Vigneron softens tone on Communion for Catholic gay supporters

On the eve of hosting an international conference for priests and educators about outreach to gay Catholics, Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron has backed away from controversial comments that suggested Catholics who support gay unions and marriage should refrain from receiving the sacrament of Communion.

“Whenever it comes to Communion, the objective is never to steer a person away,” Vigneron said in an e-mail Friday to the Free Press, part of a larger statement that buoyed gay rights supporters.

In an April 2013 Free Press article, Vigneron said Catholics who back same-sex marriage and receive Communion would “logically bring shame for a double-dealing that is not unlike perjury.” But in his current statement, Vigneron recognized that faithful Catholics — dealing with gay relatives now legally free to marry in civil ceremonies and in other churches that perform same-sex marriages unlike the Catholic Church — are feeling torn.

Vigneron’s softened language comes at a key time, just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned state bans on gay marriage and just weeks before Pope Francis, who has displayed a more welcoming, inclusive attitude about gay Catholics, is to visit the U.S. in September. Francis’ outreach has sharply divided Catholic bishops worldwide, many of whom will gather at the Vatican in October to hash out statements about gay Catholics.

“The church and her pastors are there to help harmonize these priorities — of being faithful to and open about the truth (of church teachings about sexuality), and of being loving and compassionate to fellow Catholics in their personal and family lives,” Vigneron wrote. “Given the variety of circumstances which go into a person’s particular situation, the best way forward for one person may not be best for another.”

Catholics who support gay rights hailed Vigneron’s new statement as more tolerant, open-minded, and a retreat from his previous harsh comments.

They also said Vigneron’s comments reflect the more expansive tone about homosexuality promoted by Pope Francis, whose comments such as “Who am I to judge” about gay Catholics and other actions have heartened gay rights supporters.

“This is lovely. That’s an invitation,” said Linda Karle-Nelson of Farmington Hills, who with her husband, Tom Nelson, picketed Vigneron’s office after his 2013 remarks and leads a support group called Fortunate Families for Catholics with gay family members.

She said she interpreted Vigneron’s most recent comments to reflect church-going Catholics such as she and her husband, parents to gay sons, who “if your conscience tells you that you are in line with Christ, that you’re thinking like Christ, then you are certainly welcome at the Communion table.”

“He’s really taken a big step forward,” Tom Nelson said. “It’s a very welcoming and loving response. It’s a Jesus response.”

Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the Maryland-based New Ways Ministry, an advocacy group for Catholics who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT), but which is not sanctioned by the Catholic Church, was also buoyed by Vigneron’s latest comments.

“It recognizes that people, in their consciences, have to weigh the church’s teachings in their own lives and relationships. That is authentic Catholic teaching. He’s not watering down anything. He’s proclaiming the church’s teaching more accurately than he did back then,” claimed DeBernardo.

Outreach to gays

Catholic outreach to gay Catholics is the subject of a conference that opens today in Plymouth. Some 400 people — mostly clergy, Catholic educators and youth ministers from Michigan, but also from 33 other states, Canada and overseas — are registered to attend the 21/2-day seminar titled “Welcoming and Accompanying Our Brothers and Sisters with Same-Sex Attractions.” Vigneron will celebrate the closing mass on Wednesday.

The conference, co-organized by Courage International, a church-sanctioned ministry that counsels gay Catholics to live chaste lives, will feature several conservative Catholic activists, who stress the church’s teachings against same-sex unions against a growing cultural tide of acceptance. The conference also will feature speakers who say they are gay and live chaste lives.

The conference’s other principal organizer is Catholic moral theologian Janet Smith, a professor at Detroit’s Sacred Heart Major Seminary and who is an adviser to the Vatican’s Pontifical Council on the Family, a post to which she was appointed by the late Pope John Paul II.

Smith, an outspoken conservative, is blunt in delivering a message that some gay Catholics might find unwelcoming.

This week’s conference, said Smith in an e-mail to the Free Press, is designed to “serve those who find that elements commonly found in the gay lifestyle — promiscuity, anonymous sex, heartbreak, sexually transmitted diseases — is not for them.”

Smith said the U.S. Supreme Court decision in June legalizing marriage for gay people is “more than a little likely” to lead to incest being legalized. Asked if it would be sinful for faithful Catholics to attend the wedding of a gay couple, Smith discouraged it.

“These are questions that sound to Catholics like ‘would you decorate your living room with round squares. We don’t believe that the ‘weddings’ or ‘marriages’ are possible between a male and a male or a female and a female,” wrote Smith.

“Attending those ceremonies would create great confusion for everyone involved since people would rightly understand one’s presence as approval,” said Smith. “Parents should always express and live out unconditional love for their children, for those who are living in accord with God’s plan for sexuality and those who are not. But this does not mean that the parents must violate their own beliefs to accommodate those of their children.”

