The scandal around the Gay Pride Mass planned at St. Cecilia Church in Boston and then canceled/postponed by the Archdiocese of Boston is hardly over and it’s actually getting worse literally by the hour.
In Saturday’s Boston Globe, we had the Cardinal Archbishop of Boston quoted through his spokesman saying he has “full confidence” in the priest who was to celebrate a Gay Pride Mass; today the priest was unapologetic and accused critics of “hate”; parishioners say the archdiocese knew about the Gay Pride Mass in advance, the parish’s Rainbow Ministry is much more extensive than previously reported, and the archdiocese is squishy on whether the Mass was canceled or is just being postponed and promoted differently.
1. Saturday, diocesan spokesman, Terry Donilon, was quoted in the Boston Globesaying the pastor at St. Cecilia in Boston, Fr. John Unni–who was the scheduled celebrant of a June 19 Mass celebrating Gay Pride Month and who also allows an active Rainbow Ministry at his church–”has the full confidence and support of the Cardinal and the archdiocese” and “is a great pastor.” Meanwhile, the archdiocese’s statement says the Mass celebrating Gay Pride Month was canceled because the bulletin notice, “may have given the unintended impression that the Mass is in support of Gay Pride Week” and it supposedly was not.
2. Fr. Unni spoke about the situation after Mass this morning, failed to read an official statement by the archdiocese he was directed to read, and labeled critics of the Gay Pride Mass “haters.”
A reader wrote in comments today:
“After the 8:00 mass this morning at St Cecilia, Father Unni came on to make a short but impassioned speech about this controversy. He seemed to be struggling to portray this as a disagreement, but it was clear what he thought it was all about: lovers versus haters. In other words, those who opposed the Gay Pride Mass were intolerant, unreasonable bigots, whereas Saint Cecilia welcomed all and always would.
Without any idea of what was coming, I was about to witness Pastor John Unni’s clarification…Apparently, Father John had an official message from the Archdiocese which he never read. Instead he walked amongst his flock, back and forth, speaking with so much passion that at times his face became red. He talked in the strongest terms possible about the importance of inclusion not exclusion…
Father John explained that his only agenda was Christ’s agenda and that it was all of our responsibility to love even when doing so was difficult. And this was one of those moments. He talked about the many messages of support he had gotten since the Rainbow Ministry’s mass had become front page news. But he had also received messages on email and message boards that were deeply troubling. He made it clear we all have a fundamental choice to make in our lives: we can either love or hate. And that Jesus teaches us to love the rich and the poor, the white and the black, the gay and the straight.
“I don’t know if you saw Chronicle the other night,” he concluded. “But one in three teenagers who are gay will attempt suicide. If you are one of those who criticize our outreach, I ask you to look into your soul and ask whether there isn’t a profound opportunity for service and mission when it comes to those young people. Look at the places where you are broken and afraid and ask yourself why we shouldn’t be doing something to help those young people.”
Is it “love” to celebrate people with same-sex attractions living a GLBT lifestyle, or is love to lead them to live their lives consistent with the Word of God and truths of the Gospel? What he said pits him against what Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley said in 2006 in his letter on homosexuality:
Jesus teaches that discipleship implies taking up the cross each day and following Him with love and courage…. It is important to express the moral teachings of the Church with clarity and fidelity. The Church must be Church. We must teach the truths of the Gospel in season and out of season. These recent times seem to us like it is “out of season”, but for that very reason it is even more urgent to teach the hard words of the Gospel today.Calling people to embrace the cross of discipleship, to live the commandments and at the same time assuring them that we love them as brothers and sisters can be difficult. Sometimes we are told: “If you do not accept my behavior, you do not love me.” In reality we must communicate the exact opposite: “Because we love you, we cannot accept your behavior.”
Fr. Unni, is it “love” to encourage teenagers who are confused about their sexuality to experiment with homosexual activity? Is it “Christ’s agenda” to celebrate Gay Pride (as seen below in a Google Images search on gay pride–warning images are graphic), and encourage teenagers to follow that path?
Or is love to lead young people and adults alike to maintain purity and chastity and develop a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ, our Lord God and Savior?
3.Parishioners say the archdiocese knew about the Gay Pride Mass. This CBS news report quotes John Kelly, chairman of the Rainbow Ministry, other members of the group saying “they’d been planning the Mass since January and said the archdiocese was aware of it.” If the Cardinal doesn’t change his mind about canceling the Mass, they plan to get a permit to have an outdoor service at the scheduled time June 19, 6 pm.
4. We’ve just learned that the scope of the Rainbow Ministry at St. Cecilia’s is much more extensive than previously understood.
It’s not just the Gay Pride Mass planned for June 19 that the archdiocese flimsily claims was not really intended to celebrate Gay Pride, even though it was promoted that way and is still listed that way in the June 12 parish bulletin.
