Public Theology

(this essay was originally written for mywww.ctschicago.edu “Dangerous Religious Ideas” course based on author, activist, Rabbi and Professor www.rachelmikva.com book of the same name, which I highly recommend)

Recently, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church blew up the internet. Again. 

Setting the internet on fire is nothing new for Pope Francis, it’s just that with the 84 year old Pontiff, you never know which way he’ll be fanning the flames. 

This time around it is wasn’t what he said or wrote, but rather words he approved, written by The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office that defines and disseminates church teaching:    

“To the question proposed: Does the Church have the power to give the blessing to unions of persons of the same sex?” (capital “C”, thank you very much)

“Response: Negative” (a very capital “N”, thank you very much)

Over the next few days, hundreds of articles and Op Ed pieces were penned, hundreds of thousands reacted on social media, all condemning or applauding the clarification.   Newsflash, folks, it is in fact, not news that the Catholic Church vehemently opposes same-sex marriages.  And neither is the frustration of progressive Catholics who hang on every inviting word from a Pope who frequently dangles the possibility of meaningful reform out there only to have the Vatican repeatedly snatch it away.   

The idea that the LGBTQ community might someday have a shot at fully occupying a pew without an asterisk sitting next to them started back in 2013, when less than six months into his papacy, Pope Francis uttered the now infamous words, “Who am I to judge?” The Pope was answering a journalist’s question in regards to a so-called gay lobby in the Vatican, but many saw it as an entrée into a broader discussion about the once verboten subject.  In 2018, a survivor of clerical sex abuse who is gay, said Pope Francis told him, “God made you like this, God loves you like this and I don’t care” And two years later in a documentary, he called for a civil union law. Francis, who has made the Church’s role in the Christian imperative to care for the world’s poor and marginalized a centerpiece of his papacy, seemed to be preaching to the choir of progressive Catholics on a key issue. 

Fr. James Martin, author of the book, “Building A Bridge”, a Jesuit, social media darling and lightning rod for conservative criticism, concluded the onus is on the entire Church to reach out to the LGBTQ community. A community that now must also include family and friends. Martin writes about a parishioner who confessed to his Catholic Priest he could no longer attend mass because, now that his own son was gay, how could he love and support his child when his Church did not?  A strong message for those who preach equality, but remain weak on religious leaders and institutions that continue to relegate certain “others” to just outside the pearly gates.  

Religious conservatives have long relied on scripture to denigrate gay people and deny sanctioned access to love, marriage and even parenting.  Genesis, Leviticus, Romans – speak to the issue, but progressives have begun to realize the power to court lies in highlighting sacred texts which invite and include all God’s children (and their partners).  According to one Episcopal publication, half of all American Anglican church-goers were raised in another denomination, and of those, nearly 30% were once Catholic. On the website of St. Hugh of Lincoln Episcopal Church in Elgin, IL, members who have family in the LGBTQ community have compiled scripture to welcome newcomers still considered Catholic outliers. 

“Nothing can separate us from the love of God” (Romans 8:38)

“There is neither Jew or Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all one in Jesus Christ” (Galatians 3:28)

“God has shown me, that I should not call anyone impure or unclean” (Acts 10:28)   

If Francis, as the face of this Church continues to endorse the Holy See’s myopic viewpoint of scripture, he risks losing many of the same believers he has tasked with ministering to those on the margins – including those the Church itself has pushed into that position. It’s not difficult to understand why so many in the LGBTQ community feel burned again.  Pope Francis may not have struck the match that set off last week’s firestorm, but by signing off on that Vatican statement, he flicked that match right into a smoldering pile of dictatorial politics and unyielding church doctrine, once again sending any hope that same-sex marriage will ever be good enough for a Church blessing…up in smoke.   

At the end of this Pope’s first year in 2013, as a wayward Catholic brimming with the possibility of actual change, I read a sobering article in The New Yorker, by former Priest and prolific Catholic commentator James Carroll, which stuck with me.  Carroll concluded, while the new rhetoric was real, the probability for a seismic shift in this millennium’s old institution was not. Still, all hope was not lost, based on this revelatory comment from Francis himself, “The first reform must be attitude.”  

The second must be action. 

Eight years in, The Holy Father’s attitude is the same, tweeting out a Psalm, days after extreme criticism from the Church’s decree on same-sex marriages, “We are called to recognize that other living beings have a value of their own in God’s eyes: by their mere existence they bless him and give him glory, and in indeed, the Lord rejoices in all his works” (Ps 104:31) 

Thousands responded to that tweet.  

Now, the question is, will he….and when?