Petition from a People in Exile

Dignity/Washington is a 33 year old chapter of Dignity/USA, the national organization of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered (LGBT) Catholics, our families and friends, located in Washington, DC, which provides spiritual, social and educational support and leadership to be "an instrument through which LGBT people may be heard within the Church."

The October 1986 "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons", issued by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, labeled homosexuals as "objectively disordered" and homosexual acts as "intrinsically evil". There was no contemporary legal or scientific support for this finding. Following this letter, a majority of Dignity chapters were evicted from meeting on church property. None have been invited back, nor has there been any response to Dignity's repeated requests for conversation with local Bishops. How many Catholics know self-accepting LGBT Catholics are forbidden the use of Catholic facilities and pastoral care?

We, the undersigned, ask the U.S. Roman Catholic Bishops and the entire People of God, to consider LGBT issues in light of Jesus' teachings of love, acceptance, and inclusion.

Whereas:

• We believe that LGBT people are not objectively disordered. One's sexuality is not a choice, but a blessing. We believe what the Bible says that, "God saw everything that God had made, and it was very good". God does not make mistakes.
• We believe that LGBT people are fully capable of forming loving relationships. Human sexuality is more than procreation: it can indicate pleasure, affection, or union. "LGBT people can express [their] sexuality in a manner consonant with Christ's teaching - ethically responsible and unselfish." It is possible to incorporate same-sex expression within a fully Catholic life.
• We believe that revelation by the Spirit has occurred throughout human history and continues today. In the Acts of the Apostles (e.g.: modification of strictures concerning Circumcision or refraining from "unclean" foods), and the Church's changed stance on Galileo’s proof of the Copernican theory, on Darwin’s theory of evolution, and on scripture based justification of slavery, among others, the people of God discovered that interpretation of Scripture and Tradition evolves in light of God's Love.
• We believe that LGBT people should not be subjected to segregation or violence. In the 1997 U.S. Catholic Bishops Pastoral Letter entitled "Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children and Suggestions for Pastoral Ministers", the Bishops issued a call for the establishment of ministries sensitive to the needs of gay and lesbian Catholics and their families. This call has been largely ignored.
• We believe the Second Vatican Council reaffirmed long-held Roman Catholic belief in the collegiality of all members of the People of God: laity, clergy, together with the hierarchy (the Sensus Fidelium or "Consensus of the Faithful").

Therefore, We demand that Bishops establish their credibility in this area of pastoral care by reaching out to all Church members on human relationship and sexuality issues. Some of these include:

• repudiating efforts and statements which characterize LGBT persons as disordered;
• discussing with Dignity members and other LGBT persons the Roman Catholic moral teaching regarding human relationships and sexuality and LGBT people's experiences and needs;
• allowing Catholic LGBT persons and groups access to Church facilities, ministry, consultation, etc.;
• declaring that LGBT relationships, including sexual expression, can be loving and life- affirming;
• creating blessings for committed LGBT relationships; and
• re-affirming the Roman Catholic beliefs in collegiality and the Primacy of Conscience.