“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