Category: Gay Catholics

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Italian civil union bill finally reaches parliament

By Crispian Balmer

italian parliament

A bill to give legal recognition and protection to same-sex couples was presented to parliament on Wednesday, a significant milestone on Italy’s tortuous path to legalising civil unions.

Italy is the only major country in the West that has not yet offered homosexual couples any legal rights as successive governments ran into determined opposition from parties close to the Roman Catholic Church.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had promised that a bill allowing civil unions would become law this year, but that looks highly unlikely, with his main coalition partner, a small centre-right group, fiercely opposed to the project.

However, looking to speed up the process, the government on Wednesday briefly presented its bill to the upper house Senate, a move which could open the way for its approval in early 2016.

“We are finally here with a civil union bill that is very strong,” said Senator Monica Cirinna, author of the text.

“It is not exactly equal to other marriages, which I would have preferred, but it is a bill that recognises all social rights,” she told Reuters.

While stopping short of sanctioning full gay marriages, the legislation offers some of the benefits enjoyed by married couples, such as a share of a deceased partner’s pension and automatic inheritance.

The bill would also apply to unmarried heterosexual couples.

“GOD’S DREAM”

One major sticking point is that the draft law would allow a homosexual to adopt the child of their partner should that partner die. The coalition New Centre-Right (NCD) party says this will eventually pave the way to full adoption rights and has sought to block it in a parliamentary commission.

Breaking the logjam, Renzi’s Democratic Party (PD) decided this week to halt discussion in the commission, bypass hundreds of amendments and bring the text to the full house.

From the end of this week, the Senate calendar will be dominated by discussions over the 2016 budget, but the civil rights law should be able to return to the chamber before the end of the year and then move to the lower house for debate.

A number of opposition parties, including former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia group, have said they support the plan, meaning it should pass relatively easily when it finally comes to a vote, despite Roman Catholic opposition.

The parliamentary move coincides with a meeting in the nearby Vatican of bishops called to discuss the role of the family. The Church has warned there will be protests if the law passes and Pope Francis said this month that marriage between a man and a woman was “God’s dream for his beloved creation”.

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Fired Polish priest: ‘no gay lobby in Vatican’

Fired Polish priest: 'no gay lobby in Vatican'
Krzysztof Charamsa, left, with his partner.

A high-ranking Polish priest who was fired after coming out as gay before the Vatican’s key synod on the family said on Sunday that there was no “gay lobby” in the Church.

Krzysztof Charamsa told a private Italian television channel that he has “never met a gay lobby in the Vatican”, referring to rumours of a network of homosexual priests.

“I met homosexual priests, often isolated like me… but no gay lobby,” said Charamsa, adding that he also met gay priests who were “homophobes” and had “hatred for themselves and others”.

“But I also met several fantastic homosexuals who are some of the best ministers in the Church,” he said in an interview due to be broadcast Sunday.

Charamsa said he wrote a letter to Pope Francis asking him to convey his spirit of openness to bishops at the synod, where Church leaders discussed marriage and family teachings.

The pontiff has in the past spoken about homosexuality and the “gay lobby”.

In 2013 he famously said “Who am I to judge?” when asked about homosexuals in the Church, and the rumoured network of gay Vatican leaders.

Since 2005, the Church has forbidden the ordination of priests with homosexual tendencies. But this rule is applied in different ways, with many bishops turning a blind eye as long as priests remain celibate.

Charamsa, who was fired from his post at the Vatican, says he has stayed faithful to his vow of celibacy because he has “never touched a woman”.

Complete Article HERE!

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Synod on the Family 2015: A Reflection from the Paulist Fathers

Synod on the Family 2015

SYNOD ON THE FAMILY: A Reflection from the Paulist Fathers

The joy and the hope, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially of those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of the followers of Christ.
– Gaudium et Spes, Preface, [1]

If Christ is to be for us a savior, we must find him here, now, and where we are, in this age of ours also;
otherwise he is no Christ, no Savior, no Immanuel, no “God with us.”
– Servant of God Issac T. Hecker, Founder of the Paulist Fathers

These two quotations, one from Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, the other from Servant of God Issac Hecker, reflect the missionary vision of the Paulist community today. As we approach the second session of the “Vatican Synod on the Family” in October 2015, amidst the chorus of voices being raised, we Paulists, wish to contribute our voice.

