TRiG.

Our former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in an interview with Attitude magazine a few weeks ago, said when asked about homosexuality:

I think what is interesting is that if you went into any Catholic Church, particularly a well-attended one, on any Sunday here and did a poll of the congregation, you’d be surprised at how liberal-minded people were. … On many issues, I think the leaders of the Church and the Church will be in complete agreement. But I think on some of these issues, if you went and asked the congregation, I think you’d find their faith is not be found in those types of entrenched attitudes. If you asked “what makes you religious?” and “what does your faith mean to you?” they would immediately go into compassion, solidarity, relieving suffering. I would be really surprised if they went to “actually, it’s to do with believing homosexuality is wrong”….

The reactionary elements in British Catholicism were hopping mad that Blair (a fairly recent convert to the RC faith) should be shooting off his mouth like this and shrieked their disapproval, but my experience, after worshipping for many years in a RC church in pretty conservative (in all senses of the word) town suggests that he was spot on. As for anti-gay pronouncements from the Vatican, I’m very happy simply to ignore them – just as huge numbers of Catholics ignore the magisterium’s pronouncements on birth-control.

Oh yes, there was one female parishioner who seemed to object to my existence and went spreading some defamatory and ridiculous stories behind my back, but since her position as one of the town’s most notorious slanderers and busybodies was already long firmly established, few people, if any, took her seriously.

Some years ago there were people who would have liked to harass me out of my job because I was gay, but I wouldn’t let them. So why let people like that drive you out of your church?

For me personally, work is where I earn my bread and butter whereas church is where I go to worship God as a community, as a family. I do not consider those I work with my “family” whereas those with whom I worship together I consider my family. The whole purpose Christianity to gather together in worship is not for us to worship separate and in isolation, but rather that we are worshipping as a community, as one. While I would have no problem worshipping with others who, for example, do not accept the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary, I would have a problem with a church that considers me the most dispicable creature on the planet because I am an openly gay man.

There are ways we can come together despite our theological differences. But when communities are adament about excluded certain people from worshipping with them because of sexual orientation, it makes it a very difficult challenge for those who are at odds with that community.

A fortnight ago when I was in Naples (Campania, not Florida), I saw in the church of S. Paolo Maggiore a notice reminding people to turn off their mobile phones. It read: La chiesa è il luogo dove si cerca Dio, non dove si è cercati dagli uomini – “Church is where one seeks God, not where one is sought by men.”

I think that you could adapt that to LGBT people as follows: “Church is where one comes to be accepted by God, not to be accepted by men.” Yes, you should be accepted in church by men (and women – Italian doesn’t lend itself well to inclusive language), but the former is surely your essential reason for coming to church.

I hope and pray that the Roman Catholic magisterium will eventually correct its unenlightened teaching on LGBT people and their relationships, but I’m not naive enough to imagine that that will happen in my lifetime.

Call me naive and idealistic, I am!, I want all Catholicism to be pro-gay and pro-trans. No, it won’t happen in our lifetime but that’s just the way of traditions.

I think there are more pro-gay Catholic parishoners than most people know. While I was in California, the Episcopal Church I attended began to get rather full on Sundays, mostly from Catholics, gay and straight, who had had enough of Benedict and the boys.

I recently attended and recently joined a Church that is an Old Catholic Church. To my surprise (and delight) it is not all gay. In fact, a lot of parishoners are divorced – remarried straight people.

That is not to say there are not people who are staying in the RC who are in violation of current church teaching, or at least their understanding differs from the doctrines currently taught. My heart goes out to them because they are constantly being bombarded being in a hostile environment. What is the solution? For some, as you mentioned, stay and fight the good fight (because what you are doing DOES have merit). For others, like myself, it’s time to move on to friendlier grounds.

As for the Reformation, the 95 Theses didn’t split the Church; it was the rejection of Catholicism by Christians with their feet (and a bunch of politics). No one is arguing we should not speak our objections. But I believe reform happens best within the unity of the Church, not splitting. Luther believed the same thing. Call me naive and idealistic, I am!, I want all Catholicism to be pro-gay and pro-trans. No, it won’t happen in our lifetime but that’s just the way of traditions.

Until there is a parting of ways, influential extremists’ activities and motives are glamorized by the presence of people of integrity. Meanwhile efforts by people of integrity to promote grace, charity, and compassion within their churches are constantly undermined and stunted by the extremists. The result, in my view, is unproductive gridlock achieved through a massive expenditure of resources that might better have been spent elsewhere.

This is true not only at the church or denomination level, but also within organizations such as Dignity which mirror the larger churches’ divide:

As with the broader church, some organizations that might otherwise achieve meaningful reform are undermined by wealthy conservatives who, happy with the status quo, obstruct reform and prevent the organization from serving the needs of modern society and future generations.

Yes, there are many who are closeted and attend a church that negates who they are. From my experience and from many whom I have come to know, that eventually gets old, and eventually one is confronted with either leaving that form of church entirely (and perhaps leaving religion as a whole behind), or moving on to a more welcoming community.

That I support a split in the RC church is MY opinion, and, as with any opinion, it is neither right nor wrong, but merely an opinion. As I see it, the history of Christianity has been strengthened by such splits because it forces both sides to examine their true identity and faith. Had not Luther nailed his thesis to the church door, we might still be buying chicken bones as sacred relics to get a “Get Out of Purgatory” free card as well as supporting the buildings in the Vatican. The RC Church had to examine its own practices and make adjustments as did those who broke away.

Some have hopes that one day the RC church will re-examine its understanding of homosexuality. I am one of those people. But I also know that it took centuries before Rome apologized for Galileo and a host of other evils its has done throughout the centuries. I am certain I will not be alive when Rome even considers to change its stance on condoms and birth control, much less change its views on homosexuality.