San Francisco

http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/features2006/vs_battlesfsoul_mar06.asp
The Battle for the Soul of the Archdiocese of San Francisco
Valerie  Schmalz
March 30, 2006

Editor's note: Videotaped recordings of some of the events reported in  this article can be accessed at this website.  

SAN FRANCISCO, March 30, 2006 _ A firestorm of defiance over Church  teaching on homosexuality has been ignited following the appointment of  George Niederauer as archbishop of San Francisco and a Vatican directive  telling San Francisco Catholic Charities to halt gay adoption.  

Two Catholic institutions are in open dissent on homosexuality: Catholic  Charities, which continues to assert its right to place children with  homosexual parents, and the Jesuit University of San Francisco, which has  a decades-long history of nurturing homosexual ideology and expressions.  Meanwhile, at least two pastors in San Francisco-area parishes not  dominated by homosexuals gave sermons last week supporting adoption by  homosexuals.  

Niederauer's appointment offered hope to some advocating Church acceptance  of homosexuality. At the same time, faithful Catholics have been watching  closely and carefully, taking to heart comments from some within the  Archdiocese of San Francisco that they will be "pleasantly surprised" by  how Niederauer governs this See.  

As one San Franciscan said: "We waiting to see what team he is on."  

"It's a time for courage," said Father Joseph Fessio, S.J.,  editor-in-chief of Ignatius Press and provost of Ave Maria University in  Naples, Florida. "And for leaders who will speak the truth in love despite  the fierce resistance of the uncomprehending or the hostile. Archbishop  Niederauer will need the prayers and support of his flock."  

Niederauer himself has barely been in San Francisco. He was installed  February 15th, spent a week on a bishops' retreat, and was to return March  29th from more than a week in Rome. He was there attending the elevation  to cardinal of his predecessor, high school and seminary friend William  Levada, the prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith.  

"Give the guy time to settle into the saddle," Niederauer spokesman  Maurice Healy said March 28th in response to an inquiry from  IgnatiusInsight.com. "As he said at the news conference (announcing  Niederauer's appointment in December) and after-he's got a steep learning  curve. He needs to talk with people and learn everything about the  archdiocese. That's where he is-pretty much in learning mode," Healy said.  

Here's what has happened in the two months surrounding Niederauer's  February 15 installation:  

. Two talks attacking Church teaching on homosexuality were held at local  parishes in San Francisco, including one on February 12 at the parish of  the chancellor of the archdiocese entitled "Queer Perspectives". Both  featured openly homosexual theologians and Scripture scholars from Jesuit  universities. The second talk, given on March 26, included a Santa Clara  University lesbian Scripture scholar describing her sexual relationship as  a matter of "grace" that gave "glory to God." The talks were paid for by  the Jesuit Foundation, which is funded by the Jesuit community of USF.  

. The executive director of Catholic Charities defended placement of  children for adoption in homosexual households despite a March 9th e-mail  from the new prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith  saying such placements must stop. Brian Cahill, executive director of  Catholic Charities in San Francisco, also said the archdiocesan spokesman  did not speak for the archbishop in saying no more homosexual adoptions  would occur.  

. Several self-described "practicing Catholics" on the governing  legislative body of the city, the Board of Supervisors, joined in a  unanimous resolution condemning the Vatican for meddling in city affairs  and urging Catholic Charities to defy a Vatican directive barring  homosexual adoptions. The mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, decided  not to attend the elevation of the former archbishop as cardinal because  of Levada's directive regarding homosexual adoption.  

. Janet Reilly, the host of the August 2005 going away dinner for  now-Cardinal Levada (and the wife of the president of CYO Catholic  Charities), posted a March 21 statement on her campaign website supporting  homosexual adoption placements by Catholic Charities. Reilly is running  for the state assembly. Reilly previously opposed a bishop-backed November  ballot initiative to require parental notification of a minor's intent to  procure an abortion.  

. The pastor of the flagship Jesuit parish, St. Ignatius, delivered a  sermon Wednesday, March 22, at the 8:00 a.m. Mass and again at the 9:30  a.m. Mass (the parish's "family Mass") on Sunday, March 26, saying the  Vatican teaching against adoption by homosexuals is not infallible and  does not need to be obeyed. Father Charles Gagan, S.J., described the  Magisterium teaching as "mean-spirited." His comments were greeted with  applause at the Sunday Mass. Gagan had not returned a call for comment  from IgnatiusInsightl.com at deadline.  

