My favorite part of the Pope’s closing address at the Synod on the Family:
“It is the Church that is not afraid to eat and drink with prostitutes and publicans. The Church that has the doors wide open to receive the needy, the penitent, and not only the just or those who believe they are perfect! The Church that is not ashamed of the fallen brother and pretends not to see him, but on the contrary feels involved and almost obliged to lift him up and to encourage him to take up the journey again and accompany him toward a definitive encounter with her Spouse, in the heavenly Jerusalem.”
What I like most about this passage is the inclusion of the word “ashamed.” Wow! The Church should not be ashamed of Her fallen brothers; it brings tears to my eyes. Because, when I left the gay lifestyle, I was filled with so much shame; I was ashamed of myself; of what I had done; I was ashamed to confess these awful things to the priest; and, afterwards, I was still ashamed - I couldn’t let that shame go. I was so unhappy, that at one point, a priest told me to go back to the Castro; only, curtail your activity. I thought, the Church doesn’t want me gay; and it doesn’t want me chaste either.
As dear as the Courage apostolate became, in a sense, I felt as if us ex-gays, or prospective ex-gays, were being forced into the catacombs. The first meeting location in San Francisco was a dungeon-like bunker at the Cathedral. Those early get-togethers back in 1999 and 2000, were, for me, sort of a bizarre clandestine type gathering that were hidden on a weekday night: we would arrive, the poor persecuted priest would come in, often a rather traditionally-minded man who served on the periphery of the diocese, a bit shunned by his fellow priests, and quietly ridiculed by them - because he was deluded to think that the Church could convert the gays, then, everyone would sullenly drift back into the darkness of the city.
Yet, like these good and holy priests of Courage, Pope Francis has not given up on us. He invites the lowest of the low. And, he invites the entire Church to openly embrace those that have fallen so far from all that is good. And, this is the Church - “who is not afraid to roll up her sleeves to pour oil and wine on people’s wound…” As such, this is a grueling, dirty, and messy endeavor. This does not mean a blind acceptance of all that the world tries to pass off as the true source from which happiness and contentment may be found; i.e. homosexuality. On the contrary, what the Pope directs us towards is not something passive; not a lazy sort of liberal egalitarianism epitomized by those who thoughtlessly bow to the “born this way” mantra. What it requires is the complete trust and obedience of the faithful: a willingness to seek and accept the Truth; and then, the bravery to love others enough so that they too may one day understand.