Homosexuality and the Catholic Church Gerry OShea
A few weeks
ago, the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) in the Vatican issued a
universal edict refusing a church blessing for homosexual partners as part of
the wedding ceremony. Their stated reasoning for this blanket rejection focuses
on the alleged sinfulness of gay sexual intimacy which the Vatican statement
claims God could never bless.
Early in his
pontificate, on the plane back from a successful trip to Brazil, Pope Francis
responded to a question about homosexuality by asking “Who am I to judge?” He
wondered why he should condemn a gay person of good will doing his or her best
to live a decent life.
This is hardly
a controversial statement; it would win approval in almost any company.
However, the Catholic Church maintains a different perspective. Francis’
predecessor, Benedict, described the homosexual lifestyle as “objectively
disordered,” and before him John Paul 11 denounced the intimate behavior of
same-sex couples as “against the natural law.” It is this response to queer
relationships that underpins the CDF statement.
The National
Catholic Reporter, a prominent Catholic newspaper, gives front-page coverage
to a committed Catholic couple who wanted a priest’s blessing of their union on
their wedding day. A friendly priest from the LGBT community performed the
ceremony – in an Episcopalian church.
According to the gospels, Jesus never even addressed
this issue, and in focusing on his message of love and compassion he had very
little to say about proscribing any sexual behavior. The Catholic church has
definitely not followed his example in this regard.
While not deviating from the ideal high ground
of a chaste lifestyle, Francis promised a more pastoral approach to homosexuals.
When he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he supported civil unions where the
state recognizes gay marriage as legal – a position that he has also advocated
as pope, highlighting every person’s need for a supportive family.
While
dealing only with civil arrangements, this thinking drew a lot of criticism
from the strong traditionalist wing of the Catholic Church, especially in
America. They reminded Francis of the core Catholic teaching that all sexual
activity must be confined to marriage and procreation. No pre-marital sex; no
contraceptives allowed; and certainly same-sex lovemaking is completely
anathema. The Catholic teaching on marriage is succinct: one man, one woman,
one time!
This
attitude to sexuality broadly fitted in with the wider culture until the
1960’s. Since then, there has been a transformation in the thinking about what
is permitted and appropriate between consenting adults. The easy availability
of contraceptives drastically altered the behavior of dating couples, gay and
straight.
It is no
longer acceptable in Western culture to demean people because of their sexual
proclivity. And Vatican statements, including the recent one from the CDF,
always advise that homosexuals should be respected and treated with dignity.
Many gays cast a cold eye on this pronouncement, asking how can an institution
that views their lifestyle as disordered and unnatural be sincere in wishing
them well and offering them pastoral counseling.
It is
instructive to consider the changing perspectives on homosexuality through the
lens of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). They considered it a mental
disorder until their 1973 annual convention when a slight majority of the
psychiatrists voted to remove this negative designation. Instead, their
Diagnostic Manual of Disorders (DSM) named it as an “orientation disturbance,”
a half-way effort aimed to include both sides in the APA. It wasn’t until 1987
that all negative connotations to being queer were removed completely from the
DSM.
Cardinal
Newman, the great 19th century thinker and convert to Catholicism,
warned that human knowledge of God and ethical issues can never be frozen in
time and that church teaching must always be dynamic, open to new insights in
response to advances in scientific knowledge and human experience.
Change,
moving from past positions, has always been a challenge for big organizations and
that certainly applies to the Catholic Church. Popes tend to show unwarranted
deference to the teaching of their predecessors.
Paul V1, agonizing over the issue of
contraceptive use in the late sixties, felt he could not go against the
teaching of Pius X1 in his encyclical Casti Connubi (Latin: Of Chaste Wedlock)
published in 1930. Pius was asserting traditional values in the area of
sexuality against the liberalizing statement in the same year by the Anglican
leadership at their Lambeth Conference, which allowed the use of contraceptives
by married couples in limited circumstances.
Anyway, Paul
went against the advice of a clear majority of his advisory commission, mainly
because he felt that deviating from his predecessor would damage papal
credibility. His encyclical Humanae Vitae (Latin: Of Human Life), published
in 1968, remains true to Casti Connubi and disallows the use of condoms
or the contraceptive pill even by married couples. The overwhelming majority of
Catholics disregard this papal ordinance, with, ironically, serious damage to
the credibility that Paul sought to enhance.
More
recently, Francis replied to the important question of ordaining women by stating
that his predecessor John Paul 11 already ruled that out, without sharing his
own opinion. Interestingly, it is a central issue on the agenda of the German
church in their important ongoing synod, and they are likely to recommend
change in this discipline.
If other national and regional synods take a
similar stand, Rome may not be able to staunch the forces of modernity. At
present, any priest or bishop participating in a female ordination is subject
to excommunication. Tough luck on the many women who feel called to priestly
service.
These
ecclesiastical regulations reflect the cultural beliefs of other times. The
Vatican is finding it very challenging to update and restate its belief system,
especially in the light of positive advances in popular perceptions and
scientific insights about the gay lifestyle.
Christians
call on the spirit that pervades the universe, the spiritus mundi,
for guidance. Catholic theologians in the Second Vatican Council (1962-1964) stressed
the importance of what they called the sensus fidelium, the beliefs of
the people in the pews, in gradually developing an understanding of controversial
issues.
The men in
the Vatican pay occasional lip service to this concept, but in reality, they
want to keep power for themselves and they have been really successful in this regard.
The lay community, non-clerics, have virtually no say in deciding church teaching
about the queer lifestyle.
Back to the
recent CDF pronouncement about blessing gay marriages. The ruling from Rome elicited
expressions of dismay in progressive church circles. Cardinal Schonborn Of
Vienna said that as long as the request for a blessing is genuine and comes
from a good heart “it will not be refused.” Seven of the ten Austrian bishops
have been critical of the Vatican statement. 200 German theologians questioned
a regulation that suggests the exclusion of gay couples from God’s love. And
more than 2000 priests in Germany and Austria promised to continue blessing
unions of queer couples with the proper disposition.
In America,
Cardinal Tobin in Newark, from the minority progressive wing of the American
bishops, proudly welcomes gays to his cathedral and states that the church’s
approach to sexuality badly needs rethinking.
Across the Hudson, the large Catholic
homosexual community in New York would surely celebrate if Cardinal Dolan
showed a similar magnanimity, but he is a leader of old-school thinking. He
fully supports the CDF statement and, unfortunately, no priest in his
archdiocese can offer a sacerdotal blessing of the marriage of gay parishioners
because the CDF in the Vatican has declared that God has ruled it out.
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