At Bay in San Francisco

A task force criticizes Catholic teachings on homosexuality

From the epistles of St. Paul to the Chicago policy address of Pope John Paul II in 1979, the Roman Catholic tradition has never swerved from condemnation of homosexual behavior. But this teaching has laid the church open to charges that its attitude is out of step with the times. Nowhere in the U.S. has its stance caused more problems than in San Francisco, where the homosexual population is estimated at 20%. In 1980 John R. Quinn, the Archbishop of San Francisco, issued a pastoral letter to the archdiocese saying that the church, while showing compassion, must oppose homosexual or any other sexual activity outside of marriage.

A year later, after a flurry of violent attacks on homosexuals by Latino youths, the commission on social justice of Quinn's archdiocese appointed a Task Force on Gay/Lesbian Issues. Among its 14 members were nine laymen, two priests, one brother and two nuns (one of whom was associate director of the archdiocese's office of religious education). Some members were homosexuals. The chairman was Psychotherapist Kevin Gordon. After 17 months of deliberation, the task force produced a 132-page report, "Homosexuality and Social Justice," published last week. The commission endorsed the document for study but warned that it was not official policy. A considerable understatement: the report advocates nothing less than a policy of forgiveness toward practicing homosexuals and contains a strong condemnation of church theology. It specifically criticizes the U.S. bishops, the Vatican and Pope John Paul II for inferior scholarship and says that traditional church views are "practically meaningless and pastorally useless." The report offers a list of 54 proposals for church action, including the end of sexual-preference screening for parochial school jobs, adoption or foster care; admission of openly "self-accepting" homosexuals as candidates to be priests and nuns; and the encouragement of gay student groups at parochial schools.

Though Archbishop Quinn remained silent, the first reaction from the archdiocese emphasized the task force's good intentions rather than accusing it of doctrinal errors or sins of naivete. Said an editorial in the archdiocesan newspaper The Monitor: "We do not agree with many of the report's findings and recommendations. On the other hand, we respect the report for what it is--a working document, voicing the real feelings of real people who have had the courage to speak out." Last week the archdiocese's senate of priests resolved to seek a plan for ministering to homosexuals "that is in keeping with the teachings of the church."

Though the liberal wing of the U.S. Catholic Church has repeatedly sought to take the U.S. Catholic hierarchy leftward into the new morality, this is the first time that a church panel within any U.S. diocese has gone so far as to accept homosexual behavior. Not surprisingly, many centrist and conservative Catholics in the archdiocese were alarmed not only by the contents of the report but by the fact that it was issued at all. Said Conservative Jesuit Joseph Fessio, director of the St. Ignatius Institute at the University of San Francisco: "If the Catholic Church has a view of sexuality that is correct, then the most compassionate thing the church can do is to clearly express that unambiguously. To let people think they can be authentically human and yet live a life-style that is different from the teaching of the church is really harmful to them."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.