DREADCLARITY: Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, Father Federico Lombardi SJ, Bruno Volpe, Homosexuals, Transsexuals & Salvation

:: Update ::

An Italian-language news interview conducted by Bruno Volpe with a retired former Curial official (Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán) was published on Wednesday. In the interview, Sig. Volpe claimed to feature the Cardinal's personal musings on St Paul in relation to the question of the salvation of "homosexuals" and "transsexuals" (i.e. if same sex attracted individuals and transsexuals would enter the Kingdom of Heaven). The report caused a media stir. In a follow-up interview posted to the same Pontifex website, the purported comments were used again by Sig. Volpe to advance so-called "reparative therapy" claims (e.g. that same sex attraction is a "disease").

:: Not So Fast ::

A terse Vatican response, which re-stated the Catholic teaching on human sexuality, quickly followed publication of the first Italian interview. The response has been reported in some places as a public "rebuke" of Cardinal Barragán. It is more accurate, however, to say that the Vatican response focussed on the credibility of the Pontifex.roma.it website, as the Vatican spokeman (Father Federico Lombardi S.J.) immediately stated that the website is not an official media outlet of the Holy See, indeed that it "lacks authority and is not a good source...for the Church's thoughts on...homosexuality". Certainly, Cardinal Barragán claims that his comments were mis-represented and a highly-regarded Vatican-watch journalist has backed the Cardinal.

:: The Upshot ::

DREADNOUGHTERS will also note, of course, that Cardinal Barragán formerly headed up the Curial office responsible for the pastoral care of health workers, a body that has no authority to issue doctrinal directives. Cardinal Barragán has previously acknowledged this fact, and his statements to that effect are a matter of public record.

DREADPUBLISHING: 'Being Heard' John Heard - What Remains, Fr James Martin SJ, What Should A Gay Catholic Do In Life?

:: Update ::

DREADNOUGHT's latest column for syndication is on comments made by Jesuit Father James Martin on what remains of life for same sex attracted Catholics. It ran in The Record newspaper last week.

:: BEING HEARD – ‘What Remains’ ::

By John Heard

In a short piece for the America Magazine group blog, Father James Martin S.J. asks: “What is a gay Catholic supposed to do in life?”

He provides a list of those things same sex attracted men and women “are not to do”: “enjoy romantic love”, “marry”, “adopt a child”, “enter a seminary”, and “work for the Church and be open”. “Nothing” about this list, he states, is “surprising or controversial: all of the above are Church teaching”. Yet, he claims, “taken together, they raise an important pastoral question…what kind of life remains for these brothers and sisters in Christ, those who wish to follow the teachings of the Church?”

That is a provocative way to phrase the question; to set it up in terms of what is left for same sex attracted Catholics, after obedience. After all, one rarely writes: What is a faithful, married Catholic supposed to do in life? He cannot date women (something many would associate with romantic love), he cannot enter a seminary, he cannot work for the Church and be open (about wanting to date women), and many married men cannot adopt a child (because they would be turned down by the adoption agencies, for various reasons, or indeed simply because their wives and families demur). What can the good Jesuit mean by phrasing the question in this negative and faintly histrionic way?

Let us start with what Father Martin cannot mean. He cannot mean, for instance, that same sex attracted men and women are set apart in terms ontology, that we might somehow need or want something that other men and women do not, or cannot need or want in / from life. This sort of question is close to the sort one might ask if intelligent alien life were discovered in the universe. The Church does not teach that same sex attracted individuals are a third sex, indeed, or another form of life (c.f. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 241). Father Martin cannot mean, therefore, what some homoactivists mean when they ask of the Church: what kind of life do you offer for us?

It is important to tease this out because those familiar with the debate about human sexuality, and Catholics committed to the culture of life generally – will find that Father Martin’s question sounds a bit like a secular, modernist complaint. That Father Martin’s Church is, indeed, she of the resounding “no”. This is a testy, cruel vision of Catholic thinking – and it is a bleak view of the Church.

However, such a vision only makes sense in a separatist context. If we cannot bring ourselves to think of same sex attracted men and women as human beings, then we cannot see any life for them in Christian obedience. Their very assent to faith, their "yes" to G-d, appears to neuter them, to cut them off from love and life. As Father Martin suggests, and gently (he writes “pastoral”, not ontological) - this sort of extreme self-abnegation would make for a “lonely, loveless, secretive life”. I will go further: it would make for hell on earth.

However, and as millions of same sex attracted men and women will attest, the Church offers same sex attracted individuals the same life she offers all men and women: eternal life via the Cross. Those who go about their daily lives, those who go to Mass, and struggle to model obedience, and fail, and try again – these are Christians. That is all, and miraculously. We understand, indeed, that a Christian is not to look for life beyond obedience, rather obedience – even obedience unto death on the Cross – is true life.

The result is not the remains of a life it is life. It is life in Christ, life with Christ.

The Church does not then, if we are thinking right, really teach that a same sex attracted man cannot get married to another man, and she does not teach that a same sex attracted woman cannot adopt a child. She does not teach in this negative manner at all.

She teaches, rather, what it is that men and women need to live good, true, and beautiful lives – and in her mercy she shares this information with the world. That she points out, in detail in some cases, those ways of living that are contrary to human happiness only demonstrates the Church’s special care for same sex attracted men and women. She stoops to the obvious, because men and women are weak, willful, and sometimes plain lazy.

I think Father Martin knows this, and indeed his writing is marked by a certain solidity. He is one of the best of the younger Jesuits, obviously faithful. He does not mean to suggest an answer, then, that would contradict the Church’s view of love and life in Christ. Rather, he shows a keen pastoral sense.

By thinking through Father Martin’s question, by asking what he can be asking, and discounting what he cannot be, English-speaking Catholics can learn to think and read with the Church. Certainly, same sex attracted Catholics can discover their home in the Church – at the foot of the Cross, with everyone else.

John Heard is an Australian writer. You can read more of his writing on sex, religion, and politics online, and on Facebook join the DREADNOUGHTERS Group.

:: Resources ::

- DREADNOUGHT on Same Sex Attracted Candidates for the Seminary;

- DREADNOUGHT on Holy Sex and Christian Friendship;

- DREADNOUGHT on Self Mastery and the Ladder of Love (Plato's scala amoris); and

- DREADNOUGHT on Gay Couples and the Help of Gracious Friendship.