Attending Mass on Sundays, and listening to the priest’s homily, are primary ways by which Catholics practice their faith. These experiences can, therefore, impact the faithful’s lives and the lives of loved ones quite deeply, even determining whether Catholics join or remain in a parish.
Therefore, good homilies matter–especially when they touch on LGBT issues.
This is the argument of Brian Harper of the National Catholic Reporter, who takes up this question in his recent column, “What we say and how we say it.” Harper opens by describing an experience he and a gay loved one had at Mass, which they attended on the Feast of the Holy Family, which is the Sunday after Christmas. He wrote:
“[T]he priest saw fit to treat the congregation to a litany of what he perceived to be the most serious threats to the family unit. Homosexuality and bestiality topped the list.
“Even Catholics with orthodox views on sexuality should have found the homily brash and insensitive in its delivery. I was embarrassed, angry, and, perhaps most of all, disappointed by the missed opportunity. A great deal of modern society sees the Catholic church as judgmental and repressive, a reputation that moments like these make hard to refute.”
Harper said his gay loved one was unsurprised by the priest’s words, as this prejudiced homily was “what he had come to expect from the church.” This experience returned to Harper after the mass shooting at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando this past June. Prejudice was so openly displayed as in both instances.
The incidents provoked deeper reflection for Harper, reflection that he suggested would be good for the church as it grapples, slowly, to be more inclusive:
“But how many of us know how LGBTQIA Catholics and non-Catholics alike feel? Not just about hot button issues, but how they feel as they go about their days, enduring slights at work, during their free time, or, God forbid, at church? . . .
“I think all Catholics would do well to accept the notion that unflattering assumptions about our religion are not solely the result of others misunderstanding or rebelling against it. The fact that Catholicism has been a source of comfort for many does not mean it has been for all. We ought to consider the implications of this realization.”
Harper’s column, which you can find by clicking here, ended by suggesting that Catholics should respond to the LGBT question by listening, as it is “one of those instances that calls not for others’ conversion so much as our own.”
This ecclesial conversion may be particularly important given a new study from the Pew Research Center, reported on by Fr. Thomas Reese, SJ, in the National Catholic Reporter. The study surveyed U.S. Christians on what matters when they look to join a new congregation. Reese commented on the survey findings:
“[W]hat matters to people looking for a new congregation is good preaching, feeling welcomed, and the style of worship of the congregation.”
While Protestants generally rated these factors higher, 71% of Catholics said feeling welcomed by religious leaders was important and 67% said preaching was important. Reese wrote that “these are numbers pastors can ignore only at their peril,” and these factors will likely rise as generational demographics progress.
Too many LGBT Catholics and their families have experienced damaging homilies and insensitive pastoral care, like the homily described by Brian Harper. It is sad to consider just many Catholics have been excluded by condemnatory language or uneducated clerics. If church leaders are really interested in evangelization, ensuring that parishes are welcoming and safe spaces for every person is a necessary step. They could begin by simply ending bad homilies against LGBT people and their loving relationships.
And for those church ministers who might be preaching during next year’s Feast of the Holy Family, or just anyone interested in reading moving words about LGBT families, check out Deacon Ray Dever’s reflection on the Holy Family by clicking here, or Joseanne and Joseph Peregin’s reflection on the feast by clicking here.
During Lent in England’s Diocese of Brentwood, the Cathedral of St. Mary and St. Helen scheduled a Mass for the LGBT community, in honor of the Jubilee Year of Mercy. While the Dean of the Cathedral, Fr. Martin Boland, presided at the liturgy, the homily, based on the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11) which was the Gospel of the day, was delivered by Fr. Dominic Howarth, from Our Lady and All Saints parish, Basildon. His homily, excerpted below, offers a great vision of how the messages of the Jubilee Year of Mercy can be applied to LGBT situations. I do have one bone to pick with him, which I will mention at the end of this post. You can read the entire homily by clicking here.
Fr. Dominic Howarth
In fleshing out the story, Howarth spoke about how Jesus’ act of mercy in this story brought life to this woman, but also to the people who were intent on stoning her:
“The particular brilliance of Jesus’ intervention, the extraordinary force and grace of this story, is that Jesus, through mercy, turns death to life. He does not contradict the Jewish law, but he encourages everyone to look with eyes of mercy. And it is not just the adulterous woman that lived that day, but the men who came to stone her. Because if they had stoned her, and she had died, then something inside them – some feeling, understanding, compassion would have died too. Without Jesus’ merciful intervention, the next stoning would have been that bit easier. With Jesus’ intervention, who knows if they didn’t pause for thought the next time there was a question of justice. Mercy, dear friends, is life giving, and life changing.”
