Conference at Fordham University May Cast Doubt, Challenge Catholic Teaching on Homosexuality

This Friday, September 16, Fordham University in New York is scheduled to host the first installment of the “More than a Monologue” conference series, described on its website as a collaboration between four universities “to change the conversation about sexual diversity and the Catholic Church.”  Two of the co-sponsors, Fordham and Fairfield Universities, are Jesuit, Catholic institutions.

The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) has written to Fordham University—including Fordham president Fr. Joseph McShane, S.J.—calling on conference leaders to ensure that Church teaching is authentically presented at this event, which is advertised in such a way as to cast doubt on Catholic teaching on homosexuality.

The home page for “More than a Monologue” reads: “For too long, the conversation on lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender issues in the Roman Catholic Church has been only a monologue—the sole voice being heard is that of the institutional Catholic Church.  We must engage in more than a monologue by having a 21st century conversation on sexual diversity, with new and different voices heard from.”

Friday’s “More than a Monologue” conference at Fordham is titled “Learning to Listen: Voices of Sexual Diversity and the Catholic Church”.  Three other conferences in this series are scheduled to take place in October at Union Theological Seminary, Yale Divinity School, and Fairfield University.

In a September 8th letter, Patrick J. Reilly, President of The Cardinal Newman Society, urged Fordham’s conference organizers, both Fordham professors, to ensure that Catholic teaching is “authentically presented and promoted at the event, or to cancel the event entirely.”  He cited a September 7th press release from Fordham University, Fairfield University and other co-sponsors, claiming that the conference would answer questions that appear to undermine Catholic teaching.  The questions and The Cardinal Newman Society’s concerns include:

·         “When the Catholic bishops speak, whom do they speak for?”

The implication is that the bishops do not speak for the conference sponsors or for homosexual Catholics.  This casts doubt on the bishops’ authoritative teaching requiring the assent of all the Catholic faithful.

·         “How do LGBT Catholics reconcile identity, behavior and beliefs with messages coming from the Catholic hierarchy?  Do they leave the church?  Do they take a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ approach?  Do they stay and suffer or stay and speak out?”

The first question implies that “messages from the Catholic hierarchy” are somehow in conflict with the genuinely Catholic “identity, behavior and beliefs” of homosexual Catholics.  If the question relates to dissent from Catholic teaching, then it should not refer to all “LGBT Catholics.”  For those who dissent, it would seem the Church already generously offers the Sacrament of Confession for Catholics seeking to “reconcile” with Catholic teaching.

The options presented for Catholics finding conflict with the bishops are dire: “leave the Church” (which seems entirely inappropriate for a Catholic university to recommend for consideration), “don’t ask, don’t tell” (suggesting quiet dissent and perhaps sinful activity, also not an option to be encouraged by a Catholic university), “stay and suffer” (which implies that remaining within the Church is itself a cause of suffering, and that the Cross of refraining from same-sex activity cannot be a fulfilling, faithful response to same-sex attraction), or “speak out” (implying public dissent and scandal).

·         “Marriage equality is a civil issue, what does the Catholic Church have to do with it?”

Does a Catholic university deny both the natural law and sacramental aspects of marriage?  Is this conference intended to undermine the U.S. bishops’ efforts to support the nature of marriage as between one man and one woman?

The Cardinal Newman Society also questioned why the conference does not appear to acknowledge “the Catholic Church’s pastoral care for homosexual men and women.”

“It is striking that the conference does not appear to involve anyone from the Courage apostolate—the faithfully Catholic outreach to homosexual Catholics that is headquartered just across town from Fordham University,” Reilly wrote.

“Moreover, pastoral care for homosexuals begins with a proper understanding and embrace of Church teaching outlined concretely in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which clearly explains that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.  That this Fordham University conference excludes Courage and advertises topics with no reverence for Church teaching implies strongly that this event is more intended to challenge the Magisterium than to support it.”

The letter urged respect for the Catholic bishops at a Catholic university.

“The urgency of supporting our shepherds in promoting the truth is a calling for all Catholics, but especially Catholic universities where truth must be the foundation for the intellectual life,” Reilly wrote.  “It is then all the more devastating to the work of our Church and bishops when the sponsors of ‘More than a Monologue’ come together with the implied intent to undermine this labor.”