Catholic Bishops Approve Guidelines Regarding Gays

Catholic Bishops Approve Guidelines Regarding Gays
Copyright by The Windy City Times
2006-11-22


In Baltimore—by a vote of 194 to 37 ( with one abstention ) —The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approved its latest document on ministry to gays and lesbians, which essentially maintains the church’s instruction that same-sex activity is sinful, according to The Washington Blade.

The bishops engaged in a debate over the draft document “Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination: Guidelines for Pastoral Care,” written by the bishops’ Committee on Doctrine. The officials adopted new guidelines for gay outreach that are meant to be welcoming—but also advised gays to be celibate because the church considers their sexuality “disordered.”

To say the least, gay Catholic organizations feel that the bishops’ are wrong. Before the bishops even considered the guidelines, DignityUSA released a statement asserting that it found the recommendations “to be deeply flawed.” As a result, the group united with other organizations to “to ask the bishops not to approve any such guidelines without further consultation with the faithful—especially those LGBT Catholics who are most affected.”

The Rainbow Sash Movement ( RSM ) , a local GLBT Catholic organization, released a sharp rebuke of the bishops’ decision on Nov. 17, stating in part that “in their typical fashion, the Catholic Bishops ... have missed the mark. The [ RSM ] believes the Bishops statement was so contorted and flawed that it would alienate the people it was trying to reach.” The statement went to to say that “to say gay people can merely exist in the shadows and not in the light of day is an attack on the dignity of their personhood.”