. According to a Mass goer in attendance, Father John L. Greene, a pastor  at St. Monica's parish, recently gave a similar sermon. Fr. Greene  reportedly stated that gay adoption should be allowed by Catholic  Charities. Fr. Greene refused to comment to IgnatiusInsight.com.  

The Church, Marriage, and Homosexuality  

The Catholic Church teaches that marriage was created by God to be solely  between a man and woman, and is an essential institution of society  intended to bring both husband and wife and their children to God through  his plan of creation.  

The Church also teaches that homosexual acts distort God's plan for  creation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "Basing itself on  Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave  depravity, tradition has always declared that 'homosexual acts are  intrinsically disordered.' They are contrary to the natural law. They  close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a  genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can  they be approved" (par. 2357).  

While persons inclined to homosexuality are called to perfection through  grace, the practice of homosexuality and the expression of its  inclinations in any way is never in congruence with God's plan, the Church  teaches. The 2003 document, Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give  Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons, issued by the  Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith and approved by Pope John Paul  II, states:  

There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in  any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and  family. Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural  moral law. Homosexual acts "close the sexual act to the gift of life. They  do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under  no circumstances can they be approved.  

This has always been the teaching of the Church, the document continues:  

Sacred Scripture condemns homosexual acts "as a serious depravity... (cf.  Rom 1:24-27; 1 Cor 6:10; 1 Tim 1:10). This judgment of Scripture does not  of course permit us to conclude that all those who suffer from this  anomaly are personally responsible for it, but it does attest to the fact  that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered". This same moral  judgment is found in many Christian writers of the first centuries and is  unanimously accepted by Catholic Tradition.  

Seana Sugrue, associate professor of politics at Ave Maria University in  Ann Arbor, Michigan, notes that the Church opposes same sex marriage and  homosexual adoption because homosexuality goes against the God-created  nature of humans and because they undermine two of the fundamental  institutions of society-marriage and family. Already no-fault divorce and  artificial contraception have damaged children's expectation to be raised  in a loving, stable home that is open to life, Sugrue said. Same sex  marriage and gay adoption take that degeneration in the fabric of society  to another level.  

"It's devastating on many levels," Sugrue told IgnatiusInsight.com. "It  starts with the kids. But the ramifications go beyond family life. It ends  up destroying traditional religion because children are increasingly not  reared in traditional structures. It weakens everything from business to  democracy. It's very, very destructive."  

The 2003 CDF document states that placing a child in a homosexual  household is damaging to the child because of what is inherently lacking  in homosexual relationships, not matter how well-intentioned the  homosexual parents. "As experience has shown, the absence of sexual  complementarity in these unions creates obstacles in the normal  development of children who would be placed in the care of such persons,"  the document states. "They would be deprived of the experience of either  fatherhood or motherhood. Allowing children to be adopted by persons  living in such unions would actually mean doing violence to these  children, in the sense that their condition of dependency would be used to  place them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human  development. This is gravely immoral."  

Homosexual Advocates Hopeful About Niederauer  

These official teachings, however, have been ignored or even attacked by  some within the Church.  

"I was probably as nervous as the next person when Cardinal Ratzinger was  elected as Pope Benedict XVI," said Rev. Cameron Ayers, S.J., pastor of  St. Agnes Church, at a gay-lesbian forum sponsored by the University of  San Francisco on March 26, 2006.  

But, in the question and answer format following the formal talks, Ayers  said, "His choices of bishops in the United States have been some of the  finest choices we've had in a generation. The choice of Randolph Calvo to  be sent to Reno, Nevada, the choice of George Niederauer for this diocese,  and the choice of Larry Silva of Oakland to be sent to Honolulu" are  encouraging.  

Ayers said dialoguing with Niederauer - who has "had a lot of experience  listening and dialoguing with persons in the gay and lesbian community,"  during years at a homosexual-dominated West Hollywood parish - is one way  to start getting the Church to change its teaching on homosexuality. "I  still think the day that the first bishop gets up in the pulpit and comes  'out' will be a day that will go down in Catholic history and will be  spoken of for generations to come," Ayers said.  

