When issues arise involving LGBTQ+ people in the Catholic Church, the fear of giving scandal generally is not too far behind. Scandal, as defined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, typically refers to actions or behaviors that lead others to sin. And in the minds of the U.S. bishops' conference, the mere suspicion that same-sex couples engage in behavior that violates church teaching is enough, apparently, to lead others to sin (though what sin is had in mind is not always readily discernible).
The results of this by now are well-known. Because of the potential to give scandal, LGBTQ+ people are fired from their jobs as Catholic educators when they are suspected of living in same-sex relationships. They are advised not to be out in their parishes, and if they are, they can be denied the opportunity to serve in ministries. In the particularly notable case of Bishop Thomas Paprocki's 2017 guidance to his diocese in Springfield, Illinois, persons who live openly in same-sex relationships "giving public scandal to the faithful are to be deprived of ecclesiastical funeral rites."
This is the theological foundation that animates the practice of Philadelphia's Catholic Social Services, which refuses to consider same-sex couples as potential foster parents. Arguing that such a practice is consistent with its Catholic beliefs and should therefore be protected as part of the organization's right to religious liberty, Catholic Social Services was vindicated in a unanimous Supreme Court decision June 17 that maintained that the city of Philadelphia acted unconstitutionally when it stopped referring children to Catholic Social Services upon discovering that the agency would discriminate against same-sex couples.
Rather than focusing on legal questions, I want to focus on theological ones and say the following unequivocally: The scandal in the American Catholic Church right now is the position of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that seeks to expel lesbian and gay people in same-sex relationships from Catholic institutions. Indeed, what we are witnessing in that position is the separation of lesbian and gay couples from Catholic life unless they are willing to abandon their committed relationships, which is a form of homophobia.
No comments:
Post a Comment