Dignity Chicago, the advocacy organization for GLBT Catholics, has joined other gay Catholics in requesting that the Catholic Medical Association (CMA) cease promoting two documents that claim to "counter the myth that same-sex attraction is genetically predetermined and unchangeable and offers hope for prevention and treatment."
The documents, posted on the CMA's Web site (www.CathMed.org), called "Homosexuality and Hope" and "A Letter to the Catholic Bishops," challenges current medical and psychological theories regarding the origins of homosexuality and recommends reparative therapy for those who are gay. Reparative therapy is based on a belief that homosexuality is a subversion of normal heterosexuality.
"I'm sure I can speak for the majority of gay Catholics in saying that I am saddened, dismayed and terribly embarrassed by the statements of the Catholic Medical Association, a group of supposed health professionals, backing long-ago discredited 'weak dad, strong mom' theories of the causes of homosexuality," said Marianne Duddy, executive director of Dignity/USA.
CMA, an organization of Catholic healthcare professionals, pledges to "uphold the principles of the Catholic Faith as related to the practice of medicine and to promoting Catholic medical ethics to the medical profession, including mental health professionals, the clergy and the general public." But Duddy says the Association has fallen down on its principles "when it endorses such quackery as reparative therapy."
The CMA will meet at the Holiday Inn City Center in Chicago, Oct. 10-12. While the group may be considered fringe by some, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is expected to address CMA Saturday&emdash;proving they do have clout and connections.
Dignity joins other gay Catholics such as Archdiocesan Gay and Lesbian Outreach Chicago (AGLO), in its protesting the documents which they say fail to represent the fullness of the church's teachings on homosexuality and are not based on scientific thought or research of the human sciences.
"Our main concern is to get some indication from Cardinal George that he understands how damaging CMA's rhetoric is to people," Duddy said. "This is the kind of rhetoric that people use to justify gay violence. In fact it offers no hope&emdash;it offers only hopelessness. ... Cardinal George has no business endorsing this kind of stamp."
According to Remington Van Allen, president of Dignity Chicago, the organization is also concerned with CMA's equation of homosexuality with male child and adolescent sexual abuse and the subsequent belief that homosexual men are unfit candidates for the priesthood.
"It is misguided and bad methodology to use the cases of sexual abuse among the Catholic clergy to condemn allhomosexuals as potential child abusers, and thus deny gay men the opportunity to enter religious life. This belief also runs counter to the facts showing that child molestation is a predominantly heterosexual male crime."
Dignity says the CMA ignores Church documents as 'Always Our Children,' which says: "You can help a homosexual person in two general ways. First, encourage him or her to cooperate with God's grace in order to live a chaste life. Second, concentrate on the person, not on the homosexual orientation. This implies respecting a person's freedom to choose or refuse therapy direction toward changing a homosexual orientation. Given the present state of medical and psychological knowledge, there is no guarantee that such therapy will succeed. Thus, there may be no obligation to undertake it, though some may find it helpful."
"We have requested a meeting with Cardinal George and the staff of CMA," Van Allen said.
Dignity Chicago has 70 active local members and recently celebrated its 33rd anniversary. Nationwide the organization has more than 2,300 members.
Dignity encourages GLBT Catholics to write Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, urging him to reject the recommendations of the CMA. The group also encourages letters to the CMA insisting the group reconsider its position.
In related news, AGLO will hold a one-hour prayer vigil to coincide with the opening of the liturgy of the CMA's convention Thursday, Oct. 10 at 8 p.m. at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, 690 W. Belmont Ave.
AGLO officials say they will pray for all that negate Church teachings and current medical understanding of the nature and spirituality of gays, lesbians, transgender and bisexuals and women in the universal outreach of Christ.
People of all faiths are invited to the candlelight vigil.
