Dossier

The US Bishops and the Gay Agenda

A surprise pastoral letter delighted the activists who work for acceptance of homosexual behavior, and dismayed the therapists who help troubled individuals trying to avoid it.

"The US Catholic bishops are advising parents of homosexual children to put love and support of sons and daughters before Church doctrine that condemns homosexual activity."

Groups such as Courage and NARTH)issued polite but firm responses, wondering aloud why the bishops had ignored the best available hope for addressing the homosexual condition

AOC "seems to have deliberately set out to muddy the waters the Vatican had made clear in 1986."

During the first week in October, Pope John Paul II was jetting to Rio de Janeiro, where he would exhort a congregation estimated at 1.5 million to do everything in their power to protect the strength of the family. Other speakers at the three-day family encounter in Rio had warned that the family is under assault, from forces that include the advocates of legalized divorce, abortion, and homosexuality.

During that same week, hundreds of thousands of American men were making their way to Washington, DC, where they would participate in a mass prayer-rally staged by Promise Keepers, an organization dedicated to helping men become better husbands and father. The men who attended the Promise Keepers rally--again, coincidentally, estimated at about 1.5 million--heard speakers argue that the negligence of fathers has allowed the breakdown of American family life, as illustrated by the rise of divorce, abortion, and homosexuality.

That same first week in October was the time the US bishops chose to release a pastoral message, aimed at parents of homosexual children. While the millions gathered in Rio and in Washington heard homosexuality described as a grave and immediate threat, the fundamental message put forth by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) was that the parents of active homosexuals should be calm.

In an Associated Press report on the bishops' message, reporter David Briggs offered a one-sentence summary: "The US Catholic bishops are advising parents of homosexual children to put love and support of sons and daughters before Church doctrine that condemns homosexual activity." That same message, in slightly varied forms, filtered out through the secular media to the millions of Catholic Americans who will never read the actual text of the bishops' statement.

Strictly speaking, that Associated Press summary could be criticized as misleading. The bishops' statement, Always Our Children, does not urge parents to overlook the Church's teachings on homosexuality, and in fact those teachings are repeated in the pastoral message; defenders of the document could, and did, point to passages which uphold the Catholic tradition. But David Briggs--a veteran reporter who specializes on religious affairs--had indeed captured the general flavor of the document. The accuracy of his analysis can be confirmed either through a careful reading of the document or, indirectly, through the reactions of the people most directly involved in the struggle for and against acceptance of homosexuality.

The risk that the bishops' statement might be taken as indirect support for homosexual activists was certainly not an unanticipated one. In 1996, the administrative committee of the NCCB had reviewed a preliminary draft of the document, prepared by the bishops' Committee on Marriage and Family, and sent it back for revisions. Specifically, the administrative committee had called for the inclusion of a preamble that would make it clear that "Always Our Children" was not an endorsement of homosexual activities.

Faithful to their brief, the Committee on Marriage and Family (chaired by Bishop Thomas O'Brien of Phoenix) added a two-sentence disclaimer: "This message is not intended for advocacy purposes or to serve a particular agenda. It is not to be understood as an endorsement of what some call a 'homosexual lifestyle.'" Evidently that was enough to satisfy the administrative committee, which approved the document for publication.

Always Our Children (AOC) is addressed primarily to parents who have learned that their children are homosexual. The bishops' message begins with a recognition that these parents will probably be experiencing emotional turmoil, and lists some of the feelings that might afflict them: confusion, relief, anger, mourning, fear, guilt, and even pride. AOC does not mention that parental fears could include the fear that a child is living in grave sin, and may be developing a pattern of such sin.

AOC urges parents to offer their children unequivocal love and support, irrespective of their homosexual orientation. The document discusses the causes that might lead to that orientation, and--without citing scientific evidence--leans toward the controversial conclusion that some people may be naturally inclined toward homosexuality from birth.

In a list of "pastoral recommendations" to parents and to pastors, AOC suggests counseling, but avoids any recommendation of therapy aimed at eliminating the homosexual orientation. The bishops' message urges priests: "Maintain a list of agencies, community groups, and counselors or other experts to whom you can refer homosexual persons or their parents and family members when they ask you for specialized assistance. " But AOC itself does not list any such resources.

For organizations which emphasize therapy for homosexuals, that omission was a serious blow. Groups such as Courage (an organization dedicated to helping Catholics live chaste lives in the face of homosexual temptations) and the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) issued polite but pointed responses to AOC, wondering aloud why the bishops had ignored the best available hope for addressing the homosexual condition. The NARTH statement suggested:

On the other hand, the bishops' failure to recommend such therapy came as welcome news to homosexual activists. In Washington DC, a gay community newspaper called the Blade cited Father Robert Nugent of New Ways Ministries, whose persistent criticism of Church teaching has made him the subject of a Vatican investigation: "In the face of reparative therapists and some Catholic ministers...who deny there is homosexual orientation, the bishops are affirming this reality and asking parents to accept that reality in their children."

Traditional Catholic groups were shocked by the bishops' suggestion that parents of youngsters engaged in homosexual experimentation should adopt a "wait and see" policy. "In our opinion nothing could be more dangerous," replied NARTH. " Same-sex attraction is a symptom of an underlying problem which requires attention." And Courage added: "Given the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV disease, among male homosexuals, advising parents to adopt a 'wait and see attitude' to same-sex experimentation among adolescents is an invitation to tragedy."

Again, advocates of the "gay-rights" approach took an opposite view. Sister Jeannine Gramick, Father Nugent's colleague in New Ways Ministry, told the National Catholic Report er that the bishops' message was "very pastoral, very compassionate." And in answer to those who worried that parents were being asked to overlook serious sins, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit added: "No parent should feel compelled to make a judgment about the state of grace of his or her child."

While therapists worried that AOC might discourage parents from using their services, other groups were delighted to find pastoral recommendations that would bolster their efforts to raise the profile of homosexuals within the Church. AOC encourages priests to speak about speak frankly about homosexuality, for instance, and condemns discrimination against homosexuals. With obvious relish, Father Nugent pointed out to the National Catholic Reporter that one American bishop had recently refused to give his approval for a retreat designed for the parents of homosexuals--an activity which is specifically recommended in AOC.

It may be more than a coincidence that Father Nugent's views matched those expressed in AOC. The Reporter story identified the controversial priest as a consultant to the bishops in the preparation of the pastoral message. Following a standard policy, the NCCB did not identify the author(s) of the message, nor did AOC include a list of people whose opinions had been sought by the bishops' committee.

AOC did include a bibliography of Church documents regarding homosexuality, and that list included the 1986 statement by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons. But nowhere in the text does AOC cite that Vatican document. In its response to the bishops' pastoral message, Courage pointed out that the Vatican statement had left no doubt that homosexuality "is 'objectively disordered,' because it urges a person, not toward the inherent good of marriage and procreation, but toward sinful conduct." That crucial message can be found nowhere in the American bishops' latest statement. As Women for Faith and Family noted in a forceful public statement, AOC "seems to have deliberately set out to muddy the waters the Vatican had made clear in 1986."

Philip F. Lawler is the editor of Catholic World Report.