Even the San Francisco board of supervisors appears to believe the new  archbishop shares their point of view. A virulently anti-Catholic  resolution against the proposed ban on gay adoptions by Catholic Charities  pointedly targeted the Vatican and Levada but notably avoided mentioning  Niederauer.  

Father Richard John Neuhaus' essay "The Truce of 2005?" in the February  2006 issue of First Things outlines faithful Catholics' concerns about the  new pope and some of his appointments. In the essay, Neuhaus describes  Niederauer as having a reputation in Salt Lake City as "gay friendly" and  notes, "The announcement of his appointment to San Francisco was met with  great public rejoicing by Dignity, New Ways Ministry, and other gay  advocacy groups."  

But Neuhaus found hope in Niederauer's May 17th statement about gay  adoption and Catholic Charities. "We fully accept and faithfully teach  what the Catholic Church teaches on marriage and family life," Niederauer  said.  

"That's an encouraging reassurance that the archdiocese is intent on  representing and observing Catholic faith and practice without  compromise," Neuhaus recently told IgnatiusInsight.com. "One has to hope  and pray and offer every encouragement for the leadership of Archbishop  Niederauer in an extremely important See of the Catholic Church of the  United States."  

Church Teaching Under Fire In Catholic Charities' Same-Sex Adoptions  

There's little doubt that a daunting test of the new archbishop will be  the issue of homosexual adoptions facilitated by Catholic Charities.  

Niederauer returned to San Francisco Wednesday, March 29, and now faces a  black and white situation. Directives from the prefect and his predecessor  say no more homosexual adoptions can occur. Since 2000, five children of  136 were placed with homosexuals by Catholic Charities. State and city  laws and regulations may require that homosexuals be considered when  adoption placements are made by any agency operating in San Francisco or  California.  

Cahill has said that Catholic Charities will continue to place children  with homosexuals. Archdiocesan spokesman Healy said there will be no more  gay adoptions, clarifying a statement by Niederauer issued a couple of  days before he left for Levada's elevation in Rome. Niederauer's  statement, given to IgnatiusInsight.com on March 17, is as follows:  

"We fully accept and faithfully teach what the Catholic Church teaches on  marriage and family life. In light of these convictions, we currently are  reviewing our adoption programs to determine concretely how we can  continue to best serve children who are so much in need of a home. We  realize that there are people in our community, some working side by side  with us to serve the needy in society, who do not share our beliefs, and  we recognize and respect that fact."  

At Catholic Charities itself, there appears to be a culture of strong  advocacy for homosexual parenthood. Cahill's second in command, Glenn  Motola, is a gay adoptive father although he adopted his child through  another agency.  

Dissenting Institutions, Queer Perspectives  

The second Catholic institution that nurtures dissent from Church teaching  on homosexuality is the Jesuit University of San Francisco.  

The February 12 and March 26 LGBTQ Caucus talks, billed as "dialogues,"  were sponsored and funded by organizations of the University of San  Francisco, a Jesuit institution. The March 26 event was to feature USF  President Stephen Privett as moderator but he was invited to Levada's  elevation in Rome on March 24 and could not attend. A telephone call and  e-mail to Privett had not been answered by deadline.  

In the past, Privett has likened coming out as a homosexual to living the  Beatitudes. In his homily at the 2003 Baccalaureate Mass, according to an  article in San Francisco Faith, Privett said, "A student talked about the  difficulties he faced in coming to grips with his own homosexual  orientation. He feared the rejection of family members and the ridicule of  friends. He had to be as he was created to be by a loving God. He came  out. It is not easy for him. Blessed are they who are persecuted for the  sake of righteousness."  

At the St. Agnes forum March 26, USF assistant professor of theology  Vincent Pizzuto said homosexuals should come "out" to their parish  community. "One of the basic goals of dialogue is the humanization of the  other. For us to be 'out' to the Church. To risk disclosure in your own  communities is a form of dialogue. Letting people know that you are their  eucharistic ministers, their priests and their deacons, or their Sunday  school teachers."  

