The Abstinence of Courage Comes to Connecticut
By Chuck Colbert / TRT Reporter
January 11, 2012
http://www.therainbowtimesnews.com/
HARTFORD, Conn.--The Catholic archdiocese of Hartford, Conn., is offering a spiritual support program, or ministry, for gay men and lesbians, holding out abstinence, or mandatory celibacy, as key to living a moral life.
News of the program, a chapter of the national ministry called Courage, first greeted readers of the Hartford Courant on Wednesday morning, Jan. 4, and spread quickly over the Internet and through national and other local print and broadcast media, prompting strong reactions from Connecticut Catholics, as well as national Catholic LGBT advocacy groups and organizations that minister with gay Catholics and their families.
“The purpose of the ministry is to support men and women who struggle with homosexual tendencies and to motivate them to live chaste and fruitful lives in accordance with Catholic Church teaching,” according the archdiocese’s press release.
“Through support and spiritual intervention, we can help people with same-sex attraction lead moral and fulfilling lives,” said Robert M. Pallotti, director of the archdiocese’s Office of Diaconate, in the press statement.
By design, Courage is in accord with official Catholic doctrine, which says homosexuality “is more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil; and thus, the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder.”
Theologically speaking, the Courage ministry also stems from natural law theory, which holds that sex is morally acceptable only when expressed in sacramental marriage and only when sexual intercourse is open to procreation.
Other sexual (including heterosexual) activity - masturbation, artificial contraception, adultery, and sex outside of marriage - are also considered to be immoral under natural law.
During a lengthy telephone interview, Deacon Pallotti readily acknowledged the moral question of sexual activity is the rub for many gay Catholics.
In upholding the Church’s moral teaching, he said, “We know it’s going to be challenge and hard to live this [celibate] life.”
“We know within the Catholic Church there is a struggle about the [moral] teaching,” said Pallotti. Still, “We want to minister in light of that [teaching] for those who want to remain in the Church. We are here to offer them pastoral care and support for them and their families.”
Pallotti also said he expected "blow back" from the gay community.
He got it, as gay Catholics and Hartford LGBT community leaders pushed back, saying the Church’s view is outdated, unsound, and worse yet, harmful.
“It perpetuates a falsehood that gay people are somehow defective, when in reality we are wonderful people created in the image and likeness of God as is all creation,” said Frank O’Gorman, 47, of West Hartford.
Asked about the harm Courage does, he explained, “Many of us, gay Catholics of my generation, believed during our teen and into our 20’s that we were somehow defective and that was a period of great depression.”
“Only when we fully embraced our sexuality as a gift from God were we transformed from people who were walking dead into people who had a light to shine and offer other people,” said O’Gorman, who is a member of Dignity USA.
Medford, Mass.-based Dignity USA is the nation’s oldest and largest LGBT Catholic advocacy organization.
“Courage’s falsehood,” he added, “that gay people cannot live full, loving lives and express themselves [sexually] in a loving way” harms people as a “form of spiritual violence.”
“Religious people, of all people, should not be promoting spiritual violence,” said O’Gorman.
"I am deeply concerned about what seems to be an increase in the roll out of Courage and 12-step [addiction-model] programs in Catholic dioceses across the country," said Marianne Duddy-Burke, Dignity USA's executive director. "These kinds of programs promote exactly the kind of negativity that has been demonstrated to lead to substance abuse, depression, and even suicide."
“It’s bad enough that the bishops are attacking LGBT people politically. Now it seems they are launching a campaign to attack us pastorally, as well,” Duddy-Burke said.
“The main problem I see with the Courage ministry is that it primarily views lesbian/gay people in terms of sexual activity. This approach does not consider lesbian/gay people as whole people, but narrowly defines them in terms of sex,” said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, writing in a blog posting.
“A ministry which primarily focuses on the possibility of sexual activity is a very stunted ministry,” he added.
Based in Mount Ranier, Md., New Ways Ministry is “a gay-positive ministry of advocacy and justice” for LGBT Catholics and of “reconciliation within the larger Christian and civil communities.”
“The direct implication [of Courage] is that who you are is not okay,” said Robin McHaelen, executive director of Hartford’s True Colors, a nonprofit agency that offers services to LGBT teens.
McHaelen also finds off-putting Courage’s “love-the-sinner-but-hate-the sin” perspective, which, she says, hurts kids.
While young people who seek services at True Colors say they generally don’t believe the line of reasoning, McHaelen said, “The fear still lingers. ‘But what if it’s true?’ some youth wonder.”
Courage’s approach, she added, “Is truly, absolutely invalidated, by every mainstream social science, psychological, and mental health organization,” which consider homosexuality as a natural occurrence, a variation of human sexuality.
As early as 1973, for instance, the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its codification of mental health disorders.
Linda Estabrook, executive director of Hartford Gay&Lesbian Health Collective (HGLHC), bristled at the press-release language.
“It says gay people are not moral and not living fulfilled lives,” she said. “That is not accurate, along with beyond offensive.
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