Jul 07, 2015
by MOSAIC Editorial Team
International conference on same-sex attraction, August 10-12, will feature five faculty presenters.
Many equally are unfamiliar with the pastoral application of that position: that Catholics are called minister to men and women with same-sex attraction with respect, compassion, and sensitivity (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 2358), and minister to families with homosexual members in the same spirit of support.
The need to better clarify the Catholic position on this complex issue is acknowledged by the Vatican, most prominently by the Extraordinary General Assembly of Bishops in 2014. The bishops in their topic outline, or Lineamenta, written to prepare for the October 2015 Synod on the Family, ask, How can the Christian community give pastoral attention to families with persons with homosexual tendencies? What are the responses that, in light of cultural sensitivities, are considered to be the most appropriate?
An international conference will seek to answer these and other challenging questions about same-sex attraction at the Inn at St. John's in Plymouth, Michigan, on August 10-12. Representatives from Sacred Heart Major Seminary and the Archdiocese of Detroit, including Archbishop Allen Vigneron, will give key talks at the conference.
Welcoming and Accompanying Our Brothers and Sisters with Same-sex Attraction will feature three days of addresses by specialists in Christian anthropology, the psychology of homosexuality, natural law, Scripture, and chastity education. There will workshops on how to present Catholic teaching to the publicand to family and Church members, tooas an outreach of the New Evangelization. Testimonies from men and women with same-sex inclination describing how the Church has helped them on their journey toward chastity and sanctity will be an important element of the event, and no doubt a moving one.
Although Welcoming and Accompanying is designed primarily for clergy, lay ministry professionals, and diocesan personnel, the general public is invited. Around 300-500 attendees are expected from dioceses across the country.
On the roster of twenty-eight national and local presenters is Dr. Janet Smith, holder of the Fr. Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics at Sacred Heart.
This conference brings together a wide range of experts that should help those who are ministering to individuals with same-sex attraction to know how to minister in a way consistent with their human dignity and Catholic teaching, Dr. Smith says. The three-term member of the Pontifical Council on the Family explains that the conference is not about defending the legitimacy of Catholic teachingthe conference takes that as a given, she says. Instead, attendees will encounter practical advice on how to work to change the wider culture that rapidly is assenting to the so-called progressive viewpoint that homosexuality is normative and no different than heterosexuality.
The Church's position is controversial and countercultural, Dr. Smith acknowledges, but in no way is it a kind of prejudice or even hate as it is usually characterized by the mainstream media and homosexual advocacy groups.
More and more of those involved in the same-sex lifestyle are telling their stories . . . of having found the truth, and having found peace, love, and acceptance in the Church. We need to be better friends' to those with same-sex attraction, she says.
Others speakers associated with Sacred Heart will present at Welcoming and Accompanying. They are Dr. Mary Healy, associate professor of Sacred Scripture and member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission; Dr. Ralph Martin, director of graduate programs in the New Evangelization and a consultor to the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization; Dr. Mark Latkovic, professor of moral and systematic theology; Dr. Edward Peters, Edmund Cardinal Szoka Chair of Faculty Development and advisor to the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura in Rome; and Peter Herbeck, a popular host of Catholic television and radio shows and holder of an MA in Theology from the seminary.
As the Archdiocese of Detroit is one of the sponsors of the conference, Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron will make a presentation, as will Fr. John Riccardo, pastor of Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish in Plymouth and graduate of Sacred Heart's College of Liberal Arts. The speakers list includes Dr. Deborah Savage, faculty member at St. Paul Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, who contributed the article, Male and Female He Created Them, to the fall 2014 issue of Sacred Heart's Mosaic magazine.
Joining the archdiocese as conference sponsors are The Catholic Medical Association (cathmed.org), Our Sunday Visitor (osv.com), and Courage International, an organization that provides spiritual support in keeping with Catholic teaching to men and women with homosexual inclination.
Register for Welcoming and Accompanying or learn more at couragerc.org/michigan-conference-2015.
MOSAIC Editorial Team