Posted on 11/14/2004 8:43:27 AM PST by Land of the Irish
MINNEAPOLIS — St. Joan of Arc, the "progressive" Catholic parish told by the Vatican last month to remove pictures from its web site showing parish participation in the Twin Cities annual gay pride parade, is continuing its homosexual advocacy by hosting a lecture on gay relationships by homosexual and lesbian couples.
In mid-October, St. Paul/Minneapolis Archbishop Harry Flynn sent his two auxiliary bishops, Frederick Campbell and Richard Pates, to inform St. Joan’s pastor, Fr. George Wertin, that the Holy See wanted the gay pride material removed from its web site.
The Vatican letter to Archbishop Flynn was not made public, "nor will it be because it is an official document to the archbishop," archdiocesan spokesman Dennis McGrath told The Wanderer.
McGrath was unable to say whether or not the letter proscribed or prohibited other gay advocacy programs at the parish, such as the November 15 lecture on "Sharing Our Lives," the third and final event in the fall lecture series sponsored by the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities. CPCSM is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is not directly related to the archdiocese but is involved in promoting homosexuality in Church structures, especially Catholic schools.
The November 15 event at St. Joan’s, according to the CPCSM, "will feature a Catholic gay male couple and a Catholic lesbian couple discussing their respective relationships and their sense of connection to the Church."
Examples of other upcoming programs promoting homosexuality in the archdiocese include a GLBT (Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgendered) book discussion on "Families Like Mine: Children of Gay Parents Tell It Like It Is." It will be presented by the Homophobia/Heterosexism Working Group of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet at their Carondelet Center, adjacent to the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul.
Also, at the Basilica of St. Mary, Fr. Dale Korogi, a former professor of moral theology at the St. Paul Seminary, will lead a special three-week "staying home" series of lectures for GLBT people, encouraging them to come into the Church.
The basilica is home for Basilica Boulevards, a Catholic GLBT group, which meets monthly there. On October 14, Boulevards hosted a special "Coming Out" liturgy.
"Boulevards (the GLBT group at the Basilica) invites you to join them in celebrating National Coming Out Day with an evening prayer service, on Thursday October 14. The holiday, which is observed October 11, is a chance for GLBT people to express their need to live authentically, whether they are just coming out, or have been out for years. Our evening of prayer and song will be an affirmation of our identities as GLBT people, and as members of the Body of Christ. Fr. Michael O’Connell will preside. Social time to follow," advertised the CPCSM.
Official Information
According to the web site of the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities, which is linked to St. Joan’s Parish web site, the CPCSM "is a grass-roots, self-supporting, and independent coalition dedicated to promoting ministry to, with, and on behalf of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) persons — primarily of a Roman Catholic background — and their families and friends."
Its board of directors includes:
• Michael Bayly, executive coordinator, Safe Schools Project. He is described as "an educator, activist, and artist, [and] Michael holds a Master’s in Theology from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul. His thesis explored the coming out process as a spiritual journey and involved the creation of a performance/arts piece entitled In the Footsteps of Spring. . . . Michael has been involved with CPCSM for over 9 years — beginning with serving on a committee that brought Bishop Thomas Gumbleton to the Twin Cities in October 1994. Michael was the editor of the first issue of CPCSM’s Rainbow Spirit in 1998 and continues to serve as the coordinator of the Safe Schools Project.
"Prior to his theology studies at St. Catherine’s, Michael was an elementary school teacher in a Catholic school for six years—– an experience he recalls with great fondness. More recently, Michael taught as an adjunct professor at the College of St. Cath- erine’s Minneapolis campus.
"He currently works as the director of the Education for Liberation Program at Spirit of the Lakes United Church of Christ and recently graduated from United Theological Seminary (UTS) of the Twin Cities with a second master’s degree — this one in Theology and the Arts."
• Beverly Barrett, secretary and Community Solutions Fund Liaison
• Mary Lynn Murphy, president of CPCSM. She is a past president and a current board member of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), and a past board member of Cretin-Derham Hall High School. "In addition to her work with CPCSM, Mary is also active with the Archdiocesan Commission on Women and is currently enrolled in the Sacred Ground Spiritual Direction Program," according to the web site.
• Bill Kummer, who, many Wanderer readers will recall, was a speaker at the 1998 meeting of the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries in Rochester, N.Y., where he boasted how he was able to manipulate Archbishop Flynn and "contaminate" — his word — the archdiocese’s Catholic schools with homosexual proselytizing
He is described as "a co-founder and the general coordinator, since 1989, of the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities (CPCSM)...[and] has 20 years of experience in various pastoral ministries and nine years of teaching and administrative experience at the elementary and secondary levels. A Benedictine monk for nine years, Bill holds an MA in Theology from the School of Divinity at St. Louis University, and has presented workshops on gay-lesbian ministry at several national Catholic conferences. . . .
"In 1993, as a volunteer, Bill single-handedly created a Catholic-supported lobby initiative to promote the passage of the bill that added GLBT persons as a protected class to the Minnesota Human Rights Act. Bill coordinated the lobbying of 100 legislators, and, with the help of a clerical volunteer, also created a 75-page Catholic lobbying resource manual, that was widely used and acclaimed by a number of legislators. . . .
"In 1989 Bill received the 21st Annual Archbishop Ireland Award, presented each year by the Catholic Commission on Social Justice of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, for his dedicated work on behalf of lesbian and gay persons and their families and on behalf of persons living with AIDS. Also, in June of 1998, Bill was the recipient of a recognition award from the schools of the Archdiocese for his work in setting up and coordinating a safe schools initiative among Catholic secondary schools."