It’s not just the trip to see a Gay Men’s Chorus concert that was listed as “a kickoff for Gay Pride weekend.” There’s a lot more–enough more that all of the entries from the Rainbow Ministry blog for St. Cecilia were mysteriously deleted within the past few days.
If they hadn’t been deleted, you’d have seen that on June 2, the St. Cecilia Rainbow Ministry participated in a fundraiser for a home for GLBT teens, The Home for Little Wanderer’s Waltham House. They’re a “group home program designed to provide a safe and supportive living environment for up to 12 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) youth ages 14-18. The program also serves youth who may be questioning (Q) their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.” Is this organization leading confused teens to come to sexual purity and embrace God?
The Lenten prayer program for 2011 was themed, “Follow the Rainbow – Follow Christ.” It included the Paulist Center’s Bob Bowers talking about “The Church: A Spiritual Home for Gay and Lesbian Catholics?”
In February, the Rainbow Ministry’s blog promoted PFLAG’s “Pride and Passion” fundraiser as well as speaker training for parents and allies of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people and LGBTQ people. (PFLAG stands for Parents, Families, & Friends of Lesbians and Gays).
This blogger, the Bryan Hehir Exposed blog, and the people critical of what’s happening at St. Cecilia’s are not about hate or lack of acceptance of people with same-sex attractions. The issue being raised here concerns leading people to the Truth. The Catholic Church believes sex between men and men, or sex between women and women is morally wrong and sinful. Period. For those with same-sex attractions, Catholic ministries like the Courage Apostolate try to lead people live a life consistent with the Word of God. Terry Donilon, the archdiocesean spokesman, called what we have said here and via email to him “neither Christian nor civil.” The Christian approach, according to his boss, Cardinal Sean O’Malley back in 2006, was the following:
Jesus teaches that discipleship implies taking up the cross each day and following Him with love and courage…. It is important to express the moral teachings of the Church with clarity and fidelity. The Church must be Church. We must teach the truths of the Gospel in season and out of season. These recent times seem to us like it is “out of season”, but for that very reason it is even more urgent to teach the hard words of the Gospel today.Calling people to embrace the cross of discipleship, to live the commandments and at the same time assuring them that we love them as brothers and sisters can be difficult. Sometimes we are told: “If you do not accept my behavior, you do not love me.” In reality we must communicate the exact opposite: “Because we love you, we cannot accept your behavior.”
Oh my goodness!
Cardinal O’Malley, please, please come down firmly and correct this confusion and scadal. If there is not unity of belief within the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, how can we with straight faces possibly tell those outside the Church that she is the “pillar and foundation of Truth.” I beg of you to put an end to the confusion of this renegade priest who calls accepting sin love.
Being gay is no more a lifestyle than being left handed is. As the human body matures to adulthood, a lot of switches have to get flipped — neurological, hormonal, and so on. In a certain percentage of the people, a few of these switches get flipped in a way that is slightly different from the way that most people’s are flipped. The difference makes people gay.
The “gay lifestyle” comes after the fact, not before the fact, of someone’s being gay.
I grew up in the ’50s, in a small midwestern town where the “gay lifestyle” was completely unknown — unless you counted Liberace’s television show. A boy in my high school class, let’s call him Charlie, was noticeably different — careful about his dress, quiet not boisterous, and interested in girls only as friends with whom he shared rather girlish interests. Charlie had always been like this. I believe that he acted the way he did because he was the way he was.
We KNOW that many gay people, when they first sense the difference in themselves, are shocked and struggle against it. Many of them are subjected to abuse and ridicule while growing up. Depression and anxiety are common consequences. Suicide, while less common, is far from rare.
Organizations like PFLAG have been formed by parents who see the anguish that their children have suffered because of their being gay. Rob Forman Dew has written a moving memoir, “The Family Heart”, about her discovery and acceptance of one of her son’s homosexuality, and how she came to be a member of PFLAG. Books like this can help us understand what a loving acceptance of the difference in others can be like.
Is it wrong, then, for the Church to help gay people achieve the sense of security and self-acceptance that the rest of take for granted? It seems to me to be quite the reverse.
The Catholic Church HAS a ministry for parents and friends and it is NOT PFLAG – it is called Encourage, part of the Courage ministry.
I’m afraid you’re wrong. Having blonde hair, or brown eyes or being male, or female, being caucasian, black, Latino, or left-handed are all biological traits.
Someone might find they have a same-sex attraction for whatever reason that is. Some say it’s nature, some say it’s nurture, and others say it’s a combination of factors. They don’t have to act on that attraction–that’s a matter of personal choice, and even if someone has a same-sex attraction, that does not mean they have declared themselves to be “gay” or “lesbian.”