Those who advocate for equality and justice for LGBT people can learn a lesson from this point. We are called to help bring new life not just to LGBT people, but to people who oppose them. The opponents, too, need to experience mercy, and they, too, need to be liberated from the fears, anger, and misinformation which prevents them from fully loving LGBT people as their brothers and sisters in Christ. Many times, I see LGBT advocates picking up stones to throw at their opponents, eager to prove them wrong and to prove themselves right. I confess I’ve been in such situations more than I care to acknowledge. Such anger can be understandable, but it is not acceptable. When we say that God’s mercy is for ALL, I think we need to remember that ALL includes those who oppose the vision that we might have for the church and the world.
Given the occasion, Howarth was explicit in his welcome to the LGBT community, noting two Scripture quotes as touchstones for his message:
“This evening I am mindful that there are people here whose sexuality is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, and people from families with LGBT sons and daughters, grandchildren, friends. You are very welcome here, always, and I hope that in this Mass we all encounter a merciful, life-affirming Jesus Christ; Jesus who names all of us as brothers and sisters, very regularly throughout the Gospels. . . .
“From the first letter of St John, ‘Perfect love drives out fear.’ And from the moment of Jesus’ Baptism, adapted because these words are spoken to each of us at the moment of our creation and throughout our lives, ‘you are my son, my daughter, the beloved. My favour rests on you.’
“Let me just reaffirm that. To everyone here, every day of your life, with every breath that you take, God names you as beloved. To those who are here from the LGBT community, I pray that you hear those words afresh tonight, and maybe you hear them for the very first time because perhaps no-one has ever quite told you that you are beloved ever since you realised your sexuality.”
Graphic for the Mass of Welcome
But Howarth also had a message to the wider Church, particularly in the Year of Mercy:
“Here in this Cathedral there is a door of mercy. It is open to everyone, freely and all the time. It is life giving, and life affirming, and we all need it. But I fear that so many who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender will not get near the door of mercy because of a wall of prejudice. Dear friends, we have to search our hearts and face a difficult truth: that by some words and actions of our Church, over many decades, we have built walls and closed doors to those who are LGBT. So today let us be very clear, and let me use the words of Pope Francis. ‘There is no place for homophobia in the Catholic Church,’ he wrote, when he was Cardinal in Buenos Aires. He should not have had to say it, of course, but it matters very deeply that he did.”
And, in particular, he called on families who have been divided because of LGBT issues to be reconciled:
“Dear parents and grandparents of LGBT children, you already know that your child is beloved, but if something in their sexuality has caused a rift in the family, has caused a wall to be built or a door to be closed, let this Year of Mercy be a time to open doors. And for those whose sexuality is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, let this Year of Mercy be a time of new beginnings, with family, with friends – and with the Catholic Church. Come through the door of mercy to be welcomed home, with love.”
He also offered a particular reminder that in some parts of the world, and perhaps in our own backyards, there exists a real threat to LGBT people’s lives and safety:
“I will never, ever compare adultery to a person’s sexuality. Of course not. But I have tonight’s Gospel to preach from, and it does strike me that very sadly there is a terrible parallel as there are countries in the world where it could be someone who is gay or lesbian who is in the place of the adulterous woman, being stoned, or beheaded, or beaten, or imprisoned, because of their sexuality. In Britain tonight some teenagers will self harm or contemplate suicide rather than admit homosexuality to family or friends. By any measure that is a tragedy, and our first response must surely be love.”
It is good to see a church leader naming some specific ways that LGBT people are harmed by discrimination and ignorance. Too often, messages from church leaders about respecting the human dignity of LGBT people ring hollow because they don’t mention real instances of how LGBT people are harmed. Their silence on specifics makes it seem like they either don’t know about the reality people face or are afraid to mention it because it might require a commitment from them.
My one problem with Howarth’s homily is a reference that he makes about LGBT people which is totally out of place in a homily such as this. Near the conclusion of his sermon, Howarth said:
“. . . the tree of mercy has the power to grow through the wall of hatred, or judgement – whether that is a wall put up by some in the Church, or indeed a wall built by those whose sexuality is LGBT and who have come to hate the Church.”
No doubt there are LGBT people who strongly despise the Church. Yet, referring to such people in this way does not acknowledge that such hatred is not arbitrary or capricious, but a reaction to centuries of exclusion and oppression unleashed by religious leaders and institutions. I am not saying that such hatred is justifiable, but it is understandable. Like all hatred, it needs to be redeemed, but blaming the victims is not a a good way to help them heal the hatred that oppression has sown in them.
More importantly, though, is the fact that any LGBT person who was in attendance at that Mass most likely is not in the category of those “who have come to hate the Church.” What Howarth doesn’t seem to realize, or at least doesn’t mention, is that many, many, many LGBT people LOVE the Church! They love it so much that they have been willing to put up with years of institutional oppression. They have struggled with their consciences to leave the Church community, but stay there even though many other LGBT people and many other Catholic people do not understand why they would remain so faithful. Moreover, many of them love the Church so much that they dedicate large portions of their time, talent, and treasure to it, and keep searching for ways, sometimes against great odds, to raise their children in the faith.
