Sunday, January 23, 2011

CO Catholic Diocese Sets Up 12-Step Gay Program

“Hello, my name is Paul, and I am an homosexual.” 

This may be what will be said soon if the Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs can launch their twelve-step program offering pastoral care and support for gay men. 

According to Reverend Larry Brennan, the diocese director of priest information, “It’s not about therapy and not about activism. It’s about support.”

Of course, the Catholic Church views homosexual relations to be a sin, but not homosexual thoughts, and expects lesbians and gays to be celibate in the same manner that they expect their priests to be.

According to Brennan “The exercise of sexuality is reserved for marriage, and that can only happen between a man and a woman.” 

Except in Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, New Hampshire and Washington DC.

It seems doubtful that they will faithfully follow Alcoholics Anonymous’ 12-step program seeing as how that could actually lead people into accepting the fact that they are gay, and that being gay is alright.

Of course, Jim Fitzgerald, the executive director of the progressive Catholic Group Call To Action, is very skeptical of Twelve Steps of Courage mostly because he feels that homosexuality isn’t sinful.

He said of the program “It restricts people’s freedom to be the kind of person they were created to be.”

Still, Brennan maintains that this program is for the people who are not comfortable with, as he puts it, ‘their gay lifestyle’. 

He said “The people we want to reach are those who experience this as a burden.” 

Of course, the fact that the Roman Catholic Church continues to maintain that it is a sin, and fights tooth and nail to stigmatize it as much as possible, it seems as if the people who they want to help would be better off if the Catholic Church were to give up on forcing people who are gay to feel that they are sinners and horrible people.

In other words, the reason why they feel that homosexuality is a burden is because the Church says that they should feel burdened by it.

SIC: LGR/USA