THE PAULIST MISSIONARY PERSPECTIVE

Founded in 1858, by five Catholic converts from various Protestant traditions, the Paulists have always sought a more inclusive community of God’s children. We have demonstrated time and again the value of hospitality, inclusion, and a special degree of understanding for those on their own unique journeys.1 Phrases like “meeting people where they are,” “walking the journey with someone,” and “being a wounded healer” resonate with our Paulist way of living the Gospel. We Paulists echo and applaud Pope Francis and the spirit of mercy, compassion, and outreach that he so readily incarnates and preaches. The old adage “you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar” represents a truth about human nature. So regarding the upcoming part II of the “Synod on the Family” the Paulists stand foresquare and humbly with those who counsel “mercy.” As Pope Francis so poignantly phrases it:

The Church needs to be a field hospital and we need to set out to heal wounds, just as the good Samaritan did. Some people’s wounds result from neglect, others are wounded because they have been forsaken by the church itself; some people are suffering terribly. [2]

In this statement we Paulists will propose areas for consideration that arise from our pastoral experience. Nevertheless, we know that these areas come under the supreme issue of the family today—how its life and love form the human basis of faith. We pray that the Synod will find the language to re-articulate to the faithful today their essential role, through the human dynamics of family, in passing faith from one generation to another. We likewise pray that the Synod will envision ways in which modern families can come to see themselves more clearly as disciples who live the joy of the Gospel. The greatest challenge for church today is to encourage and equip families to accept, and live out, their fundamental role as the first and best teachers of faith.

SOME PAULIST SUGGESTIONS FOR THE SYNOD

1: A More Inclusive Notion of “Family”

First and foremost, we think the very definition of “family” ought to be as broad as possible, allowing for traditional as well as contemporary models and cultural differences. While “families” are and rightly ought to be the core building blocks in society, the fact is that real families (i.e., household communities) come in all sizes, shapes, and configurations. [3] The concept of ‘one-size-fits-all’ family ministry seems inadequate, outdated and insufficient. It seems to us that the Synod on the Family ought to listen to the peoples of the world – old and young, married and single, parents and children, those together as well as those estranged or divorced, straight as well as the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgender, and questioning community (LGBTQ). What are their joys and hopes? What are their griefs and anguishes? How might we, as the followers of Christ, help them the most? How can we help the human family and individual human families move forward – humanely, personally, interpersonally and spiritually? [4]

2: Theological, Spiritual, & Pastoral Education at All Stages

In the United States and Canada, the Catholic Church and its many publishing outlets (including Paulist Press) have been at the forefront in offering educational and pastoral services. The vast majority of parishes and dioceses have created frequently-available series and programs to assist engaged couples of any age in preparing for their covenant marriages together. We applaud these valiant efforts and encourage similar frequent programmatic opportunities in all countries, dioceses, and parishes across the globe.

It is also commendable that so many parochial high schools and Catholic colleges and universities offer courses on dating, sexuality, marriage, parenting, and the like. In addition, campus ministry programs and Newman Centers offer similar opportunities for relational and marital education as well as one-to-one counseling and marriage preparation. Less prolific, but no less needed, are educational and counseling opportunities across the lifespan of one’s married or family life. Each stage of a married relationship or of a family’s evolution has its own particular learnings and pitfalls. We encourage national bishop conferences, dioceses, parishes, and catechetical publishers to foster an even richer menu of programs and aids for marriages and family life.

