The cousin of Australia’s Cardinal Pell has written an impassioned open letter asking him to recognize her individual rights as a lesbian. She and her partner are both former Catholic nuns who devoted over twenty years each to the church, including working in the slums of Chile during Pinochet’s regime. (More information in accompanying article.) She points out that the Vatican isn’t interested in the service they perform, the Christian principles they live by, or the loving relationship that they have. All they care about is how they have sex. How screwed up is that?
Related: I’m reminded of a scandal at ND a few years back in which a much beloved priest (Father David Garrick, for those that know him) “came out” in The Observer. He was, of course, celibate, but he identified as gay and sympathized with homosexual student activists on campus. His letter meant a lot to some of my gay friends. Unfortunately – despite the Church’s stance that it’s all right to be gay as long as you don’t act on it – he was soon bumped from the schedule for performing Mass and was basically silenced. The last I heard he’d left the Church and was scraping by as a doorman for The Tonight Show in LA. Just thinking about it makes me angry and sad.
brigita
January 13, 2004 — 2:05 am
i had a bit of an epiphany last night that might have been brought up from reading your post right before going to sleep. admittedly, it was pushing 1am so i might start thinking otherwise, but i really don’t know that i can raise children in an institution whose stance on sexuality and gender is pretty much 180° from my own.
premarital sex, abortion, mastrubation, birth control, homosexuality–all sinful no mater the context? personally, i think the only thing “sinful” about sex is when it causes emotional harm to others or one’s self. sure, a one night stand could be a strike against me in the eyes of the Big Guy, but how could “living in sin” with my future husband be wrong?
i know that having a religious life isn’t supposed to be a cake walk and there are some rules that a person is told to follow that are difficult at times, i just don’t see how persecuting people for such a minor part of their lives is doing God’s work.
i really thought for the longest time that i could remain in the Catholic church and try to change it from within, but now i’m not so sure. and i would have posted this all on my site if not for the fact that it would probably give my mom and pre-deacon dad a freakin’ heart attack.
Kel
January 13, 2004 — 2:56 am
here here! that’s why it KILLS me when homosexuals remain catholic after coming out. i know some who still go to mass regularly, pay their church donations, raise their adopted kids as catholics, etc. i could never understand being a member of a group that pretty much hates who you are and is a huge part of why most of the general public does as well. in my mind, it’d be like being a black member of the KKK.
Kel
January 13, 2004 — 2:57 am
(howie, sorry if your site now experiences a KKK + indiana search spike 😉
yasmin
January 13, 2004 — 11:52 am
that just made me so sad. the church is so hypocritical and i’m sitting here fuming about what happened to Father. i had no idea. but it shouldn’t surprise me. still, how sad!!!!