There is a storm brewing in the Roman Catholic Church. What is Pope Francis to do?

There is a storm brewing in the Roman Catholic Church. What is Pope Francis to do?
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Cardinal Robert Sarah, Fr. James Martin, SJ and Daniel Mattson present themselves as bearers of the truth as taught by Jesus Christ. Two are celibate clerics, while the other is a chaste gay layperson. All have something infantilizing and unhealthy to say about sexuality, gender and same sex relationships generally. All three trouble their readers with the separation of the human being from their sexual actions. All three equivocate naming gay and lesbians as treating them, with their marginalized history as citizens of the Church. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Such beliefs, as articulated by Sarah, Martin and Mattson are not good: human beings, like all animals, are sexual. Being sexual does not necessarily mean that a person is unhealthy. But for the Church, being sexual, whether gay or straight is sinful. For the Church the only sexual action that is meaningful is one that produces a child. The Church dismisses all other actions as non-generative, non-life giving: not in accordance with natural law.

It is odd, in this day and age, to listen to three non-sexual men attempt to use Mother Church’s Catechism of the Catholic Church to defend their hypotheses regarding the relationship between self and church, self and God and self and sexual activity.

Sarah, Martin and Mattson hide behind the man made teachings of the Church because Jesus Christ himself is never reported as teaching about sexual relationships. Jesus did not condemn gays or lesbians, and he never praised chastity at the expense of sexual health or sexual activity.

It is odd, to me a gay ex-Jesuit whose memoir was interfered with by a member of the clergy, that Sarah, Martin and Mattson would seek to play with sexual identity politics. Beyond selling books, what are their motivations? How many Jesuit parishes sponsor LGBT ministries? Furthermore, bridge building does not mean integration, it does not make room for praising the corporal and spiritual works of gay and lesbian Catholics. And while

Mattson may be able to be chaste, for whatever reason, that does not mean that all gay and lesbian men and women should be chaste or find generativity and health in friendships with chaste people. Not all gay and lesbian men and women see chastity as beautiful, especially when it is largely imposed upon them as a pastoral penalty for being who God created them to be. To gay and lesbian men and women being who God created them to be is virtuous, purely truth seeking. What is more honest than saying "I am gay" and "I live a good, moral life?"

The folly of these arguments falls into the absurd when we consider the place of bisexual, transgender and queer people in the Church. To date Sarah, Martin and Mattson remain insufficient voices to claim victory for their choruses. That is who they speak to, that is who they hope will buy their books, for nothing about unity, community or love is gained by their divisiveness.

In my work as a journalist, I have called for the Roman Catholic Church to rewrite her Catechism of the Catholic Church to erase her ill-fated language and rhetoric about same sex sexual relationships and homosexuality. I have beckoned the Jesuits and other religious to employ (publicly and officially) employment non-discrimination protections against the firing of LGBT workers and volunteers. I have decried the “chastity” is the only option for gay and lesbian Christian argument. A gay or lesbian relationship does not mean destruction or chaos - Cardinal Sarah cannot get away with lumping all intimate relationships in promiscuity, suffering, loneliness. Didn't Mother Theresa live with a broken heart when she could not draw close to God? Was her brokenness a means of sublimating her lack of spiritual gratification?

Mostly, I thank men like Cardinal Sarah for being true bearers of the true message of the Roman Catholic Church. Men who have not fabricated the Church’s teaching to keep good and faithful LGBT men and women in the pews, filling coffers with their monies. When it comes to LGBT relations and the Roman Catholic Church it is sadly Cardinal Sarah’s not Jesus’ way.

It is in this storm that Jesus reaches out his hand to those still too fearful to leave the Church, he calls them to come and see what is possible in other denominations, and at other communion tables. It is in those places that LGBT men and women and especially children and teenagers can find hope, love and Jesus true commandments to love one another as God so loved the world.

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