3: Ministry to Separated & Divorced Catholics

Just as our Holy Father Pope Francis tends toward a more gentle and decidedly pastoral approach, we Paulists consistently have welcomed and offered pastoral care to individuals in a variety of relationships, even those that may be more complex or conflicted than the ideal norm: interfaith marriages, pregnancy issues, ethnic or family ostracism or tensions, divorced, remarried, with or without annulments. Our first instinct is not to judge or condemn, but rather to view each individual and couple as our sisters and brothers. Much like Jesus in his encounter with the woman caught in the very act of adultery, our first pastoral utterance tends to be “neither do I condemn you.” [5]

How can we better walk with these people? If there is a solution–pastorally, psychologically, sacramentally, canonically–can we search for it together? Often the wisest and best counsel comes from those who have “been there.” We have been enriched by those women and men who have lived through and learned from painful marriages, separations, and civil divorce. We recommend to the Synod that fostering ministry to Catholics and others who are separated and divorced is pastorally necessary and can be healing ministry for all involved.

4: The Rightful Value and Use of Canon Law

When a recently separated or divorced person or newly single parent comes to the attention of a priest or parish minister, he or she is in pain, hurting, perhaps feeling guilty, often feeling overwhelmed. At this first stage, psychological counseling, spiritual support, and pastoral care are far more helpful than pulling down the Code of Canon Law from one’s bookshelf. The ministry of canon law supplements the primary mission of accepting people in their pain and promoting their healing.

Once Canon Law becomes more useful and pastorally appropriate for a given counselee, our application of Church law and the annulment process ought to be as expeditious and sensitive as possible. The tribunal practices and pastoral care approaches adopted by many U.S. dioceses across the post-Vatican II decades are to be commended and are recommended for wider use and application around the world, but even these practices can be cumbersome. Since “the law was made for humanity, not humanity for the law,” we applaud Pope Francis’ recent efforts to revise canonical procedures that will respond more readily to the situations of people who seek reconciliation in their lives and with the church and urge them to continue on this path. [6]

5: The So-Called “Internal Forum” or “Pastoral Solution”

In the post-Vatican II era there has emerged something called “the Internal Forum Solution.” [7] Initially it emerged and was proposed as a way to resolve questions of sacramental participation and access to communion for those in pastoral distress: knowing something was wrong with their prior marriage, they still were unable to attain a legal annulment and eagerly wanted to receive the sacraments. Provided no public scandal ensue, this “internal forum” or confessional-like practice (a discernment between the individual’s conscience and a local pastor or clergy person) seemed like a sufficient solution. Subsequently, some have suggested extending this extra-canonical solution for other hardship cases of divorced Catholics seeking access to communion, anointing of the sick, or other sacraments. Nevertheless, this pastoral practice has been discouraged in more recent years.

It is our recommendation that, in addition to fostering a greater pastoral use of canon law to assist separated and divorced persons who have remarried without a decree of nullity, the Church should foster the further use of this additional, extra-canonical approach known as “the internal forum” or “pastoral solution.” Erring on the side of graced mercy and pastoral care in doubtful cases would be a great gift to the faithful who yearn for the Eucharist, reflective of the attitude of Christ.

6: Access to Communion or Other Sacraments for the Divorced

When it comes to access to sacraments for such persons, we Paulists, consistent with our tradition, tend to side with those who emphasize that Jesus came as a healer, a physician for those who are ill and in need of care and nourishment. [8] We urge the Synod to consider St. John XXIII’s admonition that the “medicine of mercy,” the Eucharist, is to be freely dispensed. [9] Pope Francis points out that the Eucharist, although it is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak. Medicine and food are meant to heal and nourish. We trust the power of the sacrament to do its healing work. We recommend finding ways to welcome more people to the Eucharist, not to exclude them. [10] Once someone has been fed, they then have the sustenance to accept Christ’s way of life more fully in their lives.

7: The Orthodox View of “the Death of the Marriage”
A Possible Alternative

In some of the Orthodox churches and more recently in the writings of some Catholic moral theologians one finds that the concept of marriage “till death do us part” may not only refer to the physical death of one or the other spouse, but also might refer to the death of the marriage relationship itself. Might spousal- or child-abuse, untreated addictions, or similar extreme hardship situations indicate that the bond, the human interpersonal commitment, has snapped, been torn asunder and, in effect, died? [11] We urge the Synod to consider the pastoral remedies in our sister Orthodox Churches for those divorced and remarried.

