Religion: Gays Vs. The Vatican

American homosexual activists call the dreaded document the “Halloween letter.” The directive, issued by the Vatican’s doctrinal congregation on Oct. 30, 1986, was approved by Pope John Paul and dispatched to all Roman Catholic bishops around the world. In it, Rome ordered them to withdraw support from any organization that is either “ambiguous” or opposed to the church’s teaching that homosexual behavior is sinful. Any hint of endorsement for gay liberation groups, warned Rome, “can be gravely misinterpreted.” In particular, allowing them to meet in Catholic churches or schools was deemed “misleading and often scandalous.”

The Vatican’s main target in the U.S. was Dignity, an organization for gay Catholics that had been allowed to hold special Masses in many dioceses. Prodded by the San Francisco chapter, one of Dignity’s largest (250 members), Dignity’s next national convention responded defiantly to Rome, declaring that “gay and lesbian people can express their sexuality physically, in a unitive manner that is loving, life-giving and life-affirming.”

Rome’s ruling and Dignity’s equally blunt response forced the hand of the U.S. hierarchy. Since then, 20 of the country’s 187 dioceses have banished Dignity meetings from church premises. Among dioceses with large homosexual populations, the last holdout was San Francisco. But early in November that city’s Archbishop, John Quinn, finally summoned the local Dignity leaders to a polite showdown. When they stood by their gay-is-good policy, he informed them that Dec. 18 will mark the last in a 15-year series of Sunday-night Dignity Masses in the city’s Catholic churches. Last week Quinn took the final step by informing the archdiocese’s priests that they may no longer celebrate Dignity Masses in any location.

“I feel the Holy Spirit is leading us to the desert before we return home,” said Dignity’s national president James Bussen, a Chicago management consultant. San Francisco, he declared, “was the last bastion of the liberal wall to fall.” Not quite. Detroit, Milwaukee, Portland, Sacramento and San Antonio, at least, still allow Dignity to meet in church, though Rome’s pressure on them is sure to grow. A chapter in Dayton also sponsors public Masses, but it has agreed to accept church teaching.

Elsewhere Dignity is struggling to cope. A New York City chapter has been split over one faction’s marches and disruption of Masses at St. Patrick’s Cathedral to protest the tough new church line. Some chapters have found priests willing to celebrate Masses quietly in non-Catholic buildings, but often with dwindling attendance. Other chapters have disbanded. Nonetheless, 104 chapters remain, and nationwide membership is holding at 4,500 to 5,000.

San Francisco Dignity members may now simply attend Mass in parishes that have large numbers of homosexuals but do not make a point of it. On the Dec. 18 deadline, Dignity worshipers will march out of a Catholic church in protest and complete their Mass inside a liberal Protestant sanctuary. Thereafter, Dignity plans to continue worshiping with priests who are willing to disregard Quinn’s edict. Pointedly, a Christmas Eve Mass will be celebrated in a public school directly across the street from Quinn’s office. Insists local Dignity spokesman Kevin Calegari: “We have never had church approval. We don’t need it.”