Rev. Joseph Guido, O.P., vice president of mission and ministry, gave a lecture entitled, "A Disputed Question: Are Gay and Lesbian People Welcome in the Catholic Church?"The lecture was designed to more dedicated to discussion with students and answering students' questions about gay and lesbian acceptance in the Catholic Church.
Father Guido originally planned to give the lecture during the spring 2007 semester. He felt that the local issues in New England, such as Massachusetts' decision to legalize gay marriage, and the acceptance of those marriages in Rhode Island were pertinent to the question raised by the lecture.
However, he was unable to due to a stomach flu illness.
Father Guido began the afternoon lecture with a short prayer for Rev. Philip A. Smith, O.P., former president of Providence College.Guido decided to approach the discussion from the stance of a priest and not a psychologist or from any other point of view.
"I'm not a moral theologian and I'm not a philosopher, and I'm not a biologist," said Father Guido.
He prefaced his presentation with statistics concerning young gay and lesbian people.
According to Guido, they are twice as likely to commit suicide as straight young people. He attributed this fact to their desperate unmet need for recognition and acceptance, not only in the religious community, but in society as a whole. His experiences while working with gay and lesbian people have greatly influenced and him and inspired him to give this speech.
Guido ultimately decided the answer to the disputed question: are gay and lesbian people welcome in the church, is yes.
However, he emphasized that this answer is not known by many people. He summarized uncertainty of gay and lesbian people's roles in the church as due to a miscommunication which is widespread, especially amongst young people who maybe experimenting with their sexuality.
He summarized this miscommunication with a quote from Hamlet.
"'By indirections find directions out,'" said Father Guido.
According to Guido, many people come to the conclusion that being gay and being Catholic are "incompatible."
This conclusion is echoed by some PC students.
"I am definitely under the impression that the Church doesn't accept homosexuality in any instance or any form, and [that] leads to the question of why homosexuals would be interested in Catholicism," said Lindsay Palazzi.
"And though it's not every representative, it sends mixed signals when certain priests engage in same- sex molestations."
"I've never heard a priest say gay people are sinners, but I think the Catholic Church sees it as unnatural," said Alex Marriot.
In his lecture, Guido spoke about Church teachings on homosexuality. He said that homosexual activities are considered "intrinsically disordered," and "not a complimentary union."
Fr. Guido countered these teachings by emphasizing that there is a difference between homosexual acts and people who are homosexual. Guido said that gay and lesbian people deserve to be treated kindly and with respect.
According to Father Guido, all sexual acts can be considered unholy and sinful if they do not contain both eros-self giving love, and agape-selfless love.
"Homosexual persons are no different from straight persons," said Father Guido.
"Eros of homosexual love must be transformed by agape."
He went on to say that eros must be infused with agape in seeking the love of one that a person is attracted to another and presumably in love with that person. Only with the combination of those two things will a person be enabled to seek the good of God.
Father Guido also focused on young people and adolescents and the questions they might have about what it is to be gay. He referenced a study conducted by the University of Chicago.
According to the study, 2.8% of males identify themselves as gay and 1.8% of females identify themselves as gay.
However, 90% of males and 48% of females admitted to having same-sex contact at some point during their sexual exploration, mostly during adolescence.
"Sexuality assumes different forms at different times, in different contexts," said Father Guido.
He argued that "age matters."
Adolescents are going through a period of self-discovery. He used choosing a college major as an analogy. A student may change majors very rapidly and feel very anxious about choosing a major and a career path.
Sometimes a student may stop his or her development and just choose a major and a career path to avoid having to deal with the anxiety of maturing and understanding what he or she wants.
According to Father Guido, this stage in an adolescent's life is referred to as the moratorium.
This is the phase in adolescents' lives when they are exploring themselves, and it is a necessary and healthy phase. It can also cause anxiety and a premature foreclosure of personal growth.
Therefore, adolescents can "prematurely foreclose their sexual identity," which can lead to difficulties not unlike mid life crises.
During the question-and-answer session, he explained that this is what affected most priests who "violated" children and other young people. Many priests, after 10 years or maybe more in the ministry, were undergoing identity crises because they had prematurely stopped their sexual growth.
Another question posed during the question-and-answer session concerned a document excluding gay candidates from the seminary.
"Frankly, I think it's a pretty dumb document," said Father Guido. He explained that being a sexually inactive heterosexual male and a sexually inactive homosexual takes the same amount of self restraint and ability.
He noted that life in the Church requires a priest to be heterosexual.
After the formal lecture was over, Father Guido continued to answer the questions of attendees.
"I love the notion of the whole person and there's a process in all our lives of purification and who we're supposed to be in God's eyes," said Joan Lamar of the Media Relations office.
"Our sexuality is just one part of who are. That's how I try to look at all my friends and family."
"If you're struggling with this issue, talk to someone you can trust, who cares, and who is informed," said Father Guido.
"Christ chooses everyone to be with him, and everyone who accepts that choice is transformed by it."
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