“Gay” or “lesbian” is declared by people. You could not be more wrong to equate it as equal to being left-handed.
Organizations like Courage have been formed in the Catholic Church to minister to those with same-sex attractions,encouraging such people to abstain from acting on their sexual desires and to live chastely according to the Catholic Church’s teachings on homosexuality. Courage also sponsors an outreach program called Encourage, which ministers to relatives and friends of persons with same-sex attractions providing help by “supporting one another and their loved ones through discussion, prayer and fellowship.”
That is the direction we suggest you and others follow.
Joe,
We’ll have to disagree about this one. In an earlier post, I mentioned someone I went to high school with — a boy named “Charlie” — who was certainly gay, and adopted gay mannerisms, dress, and so on, in a time and place when there was no visible “gay lifestyle” to emulate. I can only conclude that he simply was gay, and did not become gay by any process of nuturing or example.
Since high school, I have worked with a lot of gay men, and they never act out of character, which suggests to me that for them, being gay is not a role that they have adopted, but a manifestation of what they are. They never take a furtive glance at an attractive young woman; they don’t linger at construction sites to watch the backhoes rip up parking lots; they have little enthusiasm for professional sports — and so on and so on. If being gay were only a voluntarily adopted stance, I’d think they would slip up from time to time. They never seem to slip up.
If you read memoirs of gay people, or books about them, you will find that gay people do not decide to become gay — they discover that they are gay, usually in puberty. And for many of them, the discovery is a shock, and they fight against it. Again, I recommend that you read “The Family Heart” by Robb Forman Dew, which tells of her dismay and fear at realizing that one of her sons is gay, and of the long process by which she came to understand what this means for her son.
Finally, some evidence of biological differences between gay men and straight men are starting to surface. The content of pituitary glands in gay men is much closer to what it is in women than to what it is in heterosexual men. The pituitary gland is a sort of hormonal maestro that regulates growth and sexual differentiation, so this difference in the pituitary glands of gay men and straight men is more than likely significant.
All this is pretty strange, I admit. But the Bible tells us, over and over, that the ways of God are strange and unfathomable. Could it be that the Bible is right?
The Catholic church includes over a billion people with a vast variety of life styles, only a small proportion of which are saint-like. Let’s not waste time arguing with each other and, instead, concentrate on the many aspects of Catholic teaching about the value of every human life and the need to help the poor in every country.
You need to accept gays for who we are and what we do. If you don’t, that’s up to you, but you need to never leave your church. Stay there all the time and let the rest of live however we choose to without interference from your religion.
Father Unni’s speech was powerful and uplifting. We are proud to have him as our priest and to raise our children in a church that emphasizes love and acceptance. He shows real leadership.
Amen!
The Mass was not to be in celebration of Gay Pride Week. The Rainbow Ministry is not in promotion of homosexual acts, as so many claim, but simply accepting of those who are homosexual. Come off your judgmental high horses, you bigots.
Will Fr. Unni and those who are currently engaging in homosexual acts who belong to St. Cecilia’s Rainbow Ministry publicly in a written statement accept the way of Courage ?Courage is the only organization that has the endorsement of the Holy See. Cardinal Lopez Trujillo,speaking on behalf of the Holy See has stated: “This Pontifical Council for the Family supports the organization called COURAGE which was founded by Father John Harvey,OSFS, For helping homosexual persons to live in accordance with the laws of God and the teaching of His Church.”(July 7,1994). Certainly Fr. Unni and the members of the Rainbow Ministry have had plenty of time to learn about and accept the way of Courage. When asked at a Companions meeting in 1990 at the second meeting at the parish where Fr. Walter Cuenin was pastor, Our Lady Help of Christians parish, if those who were developong membership in the Companions organization would accept the way of Courage, the attendees, who were passing out fliers supporting Dignity, New Ways Ministry and PFLAG ,became very angry and said that Courage ” offered them nothing”! I suspect that the members of the Rainbow Ministry at St. Cecilia’s will be just as angry if asked to endorse Courage since the way of Courage requires a commitment to living a chaste life according to the teaching of the Catholic Church. Their acts of anger and hatred toward the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding the call to chastity is certainly a form of discrimination and bigotry. Will Fr. Unni and the members of the Rainbow Ministry publicly and in writing endorse the way of Courage now?
@Alice: This is not a progressive blog, so each post I make could start with pre-101 topics such as enlightening you to the existence of privilege, yours being something past which you cannot see. Gay people fight against being called to chastity because we don’t want to be celibate. We aren’t going to be celibate, and we aren’t going to accept that we shall be shamed for being visible as sexually active, romantically coupled people. We don’t want you to stop existing, but we want you to shut up with suggesting out loud that our sexuality and relationships aren’t just as good and healthy as yours. That’s not bigotry, it’s fighting against bigotry. Our two standpoints and goals are not equivalent. Your position and mindset is bigoted. Ours isn’t in that our only objection to you is your aggressive objection to us. Shut up, and we’ll leave you alone.
