Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Issues - Pastoral Guidelines For Ministry to

Typical Pastoral Guidelines For Ministry to Homosexuals This essay takes a typical Catholic parish and presents the guidelines used by this parish in the treatment of gay/les types. The guidelines illustrate the welcoming attitude of this church toward gays. The guidelines are pastoral in character, intended to help priests and parish ministers meet their obligation to serve kindly and conscientiously all who turn to the Church with real needs and honest hope. They do not presume any particular social or psychological analysis of sexuality in our society, except for a generally accepted premise that individuals do choose and can change their sexual orientation and must understand it and integrate it into their life of faith and conscience. The guidelines accept, without elaborating, the perennial teaching of the Catholic Church on sexual morality, conscience, and personal sin. Deeper probing of the ground of this teaching and the contemporary challenges to it must be left to the educational efforts proposed in these guidelines. The guidelines also accept the teaching of the Catholic Church on social ethics but do not propose a social action agenda. When the voice or action of the Church is needed in the religious or secular forum, appropriate agents of the parish and diocese will be informed and enlisted to uphold basic human and civil rights against social or legal discrimination, harassment, intimidation, or violence. The guidelines do not resolve the dilemma surrounding terminology. "Homosexual" seems clear and objective but has come to be regarded by some as too clinical and impersonal, with unwarranted implications of pathology, inferiority, or alienation. "Gay" and "l... ...ll establish its own organization and procedures to address its principal tasks: (a) to inform and advise the bishop on all aspects of this ministry; (b) to enlist the interest and cooperation of diocesan agencies in implementing these guidelines; (c) to recommend, promote, or provide, in consultation with these agencies, programs of education and information. The Pastoral Resource Committee will regularly evaluate and recommend publications to support these education programs or the personal study resources for pastoral ministers. The Pastoral Resource Committee will evaluate, in accord with these guidelines, organizations to be served, consulted, or enlisted in this ministry. There we have it - a pastoral approach to gay/les members. WORKS CITED: "To Live in Christ Jesus," 1976 US Conference of Catholic Bishops