James Martin, a Michigan priest with 300,000 followers on Twitter –I never thought I’d ever write that– recently tweeted a link to some homophobic guidance from the Diocese of Marquette. The “guidance” was in response to an increase in Catholics questioning the Church’s stance on homosexuality, or inquiring how they should handle it themselves.
The document, entitled “An Instruction on Some Aspects of the Pastoral Care of Persons with Same‐Sex Attraction and Gender Dysphoria,” starts off with the old ‘hate the sin, love the sinner’: “There is an ever‐greater need today for the pastoral care of persons with same‐sex attraction and persons with gender dysphoria. Let us open our hearts to the love of God that we may overflow with love and kindness and respect for others.”
The document outlines that, “To commit a sin, we must know that something is wrong and freely choose to do it.” What if we know there’s nothing wrong with homosexuality? Many Catholics, including nuns, are homosexual, and they manage to find ways to reconcile their religion with their sexual orientation.
However, the document argues that gay/lesbian love isn’t permanent, faithful, fruitful, total or unconditional, because that can only be achieved through marriage and marriage is a sacramental, “permanent partnership of one man and one woman ordered to the procreation and education of children and the good of the spouses.”
“Because our bodies are integral parts of us, so is our fertility. A man and woman, therefore, cannot give themselves to each other totally in love, unless they also give their fertility to each other. Thus, only sexual intercourse that is open to life can express a total and fruitful love.”
“Sex between persons of the same sex can never reflect total and fruitful love because they cannot give and accept each other’s fertility. Such acts can never conceive children. They are not acts of the procreative kind and cannot participate in the expression of God’s total and fruitful love.”
Has a heterosexual Catholic couple ever used IVF? Is that a sin?
Despite othering gay and lesbian people because of their natural and (according to Lady Gaga) God-given sexual orientation, the diocese makes a weird flex:
“We are not defined or identified by our sexual attractions or conflicts about sexual identity. Our fundamental identity is as a beloved son or daughter of God. It is best to avoid identifying persons merely using labels such as “gay” or “transgender”. It speaks more to our fundamental identity and dignity as persons to speak of persons with same‐sex attraction.”
So people with a curable sickness, right?
The guidance goes on to say that congregants cannot be baptized, or receive Communion, unless they have “repented.” How does that work when homosexual infants, like I once was, were baptized before they could confess their sexual orientation? What gives this diocese the right to revoke gay and lesbian baptism? Too late, my head’s holy, regardless if whether I consented to it or not.
To make matters worse, the document alludes to light conversion therapy. Not only does it claim “repenting” (ie. changing) your sexual orientation means the Church will automatically accept you, it instructs priests of the church to create and maintain pastoral relationships with “persons with same-sex attraction” in order to “lead them step-by-step closer to Jesus Christ in a manner that is consistent with the Church’s teaching.”
The Church has less of a problem with homosexuals who hide their sexual orientation. In fact, only “A person who is publicly living in a same‐sex sexual relationship (or in any sexual relationship outside of an ecclesiastically recognized marriage between one man and one woman) may not serve as a sponsor or a Christian witness for the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation.”
It’s clear that, ultimately, the guidance aims to push gay and lesbian people back into the closet, so we don’t exemplify just how normal homosexuality is. That’s a little too much positive representation. The Church is aware that more and more Catholics and Christians are questioning homophobic teachings. They’re sweating.
More than the gay sex thing, or the marriage out of wedlock thing, the diocese wants no association with a gay or lesbian person who is public and proud about their sexual orientation. They will only accept us if we feel guilt and remorse about who we love because our self-hatred is the punishment.