8: Ministry to Married Couples and Those Divorced: A Summary Thought

Our underlying or overarching Gospel concern, derived from our 157 years of ministry with hurting and broken families, is that the Church can and should serve as a balm for their wounds, as the tender touch of mercy more than judgment. First and foremost, we find Jesus’ challenge to the crowd in the case of an adulterous woman to be cogent: “Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone.” [12] It is telling that Jesus himself, who is without sin, chose not to cast stones either. We all say before receiving the Eucharist, “Lord I am not worthy . . . . say but the word and my soul shall be healed.” [13]

9: LGBTQ Persons and Gay Commitments: A Pastoral Thought or Two

We Paulists find ourselves in the 21st century being called to open our hearts and our church doors to those of the LGBTQ communities. Lesbian women, gay men, bisexual and transgender persons, as well as those still questioning face many challenges: to figure out and accept their own sexual identities, to share their experience with family and loved ones, and to find their place in our society and in the Church. In a traditional theology or philosophy classroom, distinctions concerning human nature, sexual orientation and gender roles seem to be more or less easily mapped out. However, in modern medicine, recent genetics and gender studies, the halls of psychiatry and psychological counseling, in recent jurisprudence, as well as in the interpersonal lives and complexity of real LGBTQ people, these distinctions are less clear, less absolute, and undoubtedly in need of further study and theological discernment.

Despite public opinion surveys, which indicate a great acceptance of LGBTQ persons, data indicates that the number one cause of suicide among young men in North America is feeling hated and ostracized for “being gay” or even misperceived as gay. Facing one’s own sexual inclinations and homosexual or bisexual orientation can be so frightening, so shame-producing in one’s ethnic or cultural tradition that one would rather be dead. [14]

We as a Church must endevour to proclaim that every person has unique dignity in the eyes of God. This is one of the reasons so many have been touched by Pope Francis’ seemingly pastoral comment about gay persons, made during a plane interview returning from his first trip abroad, “Who are we to judge?” This past Lent, gay and transgendered inmates in a jail near Naples were invited to share lunch with Pope Francis. He seems to be echoing in his words and actions the quotation from Gaudium et Spes with which we began this reflection. Pope Francis is calling us to go to those on the periphery and proclaim to them that they are loved and valuable in God’s sight.

It has been our pastoral and personal experience, that members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community are people of good will, deep faith, with an abiding sense of their own Catholicity who have probed the depths of their consciences in their desire for the sacraments. [15] We urge those gathered for the Synod to consider the personal needs, sexual experience, and covenant commitment of our LGBTQ sisters and brothers with the utmost pastoral care and sensitivity.

SYNOD ON THE FAMILY: A PAULIST SUMMARY

It may be a bit presumptuous for us to propose that this reflection is somehow uniquely Paulist in its content or flavor. Indeed we consider it a reflection of the Gospel and Christ’s way of life for all people and all times. We realize that there are many other important issues that impact the family such as poverty, immigration, the role of women, and sex trafficking. Still, we feel called to speak on these issues from our pastoral experience. Surely the election of Pope Francis, his modeling of mercy and compassion, and the forthcoming Jubilee “Year of Mercy” all parallel the tenor and content of this reflection. While what we have written here may in some sense be distinctively Paulist, surely it is not uniquely so. Let’s reach out graciously, in gratitude, compassion, and hope. ‘All are welcome’ in this Church, this multi-faceted, grace-filled, and still mysterious Family of God: As we sing it, we strive to live it.

We conclude with the words of our founder Servant of God Isaac Hecker, which seem so poignantly and prophetically apropos:

If Christ is to be for us a savior, we must find him here, now and where we are, in this age of ours also; otherwise he is no Christ, no Savior, no Immanuel, no “God with us.”

Complete Article HERE!

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Ferment on gay rights well underway before synod even opens

By Inés San Martín

Formally speaking, the second edition of the Synod of Bishops on the family is just starting up today. Judging by the flurry of activity in Rome, however, with activists and advocacy groups of every stripe pushing their agenda, it feels like the debate is already well underway.

So, too, are the tensions this synod seems destined to release.

st peters

 

On Saturday at noon in Rome, for instance, a Polish priest named Monsignor Krzysztof Charamsa, a minor Vatican official in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave a press conference to announce he’s gay and happily in love with a man called Edward.

