New improved version of my Chicago Catholic News story (now trashed to cache) about same-sex ministry is up. It begins:
(UPDATED: 7/22/10) Speaking at the monthly Catholic Citizens of Illinois luncheon on July 9, Fr. Paul Check pressed one of the hottest social-climate buttons around, converting same-sex people to opposite-sexers — in their behavior if not in their orientation.As recently installed national director of Courage, which performs chaplain services for 12-step programs in 100-plus U.S. dioceses, including Chicago and overseas, he’s in the business of helping same-sex-oriented people calm their urges and live chaste lives according to Church teaching. . . . .
Thank you for your patience in this matter, and call again.
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Later, from my “heterosexual buddy in Ann Arbor,” a cautionary, nay, a wholly negative note:
Rots a’ ruck to the well-intentioned Fathers. My biased view is that (beyond sincere) prayer there is little that Priests or any others can do to redeem committed homosexuals.
Admittedly, my view is biased by my experience as a practicing (psycho)therapist, from which vantage point, I failed over and over again to recover normalcy for homosexual patients who (GENUINELY AND DEEPLY, AS IT SEEMED TO ME) wanted to regain their preference for normalcy — at the end, I felt that the failure was mine, and that the disorder was (by its origins and sub-societal support) a chosen style of life, rooted in some basic physical disorder, and thus (ought)not be subject to moral condemnation.
Whatever the truth of all of this, I came away from this professional experience convinced that the victims of the disorder had no personal responsibility for the homosexual lifestyle that they practiced, and thus should be as immune from social condemnation as are persons who suffer from arthritis or post-traumatic anxiety.
More to come, from this quarter, about whether changes can come to these individuals.
Blithe Spirit 