DignityUSA is an organization with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts that focuses on LGBT rights and the Roman Catholic Church. Dignity Canada exists as the Canadian sister organization. Dignity was founded by renegade priest Fr. Patrick Nidorf in 1969; he left the priesthood in 1973. Under his early auspices: “On a nationwide basis and through our local chapters, Dignity advocates for change in the Catholic Church's teaching on homosexuality;” i.e. the abolishment of the chastity requirement for homosexuals. Of the Courage Apostolate, founded by the saintly Fr. John Harvey, Dignity officially states: “Courage ministry rests on the belief that homosexuality is a psychological aberration, an emotional debility. Built on a 12-step program like Alcoholics Anonymous, Courage aims to have people restrain and control their ‘sickness.’ Such a negative starting point, which ignores the bulk of current scientific opinion, can hardly foster personal integration, emotional well-being, or real holiness.” Their answer: “Neither Scripture nor Tradition nor natural law theory nor human science nor personal experience convincingly supports official Catholic teaching about the immorality of homogenital acts. Accordingly, and after much soul-searching, many gay and lesbian Catholics have formed consciences that differ from official Church teaching and have entered into homosexual relationships.”
On October 1, 1986, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Catholic body charged to “spread sound Catholic doctrine and defend those points of Christian tradition which seem in danger because of new and unacceptable doctrines,” issued a letter entitled “On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons.” In it, the Catholic Church affirmed its position that homosexuality was an “objective disorder” and that all support should be withdrawn from any organization that undermined the Church's teaching or were ambiguous about or neglectful of it.” In response, Dignity stated: “This document instructed the bishops to withdraw all support, or even the semblance of support, from any group vague on the immorality of homogenital acts. Surely the Vatican had Dignity in mind. And many found the letter harsh and uninformed. In national convention in 1987, DignityUSA declared that it believes lesbian and gay people may indeed engage in loving, life-giving, and life-affirming sex, always in an ethically responsible and unselfish way.”
An immediate effect of the document was the decision by several American bishops to order that DignityUSA no longer be allowed to hold Mass in Catholic churches. Dioceses in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Brooklyn, Pensacola, Vancouver, Washington, D.C. and New York City all rescinded permission for the organization to hold services on church property. Former Boston Bishop William Murphy forbade diocesan personnel from participating in DignityUSA’s conferences because “they espoused a position contrary to Catholic moral teaching supporting …sexual relations between persons of the same sex….” In Phoenix, Bishop Thomas Olmsted was most specific: “Do not support any group such as No Longer Silent or Dignity that fails to uphold clearly the teachings of the Bible and the Church on homosexual acts and homosexual persons. We cannot help one another along the path of conversion and union with Christ if we deny the truth.” Lastly, Dignity is not allowed to meet in any Catholic Church or Catholic church property within the Archdiocese of San Francisco. Yet, the official Facebook page for the LGBT Ministry of The Missionaries of the Precious Blood, the new caretakers of San Francisco’s Most Holy Redeemer Parish, proudly displays a dissenting an article from Dignity. In the posted Dignity letter, addressed to Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the contents of which the Precious Blood Fathers support, Dignity asks the Dolan to consider their: “DignityUSA Letter on the Pastoral Care of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) People 2007.” In it, the letter states: “Sexually intimate relationships between same-gender couples must be affirmed as having the same potential for holiness as those between opposite-gender married couples…LGBT people must have the same access as our heterosexual sisters and brothers to the sacrament of marriage…”