The Catholic Church “acts unjustly” toward gay and lesbian Catholics, who are “held to different standards than other Catholics,” a situation “harming” the Church — and one that must change. That was the message delivered March 13, 2015 at the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress by Arthur Fitzmaurice, an advocate for making the Church more welcoming for gay and lesbian Catholics. His talk, delivered to 800 catechists and religious educators during an official Church event, Fitzmaurice, resource director of the Catholic Association for Lesbian and Gay Ministry (CALGM), said he, like many gay Catholics, has turned at various points in his life to Church writings for guidance, including the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The paragraph on homosexuality — which describes it as “intrinsically disordered” while also demanding respect for gays and lesbians — is placed in a section of the catechism paragraphs condemning “pornography, prostitution, and rape,” he said. “To keep this abusive language in the Catechism and other Church writings is, in itself, gravely evil,” he said.
Author’s note: In the past, Mr. Fitzmaurice, besides taking great umbrage with “The Catechism of the Catholic Church,” stated that he promotes: “the pastoral side that says ‘God made you this way;’” he also vehemently stood by the CALGM’s position that “being gay is a gift and a grace.” Lastly, Fitzmaurice says that his group (CALGM) only wants “to create a Church where all are welcome at all parishes.” On a personal note, I found nothing in the gay lifestyle that would even remotely confirm that my homosexuality was a “gift” or a “grace.” If it was anything, it was an unbelievable burden – a wound that wouldn’t heal; and why would it not heal? Because the trauma of my childhood got attached to the modern notion of the homosexual orientation; what “being gay” caused was an absolute stagnation in my ability to heal and an incapacity to receive God’s healing Grace: first, accepting that you are gay closes you off to any other possibility; it’s a form of resolution that negates the existence of dysfunction by simply acquiescing to the notion that I was made this way; second, the immersion in the gay lifestyle and homosexual sex serves only to temporarily cover-over or ease the unresolved pain; thirdly, once trapped within the gay mind-set, i.e. I am gay, a sort of neurosis sets in which demands that everyone, even God, conforms to the gay image of myself. Thank God though, when I finally had enough, that the Church had remained unchanged; the language in the Catechism was far from “abusive;” it was liberating; unlike Mr. Fitzmaurice who would like to create a new Church: one where there is no possible escape from the hell of homosexuality.