ARTICLES

Of Queers and Green Cheese

USF Conference Asks, Is It Ethical for Homosexuals to be Catholic?

BY BARTHOLOMEW JAMES

Is Pope Benedict XVI discretely seeking to modify Catholic doctrine to allow homosexual unions to be recognized by the Church? That was the apparent contention of Father James Alison, who presented his eyebrow-raising assertion to the public and parishioners at Most Holy Redeemer Parish in San Francisco on February 12, 2006. The event, billed as, "Is it Ethical to be Catholic? Queer Perspectives -- Community in Conversation with Fr. James Alison," was sponsored by the University of San Francisco's LGBTQ [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Gay] Caucus and the university's Lane Center for Catholic Studies and Social Thought.

The controversial presentation was funded by a grant from the university's Jesuit Foundation "to engage USF, the Catholic public, and civil and religious leaders in dialog, research and advocacy around gay and lesbian civil rights," according to the university's website (http://artsci.usfca.edu/servlet/EventItem?eventID=652). "The question 'Is it ethical to be Cath olic' is a very real question for many Catholics today," said the website. This "very real question," it continued, is raised when Catholics "read Catholic magisterial documents whose language makes assertions that they consider to be not only empirically untrue but ethically unacceptable." Among other things, that language includes a sentence from a 2003 document released by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Union Between Homosexual Persons, the congregation said that "allowing children to be adopted by persons living in [homosexual unions] would actually mean doing violence to these children, in the sense that their condition of dependency would be used to place them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development." Some gay and lesbian Catholics take exception to this position and to the use of the word "violence." They find the statement to be "not only empirically untrue, but ethically unacceptable." As a result, they feel "obligated to separate themselves from the Catholic community."

Arguing the position of the homosexuals were Vincent Pizzuto, an assistant professor in theology and religious studies at the University of San Francisco, and Julie Henderson, a university student and member of the university's Queer Alliance, a campus special interest group. Defending the Catholic Church was Father Alison, a London-based theologian who, in a 2003 talk, identified himself as a gay, unpartnered priest. Having all sides in the debate homosexual seemed somewhat contrary to the university's promotion of the event, which stressed that it welcomed "a broad audience with diverse perspectives," and that the college strives "to realize its mission as a Catholic University" by standing "for the conviction that both religious faith and academic inquiry share a single end: the pursuit of truth." Considering the subject matter and the sexual orientation of the speakers, some members of the audience might be forgiven for questioning the actual diversity of perspectives presented.

Pizzuto began his talk by explaining that his feelings of anger toward the Church were actually rooted in his love of the Faith, in the same way that his father would remind their Italian Catholic family that he wouldn't get angry and yell at his children if he didn't care. "So understand me when I say today that I am angry because I love, and do not make the mistake of seeing my criticisms of the Church as from an outsider looking in," he said. Pizzuto was angry because, among other things, "the Church continues to erroneously scapegoat homosexuality as the culprit and source of pedophilia." The Church should not view homo sexuals as a source of evil to be denounced and criticized, as it has since the pontificate of John Paul II, according to Pizzuto. "Where our leaders will not exercise compassion, it is all the more urgent that we do so, even if this requires dissent," he said (see www.usfca.edu/lanecenter/pdf/Pizzuto_Response_USF.pdf).

Henderson said she faced an even greater conflict with the Church because she is both a lesbian and a feminist. "As a lesbian and a feminist, it is a challenge to relax in the midst of a pope who believes so strongly that my presence is negatively impacting the world at large," she said. Henderson cited a 2004 Vatican document, On the Celebration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World, authored by then Cardinal Ratzinger, which, said Henderson, condemned the modern feminist movement. "It also very clearly stated that this feminist ideology and anything other than a sanctimonious commitment between a man and a woman will negatively impact society," she said. Henderson believes that, under the current pope, the situation for feminist lesbians is unlikely to improve. "[I] find it extremely difficult to willingly participate in an organized culture that rejects me as being sinful, an axis of evil, and a source of negative influence on our global society," she said (see www.usfca.edu/lanecenter/pdf/Henderson_Response_USF.pdf).

In his defense of the Faith, Father Alison called for patience from the gay and lesbian Catholic community because society at large is on the verge of endorsing, at an anthropological level, an essentially scientific distinction for homosexuals. "What is beginning to become apparent is that there is a more or less regular minority of people who ... simply are principally attracted to people of their own sex at an emotional and erotic level," he said. "[W]e are well on the way to the issue of whether or not being gay is really, as has been claimed, a psychological disorder, being taken out of the sphere of doctrine and left where it belongs, in the sphere of the human sciences, with all the consequences that will follow from that," he said. One of those consequences, according to Alison, is that the Church will be compelled to change, and in fact is already changing, its position on homosexuality.

As an example, Alison cited the pope's recent encyclical letter On Christian Love, which, said the priest, should not be read as a blow against same-sex love. "It leaves room for us, and I suggest that we read it as an invitation for us to work out what the rich elements and gifts of same-sex love can be. How we are to set creating a Catholic culture of same-sex love," he said (see www.usfca.edu/lanecenter/pdf/Henderson_Response_USF.pdf.

In the question and answer session following Father Alison's formal presentation, the priest offered additional evidence to support his contention that the Church's teaching on homosexuality will change. Since homosexuality is no longer recognized as a psychological disorder and is or will be acknowledged as normal at an anthropological level, the Church will have to accept the science and adapt accordingly, he claimed. The acknowledgment of this new truth will happen slowly, "so that it becomes possible to ask the truth question in a way that keeps everybody on board," according to Alison. In fact, the change will happen in such a way that it will appear to have been always this way, "because that's the way you stop people going into schism," he said.

In On Christian Love, the pope has subtly begun this process, according to Alison. "First off, please remember that this encyclical which has just come out is as important for what it doesn't say as for what it does," he said. "And what it doesn't say is, it doesn't affirm any of the whole John Paul picture of the world, which attempted to make Genesis a fundamental structure into which all of humanity must fit, according to John Paul's reading of Genesis -- a clanky attempt to try to make science fit into a religious framework." Instead, Pope Benedict refers to other sources, including non-Christian references, such as Plato's Symposium, to explain how things came to be, said Alison. He summarized the Plato reference as saying "that there are some people who are spherical, formed of one part male and the other part female, and there are some people spherical formed of one part male and the other part male, and there are some who are spherical formed one part female and one part female. And that these people will always be looking for their other half," he said.

Alison gave other examples, which, he claims, show that the pope will eventually write an encyclical acknowledging the anthropological validity of homosexuality and homosexual relationships. "[The Vatican is] trying to work out ways for them to be able to write the encyclical which finally says, 'as the Church has always taught....'" Alison summarized how the process worked with a hypothetical analogy. "In other words, take it this way: it used to be the case that the Vatican said that all Catholics must believe that the moon is made of green cheese. Now they are saying 'Vatican astron omer says moon is made of green cheese.' Now it's an important difference between one claim, that our faith will fall apart unless we agree that the moon is made of green cheese, and the other [which] is 'this discussion will now be held between astronomers.' And we can therefore have confidence that the cheesiness or otherwise of the moon will come to be demonstrated by what is true."

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