Archdiocese Aims Effort at Keeping Gays in the Church

Although the Archdiocese of Los Angeles recently barred a group of gay Catholics from using church-owned facilities, it is supporting a pastoral outreach aimed at keeping gays in the church.

The archdiocese-sponsored program is called Communidad and, as far as its organizers know, it is the only program of its kind in the country.

“What we’re trying to say (to gays) is that we accept you,” said Father Gerald Meisel, pastor at St. Matthew’s Church in Long Beach where one of the two Communidad programs is based. “Our message is that the church loves them, Christ loves them and even these priests love them.”

Said Msgr. George Parnassus, pastor of West Hollywood’s St. Victor’s Church, which hosts the other program: “Communidad was formed in order to assist these people in reconciling themselves to the church. It says one thing: The doors are open to you.”

Critics characterize the program as the latest example of church hypocrisy. And Father Brad Dusak, director of pastoral outreach to gays and lesbians for the Los Angeles archdiocese, agrees that it may seem to be a conflict, especially in light of Archbishop Roger M. Mahony’s recent orders distancing the archdiocese from local chapters of a national gay Catholic organization called Dignity.

But it is consistent with the church’s traditional practice of ministering to individual Catholics regardless of their life styles, Dusak said. “The goal is to do the best you can to grow into the person that Christ is calling you to be,” he said.

In fact, it was Mahony’s call for a “special pastoral outreach” to Catholic gays and lesbians that led to Communidad’s formation in the first place. Speaking at a special Mass for AIDS patients in 1986, the archbishop urged creation of a church-sponsored organization aimed at helping homosexuals live chaste lives within the church and fostering a spirit of “community and fellowship” for mutual support.

The Long Beach program began in September of that year, followed about nine months later by the program in West Hollywood.

Although Communidad accepts the church’s basic teachings regarding homosexuality--that it is all right to be homosexual as long as you do not engage in homosexual acts--Meisel and Parnassus said they do not emphasize chastity in their Communidad gatherings. “These guys already know the teachings,” Meisel said.

Instead, the priests said, the groups meet monthly at the two churches to hear and question speakers on various subjects of spiritual and temporal interest that may or may not have a direct relationship to homosexuality. Past topics have included prayer, personality, AIDS and meditation. While the Long Beach meetings attract an average of about 50, the gatherings in West Hollywood have been attended by as many as 70.

They come for a variety of reasons, participants said.

One man, a registered nurse who said he accepts the church’s insistence on chastity for homosexuals but cannot always live up to it, believes that attending Communidad meetings makes it more possible for him to be a good Catholic. “God loves everybody,” he said. “This keeps people closer to the teachings of the church.”

Another, who said he maintains chastity and is studying to become a clergyman, reconciles church teachings on homosexuality with his own homosexual leanings by referring to what he calls the Catholic emphasis on individual conscience. “One of the most important things in Catholic teaching,” he said, “is the primacy of conscience. Every human being must follow individual conscience even if it goes against church teaching.”

And a Latina social worker said she attends Communidad gatherings in order to meet other Catholic lesbians with whom she might have relationships. “I still have some guilt,” she said, “but I’m learning to find my way. I don’t feel that being a lesbian is bad.”

All three asked that they not be identified by name. The underlying fear revealed in their reticence has been exacerbated by recent developments in the church.

In 1986, conservative Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, issued a Vatican-approved letter instructing bishops to stamp out pro-homosexual views within the church and to oppose any attempts to condone homosexuality through legislation or other means.

While reiterating the Catholic view that “the particular inclination of the homosexual person is not a sin,” the 12-page letter characterized homosexual acts as “an intrinsic moral evil,” “intrinsically disordered” and “self-indulgent.” The letter exhorted church leaders to minister to gays as they would to any other Catholics, but only after “clearly stating that homosexual activity is immoral.”

Stung by the harshness of the attack, the leaders of Dignity--an independent gay organization with a national membership of 5,000--toughened up the group’s official opposition to the church’s stance. And ever since, the church has been systematically denying the use of church facilities to Dignity members throughout the country.

Locally, Mahony two months ago ordered Dignity’s Los Angeles chapter to stop using the church-owned Newman Center near Los Angeles City College. Three weeks ago the banishment from Catholic-owned facilities was extended to the Long Beach chapter, which had been meeting at the church’s Dominguez Retreat Center in Dominguez Hills for the last two years.

In issuing the order, Mahony urged Dignity to “rethink” its desire to hold separate Masses, characterizing as “inappropriate” the practice of having Sunday Masses for special groups.

Both Dignity chapters said they have found or are looking for meeting places. Beyond that, their reactions to the sharply contrasting treatment afforded them and the church-sponsored Communidad programs are themselves in stark contrast.

Rafael Vega, president of the 187-member Los Angeles chapter, said he welcomes Communidad--the Spanish word meaning community --as a step in the right direction.

“Anything that attempts to build bridges is positive,” he said. “For too long, the officials of the church have ignored the existence of gays and lesbians in the church. This is one way of dealing with their presence.”

But Jack Castiglione, chairman of the 110-member Long Beach Dignity chapter, sees unhealthy implications in an organization that welcomes homosexuals into the church yet considers their life styles immoral.

“The people attracted to Communidad tend to be people who are very dependent on church approval,” he said.

Although many Dignity members attend Communidad, Castiglione said, he believes that their numbers will dwindle as the full impact of the church’s rejection of homosexual life styles begins to sink in.

“It’s a game,” he said of the Communidad gatherings. “You go there being gay--and most people feel pretty good about being gay--and you have to pretend that the church is not enforcing its teaching. If people went to Communidad and heard the official teachings of the Catholic Church, anyone who was psychologically healthy would just get up and leave. The church is playing havoc with the psychologies of gay people.”

At a recent Long Beach meeting, members lingered in the church hall after the program, munching on homemade cookies and conversing among themselves. “The goal is not to change the hierarchy,” said an artist who would not give his name. “The goal is to be more visible.”

Said Dusak, referring to the obvious contrast between the church’s teachings on homosexuality and its treatment of homosexuals: “It’s a conflict. There’s no way around that.