Dissent from Catholic teaching on homosexuality
It drew its mission from the US Bishops' 1976 Call To Action conference, in response to the Second Vatican Council, and in particular to its challenge to lay Catholics who had tended to defer initiatives entirely to the clergy.
[18] Nevertheless, the organization has continued with a wide range of activities including annual conferences and regional groups, and in 2013 it attempted to broaden its appeal under the tagline "Inspire Catholics, Transform Church.
"[19] Two of the best-known advocates for a more accepting position on homosexuality within the Catholic fold have been the Salvatorian priest Robert Nugent and the School Sister of Notre Dame nun Jeannine Gramick, who established New Ways Ministry in 1977 in the United States of America.
As early as February 1976, Mugavero issued a pastoral letter entitled "Sexuality: God's Gift," defending the legitimate rights of all people, including those who were gay and lesbian.
"[21] In addition to gay and lesbian Catholics, the letter also spoke to the widowed, adolescents, the divorced, and those having sexual relations outside of marriage, stating: "we pledge our willingness to help you ... to try to find new ways to communicate the truth of Christ because we believe it will make you free.
[20] Similarly, the American bishops Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit and Matthew Clark of Rochester, New York, were criticized for their association with New Ways Ministry, and their distortion of the theological concept of the "Primacy of Conscience" as an alternative to the actual teaching of the Catholic Church.
[35] It has no official status within the Catholic Church, but has had a significant effect on the religious and political debate in the U.S.[36] In March 2010, former director Chris Korzen appeared on CNN to challenge the Archdiocese of Washington, DC's protest of a law requiring employers to grant benefits to same-sex partners.
[35] It has also criticized the Catholic Church for its opposition to same-sex marriage, and for breaking ties to the Boy Scouts of America when the latter changed its policy to reach out to gay members.
[37]: 128 In Germany there is "Homosexuelle und Kirche" (HuK); in France, "David et Jonathan" (with 25 local branches); in Spain, "Coordinadora Gai-Lesbiana"; in Italy there are a number of groups based in different parts of the country—"Davide e Gionata" (Turin), "Il Guado" (Milan), "La Parola" (Vicenza), "L'Incontro" (Padua), "Chiara e Francesco" (Udine), "L'Archipelago" (Reggio Emilia), "Il Gruppo" (Florence), "Nuova Proposta" (Rome), and "Fratelli dell' Elpis" (Catanaia); in the Netherlands, "Stichting Dignity Nederland"; in Mexico, "Ottra Ovejas"; and in South Africa, "Pilgrims.
In a statement, McNeill responded that this approach risked exacerbating the AIDS crisis, as "gay men most likely to act out their sexual needs in an unsafe, compulsive way, and therefore expose themselves to the HIV virus, are precisely those who have internalised the self-hatred that their religions impose on them."
[58] The Society, however, did not approve the study after members of its board of directors criticized its scholarship, reflecting tensions between conservative and revisionist theologians about how the Church should approach the issue.
[59][60] Reaction to the publication of the report demonstrated that division and dissent from the Church's teaching on sexuality was common among United States theologians, even within the Catholic Theological Society of America itself.
[59][60] The British academic, John Cornwell, writing about the episode in 2001 explained that the theology contained within the report was contentious because it extended the Vatican II focus on the procreative and unitive purposes of marital sexuality,[61] to additionally emphasise the creative and integrative aspects.
[37] He went on to criticize the "oversimplification of the natural law theory of St. Thomas," and argued that the Church should recognize that "homosexuals enjoy the same rights and incur the same obligations as the heterosexual majority.
"[37]: 129 In 1983, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith attempted unsuccessfully to block publication of Father Robert Nugent's book, A Challenge to Love: Gay and Lesbian Catholics in the Church, although Cardinal Ratzinger did succeed in forcing Bishop Walter Sullivan of Richmond to at least remove his name from it, where previously the latter had lent his support.
[15]: 200 Nugent had established the gay-positive New Ways Ministry in 1977 with Sister Jeannine Gramick to reach out to gay and lesbian Catholics, but was stopped from administering the sacraments in 1983 after complaints from conservative clerics.
[62] In 1984, Cardinal Ratzinger asked Archbishop Gerety of Newark to withdraw his imprimatur from Sexual Morality by Philip S. Keane, and the Paulist Press ceased its publication.
[65] In 2012, a group of sixty-three former Catholic priests in the USA publicly announced their support for Referendum 74, which would make Washington the nation's seventh state to legalize marriage between same-sex couples.
"[66] In several cases, clergy or laypeople have been fired from jobs at Catholic schools or universities because of their support for LGBT rights campaigns,[67][68] or their marriages to partners of the same sex.
It said that the Church's esteem for marriage and celibacy "does not require the exclusion of people who responsibly live out love, faithfulness, and mutual care in same-sex partnerships or in a remarriage after divorce.
Less than half believed that homosexuality should be regarded as a sin (44% of Catholics compared to 62% of Protestants); and a majority would like the Church to be more flexible toward those who are in same-sex relationships, including the right to have marriages recognised.
Finally, around 65% of Catholics oppose policies which permit business owners the right to refuse service to customers who are LGBT by citing religious concerns (compared to 57% of Americans).
Additionally, in all countries a majority of those polled said they did not think the Catholic Church should perform marriages between two people of the same sex—although the results again ranged with support strongest in Spain (43% in favour) to Uganda (99% against).
[96] The German bishops conference reported in February 2014 that in Germany "the Church's statements on premarital sexual relations, homosexuality, on those divorced and remarried, and on birth control ... are virtually never accepted, or are expressly rejected in the vast majority of cases"; and that there was "a 'marked tendency' among Catholics to accept legal recognition of same-sex unions as 'a commandment of justice' and they felt the Church should bless them, although most did not want gay marriage to be legalised.
[98] Using data from the World Values Survey, Austrian political scientist Arno Tausch examined the opinions on homosexuality of respondents who identified as "practicing" Roman Catholics (attending Mass at least once a week).
[103] As the number of deaths of gay and bisexual men rose rapidly during the 1980s, a sense of "urgency" to take action developed; activists argued that this was "a necessary step in fighting the war on AIDS and homophobia".
"[106] A few dozen activists entered the cathedral, interrupted Mass, chanted slogans, blew whistles, "kept up a banchee screech," chained themselves to pews, and laid down in the aisles to stage a "die-in.
[118] In November 1986, two "mobsters" from the Lavender Hill Mob, a radical gay activist group, dressed as priests and disrupted a Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City being said Cardinal John O'Connor.
[105] In 1989, gay activists in Los Angeles acting under the name of "Greater Religious Responsibility" (GRR) splattered red paint, representing blood, on four churches to protest Archbishop Roger M.
"[32] In January 1998, 39-year-old Alfredo Ormando set fire to himself in St Peter's Square, Vatican City, as a political protest against the Catholic Church's condemnation of homosexuality.
