Some have disagreed with exposing the story about Bethlehem High School principal Paul Schum. They have argued that there's no documentation of anti-gay statements, etc., by Mr. Schum. While that may be technically true, one must look at the larger institution for which he works and its consistent anti-gay message. Yes, I will admit that my main beef is with the Catholic Church and the posion it continues to throw out against gays to this very day. Having been raised Catholic and not leaving the Church until later in life, I know only TOO well the extreme harm it and its minions - of which Schum is but one - inflict on countless LGBT individuals everyday. Only God knows how many have been driven to suicide because of it. Like it or not, Schum in his position as principal is a facilitator in the dissemination of the Church's poison.
Other than going to church with my mother - a real sacrifice in my mind that I make in deference to her - I have not stepped in a Catholic church in over eight years. To my view, despite the good it may do in some of its charitable endeavors, under the past and current heirarchy, the Catholic Church continues to be a corrupt, hypocritical and - in my opinion - evil institution. The difference between the anti-gay mindset of its leadership and Islamic fundamentalists is but one of degree. To the victim, I wonder sometimes if physical murder may be less cruel than life long torment and self-hate, which is the Church's main commodity towards gays. Here is Pope Benedict XVI's view of homosexuality:
it is a more or less strong tendency ordered to an intrinsic moral evil, and thus the inclination itself must be seen as an objective disorder... Letter to the Bishops, 1986, quoted in National Catholic Reporter .
Gay marriage:
to create a legal form of a kind of homosexual marriage, in reality, does not help these people. Interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, 2004
That's the message Mr. Schum is supporting, directly and indirectly.
Last year, by coincidence, I was visiting my mother the weekend before the November election when Virginia's anti-gay "Marriage Amendment" was on the ballot. As is my practice, I went to church with her because it means a lot to her to not have go alone now that my Dad is gone (back then, he had been dead for slightly over a month). On that weekend, all parishes in Virginia were commanded to read a joint letter from Virginia's Catholic bishops supporting the "Marriage Amendment" and opposing any recognition of gay relationships. Suffice it to say, the depiction of gays as an moral evil out to destroy marriage was the main message.
I was so disgusted that I walked out of the service and waited in the church lobby for my mother. While waiting, I killed time looking at various bulletin boards and displays. What really was disgusting is that in the lobby of the same church (which in many ways is a liberal parish given the liberalizing influence of UVA which dominates the parish) were programs for all kinds of "social justice" and "repect for human dignity." Except for dignity for gays or social justice for gays that is. We LGBT individuals in short, did not reach the level of being treated as fully human and worthy of such efforts. I am sorry, but in my view anyone who is an official functionary of The Catholic Church who is caught as Mr. Schum was caught deserves to be exposed and humiliated.
BTW, mother and I have talked about her continued attendance at Catholic mass and she basically feels at age 80, it's a bit late to be looking for a new denomination. She says she simply ignores what she doesn't agree with. While I do not agree with her approach, at age 80, she is entitled to do as she wishes.
3 comments:
As a non-Catholic who can appreciate the ill-effects a religion can have on gays and lesbians -- and assigns most sexual repression to the three major Abrahamic religions -- a catholic monastery and religious brother was my first liaison, S.F. Archbishop John Quinn wrote the first gay-affirming episcopal pastoral in 1975 and was the first Christian anywhere to help defeat the 1978 Knight Initiative, joined by the entire California episcopacy, was the first Christian to insist upon charity towards AIDS, the first bishop to create both a GLBT-outreach and AIDS ministry, the first to insist JPII confront AIDS as a pastoral issue, was in the national forefront of the 40 Hours annual novena at Most Holy Redeemer in the Castro to cure AIDS, the first to call AIDS prejudice a "mortal sin," and in whose diocese one of the first AIDS victims was a nun from blood transfusion -- all of which are far more powerful signs of Christian charity than any individual's discontent.
While all Abrahamic religions are homophobic, and while Judeo-Catholicism tend to produce repressed paraphiliacs and deviants, some of us non-Catholics find individuals, like Archbishop John Quinn, to be a true pioneer in reforms, compassion, and charity towards Gay Liberation and AIDS. Many Gay Catholics staid with their Church because of pastors like Quinn.
JPII, Ratzinger, and Mother Teresa, I confess, are another matter.
But Catholicism does not have a monopoly on homophobia, and many wonderful and loving gay men have come from Catholic homes, with parents whose Catholicism was the most tolerant and accepting, precisely because of all the Christianities, Catholicism comes closest to Jesus himself. Michael Bayley of The Wild Reed is an example of Catholicism in action and paradigmatic of gay Catholics and their activism throughout the decades.
If nothing else, despite the homophobia and repression, Catholicism's call to charity first has produced some of the most loving gay men on earth. But whatever voice Catholic Christianity could provide has been swallowed in the worldwide religious fundamentalist revivial, and now none of the Abrahamic religions can be trusted to benefit humanity. Prior to 1986, I could point to one exception.
This isn't about Catholicism. It's not about Christianity. People want to think that this is a knock on Catholicism or has some type of higher consequences in the grand scheme of religion and life. However, those people don't realize that Paul Schum is a real person.
He isn't and wasn't pushing an agenda. He is guy with kids, a career, and thousands of friends who all hold him or have held him in high esteem.
There are many homosexuals out there that are still a member of the Catholic church and have reconciled the differences between the church and their sexuality.
Anonymous,
You said:
"Paul Schum is a real person . . .He is guy with kids, a career, and thousands of friends . . ."
So were a number of gays I have known who chose suicide because of the anti-gay poison put out by the Catholic Church. So are many gay Catholics I know who are still tormented by the guilt instilled in them by the Church. Believe it or not, gays are real people too: we have feelings, families, and bleed like everyone else.
As for your claim that there are many gays who have reconciled their sexual orientation with the Church's teachings, I guess I just have not met any. I know a large number of gay Catholics and without eception they either no longer attend church and/or have changed to different denominations that do not say that gays are inherently disordered with an evil element.
If Schum has no agenda, he should stop being a tool of the Catholic Church.
I do not by the "good Nazi" excuse, sorry.
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