If I may be permitted to make a suggestion. You might try locating archived posts of the rainbowministry blog by visiting waybackmachine.org. This is an internet archive site. Simply enter the internet blog address for the rainbowminstry blog in the search engine and you should be able to read any and all past posts.
Be careful though, sometimes a website will add malicious spyware or some sort of destructive virus. If someone has an old computer which is expendable, this might be more safe.
God bless!
Correction: The date when The Companions program that I referred to took place was Nov.17,1999 at Our Lady Help of Christians Church. It followed upon an event that alarmed a member of EnCourage who was told by Bishop Wm. Murphy,the Archdiocesan Moderator at that time, that she should attend the opening Mass for the Companions program at Our Lady Help of Christians Church on Oct. 29,1999. She told me that the homily of the Mass was devoted to endorsing homosexual behavior as good . She asked me to attend the next meeting which was advertised in Fr. Cuenin’s bulletin as a way “to help the parish have a better understanding of the teaching of the Catholic Church’s teaching with regard to homosexuality….Rev. James O’Donohoe,professor of Boston College and former professor of St. John’s Seminary, will present the talk. he will explain the church’s position and how that has changed.” I attende this meeting. It was at this meeting that fliers were distributed by members of the New Ways Ministry by members of “Catholic Parents Network, Immaculate Conception Church Rectory,Stoughton,MA”,Jean Proia and Fr. John J. White. Some fliers from “GLO Ministries(Gay/Lesbian Outreach for PFLAG) were distributed by Fr. Richard Lewandowski,St. Camillus Church,Fitchburg. Charles Connors, the president of Boston PFLAG was also present endorsing PFLAG. Fr. O’Donohoe compared the desire for same-sex sex to his “proclivity for chocolates” and did not consider the behavior to be a sin.( Bill Cotter videotaped the talk.) Recommended readings included books by Fr. Robert Nugent,SDS and Sr. Jeannine Gramick,SSND. Their books have been banned by the Holy See because they advocated for the way of PFLAG and insisted that the Catholic Church bless the “union” of same-sex partners in the PFLAG publication “Is it a Sin?” They insisted that homosexual acts are not a sin. Members of Catholic Charities were present and when I asked them if they thought the way of Courage was a way they could support, they said that they thought that Courage was a waste of time. At the next meeting which was held at the Catholic Charities room in the basement of the old convent at St. Patrick’s parish in Natick, when i asked the Catholic Charities Social Worker, Vivian Soper, if Cardinal Law knew that the Companions program was endorsing PFLAG, I was physically thrown out of the room and ordered to be silenced. Bishop Murphy was sent all of this information but he very shortly transferred to Rockville,N.Y. which was just before the Globe articles began to come out about the Fr. Paul Shanley scandal. Fr. John J. White had been a co-owner with Fr. Shanley of a gay bed and breakfast in Palm Springs, CA.. He had returned to the Stoughton area and was invited to join in developing the Companions program when they had the first meeting at Fr. Phillip Earley’s parish,St. Thomas of Villanova in Wilmington as advertised in their parish bulletin of Oct. 10,1999.( a copy can be provided upon request. as can all of the information I have referred to.). All of this information can be verified in the archives of the Moderator’s information during the time of Bishop Murphy’s job as moderator for the Boston Archdiocese.
What is presently going on at St. Cecilia’s appears to be very similar to these past events during the development of the Companions program initiated by Catholic Charities director, Dr. Joseph Doolin and his friend, Charles Connors,the past president of PFLAG. I have not heard of any involvement of Catholic Charities in this present attempt and hopefully there is no involvement, but It is time that this kind of false teaching be uprooted.
I don’t know Fr. Unni, but I’m hopeful that he would minister to gays in the same way that so many priests and religious I have known do: they don’t expect us to be celibate. Rather they ask us to apply Christian love in our gay relationships, to treat our partners and ourselves lovingly, to cherish each other as straights cherish their partners. They probably speak from experience, and I’m grateful for what they do. The posters on this site are naysayers, and some of you are downright gaybashers (Jerry, for instance). Your voices aren’t the only ones in the church, and I hope that visitors who are coming to this site now that it has become notorious among gay readers realize that extremists speak loudly but still only for themselves.
[...] expertise is weakening and redefining that institution? And the Cardinal Archbishop of Boston has “full confidence” in the [...]
And what does this have to do the Rev. Bryan Hehir?
Fr. Bryan Hehir is the Cardinal’s most senior and trusted advisor. Terry Donilon’s just a mouthpiece. Whatever official statements the archdiocese has issued on this would have passed through Fr. Bryan Hehir for his input.