Gay Catholics fear fallout from scandal

Christian Century, May 8, 2002 by Kevin Eckstrom

Catholic gay groups and individuals say they fear they will be made the scapegoats for a mismanaged sex scandal that has shaken the American church. Rather than admit fault, they assert, some Catholic leaders are looking for someone--or something--else to blame.

During the April papal summons of a dozen U.S. cardinals to the Vatican, Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida said the current scandal is not "truly a pedophilia-type problem but a homosexual-type problem." Bishop Wilton Gregory, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said "it is an ongoing struggle to make sure that the Catholic priesthood is not dominated by homosexual men."

Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua of Philadelphia prides himself that gay men are barred from ordination in his archdiocese, and suggested a similar policy for the rest of the church. For gay Catholics, such rhetoric has all the ominous implications of a 21st-century gay Inquisition.

"If you, overnight, subtracted the number of gay priests, the church couldn't function the next day," said Mark Jordan, an openly gay professor of religion at Emory University and author of The Silence of Sodom: Homosexuality in Modern Catholicism.

Said Marianne Duddy, executive director of Dignity/USA, a national lay-led group of gay Catholics: "It's a real betrayal of [the bishops'] responsibility to the church, not only to not enact real solutions to this horrible crisis, but to try and pin the blame on a whole segment of the church's members and priests who are absolutely innocent of any wrongdoing." Commented Catholic psychologist Eugene Kennedy: "Blaming homosexuals is becoming like the anti-Semitism of the Catholic Church."

The current crisis, in which more than 180 priests have been suspended or have resigned because of abuse allegations, has invigorated church reformers. On the left, liberals want changes in the celibate, male-only priesthood and urge honest talk about sexuality. On the right, conservatives blame loose sexual ethics, with some saying it's time to examine "the lavender mafia" of gays in the priesthood.

Louis Giovino, spokesman for the conservative Catholic League, says it is politically incorrect to talk about homosexuality in this crisis. But Giovino insists the link is more than just coincidence. "They talk about [the scandal] and the abuse of power, but they never talk about the abuse of power of gay priests who took advantage of these young boys," said Giovino.

Some conservatives say the gay rights lobby, and perhaps the news media, hijacked the scandal to push for changes. "To date, there have been few reports exploring the unfortunate reality that 90 percent of the priests accused of sexual abuse have been gay and that the rise of the `lavender clergy' ... has been disastrous for the church," said William McGowan, author of Coloring the News and a fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute.

Leading psychotherapists, however, caution against making a link between gay priests and abusive priests. A. W. Richard Sipe, a former priest and seminary professor who has been married for 32 years, researched gay priests for 25 years and estimates that at least 30 percent of all priests are gay. He says his research shows that gay priests are no less celibate than their straight colleagues.

Both Sipe and Jordan, the Emory professor, see something a bit more insidious at work. Jordan said the network of gay priests "isn't pale lavender; it's hot pink." Bishops are on the offensive, he claimed, only so they can hide their own homosexuality. "There are very closeted gay men in positions of power whose survival depends on keeping their secret," Jordan contended.

The issue might not matter to many rank-and-file Catholics. A recent Newsweek poll found 45 percent of Catholics don't see a link between abuse and gay priests. Fifty-nine percent said an effort to purge the church of gay priests would not make a difference, and 45 percent indicated that they don't care if their priest is gay.

The rhetoric surrounding the gay issue has not helped the church's already damaged image. After the rector of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York blamed the scandal on the "disorder" of homosexuality, nearly 150 gay rights protesters led by the influential Human Rights Campaign picketed outside the cathedral during Sunday mass.