In statements to the Polish media on Friday, Charamsa said gay Catholics were “persecuted by the Church” and that the Church doesn’t have the moral authority to deny gay people their right “to love and get married.”

As he was giving his news conference, a Vatican spokesman released a statement calling his actions “irresponsible.”

“Notwithstanding the respect due to the events and personal situations,” said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, Charamsa’s outspokenness “appears very serious and irresponsible, since it aims to subject the synod assembly to undue media pressure.”

Lombardi also said that Charamsa will no longer work in the Vatican.

In the synod’s working document, homosexuality is addressed in three basic points:

  • There are no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.
  • Every person, regardless of his/her sexual orientation, ought to be respected in his/her human dignity and received with sensitivity and great care in both the Church and society.
  • It’s equally unacceptable for international organizations to link their financial assistance to poorer countries with the introduction of same-sex marriage.

Some see that language as too progressive, others as not going far enough, and both sides have organized conferences in Rome this week to make their perspectives known.

On Friday, the Dominican-run Pontifical University St. Tomas of Aquinas, better known as the Angelicum, was home to the “Living the Truth in Love” conference, featuring two prominent cardinals: Australian George Pell, tapped by Francis as his financial czar, and Robert Sarah of Guinea, who heads the Congregation for Divine Worship.

Since they each head a Vatican office, both prelates will participate in the synod.

The second took place on Saturday and was organized by the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics, held at the Centre for Pilgrims Santa Teresa Couderc.

The event had no synod delegates, but the five-hour meeting included the presence of Mexican Bishop Raul Vera, former Irish president Mary McAleese, and a session called “Catholic LGBT Pastoral Projects, Snapshots from Chile, USA, UK, Kenya, Italy, and Thailand.”

Living the Truth in Love

Intended to support traditional Church teaching on homosexuality, and issuing an invitation to chastity both for members of the LGBT and heterosexual Catholics, the “Living the Truth in Love” conference was sponsored by Courage International and Ignatius Press. Beyond the two cardinals, it featured three celibate gay people, two men and a woman, who said they had been “accompanied back to the faith” by Courage.

Pell said he expects the synod to hold the line.

“I expect from the synod confirmation that the teaching of Christ and the Church is based on love, compassion, forgiveness, and that the love of God is channeled through the Ten Commandments,” he said while talking to members of the press.

“I would expect that the teaching of the Church will be re-stated beautifully, sympathetically, and that it’ll reinforce the image that the Church is there for all people, and that we’re reaching out to help them in a way that is effective in the long term,” Pell said.

Those who shared their experiences at the conference agreed.

“We can’t sacrifice Christ’s teachings to the pressures of society and culture,” said Rilene Simpson. “It’s important that we find ways to minister to people, but always bringing them closer to Christ and his teachings.”

Simpson was introduced to the gay life early on, she said, by a chorus member.

“That relationship didn’t work out, but it made me question if I was a lesbian,” she said. She then cruised several gay bars until she met Margo, who would become her stable partner. They were a couple for 25 years, even having a “commitment ceremony” on their 15th anniversary.

She said she’s been “back to the Church” and living a chaste life for the past six years.

“I think it’s important that Catholic people who experience same-sex attraction know that there are other people out there who’ve figured out that the gay life doesn’t really work that well,” she told Crux. “There’s a lot of drama and trauma.”

In his opening remarks, Sarah agreed with Pell on the need to protect the Church’s teaching, promising a “united front” from the African prelates.

Sarah, who recently published a book called “God or Nothing” that’s being translated into eight different languages, criticized the advances of “gender theory,” a concept that Pope Francis has described as “an error of the human mind” and compared to nuclear weapons.

In a nutshell, gender theory presupposes that one’s gender should be a matter of personal choice.

“The Church excludes the dubious interpretation grounded on the vision of the world according which sexual identity can be infinitely adapted to new and diverse options,” Sarah said.

Paul Darrow said he began exploring his homosexuality when he was 12, and by the age of 15 he was already a well-known and highly pursued young boy in the beaches of Miami. He soon became a model, traveling all around Europe and the United States.

