Forum looks at gay Catholics

Catholic academics pushed the limit of dissent from the church hierarchy at a forum last month about gays, women, and the church.

The March 26 forum sponsored by the University of San Francisco, a Jesuit institution, was held in an effort to continue the dialogue among LGBT Catholics and others who feel alienated from the church.

"Laughable," was how one speaker described the Vatican's moral message on the issue of sexuality.

LGBT Catholics give no credence to the church's erroneous scriptural interpretations, which they regard as an affront to their lived reality, and "render them utterly ridiculous," said University of San Francisco assistant professor of theology Vincent Pizzuto. The church has "simply lost all credibility with the Catholic faithful."

The gay community can affirm Catholicism's core theological underpinnings that sustain them, however, because they are "relational creatures" bearing the image of a relational God in a faith that honors introspection and the supremacy of conscience, said Pizzuto.

Church leadership, which could gain authority on sexual ethics by fostering careful conversation, should "stop pontificating," and make a concerted effort to read what LGBT theologians publish and examine cultural taboos, Pizzuto recommended.

Gay Catholics must "talk louder," patiently commit to pastoral groundwork, write to their diocesan newspapers, let Sunday school teachers risk disclosure, and continue the process of educating the leadership that sin and depravity did not create homosexuality, and seek "constant peaceful revolution," he said.

"I'm at the point in my theological career where the homosexual issue is mundane," said Pizzuto.

Gay Catholics are "running on faith fumes," said Catherine Murphy, Santa Clara University associate professor of religious studies, who often repeated her identity as a Catholic lesbian.

"Power masquerades as service, and misogyny as reverence," said Murphy, who usually gives scholarly presentations on the Dead Sea Scrolls, gender, and postcolonial theory.

She diagnosed some of the church hierarchy's pronouncements as an illness whose symptom is poisonous language that demonizes women and gays, in the guise of love.

"The only violence is by a church that uses the grace of our love to sanctify their sin, calling it divine knowledge," said Murphy, referring to the Vatican's labeling of same-sex adoption as "violence" to children. "Using children's dependency, they authorize evil in the name of grace."

The church hierarchy condoned evil in the sexual abuse crisis, sacrificed their own victims, and then removed the spotlight from themselves by projecting it on the "tragically inappropriate scapegoat of gay priests," said Murphy.

Murphy laid out the biblical roots and rationalization for the church's denigration of women – offering them two roles nun or mother, celibacy or reproduction, she said, although, women imbued with gospel spirit can be a "prophylactic against further sin," church teachings say.

St. Agnes' pastor, Father Cameron Ayres, noted a recent Vatican directive instructing pastors to enforce the "no Communion for divorcees unless granted annulment" rule, and recalled his father desiring to convert at age 40, though he feared seeking an annulment of his first marriage.

"I apologize on behalf of priests for hurt you experienced," he said to those treated badly in confession or otherwise made to feel unwelcome and questioning their faith's validity.

"The lesbian mom who brings her daughter in to be baptized or the young gay man afraid to enter seminary are no less a part of the church than [former Archbishop William] Levada," he said, advising the crowd to find a local welcoming worship place as an antidote for alienation.

"The real question is do you want to be reintegrated into the family," he asked, addressing those with deep wounds. Former Catholics "have a seed always blooming with hope," who can't get the faith out of their system, he added.

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