THIS EVENING! Zoom details: James Alison Tues 27 April @ 7.00pm
ACP Zoom Presentation with James Alison
Tuesday 27 April 2021
7.00pm
The Pastoral Care of LGBTQ+
The Church position on LGBTQ+
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89053302467?pwd=cU1pR0o4Q1c1TlZ5TEJlRm9Md1ZIZz09
Meeting ID: 890 5330 2467
Passcode: EPwNU5
All welcome
Presentation by James Alison followed by Question & Answer session.
Gerry O’Connor CSsR from the ACP Leadership will act as Host.
James Alison
James Alison (b. 1959) is a Catholic theologian, priest and author. He has studied, lived and worked in Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile and the United States as well as his native England. A systematic theologian by training, James’ most recent published work (2013) is Jesus the Forgiving Victim a programme of induction into the Christian Faith for adults, following on from the insight into desire associated with René Girard. (www.forgivingvictim.com) This has been translated into French and Welsh. A Spanish edition is in progress.
James earned his doctorate in theology from the Jesuit Faculty in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He is the author of Knowing Jesus (London: SPCK 1992; Springfield: Templegate 1993); Raising Abel New York: Crossroad 1996 (2nd edition, updated, London: SPCK 2010) The Joy of Being Wrong (Crossroad 1998); Faith beyond resentment: fragments catholic and gay (London: Darton Longman & Todd 2001; Crossroad 2001) On being liked (DLT 2003 and Crossroad 2004). Undergoing God (DLT (London) and Continuum (New York) 2006) and Broken Hearts and New Creations: intimations of a great reversal (DLT (London) and Continuum (New York) 2010. Editions of some of James books exist in Spanish, Italian, Dutch, French, Russian and Portuguese. Most of his more recent writings can be found in a variety of languages on www.jamesalison.com
Having lived with the Dominican Order between 1981 and 1995, James works as an itinerant preacher, lecturer and retreat giver. He is currently a Fellow of Imitatio (www.imitatio.org). He accompanies a wide variety of publics, through academic lectures, undergraduate, postgraduate and professors’ seminars, adult catechesis courses, retreats for priests, parish groups, and Catholic and ecumenical gay and lesbian retreats. James lives in Madrid, Spain.
Fr. James Alison on Zoom on Tuesday evening.
Given that we will be listening to the enlightened and well-informed words of James Alison this coming Tuesday evening, I thought it would be appropriate to be reminded where we have been on this issue and where, sadly, some still remain.
Article by Robert Shine in New Ways Ministry website.
https://www.newwaysministry.org/2021/04/24/archbishop-compares-some-marriages-including-lgbtq-relationships-to-bestiality/
Archbishop Compares Some Marriages, Including LGBTQ Relationships, to Bestiality
April 24, 2021/3 Comments/in Healthcare, Hierarchy, Marriage & Family, Politics & Human Rights, Transgender, Uncategorized /by Robert Shine, Managing Editor
Archbishop Samuel Aquila
A U.S. archbishops compared some marriages, including those of same-gender couples, to bestiality, during a talk he gave at a conference on healthcare.
Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver offered his comments at Converging Roads, an annual conference on Catholic healthcare which has an anti-LGBTQ record and is co-hosted by the Archdiocese of Denver. The Colorado Times Recorder quoted from his talk:
“Once you remove children from the equation you can justify anything, so you get the polyamorous, you get polygamy, you can have your pet dog as your spouse, and it’s insane.”
The news story also reported:
“Aquila was particularly focused on gender identity, saying at one point in his speech, ‘I can identify as 6’ 4” but I still have trouble putting luggage in the overhead bins of airplanes,’ eliciting chuckles from the crowd.
“‘It’s important to note that the conversation around these conflicts is informed by a secular mentality that sees freedom as the ability to do whatever one wants rather than the Catholic understanding of freedom as the ability to do good,’ Aquila continued. ‘When we don’t choose the good as defined by God, we become slaves of the devil and we never realize true happiness.’”
The archbishop also criticized the Equality Act and promoted anti-transgender myths regarding athletics and use of public facilities.
Aquila and the Archdiocese of Denver have longstanding anti-LGBTQ records (the highly conservative Archbishop Charles Chaput, now emeritus archbishop of Philadelphia, was Aquila’s predecessor). Under the present archbishop, the archdiocese hosted ex-gay speaker Andrew Comiskey in 2019 for a conference co-sponsored by the ex-gay-linked ministry Desert Stream/Living Waters Ministries. In a banner on archdiocesan property advertising the event Comiskey was quoted as saying, “There is no such thing as a ‘gay’ person…That is a popular myth.” At least two speakers at the Denver conference spoke about how they allegedly altered their sexual orientations and became heterosexual.
Aquila appeared in a promotional video for the ex-gay ministry mentioned above, and previously appealed to Catholics in the archdiocese to begin local groups practicing conversion therapy, while also claiming such practitioners would be “persecuted” by the wider society. Several dozen priests in the archdiocese have either undergone trainings by or met with Comiskey.
The family of Alana Chen, a lesbian Catholic who died by suicide at age 24, has blamed the archdiocese for Chen’s death, after pastoral ministers tried conversion therapy practices on Chen who had sought support from the church.
In related news, the Colorado Catholic Conference came out in opposition to a proposed law before that state’s legislature that would add gender identity and gender expression to non-discrimination laws. Brittany Vessely, executive director of Conference, disparaged the bill as “discrimination against anyone with a different belief about human sexuality,” reported CBS Denver. The bill is before the state Senate at present.
Archbishop Aquila’s latest comments which compare certain marriages to bestiality are condemnable. He insults not only same-gender couples, but also heterosexual couples. So many couples of all orientations and arrangements may be childless by choice, have painful issues with the fertility, practice contraception after having some children already, or choose to be adoptive and foster parents. Yet, in other ways, by contributing to the lives of their families and communities, including churches, these couples are quite generative. They simply live out God’s command to be fruitful in relationship by other means than reproduction.
The archbishop is correct that a Catholic understanding of freedom is to choose what is good. He simply misunderstands something essential: relationships that are generative in alternative ways and the choice of transgender people to live as God created them are the goods that we are called to pursue. But if Aquila clings to his dated and erroneous beliefs in spite of this reality, he could at minimum express himself in less extremist, more respectful ways.
—Robert Shine, New Ways Ministry, April 24, 2021