Why three gay Catholics left the Church – and why they returned | Catholic News Agency

Contents:

• 'GAY AND CATHOLIC': A Q&A WH WRER AND SPEAKER EVE TH
• GAY PRITS: BREAKG THE SILENCE
• GAY UNSELOR'S FIRG BY INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL PERMTED BY FERAL APPEALS URT
• WHY THREE GAY CATHOLICS LEFT THE CHURCH – AND WHY THEY RETURNED
• LIBERAL RDAL LLS FOR REVISED CATHOLIC TEACHG ON GAYS
• WHY CHOOSE CELIBACY? A GAY CATHOLIC SPEAKS OUT

'GAY AND CATHOLIC': A Q&A WH WRER AND SPEAKER EVE TH

Per the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “homosexual acts” are nmned Catholicism, but homosexualy self is not nsired a s. The Church doctre enurag members to wele and rpect gay parishners, though also stat that gay members are “lled to chasty, ” acrdg to the Human Rights Campaign s asssment of the Church’s stance on LGBTQ issu.

But an appearance a documentary released October 2020, Francis dited support for same-sex civil unns, llg gay Catholics “children of God” who “have a right to a fay. The Vatin this month opposed an anti-homophobia law troduced Italy’s Parliament, which uld require some Catholic schools the untry to adopt state-mandated lsons on tolerance and genr, CNN reported last week.

The Catholic Church has not ma any chang to doctre ncerng LGBTQ people, and acrdg to s techism, homosexual acts are “trsilly disorred. On Father’s Day (June 19), Alex Shgleton and Landon Duyka, a civilly married gay uple wh two dghters, stood before ngregants at Old Sat Patrick’s Church the Archdce of Chigo to read a reflectn on the hoy. “In all honty, if you had told as young boys who wasted untls hours of our liv church tryg to ‘pray the gay away’ that we someday would be standg ont of all of you our Catholic Church talkg about our fay on Father’s Day, we would never have believed you, ” they said their reflectn.

GAY PRITS: BREAKG THE SILENCE

Yet, spe the welg signals, the Vatin’s Congregatn for the Doctre of the Fah issued a statement March 2021 banng the blsg of gay upl, cg the ncern that fahful might nsir such unns equivalent to marriage between a man and a woman and statg that the Catholic Church “nnot bls s. Pietro Morotti and Giao Spagnoli, a gay uple Bologna, Italy, were among those who voiced on social media their disappotment the Vatin ban.

In 2020, the rdal wrote another preface for a book by Italian journalist Luciano di Moia, “The Church and Homosexualy, ” offerg pastoral guil to mister to gay Catholics.

GAY UNSELOR'S FIRG BY INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL PERMTED BY FERAL APPEALS URT

“When our muni will beg to tly see people as God se them, cludg homosexual people and everyone else, they will naturally beg to feel part of the ecclial muny, on the way, ” Zuppi wrote the preface to the book by di Moia. Bryan Massgale, an openly gay Catholic prit and profsor of theology and social ethics at Fordham Universy, said prits who want to engage pastoral outreach to the gay and lbian muny “will ntue to do so, except that will be even more unr the table... ”Vatin doctre holds that gays and lbians should be treated wh digny and rpect, but that gay sex is “trsilly disorred” and that same-sex unns are sful.

“Pope Francis has been unr nsirable prsure by gay activists, and out of the church, to give the green light to gay marriage, ” Donohue add, llg Monday’s statement “the most cisive rejectn of those efforts ever wrten.

”Francis has endorsed providg legal protectns for same-sex upl, but that is the civil sphere and not the Carlos Cz, a Chilean advote for sex-abe victims who is gay, reported 2018 that when he met wh Francis, the pope had told him, “God ma you like this, and he lov you.

WHY THREE GAY CATHOLICS LEFT THE CHURCH – AND WHY THEY RETURNED

Catholics will ntue to flee, ” he Francis’ homeland of Argenta, LGBTQ activist Esteban Plon said earlier statements by the pontiff nveyg empathy and unrstandg for gays and lbians were mere gtur, lackg any official weight. “Sayg that homosexual practice is a s tak back 200 years and promot hate speech that unfortunately Lat Ameri and Europe is on the rise.

LIBERAL RDAL LLS FOR REVISED CATHOLIC TEACHG ON GAYS

”Chile’s largt LGBTQ rights group, the Movement for Homosexual Integratn and Liberatn, nmned the cree as a “homophobic and anti-Christian actn” om the Catholic hierarchy. I wrote Gay and Catholic bee even the bt books for gay Christians already out there were eher mostly memoir or theologil argument favor of the Christian sexual ethic. I wanted to wre a book which would clu some memoir ( orr to build tst, so people knew where I was g om), but which foced on the paths of love which are open to gay people the Church—pecially those paths which might be overlooked.

I wrote Tenrns: A Gay Christian’s Gui to Unlearng Rejectn and Experiencg God’s Extravagant Love (forthg November om Ave Maria Prs) for gay Christians who found that their relatnship wh God had been damaged by paful experienc or misguid teachg they’d received their church. You n thk of Gay and Catholic as a book about “horizontal love, ” the ways we love other people around , and Tenrns as a book about “vertil love, ” the love between the soul and God.

WHY CHOOSE CELIBACY? A GAY CATHOLIC SPEAKS OUT

I’ve known many people who were terrified of beg gay, believed they uld not possibly be gay, and, on the basis of that trmatized fear, entered heterosexual relatnships, cludg marriag. But the narrative that homosexualy mt be ed by abe, and n therefore be “fixed” by healg the wounds of trma, has self ed immense harm to people who had this narrative imposed on them when didn’t f their story. So often I’ve received spirual guidance which assumed that, bee I’m gay, my most ser problem was lt, and what I need more than anythg was advice on chasty.

So many people who grew up gay our church spent their formative years terrified and hidg, fearg that their attractns meant they uld never love God, that they disappoted Him, and that there was no future for them the Church, or only a future of isolatn and reprsn.