Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Catholic News

Home

Home
Catholic
Religion News
Gay Catholics tell synod to promote chastity – for everyone

Gay Catholics tell synod to promote chastity – for everyone

Last updated on: October 3, 2015 at 10:04 am by CNA Daily News

Gay Catholics tell synod to promote chastity – for everyone 2015-10-03T10:04:00+00:00 CNA Daily News

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Rome, Italy, Oct 3, 2015 / 04:04 am (CNA).- Same-sex attracted Catholics who have turned away from a homosexual lifestyle are urging participants at the upcoming Synod on the Family to defend the Church's teaching on chastity for everyone – including for divorced and remarried.

“I fear that chastity does not have enough of a voice at the Synod,” said Rilene Simpson, a member and spokesperson of Courage, an apostolate which offers pastoral support for men and women with same-sex attraction. She told CNA: “We need to have the Church’s support.”

“We're talking about chastity for everybody. We're talking about chastity for people with same-sex attraction. We’re talking about chastity within the confines of marriage. We're talking about chastity for people who are divorced, and remarried.”

“It is a beautiful, beautiful virtue, it’s a grace from God, it’s a way to become closer to him, and we need to hear more about chastity,” she said.

Rilene, whose story is featured in the 2014 Courage-produced documentary Desire for the Everlasting Hills, was one of the main speakers at a conference held Friday in Rome aimed at presenting the Church's pastoral resources for persons with same-sex attraction.

The international gathering, entitled “Living the Truth in Love: Addressing the Pastoral Needs of Men and Women with Homosexual Tendencies” was held Friday at the Pontifical Thomas Aquinas University, also known as the Angelicum.

Organized by Courage, Ignatius Press, and the Napa Institute, the gathering was intentionally scheduled to take place as close to the Synod on the Family as possible.

“What I am hoping from the Synod fathers… (is) that they can see the truth and not buy into the lies,” said David Prosen, a Catholic therapist at a Franciscan University in Steubenville, who also shared his testimony at the Oct. 2 gathering.

Having himself lived a homosexual lifestyle before embracing the Church's teaching on chastity, David – whose story is featured on the 2014 documentary The Third Way – told CNA he had once been told by a priest it was “okay to be in an intimate relationship with a man as long as you love him.”

“This is so harming,” he said. “So, what I hope is that the Synod fathers will really look at the truth that we, all of us, all men and women have gifts that God has given us because we are created in his image and likeness and because we are his sons and daughters – not because of who I’m attracted to.”

David's presentation at Friday's gathering was entitled “I am not gay…I am David,” and touched on his own struggles with identity during his youth.

“I know for myself, when I was in the culture, that whole sense of identity to me meant belonging,” he told CNA.

“I didn’t really fit in in high school. Finally I felt like I belonged somewhere but it wasn’t giving me what I really needed. I found out years later that the reason is because that’s not who I am. I was embracing something that wasn’t true.”

David explained how in high school he had admired traits in other people that he felt he lacked in himself.

“I was looking at my peers and going ‘gosh if only I looked like him, if I was athletic like him, or popular then maybe I would fit in,' and there was this shame,” he said. “In puberty, that piece became exaggerated and that’s when I believed something that really wasn’t true.”

“I wasn’t really affirmed in my gender and that’s what I was looking for all along.”

David explained he has since learned to establish fulfilling and chaste friendships with other men, largely through the help of the Courage apostolate.

“There is a profound joy and peace in living a chaste life,” he said.

Friday's conference comes partly in response to the 2014 Extraordinary Synod on the Family, in which persons with same-sex attraction did not have an adequate voice, according to organizers.

At least two of the Synod fathers will take part in the event: French Guinea's Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Pontifical Council for Divine Worship, and Australia's Cardinal George Pell, prefect for the Secretariat for the Economy.

In brief remarks given to journalists at the conference, Cardinal Pell stressed that the Church has long offered support to persons with same-sex attraction. “It's happening already…in many places,” he said.

“No non-government institution offers more avenues of care of, say, HIV people, in parishes, communities, groups like Courage, Christian families,” etc. “We're obliged to. Because we're Christians.”

The conference also featured a presentation by Monsignor Livio Melina, president of Rome's John Paul II Institute on Marriage and the Family, who spoke on the Christian anthropological understanding of homosexuality.

Other experts included Dr. Paul McHugh of Johns Hopkins; Dr. Timothy Lock, a clinical psychologist; and Dr. Jennifer Morse of the Ruth Institute.

Friday's conference comes one day ahead of another gathering in Rome entitled Ways of Love, whose organizers support a form of pastoral care which does not necessarily preclude sexually intimate relationships between same-sex couples.

This year's Synod on the Family, to be held on Oct. 4-25, will be the second and larger of two such gatherings to take place in the course of a year. Like its 2014 precursor, the focus of the 2015 Synod of Bishops will be the family, this time with the theme: “The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the modern world.”

Europe

Previous Post

October 2, 2015

Listen to your guardian angel's advice - he is God’s messenger, Pope says

Next Post

October 3, 2015 Vatican responds to CDF official’s 'coming out'

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Americas Asia - Pacific Europe Middle East - Africa Uncategorized US Vatican

Select a Month November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does James say about friendship with the world?

Select your answer to see how you score.

It pulls you from God It is dangerous It is foolishness It creates emnity with God