Writer no longer able to attend Mass

Catholic New Times, Nov 16, 2003

NEW YORK--Andrew Sullivan, a senior editor at the New Republic, wrote recently in the New York Times that, for the first time in his life, he was unable to go to Mass.

The reason was an incident at St. Benedicts' Church in the Bronx. A gay couple who were married in a civil marriage in Canada were told they could no longer sing in the choir. One had sung for 32 years, the other for 25. Both had been honoured in the parish for their "noteworthy participation." The cardinal archbishop of New York, said that the pastor had "an obligation" to expel them.

Sullivan enumerated the series of Vatican pronouncements that had alienated him. "I felt tears of grief and anger welling up where I once I had been able to contain them. Faith beyond resentment began to seem unreachable."

In response to why he had stayed, the New York writer replied, "There is no ultimate meaning for me outside the Gospels, however hard I try to imagine it; no true solace but the Eucharist, no divine love outside of Christ and the church he guides. In that sense I have not left the church because I cannot leave the church, no more than I can leave my family."

Sullivan said that he thought that he had seen a progression in the church's teaching that had made him hopeful "but I can see now that the dialogue is finally shutting down."