More than 10 years ago, Joseph Prever found himself surg the ter for anythg that might help him: he was gay, Catholic, and nfed. Rourc were srce for a man stgglg wh homosexualy and tryg to rema fahful to the Church’s teachg.
Contents:
- WHAT DO LOOK LIKE TO BE GAY – AND A PRACTICG CATHOLIC?
- WHAT SHOULD A GAY CATHOLIC DO?
- Q. THE CHURCH ON BEG GAY AND HAVG A GAY PARTNER
- GAY UNSELOR'S FIRG BY INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL PERMTED BY FERAL APPEALS URT
- FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG
- FERAL URT L RONLLI CATHOLIC SCHOOL, ARCHDCE WAS ALLOWED TO FIRE A 2ND GAY UNSELOR
- 'GAY AND CATHOLIC': A Q&A WH WRER AND SPEAKER EVE TH
WHAT DO LOOK LIKE TO BE GAY – AND A PRACTICG CATHOLIC?
* how to be gay and catholic *
Google the words "gay Catholic" and one of the top s to appear will be Prever's own blog, a blog wh the tagle: "Catholic, Gay, and Feelg Fe.
The blog is about what 's like to be a gay Catholic – a gay Catholic who is of urse, celibate – and I say 'of urse' bee that seems to me like the only optn if you're gog to be both gay and Catholic.
WHAT SHOULD A GAY CATHOLIC DO?
Here s a real pastoral qutn to nsir What place nbsp is there for nbsp the gay person the Catholic church nbsp Wh the warng om the archdce of Washgton D C that would pull out of social servic the cy rather than acce to a bill that would afford benefs to same * how to be gay and catholic *
My iends and I joke that there's a gay Catholic renaissance on, or actually a gay Christian renaissance on, and we're proud to be at the foreont of – or at least we tell ourselv that we're at the foreont. It was hard the sense that I'd actually always said that people shouldn't be public about beg gay, bee was not anybody's bs and I felt that would lend legimacy to this ia that beg gay is a sort of a sgle way to intify yourself: I actually still sort of hold that posn – kd of. It's hard to scribe: I don't thk that beg gay is as sential of a way to intify yourself as say, beg male is, or beg Catholic, or beg human.
' I ed to joke that the only reason I ed the word 'gay' was so that I would tend to show up more on Google, which is only partially a joke, bee you know if you're gog to e the tools of technology to evangelize, then you have to be savvy about what Google is gog to fd and what isn't.
But I gus the shift maly happened as I began to approach beg more public about , bee as I beme more public I also me to ntact more openly wh people who intified as gay or who stggled wh same-sex attractn, or whatever. And fact, I rarely feel strongly about whether I should e the word gay or not, but the one time I do feel strongly about is when somebody starts upbraidg me for . It's the sort of thg where people feel, and I thk rightly, that they have been nstraed to keep silent for most of their liv – and a lot of people have, whether 's nstraed by actual explic homophobia among the people that they love and/or are related to, or whether 's jt sort of a general culture unrstandg that you don't talk about this sort of thg.
Q. THE CHURCH ON BEG GAY AND HAVG A GAY PARTNER
' This is tratg and across as very patronizg bee the are people who don't have any sight to the experience of what is to be gay tellg you what is or is not ok to talk about, and what is and is not ok to ll yourself. This is reason that I haven't yet e to a solid opn on this qutn – bee the problem is that secular people and Christian people mean two different thgs by the word 'gay. Now I thk that one reason Christians tend to dislike the word 'gay' is bee if somebody says that they are gay, then they are ually implyg that is an unchangeable aspect of their personaly.
I'll start first by sayg that I'm extremely grateful for the anizatn People Can Change, which is an anizatn found precisely on the ia that radil change wh rpect to homosexualy is possible. I'm grateful for them not bee they 'ma me straight' or somethg, but bee they gave me a space which to work out some of my issu, many of which turned out not to be related precisely to homosexualy particular, but were jt sort of emotnal issu that need alg wh. But on the other hand, this is dangero bee you have a lot of Christian people already assumg om the get-go that if somebody is homosexual, then they mt have var and many emotnal issu that need workg on, and that's not necsarily the se.
GAY UNSELOR'S FIRG BY INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL PERMTED BY FERAL APPEALS URT
If the unrstandg the Christian world is that homosexualy is a "disorr, " and homosexual activy is a s, then logilly would seem like as Christians, we would want to help our fellow Christians who are "dis-orred" to be "orred. The Church has to be clear wh rpect to 'what is the nature of homosexualy self, ' but n't make a pronouncement on whether is a mental disorr, for example.
Many people assume that when the Church says 'homosexualy nsists of a disorred clatn, ' they take that word 'disorr' and assume that She means 'mental disorr. I'll tell you how I see myself and what I do, which is not only wh rpect to homosexualy but wh how I try to live the Catholic fah general. 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
If you accept the church's teachg on celibacy for gays, and feel a ll to enter a semary or relig orr, you nnot--even if you sire the celibate life.
FERAL URT L RONLLI CATHOLIC SCHOOL, ARCHDCE WAS ALLOWED TO FIRE A 2ND GAY UNSELOR
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.
However, to receive this gift, we mt reject s, cludg homosexual behavr—that is, acts tend to aroe or stimulate a sexual rponse regardg a person of the same sex. People tempted by homosexual sir, like people tempted by improper heterosexual sir, are not sng until they act upon those sir some manner.
'GAY AND CATHOLIC': A Q&A WH WRER AND SPEAKER EVE TH
Throughout history, Jewish and Christian scholars have regnized that one of the chief ss volved God’s stctn of Sodom was s people’s homosexual behavr. Although hospaly is a s, is clearly the homosexual behavr of the Sodom that is sgled out for special cricism the acunt of their cy’s stctn. Lot even offered his two virg dghters place of his guts, but the men of Sodom rejected the offer, preferrg homosexual sex over heterosexual sex (Gen.