Homosexuality debated despite Hickey protest - discussion on Catholicism and homosexuality at Georgetown University

National Catholic Reporter, Dec 19, 1997 by Chuck Colbert

"I think the use of that term was a monumental mistake," McCormick said. The audience interrupted him with applause.

Continuing, McCormick said, "It does nothing to enlighten the situation. ... It has very sinister connotations because the explanation given is that it inclines a person to inherently immoral actions, and that makes it a moral disorder in a certain sense. ... It's terribly unfortunate that term was used. ... It was terribly counterproductive."

McNeill responded, I was so delighted to hear Father McCormick say that [the term objective disorder] was a disaster as a statement because I saw the disastrous consequences in the lives of many people."

"I agree that was a fundamental mistake," said Hanigan. "Anything that takes 40 more documents to explain can`t be very helpful at the outset," he added.

Touching upon the hotly disputed issue of conversion or reparative therapy, Arm Rodgers-Melnick, religion reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, posed the question: "Would you ever counsel someone to try therapy or a support group to change their orientation from homosexual to heterosexual?"

"I don't know if there are some or many who go through a form of repatriation," McCormick answered.

It's not a theological issue, said Hanigan. "There are people who testify on both the irreversibility and the reversibility." It then becomes a matter of "whose experience is trumped," he said.

But McNeill took strong exception to people who claim to transform homosexuals. The American Psychological Association recently voted by a huge majority that to hold out such a goal for therapy would be unethical and unmoral because there is no scientific evidence that such a change is possible," he said.

"In my experience of 25 years, nobody can change," he added.

During a reception following the debate, someone remarked, "It happened," marveling that such a discussion occurred at a Catholic institution.

The real measure of the conversation "won't be as much in the speaking, as it will be in the listening," D`Arienzo said.