But still, there is much good in this homily, and I imagine that Fr. Howarth, much like myself, is not perfect. Given the other positive messages in the homily, I don’t think that he intended to be offensive, but might have been simply unaware how some would receive his words. I hope that his outreach, which sounds very sincere, touched many hearts and minds that day. I hope that many experienced the mercy, reconciliation, and mercy which the Mass intended to offer.
While Pope Francis may not have spoken about LGBT themes in his Sunday homily to the Cardinals gathered in Rome for a consistory this past weekend, his message certainly can be easily applied to this community which has too often been ignored or ostracized by Church leaders. His talk is filled with echoes of how LGBT people have too often been mistreated in church and society. (You can read the full text by clicking here.)
Speaking about Sunday’s Gospel where Jesus heals a leper (Mark 1:40-45), the pope exhorted the new cardinals to conduct a ministry of outreach to the marginalized. He began by noting:
“Compassion leads Jesus to concrete action: he reinstates the marginalized!”
While Pope Francis did not mention LGBT people by name, the details of his description of marginalization will surely ring true to many of these people who have experienced suffering and oppression during their lifetimes:
“Imagine how much suffering and shame lepers must have felt: physically, socially, psychologically and spiritually! They are not only victims of disease, but they feel guilty about it, punished for their sins! Theirs is a living death; they are like someone whose father has spit in his face (cf. Num 12:14).
“In addition, lepers inspire fear, contempt and loathing, and so they are abandoned by their families, shunned by other persons, cast out by society. Indeed, society rejects them and forces them to live apart from the healthy. It excludes them. So much so that if a healthy person approached a leper, he would be punished severely, and often be treated as a leper himself.”
The allusion to LGBT people is particularly strong, since so much of the oppression and marginalization that they experience is due to church institutions, structures, and leaders. Pope Francis criticizes such ritualistically pure actions:
“Jesus, the new Moses, wanted to heal the leper. He wanted to touch him and restore him to the community without being “hemmed in” by prejudice, conformity to the prevailing mindset or worry about becoming infected. Jesus responds immediately to the leper’s plea, without waiting to study the situation and all its possible consequences! For Jesus, what matters above all is reaching out to save those far off, healing the wounds of the sick, restoring everyone to God’s family! And this is scandalous to some people!
“Jesus is not afraid of this kind of scandal! He does not think of the closed-minded who are scandalized even by a work of healing, scandalized before any kind of openness, by any action outside of their mental and spiritual boxes, by any caress or sign of tenderness which does not fit into their usual thinking and their ritual purity. He wanted to reinstate the outcast, to save those outside the camp (cf. Jn 10).”
Church leaders, he adds, must make it their priority to go beyond their comfort zones and approach people they might not otherwise be inclined to associate with:
“The Church’s way, from the time of the Council of Jerusalem, has always always been the way of Jesus, the way of mercy and reinstatement. . . . The way of the Church is not to condemn anyone for eternity; to pour out the balm of God’s mercy on all those who ask for it with a sincere heart. The way of the Church is precisely to leave her four walls behind and to go out in search of those who are distant, those essentially on the ‘outskirts’ of life. . . .
“Dear new Cardinals, this is the ‘logic,’ the mind of Jesus, and this is the way of the Church. Not only to welcome and reinstate with evangelical courage all those who knock at our door, but to go out and seek, fearlessly and without prejudice, those who are distant, freely sharing what we ourselves freely received. ‘Whoever says: “I abide in [Christ],” ought to walk just as he walked’ (1 Jn 2:6). Total openness to serving others is our hallmark, it alone is our title of honour!”
While in other talks, Pope Francis has revealed that he does not support marriage equality, there was one section from his homily today, which could easily be applied to an argument in support of marriage equality. Too often, we hear from marriage equality opponents the false threat that extending marriage to gay and lesbian couples will harm heterosexual couples. Pope Francis’ logic in the following section shows that such thinking is inconsistent with Gospel values:
“In healing the leper, Jesus does not harm the healthy. Rather, he frees them from fear. He does not endanger them, but gives them a brother. He does not devalue the law but instead values those for whom God gave the law. Indeed, Jesus frees the healthy from the temptation of the ‘older brother’ (cf. Lk 15:11-32), the burden of envy and the grumbling of the labourers who bore “the burden of the day and the heat” (cf. Mt 20:1-16).”
Let me be clear that I do not think that Pope Francis is criticizing the gay-marriage-threatens-straight-marriage argument. What I am saying is that the logic and Gospel values he extols in this homily contradict the type of thinking that such an argument carries.
And, as I mentioned, I don’t think that the pope was necessarily speaking of LGBT people in this homily. The descriptions he offers, however, very much apply to the LGBT experience. I believe that Pope Francis was discussing all sorts of marginalization experienced by a wide variety of human groups.
Pope Francis has not been as forthright about supporting lesbian and gay relationships as was once thought by many. But his call to new cardinals to reach out to the marginalized can be thought of as making it possible for church leaders to initiate much greater outreach to LGBT people than they have been doing.
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