John
McNeill was a pioneer of Gay spirituality and stood up to the Vatican
and then Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, on many an occasion
with brave, intellectual force. His was one of the first and most
important voices for Roman Catholic Gay men and Lesbians. This excerpt
is from the Preface to the Fourth Edition of his groundbreaking 1993 work, The Church and The Homosexual (Beacon Press ISBN-10: 0807079316):
PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION
I still remember
our joy that Sunday in 1976 when I announced at the New York Dignity
liturgy that I had received an official Imprimi Potest, the approval for
the publication of my book The Church and the Homosexual from
my superiors in the Society of Jesus. It was, I believe, one of the
first theological works in recent times that called for a revision of
the traditional Catholic Church teaching on homosexuality.
After more than
four years of exhaustive research to write the book, the Imprimi Potest
was obtained only after an additional two years of intense review by
leading moral theologians both in the United States and in Rome. They
were unanimous in recommending that the book be published. I naively
assumed that by granting me an Imprimi Potest, the Church, in the
liberating spirit that followed Vatican II, was ready and willing to
reexamine its teaching on homosexuality and that approving my book for
publication was the first step in that process. The theologians who
reviewed the manuscript believed, as I did, that the new evidence coming
from the fields of scriptural studies, history, psychology, sociology,
and moral theology seriously challenged every premise on which the
traditional teaching was based. They anticipated, as I did, that my book
would begin a public debate on Church teaching that would eventually
lead to the Church's revision of its understanding of homosexuality. I
had hoped that my book would lead to a revision of teaching on
homosexuality not only in the Roman Catholic Church but also in the
entire Christian community.
From the
beginning, I envisioned the personal witness of Gay and Lesbian
Catholics and other Christians to be an essential contribution to that
debate. They could testify about what happened to them when they strove
to live both as Gays and according to Church teachings. My own work in
the Gay community as priest and psychotherapist and as one of the
founders of Dignity/New York, an organization for Gay and Lesbian
Catholics, made me keenly aware of the enormous amount of pain,
psychological trauma, and potential emotional breakdown there. Because
this unnecessary suffering was caused by the interiorization of Church
teaching, I felt a certain urgency for the need of public debate. What
was bad psychology had to be bad theology and vice versa.
Our early joy was
short-lived, however. One year later, in 1977, the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) ordered the removal of the Imprimi Potest
from my book. Because of my appearances on popular television programs
such as "Today" and "The Phil Donahue Show," they accused me of
violating a nonexistent agreement that the public discussion would take
place only among my peers in the theological community. A blanket
silence was imposed on me by the CDF and I was forbidden to discuss the
issue of homosexuality and morality in the public arena.
Instead of
allowing public debate on homosexuality, the Church fell back on its
"creeping infallibility," claiming that its teaching was based on
"divine revelation" and, therefore, was not open to change, regardless
of any new evidence to support that change. (In fact, no moral teaching
on sexuality is infallibly defined.) They justified their silencing me
by claiming that I had created the false impression that the Church had
changed or was about to change its teaching on homosexuality. The CDF
hastened to assure the world that no matter how much evidence supported
the argument for change, the Church would never alter its teaching in
this matter. "This is true because we say it is true. Don't bother us
with the facts!"
From that day to
this, for nearly seventeen years, the hierarchical Church has used its
power and influence to silence any critic of its teaching on
homosexuality. The dismissal of Charles Curran from the theology faculty
at the Catholic University of America is another example. The debate
has continued, however, among the laity. There has been such a massive
shift of opinion in the pews that now more than 84 percent of Catholics
support Gay civil rights.
For ten years,
until 1987, I observed the silence imposed on me by not speaking in
public. During that period, my book was published around the world in
five different languages. I had agreed to observe the silence, again in
the hope that over time the Church would consider the evidence and begin
a process of reevaluation. The American bishops did take several
progressive steps toward liberalizing pastoral practice based on the
distinction between homosexual orientation, which is neither chosen nor
changeable, and homosexual behavior, which they continued to judge as
contrary to God's will. They also called for legislation protecting the
civil rights of Gay people. But every time any move was made toward a
better understanding and spiritual care of Gay people, the Vatican
intervened demanding that the Catholic Church in the United States
maintain a homophobic stance on all Gay issues. The best example of that
interference is the Vatican demand in 1987 that all Dignity chapters be
denied their right to meet on Church grounds.