• John Watkins, an English professor at the University of Minnesota. He "is a parishioner at the Basilica of St. Mary and the former academic director of the Steven J. Schochet Center for GLBT Studies at the University of Minnesota. He and his partner of 16 years, Andrew Elfenbein, live in South Minneapolis with their six-year-old son Dmitri."
• Dr. William C. Hunt, STD. He is the organization’s theological adviser.
CPCSM annually awards the "The Bishop Gumbleton Peace and Justice Award," created in 1997 in honor of the Detroit auxiliary bishop in recognition of his "tireless work as an advocate for peace and justice on behalf of GLBT persons and their families," and the Fr. Henry F. LeMay Award. Fr. LeMay, who lived from 1919 to 1981, was a priest of the Diocese of New Ulm and the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis "who co-founded Dignity/Twin Cities and was a local and national leader in the creation of a ministry to gay men and lesbians and in championing their human rights."
"Underlying the Committee’s work," states the CPCSM web site mission statement "is the assumption that one’s sexuality can be affirmed as a gift and integrated holistically into one’s faith life. Over the past 20 years, CPCSM has established itself as a leader in the pastoral field through its development of innovative models that bridge the gap between the institutional Church and its alienated members.
"In response to the Archdiocese’s call to develop outreach ministries for lesbian and gay persons, in 1988, CPCSM embarked on its Parish-Based Gay and Lesbian Ministry Program (PBGLMP) with the development of its seminar experience, Sharing Silent Journeys of Faith: Embracing Our Exiled Gay Brothers and Lesbian Sisters.
"A ministry outreach to the Catholic High Schools was begun in 1995. This effort is dedicated to promoting an environment within Catholic education where all, regardless of sexual orientation and identity, are affirmed, valued, respected, and safe, as well as a knowledgeable, accepting, reconciling, and healing attitude toward GLBT persons in Catholic education. The bulk of the work with the high schools primarily involved hundreds of hours of faculty and staff training and consultation."
One of the main purposes of the CPCSM is to deconstruct heterosexuality. As the web site explains under "Heterosexism: Another Pillar of the Power Structure":
"At the root of homophobia is heterosexism, the system of oppression that reinforces the belief in the inherent superiority of heterosexuality and heterosexual relationships thereby negating the lives of GLBT persons.
"CPCSM has always attempted to combine its conceptualization of heterosexism with all of the other ‘isms’ that are based on prejudice and injustice (e.g., racism, ageism, and classism). Put another way, all persons who suffer injustice because of any of the ‘isms’ represent the marginalized persons whom the Gospel challenges us all to love and to whom it calls us to minister. When homophobia is viewed in this bigger picture, we can see how it is one more source of the oppression that serves to hold up society’s power structure and to keep the powerless downtrodden."
Other Events
CPCSM’s lead lecture in its fall series was "Encountering God at the Crossroads of Marriage, Catholicism, and the GLBT Experience."
The second lecture was Dr. Simon Rosser’s "Reflections on Same-Sex Marriage from a Catholic Perspective."
According to CPCSM’s promotional literature, Dr. Rosser — professor and the director of community health for the Department of Family Practice and Community Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School — "will explore same-sex marriage and Catholicism from what he terms the ‘pro-equality position.’ He will advance ten arguments for why he — as a Catholic, a scientist specializing in research on homosexuality, and a gay man — supports same-sex marriage.
"Simon contends that the true Catholic position is to support same-sex marriage; and he bases his assertion on scripture, Church history, moral theology, Vatican II documents, science, and public and sexual health."
On October 5 and 12, 2004, St. Frances Cabrini Parish hosted a GLBT speaker series to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its "Statement of Reconciliation to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender community."
The October 12 lecture at St. Frances Cabrini by Lutheran theologian David Weiss, a cutting-edge advocate for homosexualist theology, was titled, "Holding our Breath in the Face of Hate: Reading the Bible ‘Word by Word’ in the Spirit of Christ."
St. Frances is one of 11 archdiocesan parishes considered "gay-friendly" by the CPCSM, and named of six "gay-friendly" parishes by the national Committee for Catholic Lesbians.
Weiss’ presentation, advertised the CPCSM, "will briefly explore the contentious historical and literary context of those ‘texts of terror’ most often used to condemn homosexuality. It will then explore at greater length a far more promising approach, which is to set these texts in a theological and Christological context. This approach . . . invites us to silence these texts by recognizing that God’s welcome, embodied in Jesus’ message and ministry as the Living Word, is the final Word by which all biblical text must be measured."
That Archbishop Flynn allows the CPCSM to flourish in a number of his largest parishes suggests that he has been silenced by CPCSM as well.
Ping
What's the problem. The church should be a staunch supporter of homosexuals since their ranks are overrun with them.
As is the population of Alaska.
The greatest man of the twentieth century is the drumbeat we're already hearing; in a horses a$$.
The greatest man of the twentieth century is the drumbeat we're already hearing; in a horses a$$.
It was worth repeating.
"CPCSM has always attempted to combine its conceptualization of heterosexism with all of the other ‘isms’ that are based on prejudice and injustice (e.g., racism, ageism, and classism)."
What bull is this? Conceptualization of heterosexism?
sickening
You'd think the hierarchy could exercise some control over a rogue parish. Bishop needs to remove the priests. What's the problem?
Rome
I wonder at what point they are considered to be schismatic.
Sorry, I meant 'Archbishop'.
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