c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ It was intended to be a mild, middle-ground conference on homosexuality, a September gathering sanctioned by Roman Catholic bishops and designed to help priests make gays feel welcome in the church without condoning their sexual behavior.

But the organized protests that have flared over the meeting, set for Rochester, N.Y., has made the September gathering a national flashpoint and illustrates homosexuality’s continuing potential for divisiveness in the church.

Less than a year after the bishops joined in a groundbreaking statement on the need to be welcoming to homosexuals, Bishop Matthew H. Clark of Rochester is coming under fire for hosting the planned conference by the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries.

Protesters are distributing inflammatory leaflets denouncing the “notorious” conference and advertising Clark’s alleged promotion of same-sex marriage and gay adoption.

Priests who work in homosexual ministries dismiss the protesters as a fringe group that doesn’t understand church teachings.

“That’s painful what they are saying,” says Monsignor Timothy J. Shugrue, who ministers to homosexuals in the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J. “I believe the church’s teachings need to be more broadly understood, even by those who think they understand them.”

But others say it is the U.S. Catholic hierarchy that often doesn’t understand the nature of homosexuality.

“This national association is nothing more than a warmed-over version of Dignity U.S.A. (a gay-rights organization of Catholics), which the church has condemned,” says Michael Macaluso, who heads the predominantly Catholic group Citizens for a Decent Community. “The cast of characters is the same. They are not looking for tolerance; they are looking for takeover.”

The Rev. Jim Schexnayder, executive director of the national association organizing the Rochester conference, says such disputes are unsurprising even given the U.S. bishops’ more open attitudes toward homosexuality.

“There are people who feel any ministry to the gay and lesbian community is unjustified, which is not church teaching,” Schexnayder says. “This is coming from a more fringe mentality that … doesn’t really understand sexual orientation or church teachings.”

Homosexuality has become one of the most divisive issues in American religion, with mainline Protestant denominations warring over the advancement of homosexual rights and more conservative groups, such as the Southern Baptist Convention, weighing in against the practice.

In Rochester, the Rev. Gary Tyman, a conference organizer, said there are no signs Clark will back away from the event. He said supporters are providing parish priests “educational” information about the conference to combat the anti-gay leafleting.

Last October, the Committee on Marriage and Family of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops released “Always Our Children,” an unusual pastoral message urging Catholics to be more welcoming to homosexuals and accepted sexual orientation as something that is not freely chosen.

After input from the Vatican _ and making a number of modifications in the text _ the full bishops conference voted in June to accept the letter, which continues to maintain homosexual sex is a sin and urging homosexuals to remain celibate.

Voices of moderation within the church say minor changes made by the bishops did not change the core message. But both liberal and conservative forces say they see the apparently slight changes as substantial efforts by the Vatican to rein in their liberal-leaning U.S. brethren.

“We weren’t anywhere near getting what we want in the first edition of the letter,” said Charles Cox, executive director of Dignity U.S.A., which presses for full acceptance of homosexuality, including same-sex marriages. “I’d say we’re even less near now.”

When the letter was first released, church observers said the letter did not represent any real change by the hierarchy toward accepting homosexuality. They pointed out that gay sex is still considered a sin and they foresaw no change in the traditional definition of marriage.

“It will always say that,” Bishop Vincent D. Breen of Metuchen, N.J., said at the time _ “1,000 years from now it will say that. The church will never change its position on marriage.”

Priests who minister to homosexuals are working on a tightrope.

Shugrue heads a chapter of Courage, a self-help organization for homosexuals in the Newark Archdiocese. He said the message that the church loves homosexuals but doesn’t condone their sexual activity hasn’t played very well.

“It’s a challenge and only a small group responds,” he said. “At least we are available. But in the culture of the times, adherence to church teachings on celibacy are not popular and not accepted by many in the homosexual community.”

DEA END CHAMBERS