One major event
in the struggle between Gay Catholics and the Vatican was the release of
the Vatican "Halloween" letter by Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on 31 October 1986: "Letter
to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual
Persons." Rome took a giant step backward when it asserted that
homosexual orientation was not a natural condition but represented an
"objective disorder" and was an 'orientation to evil." Since most Gay
people experience their homosexual orientation as a part of creation, if
they accept this Church teaching, they must see God as sadistically
creating them with an intrinsic orientation to evil. Most Gays would
prefer to see the Church teaching as wrong, rather than believe God is
sadistic.
The Vatican
document went so far in its hatred of all things Gay as to assert that
if homosexuals continue to claim "unthinkable" civil rights, then they
should not be surprised by the violence inflicted upon them by
Gay-bashers and have only themselves to blame. This statement has been
interpreted in some quarters as encouraging violence against Gay people.
Cardinal Ratzinger's letter even suggested that it is Gay activists and
the professionals who try to help Gays achieve self-acceptance who are
responsible for the AIDS epidemic: "Even when the practice of
homosexuality may seriously threaten the lives and well-being of a large
number of people, its advocates remained undeterred and refused to
consider the magnitude of the risks involved."
In my more than
twenty years' experience of pastoral care with thousands of Gay
Catholics and other Christians, the Gay men most likely to act out their
sexual needs in an unsafe, compulsive way and, therefore, to expose
themselves to the HIV virus, are precisely those persons who have
internalized the self-hatred that their religions impose on them. They
are precisely the ones who, while they find it impossible to suppress
and deny their sexual needs totally, cannot enter into a healthy and
committed intimacy with anyone because of this self-hatred.
In
a recent letter to the New York Times (September 2, 1992), Richard
Isay, chairman of the American Psychiatric Association committee on Gay,
Lesbian, and bisexual affairs, points out that the suppression of
sexuality, whether by religion, the state, or therapists who claim they
can change homosexuals into heterosexuals, significantly damages the
self-esteem of Gay men and Lesbians. It subverts their capacity to
express their sexuality in mutually loving relationships. Interiorized
self-hatred contributes to the extraordinarily high suicide rate of Gay
and Lesbian youth, estimated at more than 30 percent of all youth
suicide.
In perhaps one of the strongest statements ever against a Vatican document, the Major Superiors of Religious Men said:
We
view ["Some Considerations Concerning... Homosexual Persons"] as a
hindrance to the Church leaders of the United States in this most
difficult and sensitive area of human living. It is particularly open to
misrepresentation and confusion during the present political campaign
in the United States.
We
are shocked that the statement calls for discrimination against Gay men
and Lesbian women. We find the reasoning for supporting such
discrimination to be strained, unconvincing and counterproductive to our
statements and actions to support the pastoral needs and personal
dignity of such persons. Far from a help to the Bishops and other
religious leaders in the United States Catholic Church, the statement
complicates our already complex ministry to all people. Moreover, we
find the arguments used to justify discrimination based on stereotypes
and falsehoods that are out of touch with modern psychological and
sociological understandings of human sexuality. We regret such actions
by the CDF and we reaffirm our support for the human rights of all our
brothers and sisters.
As a Gay Catholic
theologian and psychotherapist, I am fully aware of the enormous
destruction recent Vatican documents will cause in the psychic life of
young Catholic Gays, and of the violence they will provoke against all
Gay people. I find myself in a dilemma; What kind of faith and trust can
I place in a teaching authority that I see clearly acts in an unloving,
hateful, and destructive way toward my Gay family?
