AS VEGAS - Chuck Provancher and David Lenoir of Arlington,
Mass., insist that when they stand with dozens of other same-sex Catholic
couples this morning in a makeshift chapel decked with cactuses, their
minds will be focused primarily on blessing and affirming their nine-year
relationship.
Yet they acknowledge that the group ceremony, which was long planned
but which will be held 10 days after the Roman Catholic Church issued its
edict calling same-sex relationships ''against the natural moral law,''
has taken on an unavoidable connotation.
''It makes for an interesting juxtaposition, the Vatican statements on
the one hand and the truth of life-affirming committed relationships on
the other,'' said Provancher, 36, a computer graphic designer in
Boston.
The event - a blessing by a pair of lay couples and not a sanctioned
holy matrimony - caps a four-day conference for about 300 members of
DignityUSA, a national gay and lesbian Catholic organization.
Many participants say that the Vatican's stand against same-sex unions
and revelations of sexual abuse by priests have caused them to question
their faith.
''It's been the first time in my life I have seriously asked the
questions, `Could I remain a Catholic? Can we make it a church I want to
raise my daughter in?''' said Marianne Duddy, 42, of Boston, who steps
down tomorrow as Dignity's executive director. ''But I don't want to be
forced out, I don't want to be driven out. It is a faith that has been
handed down to me through the generations. I don't know how I could ever
get away from that.''
Duddy's plight reflects that of many gay Catholics across the country.
Andrew Sullivan, the neoconservative author and Internet diarist, has
spent recent weeks chronicling his own torment over whether to remain a
Catholic amid the Vatican pronouncements. ''This debate is not an abstract
one for me or for many others,'' Sullivan wrote on his website last week.
''Our very integrity as human beings and equality as citizens is being
weighed in the balance by others with enormous power over us.''
On July 31, the Vatican issued a 12-page edict titled ''Considerations
Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual
Persons.'' It attacked the growing worldwide movement toward legalizing
same-sex marriage and warned Catholic politicians around the world that
supporting legislation that recognizes gay couples would be ''gravely
immoral.''
In his opening remarks on Thursday evening, DignityUSA's president,
Patrick McArron of San Diego, railed against the ''elite old-boy's club''
in Rome who had committed acts of ''spiritual terrorism'' against
homosexuals and others. McArron insisted that ''tonight is not about
anger, it's about celebration,'' but then quickly resumed his fighting
tone.
''We have much to celebrate in the face of this adversity,'' said
McArron, who is 56. ''We have each other to love and, by God, we have as
much right as anyone else to express that love for each other emotionally
and spiritually. In fact, we have a right to all seven sacraments.''
The organization echoed this yesterday in a new position paper
rejecting the Vatican statement and concluding: ''The love that brings and
binds two people of the same, or opposite, sex together has a divine
source. It is therefore sacramental in nature and should be celebrated as
such by our church.''
While the controversies have disheartened many, they also have helped
Dignity grow in a burst. Membership is up to about 3,000 people from 2,400
at the start of 2002, a 25 percent increase in 19 months. Duddy attributes
that growth in part to the group's efforts to dispute church leaders who
linked the abuse scandal to homosexuality.
The same-sex couple blessing isn't the only portion of the weekend
program likely to raise the ire of traditionalists. A full Mass was said
yesterday by the Rev. John Crepeau, a priest from San Diego who has been
on leave for 10 years. The Catholic Church does not recognize such Masses;
by papal edict Dignity has been prohibited from recognition since 1986.
The Boston chapter uses St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church for its
Sunday evening liturgies.
Despite the problems, attendees insisted that the church laity are
starting to question the hierarchy's teaching on homosexuality. In
addition, the church can also be a force of good, said Mike Cook, 51, of
Skokie, Ill.
''There are some things that come from the church I do agree with,
including its opposition to the war in Iraq and to the death penalty,''
said Cook, who works as a hospital bookkeeper. ''It's important not to
leave. If I leave, they win.''
.gif){kind=spacer}
