If the Church seeks to find relevance with a new generation that remains vastly underrepresented among its ranks, should it address its attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community?
Describing acts of homosexuality as “intrinsically evil” doesn’t exactly get the gays on board, and an increasing number of Catholics feel the same — particularly young people, as the synod report has shown.
“The Catholic teaching as it currently is the catechism and in the code of canon law is very problematic,” says Fr Flannery.
“It uses some appalling language. It describes people of a homosexual orientation as ‘disordered’. That’s absolutely out of order.”
He says the Church’s treatment of the LGBTQ+ community “tends to turn young people off big time… There doesn’t seem to be any sign of a reversal in that trend and if we judge by what has happened by countries around Europe, the reality probably is that this decline will continue in the foreseeable future”.
He says this view of gay people as “disordered” comes from a “very traditional thinking” that people choose to be gay, whereas now it is accepted as an “innate part of you”.
“For the Church to say that something that is innate in a person — that is part of them as they were created — that that is disordered. It’s so totally wrong because actually they’re saying that the creator created this person in a disordered state. So it’s actually a major insult to God.”
Should the Church, then, reverse its statements on sexuality, combatting its decline in relevancy within an increasingly liberal society?
Bishop Crean, while he doesn't condemn people engaging in homosexual acts, says the term marriage is a “covenant between God and these people” and should be reserved for a man and a woman. However, he suggests “another word be used” for same-sex commitments.
Fr Flannery says that if the Catholic Church changed its teachings on the ordination of women and homosexuality, “it would mean changing Church doctrine, and that’s the big stumbling block.
"The Vatican as it is presently constituted [has] absolutely set their face against changing Church doctrine — and that incidentally is why I’ve been suspended from priesthood for the last 10 years.”
Fr Flannery, who co-founded the Association of Catholic Priests in 2010, which has been a voice for reform within the Church, has not been allowed to minister publicly as a priest since 2012. The decision came after the Church took issue with views he aired publicly around women in the Church and its teachings on sexuality.