At this point,
the ignorance and distortion of homosexuality, the use of "stereotypes
and falsehoods" in an official Vatican document, leads us who are Gay
Catholics to issue the Vatican a serious warning. Your ignorance can no
longer be excused as inculpable; it has become of necessity a deliberate
and malicious ignorance.
In the name of all Catholic Gays, and Gays and Lesbians everywhere, I cry out "Enough!"
Enough of your distortions of Scripture that make homosexuals the
scapegoats of every disaster! Jesus himself in Luke 10:10 recognized the
sin of Sodom as inhospitality to the stranger, yet you support the
interpretation of that sin as homosexual activity. Through the centuries
you have supported sodomy laws that have sent thousands of Gays to
their deaths. You continue to claim that a loving homosexual act is
condemned in Scripture, when competent scholars are nearly unanimous in
admitting that nowhere in Scripture is there a clear condemnation of
sexual acts between two Gay men or Lesbians who love each other.
"Enough!"
Enough of your effort to reduce all homosexual acts to expressions of
lust, and of your refusal to see them as expressions of deep, genuine
human love! Enough of your effort to lead young Gays to internalize
self-hatred with the result that they are able to relate to God only as a
God of fear and hate, and lose all hope in a God of love! Enough of
your recent efforts to foster hatred and discrimination against us in
the human community! Enough of an ignorance for which there is no
excuse. Enough of driving us from the home of our mother, the Church,
and denying us the fullness of human life and sexual love. Enough of
fostering discrimination against us, even violence and Gay-bashing. We cried out to you for bread, you gave us a scorpion instead!
Obviously,
you could enter into dialogue with the rest of the human community,
especially the Gay members of that community, to search for the truth
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the complex issue of
homosexuality. But never was there a mandate from Jesus Christ for you
to create the truth by fiat.
At this point the words of Ezekiel apply to you Catholic shepherds:
Trouble
for the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shepherds ought to
feed their flock.... You have failed to make weak sheep strong, or to
care for the sick ones, or bandage the wounded ones. You have failed to
bring back strays or look for the lost.
On the contrary,
you have ruled them cruelly and violently. For lack of a shepherd they
have scattered, to become the prey of any wild animal; they have
scattered far.... Well then, shepherds, hear the word of Yahweh. As I
live, I swear it -it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks.... I am going to
call my shepherds to account.
I am going to
take back my flock from them and I shall not allow them to feed my
flock.... I shall rescue my sheep from their mouths; they will not prey
on them anymore. (Ezekiel 34:2-10)
We Gay and
Lesbian Catholics pray daily that the Holy Spirit will lead you into a
spirit of repentance. Just as you apologized to the Jews for supporting
anti-Semitism for centuries, so today you must repent and apologize for
the centuries of support you have given homophobia. We pray that the
Holy Spirit will strengthen you so that you can let go of the hubris
that does not allow you to admit past errors. We pray that the Holy
Spirit will lead you to search humbly for the truth concerning
homosexuality through dialogue with your Gay brothers and Lesbian
sisters.
The
only consolation I can offer Gays and Lesbians in the meantime is the
profound hope that the very absurdity and hateful spirit of the Vatican
documents will lead lay Catholics to refuse them and to recognize the
contradiction between their message and that of Jesus, who never once
spoke a negative word concerning homosexuality.
I
work, hope, and pray that Lesbian and Gay Catholics and other
Christians will exercise their legitimate freedom of conscience,
discerning what God is saying to them directly through their Gay
experience. I hope, too, that they will be able to defang the poisons of
pathologically homophobic religion, accepting the good news that God
loves and accepts them as Gay and refusing to be caught in the vortex of
self-hatred vis-à-vis a God of fear.
I
am aware of hundreds of Gay people who have found peace and
self-acceptance in part because of this book. I hope and pray that God
will continue to use my work as an instrument of peace and
reconciliation for hundreds of others.
John McNeill’s books include The Church and the Homosexual, Taking a Chance on God, Freedom, Glorious Freedom, and Both Feet Firmly Planted in Midair. His latest book is Sex the Way God Meant it to Be was published in 2008
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