Members of the GLBT community and a small contingent of World Youth Day pilgrims gathered to discuss gay youth and their place in the Catholic Church at a forum on Wednesday night. Organised by Acceptance, the gay and lesbian Catholic support group, the event was attended by around 150 people who listened to a host of speakers address the question: “Is there a place for gay and lesbian Catholic youth in the Church?”
“To feel we even have to ask this question is hurtful and painful to say the least,” Paul Harris, Acceptance Co-Convenor, told the audience at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Harris highlighted that the recent controversy surrounding the forum had only strengthened the community’s support.
“The amount of support that Acceptance received from committed Catholics when the future of this forum was in the balance was overwhelming,” he said.
The forum went ahead outside of the official World Youth Day (WYD) program after its initial proposal was rejected by WYD organisers. The group’s second attempt, as part of the program with MAGIS, a Jesuit group, was quelled when WYD organisers forced MAGIS to withdraw their involvement.
A short play written by young playwright Jye Bryant was performed to the audience, detailing the obstacles a young man encounters when he comes out to his parents for the first time.
Speakers included Sue and Les Mico, the Catholic parents of two gay sons, and Father Donal Godfrey SJ, a Jesuit priest at the University of California, San Francisco.
Godfrey, who has extensive experience with GLBT Catholic communities, said that the nature of the Church is changing.
“More and more parishes are finding a place in their hearts, and at the tables, for those who happen to be gay and lesbian,” he said.
Sue Mico said that her children have reaffirmed to her what life is all about.
“To act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with my God,” she said.
“If it is that you are gay and you are Catholic, accept it as a gift from God. I feel privileged to be the mother of my three children.”
Other speakers included Dan Smith, a gay Catholic university student, and David Moutou, from GLBT youth service Twenty10.
“The experience of Twenty10, and a lot of research shows, that if there is not a place [for gay and lesbian youth in the Catholic Church], the cost is high and we all suffer,” Moutou said.
The panel of speakers engaged in discussion with audience members about the challenges young gays and lesbians face against a hostile church hierarchy of authority.
A WYD prayer was provided to audience members.
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