Gay Catholics Pray For Change
An interfaith vigil was held in hopes of promoting change in the church’s teaching on homosexuality.
Hearing the news that the World Trade Center had been hit by planes, Mychal Judge, a chaplain for the New York Fire Department, and a Catholic priest, rushed to the site and entered the lobby of the north tower. Soon debris from the collapse of the south tower fell on Judge, killing him. His body bag was labeled “Victim 0001.”
“What was special about him was that the Father himself was a Catholic gay man, and the Catholic church doesn’t want to receive gay men,” said Sister Cecillia Pencer, 59, who had worked with Father Judge at the shelter for gay men suffering from AIDS. “It’s too bad they [the Catholic Church] would lose all of the potential of these good men by refusing them to be allowed into the priesthood.”
Six and half years after his death, on the eve of the Pope’s visit to Ground Zero, more than 20 people, mainly from the city’s LGBT community, gathered at the corner of St. Paul’s Chapel on Broadway and Fulton Street, where his body was placed, to honor the memory of Father Judge. They hoped that his story would be heard by the Pope, who has been known for his uncompromising stance on homosexuality.
This interfaith vigil was part of the demonstrations held by Dignity, a Catholic LGBT activist organization promoting change in the Catholic Church’s teachings on homosexuality.
“The event will call attention to the important role gay clergy have played in the Catholic Church,” said Brendan Fay, an organizer for Dignity.
He held a 7-foot banner by a gay artist from Brooklyn on the life of Father Judge. The scenes included images of Father Judge caring for Chinese immigrants, acting as a Fire Chaplain at Long Kesh Prison in Northern Ireland, and walking with the St. Francis AIDS Ministry in a gay pride parade.
“For the Catholic gay community, he was family as well as our priest, he said. “He was one of the few that we called on for help during the darkness of the AIDS crisis.”
Fay also added that most gay people leave the Catholic Church because of “the pressure of the teaching on homosexuality.”
“Some of us choose to stay, but many can’t and there are not many places gay people can go and share their faith,” said Fay, as he handed a flyer to someone passing on the street. “Of course, we also welcome the Holy Father’s visit to New York. But we do hope things can be fixed.”
The Catholic Church recognizes the difference between being homosexual and engaging in homosexual acts. The church says being homosexual is not wrong or sinful in itself, but just as it is objectively wrong for unmarried heterosexuals to engage in sex, so too are homosexual acts considered to be wrong. Essentially a gay person can not be in a sexual relationship. That would be a sin according to the church.
On October 30, 1986, the Vatican issued a “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons.” It instructed the bishops to withdraw all support from any group vague on the immorality of homosexual acts. Soon, bishops expelled Dignity chapters from church property. Since then, Dignity has fought for change in the Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality.
” The Pope should have visited our Dignity chapter first, before visiting a synagogue,” said Andy, who would not give his last name. “We pray for more openness in our church and our society.”
Some of the people who passed by the vigil also stopped and joined the prayer.
“I didn’t even really think about it, and now I’m totally with them,” said Amanda Smith, 45, from Queens. “It’s just the way God makes them to be, and the Pope doesn’t have the right to say what they have to do and not do to.”
While police officers were busily moving barricades on the street for the next day’s big event, the vigil continued.
“We pray for a change of heart, for an end to prejudice against gay persons, for understanding, for peace and reconciliation,” Fay said.
