Your Public Square

The following is a series of emails in response to an article by a gay columnist about the implications of the Catholic Church's teaching on homosexuals.

Dear Mr. Columnist:

I came across your article on the recent visit to America by Pope Benedict
the XVI. As a Catholic, I read the article with interest and appreciate your
coverage of the Holy Father's visit. You are clearly an intelligent,
well-informed person, however, I must point out a serious misstep in your
reasoning, which may be a real source of confusion to your readers. I'm
referring to the following paragraph from your article:

"But gracious gestures do not erase Benedict's
infamous pastoral letter of October 1986, when, as prefect of the
Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he called
homosexuality "an intrinsic moral evil" and all but justified anti-gay
violence."

You are quite right that the Church's teaches that homosexual acts are
intrinsically evil; yet while Catholics are obliged to object to immoral
behavior, they are expected to love persons. The proper orientation of
Catholics toward gay persons is outlined in the Catechism of the Catholic
Church:

"This inclination (homosexuality), which is objectively disordered,
constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with
respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust
discrimination in their regard should be avoided."

There is no mention of violence in the this statement. Your assertion that
objecting to a given behavior is, in effect, a call for violence against a
person committing that behavior is poor reasoning. When people rightly
object to identity theft, for example, is does not follow that they want to
murder, beat or torture those who commit identity theft.

You wish to continue in the homosexual lifestyle and you object to the
Church's teaching - fair enough - but you should be aware that Catholic
moral teaching never advocates violence, and you should be more clear about
that as a person who is in a position to influence others.

I thank you for your time and hope that all is well with you, your family
and your loved ones.

Sincerely,
Mr. Lucey



Mr. Lucey,

I appreciate your note, but before disputing my characterization of
Ratzinger's October 1, 1986 pastoral letter, you should have looked it up.

Specifically, see the second paragraph under #10. I did not invent nor
interpolate. Ratzinger all but justified anti-gay violence.

By the way, I don't have a "lifestyle" while you have a life. My life and
love are as fully dimensional and legitimate as anyone else's.



Dear Mr. Columnist,

Thank you for you gracious response; I'm heartened to learn that you are familiar with the Vatican document that articulates the Church's teaching on same sex attraction. Certainly I've read this document, but I had to check up on the passage you were referring to.

Since the first paragraph clearly does not justify violence against homosexuals, then I'll assume you're referring to the second:

"But the proper reaction to crimes committed against homosexual
persons should not be to claim that the homosexual condition is not disordered.
When such a claim is made and when homosexual activity is consequently condoned,
or when civil legislation is introduced to protect behavior to which no one has
any conceivable right, neither the Church nor society at large should be
surprised when other distorted notions and practices gain ground, and irrational
and violent reactions increase."

Forgive me if this isn't the part of text you're referring to, but in the above paragraph I don't see even an implicit justification for violence against homosexuals. I understand his meaning to be this: sadly, there will always be evil, violent people who will commit crimes against homosexuals. This tragic fact, however, can't be a justification for saying that homosexuality is moral, healthy or acceptable. To recognize homosexuality as a moral good, will only encourage those tempted by same sex attraction to give into their impulses, which will make the behavior more visible and therefore bring on more attacks from violent disturbed people.

This is my poor rendering of Pope Benedict's statement; I hope as a writer you'll excuse my clumsy prose. I believe one of the major fallacies that gay activists operate under is that a charitable, reasoned critique of homosexuality makes people commit crimes against homosexuals. It does not. It's when the one sane, measured and charitable voice in this debate (the Catholic Church) is shut out of the room, that you are left with fundamentalists and people who are looking to commit violence against anybody, be that gay, white, Mexican or (fill in the blank).

I apologize for my extended response, but I appreciate the chance to speak directly with someone who, through the vehicle a city paper, clearly has an influence on the gay community in your city. I have a great respect for writers and believe that still have a tremendous effect on public debate.

One quick aside - I don't wish you to misunderstand my use of the word "lifestyle." I don't mean it in the superficial sense, to suggest that your sexual behavior is on par with fishing or scrap booking. Surely you know that there are men who have sex with other men, but who absolutely refuse to identify themselves as gay in any way. The don't participate in pride marches nor associate themselves with other gay social/community events. So it seems fair to reason that simply having sex with other man does not make one "gay," but engaging in a whole range of specific social activities (hence "lifestyle"), as well as taking on a certain set of political ideas, contributes more to making the self-identification as "gay."

Peace to you and best of luck with the rest of your summer.

Sincerely,
Mr. Lucey

Labels: Catholic Church