some Consiratns Concerng the Rponse to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimatn of Homosexual Persons. ” In this statement there is a nmnatn of vlence agast gays and lbians; however, there is also an acceptance of many other forms of “jt” discrimatn agast LGBTQ people— hog, employment, adoptn, and ary service. Given the way that the Catholic Church has spoken about LGBTQ people and given the church’s stance agast the moral acceptabily of homosexual behavr and same-sex marriage, we will probably not be a wele prence the fight agast LGBTQ discrimatn, at least ially.

The Catholic Church is one of the only Christian nomatns that has not fold on the issue of birth ntrol, artificial ntraceptn, gay marriage and immoral sexual behavr. C., that would pull out of social servic the cy rather than acce to a bill that would afford benefs to same-sex spo, a qutn, too long neglected, aris for the whole church: What is a gay Catholic supposed to do life?

FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG

A gay layman I know who serv an important role a dce (and even wr some of his bishop's statements on social jtice) has a solid theologil tn and sir to serve the church, but fds impossible to be open the face of the bishop's repeated disparagg remarks about gays. Their pot man on the issue, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, a rather cel slap to the LGBT muny, was appoted archbishop to San Francis last year, a symbolic place the fight for gay rights. ” And yet, thoands of the church’s prits are stori of gay prits are unspoken, veiled om the outsi world, known only to one another, if they are known at than about 10 prits the Uned Stat have dared to e out publicly.

McCarrick, the once-powerful rdal who was ocked last week for sexual abe of boys and young men, has flamed accatns that homosexualy is to blame for the church’s rurgent abe crisis. And yet proment bishops have sgled out gay prits as the root of the problem, and right-wg media anizatns attack what they have lled the church’s “homosexual subculture, ” “lavenr mafia, ” or “gay bal. He has lled homosexualy “fashnable, ” remend that men wh “this ep-seated tenncy” not be accepted for mistry and admonished gay prits to be “perfectly rponsible, tryg to never create sndal.

SPINNING PRO-CHRISTIAN TO MEAN ANTI-GAY

”The sexual revolutn happeng outsi semary walls might as well have happened on the moon, and natnal ton the fight for gay rights, like the Stonewall rts, on prit a ral dce said the l remd him of how his elementary school forced left-hand stunts to wre wh their right hand. Many gay prits spoke of beg pulled between nial and nfn, fally g out to themselv their 30s or Green was 24 when he realized he was gay and nsired jumpg om his dorm wdow.

”Though open, the closet means that many prits have held the most paful stori among themselv for s: The semarian who died by suici, and the match om a gay bar found afterward his room.

IS CHRISTIANITY ANTI-GAY?

Wh every new abe revelatn, the tangled threads of the church’s sexual culture bee even more impossible to sort after study shows that homosexualy is not a predictor of child moltatn.

THE POPE’S ‘SHOCKG’ STATEMENT ON GAY MARRIAGE IS G AN UPROAR AMONG CATHOLICS

When the abe crisis broke out aga last summer, the former Vatin ambassador to the Uned Stat, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, acced “homosexual works” of Amerin rdals of secretly workg to protect abers. And this week, a sensatnal book tled “Sodoma” Europe (“In the Closet of the Vatin” the Uned Stat) is beg released that claims to expose a vast gay subculture at the Vatin. “Instead of seeg creased acuntabily on the parts of the bishops, uld bee once aga a nmnatn of lbian, gay, transsexual people wh the church, ” John Coe, 63, a permanent an Kentucky, who me out last year, said about the summ.

Marianne Duddy-Burke, who heads DignyUSA, an anizatn that foc on gay rights wh the Catholic Church, said the groups have been embolned by Tmp, who "has legimized attacks agast entire groups of people and the people are followg his example to go after gay Catholics. ”And they’re not jt stg 2007, New Ways Mistry has tracked 80 Catholic church workers who they say lost their jobs after they were outed as gay, or supportive of gays.

In some s they lost their jobs after Catholic alt-right activists sured their social media postgs for “evince” and told their the group’s webse, there is a man who they say was fired by the Catholic Dce of Cleveland after he “liked” a Facebook postg about a gay uple’s weddg and a Florida teacher who was prsured to rign after admistrators at her Catholic high school learned she and her partner were engaged. Perhaps one of the most extreme exampl of harassment was endured by Aaron Bian, a gay man married to another man who told the New Ways mistry that he rigned om his job at a San Diego parish as a pastoral mister after more than a year of abe. McElroy speaks durg a news nference which he was troduced as the Bishop of the Dce of San Diego on March 3, 2015, San Ignelzi / AP file"They broke to the office/rectory and spray pated" an anti-gay slur on the nference wall, he wrote an email to fal straw, he said, was when LifeSe News and the Lepanto Instute published an article about him that clud fay photos and his addrs.