CATHOLIC FAMILIES WITH GAY / LESBIAN MEMBERS

IS STRAIGHT MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN ARCHED?

I promised you my comments.  Here they are.
After the first night of meeting with Spanish speaking community members of the church in Moreno Valley, the priest met with the English speaking faithful.  There were twice as many people there than had attended the previous evening.  There were a lot of parents there and there were a lot of children there whose parents are not yet ready to be there.
I was unable to attend the entire proceedings because of management responsibilities regarding the entire event.  I did make it to small parts of the meeting and was able to make up my own mind about the situation.  I therefore will get a little more detailed with you about my personal take on what the Catholic Church is doing in this area.
1st off, I personally think that if the Catholic church placed more energy into pointing people in the direction of the first commandment, there would be less time lost on the sixth.  It seems that this is all we think about, after abortion, of course (5th commandment)
2nd, I personally think that it is a good idea to place the emphasis on the "human face" of this problem.  This is what was happening during the meetings, and it is effective.  I was disgusted at the way some of the people were treated by their very own parents when they came out.  What I heard was descriptions of the sin of human cruelty committed by parents against their very own children.  Because of this sin of human cruelty by parents and others, many people suffer a lot because of their "life style."  (I hate that expression.)
3rd, I learned that Catholic Homosexuals for the great majority do not turn their backs on God and that most Catholic homosexuals are uncomfortable turning their backs on the Catholic Church.  The most acute problem that they have is finding a "God-place" where they can relate to God in a non-threatening community.  Most seek shelter from the discrimination that is aimed at them in the secular world.  Sadly, in many instances they cannot find shelter from that in church communities either.
4th, I know from personal experience that homosexual co-habitation is a more challenging reality than hetero-sexual co-habitation because of the social stigma attached to homosexuality.  In Catholic moral terms, both are considered to be habitual grave sins.  Priests dedicated to ministering to re-married, divorced Catholics and to homosexuals operate in the same grey area called euphemistically, "an impossible situation."   In both cases, the priests have to preach and teach the truth in a loving and encouraging way by speaking the truth to disturbed consciences that are alone before God.
So, there you have it.  I learned a lot.  I have one final thought.  Through it all I have come away dissatisfied with the words that we use in common discourse to describe heterosexuals, me, among them.  We call ourselves and others, straight.  As compared to what?  Crooked?  Deviated, as in "deviated septum?"  That word was used in the meetings, even by confirmed homosexuals who were proudly wearing rainbow lapel pins.  I find it screwy that we find all kinds of ways find inoffensive words for so many things.  We have even gone to asking people what gender they are, as if they are a grammatical category rather than a human person.  Here we still call heterosexuals "straight" and we snivel and snarl and rail against the Catholic Church when she says that homosexuality is a disorder?  Is that what we mean when we call ourselves straight, without actually verbalizing what we would really say about the "un-straight"?


While you're thinking about that, I was approached the following morning by a person who had attended the previous night's session.  He asked me who was responsible for inviting "that" priest to speak to the faithful of our parish.  I looked him straight in the eye and said, "me."
He bravely asked why.  I simply said that I and the leadership of the parish had decided that it was time to challenge the people in the pews by confronting them with the harsh spiritual and secular realities that some of the members of our parish have to live with.
To his credit, he saw my point.  Agree or disagree, he thanked me and we are still friends.