“I was sleeping with up to 20 men a night,” he told Crux. “I felt like I had the world by its tail.”

Darrow said he’s been living what he describes as “a fully chaste life, away from men, porn, and everything else,” for the past five years, yet his process of returning to the Church begun seven years ago when, late at night while watching TV, he and his partner were mocking a nun.

“I eventually realized that I wasn’t only mocking her for what she was saying, but also for her looks, and her stroke: she had a patch in one eye, and half of her face was falling down,” he said.

He was describing the conservative Mother Angelica, from EWTN.

“Eventually, I started tuning in to listen to what she had to say. She talked about that which I needed the most: truth and love,” he said.

For a while, he had to hide his new-found faith, “because I was still living a gay life, all my friends were gay, and if they knew I was watching a Catholic channel they’d think I’d lost it.”

Asked about what motivated him to come to Rome and share his testimony, Darrow said he “feels obligated, moral and spiritually, to share the joy and happiness that I have with others.”

Global Network of Rainbow Catholics

The rival conference on homosexuality took place on Saturday and was sponsored by the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics. It’s billed as bringing “LGBT voices to the synod,” and is intended to foster “inclusion, dignity, and equality for LGBT people, their parents, and families in the Catholic Church.”

Sister Jeannine Gramick of the Sisters of Loretto, co-founder of New Ways Ministry, was part of the panel of Snapshots of Pastoral life. She’s been ministering to LGBT people since 1971, and has also been “an advocate, a public voice for those who are afraid to express themselves, like that gay priest who spoke today.”

In the late 1990s she was the target of a Vatican investigation that triggered an order from the Sisters of Notre Dame, her congregation at the time, to stop speaking publicly on homosexuality. She refused and eventually transferred to the Loretto sisters.

Regarding the synod, Gramick told Crux that her “highest expectations would be that gay and lesbian people would be included totally into the Church, and that would include welcome to all the sacraments, including marriage.”

She believes that even though the Catholic Church does teach about the dignity of the person, the message is sometimes muddled because of what the “official Church” says about sexual activity and the ethics of sexual activities.

She wants the Church to not look at the ethics of a sexual relationship from a point of view of the acts, but of that of the person: “love, commitment, care; that’s what makes a relationship an ethical one.”

“The important teaching of the Church is the social teaching. The sexual teaching is a teaching, but it’s subject to revision,” sister Gramick said. To her, the Church’s teaching on marriage tied to procreation and love is “inconsistent” because Catholicism also blesses heterosexual unions that can’t procreate, such as couples that are too old to have children.

Also among those speaking at the conference was Mexican Bishop Jose Raul Vera, who in 2010 was reprimanded by the Vatican for asking the priests in his diocese to welcome gays and lesbians.

Talking to the press, Vera said the Church needs a “change in language” when referring to the LGBT community because as it is, it “brings people to define a homosexual as a sinner, degenerate and promiscuous. I think we have to temper our language.”

Asked if he was in favor of same-sex marriage, he said that’s something for the Church to decide.

He has little faith regarding serious changes in the Church’s approach to the LGBT community as a direct result of the synod, but believes that in time, things could change.

“Francis is talking about existential peripheries, going out to meet the people who are being persecuted and damaged,” the bishop said.

Dario de Gregorio is a member of an Italian LGBT group for Christian people. He’s a Catholic, married another man in Canada, and is one of the organizers of the conference.

He told Crux that when it comes to the faithful, he’s always felt welcomed, but is often uncomfortable with the hierarchy. He hopes to see a change in the Church: “a respect, not only for people, because it’s already there, but also for their relationships.”

“The Church is completely welcoming me as a homosexual,” de Gregorio said. “It’s not accepting me as an active homosexual.” He’s in a long term, committed relationship, however, he said, “we’re sinners with no possibility, because we can’t repent.”

Asked about Pope Francis, de Gregorio defined him as “a traditional conservative who speaks the language of the Gospel, which is one of love and acceptance, building bridges and not walls.”

“He’s leading an enormous entity, with numerous voices, and he can’t hear it apart, because if he embraces an extreme position, he risks dividing the Church, so I understand him.”

Complete Article HERE!