Comunidad 

Lesbian and Gay Ministry at St. Matthew’s Church, Long Beach, CA

It’s Killing Me

By Joe Maffucci

She keeps her distance
And sits on fences
Puts up resistance
And builds defenses

Jenny
What's the problem?

You leave me hanging on the line,
Everytime you change your mind.

First you say you won’t
Then you say you will
You keep me hanging on,
And we’re not moving on
We're standing still, Jenny
You’ve got me on my knees

Jenny
It's killing me

In the 2005 song Jenny, The Click Five sing about a courtship that is going nowhere and seems doomed to failure. Sound familiar? It should if you were paying attention to the reports from the Extraordinary Synod on the Family that Pope Francis called for last year and which recently met and finished its first session in Rome.

Cardinal Peter Erdö, the Papal Rapporteur, explained in a news conference that had the purpose of announcing a draft report the bishops issued midway through the conference, that the foundation of the Synod was the law of gradualness. The basis for gradualism is rooted in Scripture. “I have much more to tell you,” the gospel of John tells us, “but you cannot bear it. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth” (Jn 16:12-13). Revelation is ongoing, in other words. For those who may not be familiar with the concept of graduality, one popular online definition states that it as “a principle used in Catholic moral and pastoral theology, according to which people should be encouraged to grow closer to God and his plan for our lives in a step-by-step manner rather than expecting to jump from an initial conversion to perfection in a single step,” though there are, perhaps, better and more nuanced understandings of it. Cardinal Erdö expressed the law of gradualness in experiential terms, “as a reflection of the way God reaches out to humanity and [leads] His people forward step by step.” Cardinal Reinhart Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, who supported the midterm report—not everyone did—went further: “The Church’s Magisterium is not a static collection of sentences,” he said, “it developments. Doctrine is in dialogue with pastoral care. Doctrine is evident, it does not depend on the signs of the times, but it can nevertheless be developed. We cannot change the Gospel. But we have not understood everything yet.”

The midterm draft report, titled Relatio post disceptationem (Report after the Discussion), quite explicitly suggests that episcopal conferences (here in the United States that would be the USCCB) be tasked with actualizing a welcoming environment for homosexuals. “Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community,” it announces, and then immediately asks, “Are we capable of providing for these people, guaranteeing...them...a place of fellowship in our communities?” A few paragraphs later, we read “Without denying the moral problems associated with homosexual unions, there are instances where mutual assistance to the point of sacrifice is a valuable support in the life of these persons. Furthermore, the Church pays special attention to...children who live with same-sex couples and stresses that the needs and rights of the little ones must always be given priority.” In discussing civil unions and divorce, the report states, “the Church turns respectfully to those who participate in her life in an incomplete and imperfect way, appreciating the positive values they contain rather than their limitations and shortcomings.”

After the release of the relatio, the Huffington Post’s headline read “Conservative Catholics Strike Back,” a not-to-veiled reference to Star Wars episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. An important aspect of the Synod was the circoli minori or small groups in which the bishops discussed the draft report and proposed amendments to it. Cardinal Raymond Burke, former head of the highest court in the Catholic Church, moderated one of English-speaking groups. His group’s report to the Synod radically eviscerated the intent of the law of gradualness. “We had serious questions about the presentation of the principle of graduality. We wished to show in our amendments that we are not speaking of the graduality of doctrine of faith and morals, but rather the gradual moral growth of the individual in his or her actions,” he said. For him and other conservatives there is no room for discussion or growth. With Taliban-like rigidity, conservatives like Burke will not consider new cultural, social, economic, physiological, and gender realities. In the final report (whose official English-language translation has finally arrived), the law of gradualness was omitted. In addition, the Church is no longer expressly tasked in the document with offering us a welcoming home. We are now viewed, I dare say, as ‘Children of a Lesser God.’ In a decidedly dispassionate tone, the report concedes that there should be a pastoral response to gay and lesbian persons, but does not explain or appear to know what the appropriate response should be. For anyone familiar with the language of the draft report, it would seem that lesbian and gay persons do not have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community nor are our families recognized in as meaningful a way as was the case earlier.

In his concluding address to the Synod, Pope Francis warned conservatives and liberals of their respective excesses. He reaffirmed his quest for a comprehensive statement on family in the modern world. By one translation, it is said he exclaimed, “God is not afraid of new things!” From the official translation of his address, we read that Francis sees the Synod as “a journey,”

and like every journey there were moments of running fast, as if wanting to conquer time and reach the goal as soon as possible; other moments of fatigue, as if wanting to say “enough”; other moments of enthusiasm and ardour. There were moments of profound consolation listening to the testimony of true pastors, who wisely carry in their hearts the joys and the tears of their faithful people.... And since it is a journey of human beings, with the consolations there were also moments of desolation, of tensions and temptations.

The next and final installment of the Synod, which will meet in October of 2015, will continue the discussion. Under the new methodology of the Synod, the final report—which Francis insisted include its earlier propositions (draft language) as addendums—are to be used for the next twelve months within each regional conference as a means to direct, at the local level, further reflection upon and discernment about these issues. And, of course, this set of documents will also function as the baseline from which next year’s full assembly will further debate these matters and, one hopes, come to a more meaningful consensus about them.

In the meantime, as a proud, gay Catholic, it’s killing me.