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?
- ‘IT IS NOT A CLOSET. IT IS A CAGE.’ GAY CATHOLIC PRITS SPEAK OUT
- WHAT SHOULD A GAY CATHOLIC DO?
- WHAT ABOUT ‘GAY’ PRITS?
- FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG
- OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC PRIT DISCS POPE FRANCIS' APPEAL FOR LGBTQ PROTECTNS
- GAY UNSELOR'S FIRG BY INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL PERMTED BY FERAL APPEALS URT
WHAT DO LOOK LIKE TO BE GAY – AND A PRACTICG CATHOLIC?
* are catholics allowed to be gay *
Q: Sce we have the right to receive the sacraments, why do the Church now say that homosexual men n’t be ordaed as prits? Then we n exame some relatively recent statements om the Vatin ncerng the specific qutn of ordag men of homosexual orientatn to the prithood. For some time, the issue of homosexualy, or at least of homosexual tennci, was one on which bishops did not always agree.
Some felt that so long as a man do not actually engage homosexual activy, the mere fact that he feels clatns that directn should not, and of self, bar him om beg a prit.
In orr to end any nfn, the Vatin’s Congregatn for Catholic Edutn — which has thory matters of semary trag — issued a document signed to clarify the Church’s posn on the issue of homosexual men studyg for the prithood.
‘IT IS NOT A CLOSET. IT IS A CAGE.’ GAY CATHOLIC PRITS SPEAK OUT
The Instctn Concerng the Creria for the Discernment of Votns wh regard to Persons wh Homosexual Tennci view of their Admissn to the Semary and to Holy Orrs was approved by Pope Benedict for publitn 2005. The document reerat the posn of the Catholic Church that homosexuals are to be profoundly rpected, as children of God. Neverthels, stat unequivolly 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.
A man who is judged by his bishop to be of homosexual clatns that are signifint enough to prevent him om beg a prit has no grounds to ntt the bishop’s cisn, and his rights are not beg vlated this se. It do, however, fd necsary the days to assert that the homosexual outlook is fundamentally patible wh the misterial prithood. While the Church asserts that homosexualy is disorred and nnot perm homosexuals to be ordaed, do ntue to pray for their spirual wellbeg — and as Catholics we ourselv should do the same.
WHAT SHOULD A GAY CATHOLIC DO?
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. ” While the Catholic Church do not nsir “homosexual orientatn” sful and of self, do have a very negative attu toward .
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. ” ment––ma rponse to a qutn about the acceptabily of gay men as prits––his statement is not official church teachg.
WHAT ABOUT ‘GAY’ PRITS?
Today, many men’s relig orrs and some bishops often make their own cisns regardg gay men as ndidat for the semary and prithood. More than 10 years ago, Joseph Prever found himself surg the ter for anythg that might help him: he was gay, Catholic, and nfed.
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. 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.
FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG
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. Your blog hear is, 'Catholic, Gay, and Feelg Fe, ' and you've been g the word 'gay' throughout our nversatn so far.
' 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.
OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC PRIT DISCS POPE FRANCIS' APPEAL FOR LGBTQ PROTECTNS
' 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.
The unspoken implitn is that if you intify yourself as 'gay, ' then you're probably not tryg hard enough to be straight. 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.
I thk a lot of gay men and women do have emotnal issu that aren't gog to be alt wh if they're told that everythg is already ok.
GAY UNSELOR'S FIRG BY INDIANAPOLIS CATHOLIC SCHOOL PERMTED BY FERAL APPEALS URT
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. 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. ” 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.