Catholic gay rights supporter DeBernardo said Smith’s comments show that some church leaders are “burying their heads in the sand.”

“They have to live and work with the fact that gay and lesbian people are going to get married, and those are people who work in their employment, their communities and their parishes. The people who work with them are going to be their family members and friends,” DeBernardo said. “They can’t pretend it’s not there. And it seems that’s what they’re trying to do.”

The Rev. Paul Check, a Connecticut priest who directs the Courage ministry, said this week’s conference wants to help Catholics who are gay, and “who have not found contentment in homosexual life and don’t want to live it” and want to “look to the Gospel as being their guide.”

Check seemed to distance himself from Smith’s comments. Check said he’s “not casting any judgment” about gay people and that this week’s conference is “not on any campaign against the civil law (legalizing same-sex marriage) or people who have chosen to live what the civil law” allows.

The Supreme Court decision does not require religious ministers to perform same-sex marriages. Check said he “doesn’t want to draw a sharp line” around the issue of Catholics attending marriage ceremonies for LGBT people.

Check said many Catholics disagree with moral and social issues concerning family members, but don’t have to abstain from attending weddings for same-sex couples. Check said it’s natural for family members to want to participate in “an occasion of joy” for relatives, even if as faithful Catholics they may disagree.

“I’m here because you’re my son or my daughter, but not because I think this union is going to be good for you,” is how Check described a scenario.

Global gatherings

All of this comes as Pope Francis heads to the U.S. to attend the World Meeting of Families Catholic gathering in Philadelphia.

And in October, many Catholic bishops will gather for the second session of a Vatican Synod to discuss family issues. Last year’s session revealed a sharp divide between bishops using more welcoming language toward gay Catholics and couples, and hardliners who blocked the effort.

Smith said essays by conference contributors are being published in a book to be sent to bishops attending the October Vatican Synod. Vigneron will not be attending the synod.

At last year’s synod session, a draft statement presented by some Catholic bishops didn’t alter the church’s opposition to same-sex marriage, but the draft said “homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer to the Christian community.” Gay rights groups welcomed the dramatic shift in tone, another sign of the influence of Pope Francis’ inclusive language and posture, but conservative bishops prevailed in removing the language.

The Catholic Church says it welcomes gay people but calls their sexual orientation “disordered.” The church considers sex acts — other than between a man and a woman in marriage — to be sinful. That includes gay sex acts, premarital sex and adultery. The church calls gay sex “intrinsically disordered” because it cannot result in procreation.

A 2014 Pew Research Center survey found that 85% of Catholics ages 18-29 said society should accept homosexuality, while 13% did not.

Overall, some 57% of U.S. Catholics support same-sex marriage, according to 2014 Pew Research. But support wanes among older Catholics for same-sex marriage — only 38% of those 65 and older agree with it.

Contact Patricia Montemurri: 313-223-4538 or pmontemurri@freepress.com

Catholic conference

Beginning Monday evening through Wednesday, the Detroit archdiocese is hosting a conference for 400 priests and Catholic educators from around the country at the Inn at St. John’s, a former seminary at 44045 5 Mile Rd. The conference, which is not open to the public, is called “Welcoming and Accompanying Our Brothers and Sisters with Same-Sex Attractions.”

Conference protest

Members of the local Fortunate Families support group for gay Catholics said they’ve organized a peaceful sidewalk protest from 7:30 - 9 a.m. Tuesday at the conference site. It’s unrealistic and cruel, said organization leaders Linda Karle-Nelson and Tom Nelson, for Catholic leaders to expect LGBT people to remain chaste.

Detroit Catholic Archbishop Allen Vigneron’s statement

This statement was issued Friday after the Free Press asked Archbishop Allen Vigneron whether he reaffirmed his 2013 comments suggesting Catholics who support gay unions and marriage should refrain from receiving the Catholic sacrament of Communion:

“When Catholics have a question about the reception of Holy Communion and their relationship with a family member or loved one with a same-sex attraction, that is a situation in which a person should see his or her pastor. It involves both the teaching of the Church, which Catholics hold as indispensable in guiding their relationship with Christ, and the obligation we have to love and support our family members.

The Church and her pastors are there to help harmonize these priorities — of being faithful to and open about the truth, and of being loving and compassionate to fellow Catholics in their personal and family lives. Given the variety of circumstances which go into a person’s particular situation, the best way forward for one person may not be best for another.

In every situation the best solution is the one that assists Catholics to express their love for a family member in accordance with the conviction they solemnly affirm in receiving Holy Communion, that is, their commitment to think and act in communion with Christ and his Church. Whenever it comes to Communion, the objective is never to steer a person away. Rather it is to steer them toward Communion with Jesus and toward the Good News about God’s love and God’s will for humanity. That is the work of the Church.”