At the same talk, self-described "Catholic lesbian" Catherine Murphy,  Santa Clara University New Testament and gender studies scholar, advocated  gay adoption and Church acceptance of the practice of homosexuality.  

"I yearn for the day when my fellow Catholics and Christians can judge my  love, not by the sex of my partner, but by the quality and fruits of the  love itself, for surely these do not only testify to the source of love  but give glory to God as well," Murphy told the group of about 100  gathered inside St. Agnes church.  

"On this at least (homosexuality) the teaching authority of the Church is  given no credence by so many gay men and lesbians because it does not  demonstrate its own credibility. To the contrary, its teachings on  homosexuality are so disengaged from reality as to render them utterly  ridiculous," said Pizzuto.  

The February 12th talk was titled "Is It Ethical to Be Catholic? Queer  Perspectives - Community in Conversation with Fr. James Allison" and was  held at Most Holy Redeemer, the parish of the chancellor of the  archdiocese, the Rev. Stephen Meriwether.  

The March 26 event was titled "Alienated Catholics: Establishing the  Groundwork for Dialogue." It included the Jesuit pastor of St. Agnes  Church as one of the three speakers. Ayers began his talk by criticizing a  Church that required his father to get an annulment of his first marriage  as a condition of entry to the Church.  

"The church is the people of God - it's you and me. It's the lesbian mom  who brings her daughter to be baptized at St. Agnes...it's the young gay  man who is afraid to inquire about entering the seminary because he's not  worthy according to Vatican documents. He's as much a part of the Church  as Cardinal Levada is. Baptism has made us all equal," said Ayers. Asked  about his comments and hosting of the presentation, Ayers told  IgnatiusInsight.com, "You know, I don't wish to speak to you."  

Both talks were sponsored by the USF LGBTQ Caucus, which describes itself  as composed of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer, and allied  straight USF faculty, staff, graduate students, and alumni/ae. The Jesuit  Foundation, funded by the USF Jesuit community, underwrote both events.  

Asked about his parish's participation, Most Holy Redeemer pastor and  archdiocesan chancellor Meriwether told IgnatiusInsight.com, "You'd have  to speak to USF. We weren't in charge of the presentation, nor did we see  it beforehand." Meriwether told IgnatiusInsight.com on March 28th that he  did see the advance flyers and did not have a problem with them. Asked  what he believes, including whether he believes homosexuals should  practice celibacy rather than engage in homosexual relationships,  Meriwether said repeatedly, "I believe what the church teaches."  

According to event publicity, the Most Holy Redeemer event was funded by  the USF Jesuit Foundation "to engage USF, the Catholic public, and civic  and religious leaders in dialog, research and advocacy around gay and  lesbian rights."  

Most Holy Redeemer participates each year in the Gay Pride Parade, an  often profane and obscene celebration of homosexuality "because the parish  sees it as an outreach to a disaffected portion of the Catholic  community," Meriwether said.  

James Allison began his talk by saying he converted to Catholicism because  he had a crush on a straight Catholic man. Allison, who describes himself  as an itinerant Dominican based in London, told his audience that Pope  Benedict XVI is sympathetic to homosexuality.  

"His privileging of monogamous heterosexual marriage as an especially  blessed form of love in his recent encyclical should not, I think, be read  as a blow against same-sex love. It leaves room for us and I suggest that  we read it as an invitation for us to work out what the rich elements and  gifts of same-sex love can be. How we are to set about creating a Catholic  culture of same-sex love. It's up to us!" Allison said.  

Political Catholics  

Navigating a safe passage for the Catholic Church in San Francisco will be  a particularly thorny job for the archbishop. Within San Francisco city  government, all elected officials publicly disagree with the Church on  matters of abortion and homosexuality.  

Mayor Gavin Newsom calls himself a "practicing Catholic" who disagrees  with the Church on same sex marriage, abortion, artificial contraception,  divorce and embryonic stem cell research. Newsom was an honored guest at  the going away dinner for Levada in August, and traditionally attends the  annual Catholic Charities fundraiser dinner. This despite a history of  pro-gay and pro-abortion activism, including his speech to a pro-abortion  rally designed to stop the first Walk for Life West Coast on January 22,  2005, his issuance of marriage licenses to same sex couples, and his work  lobbying to bring a state embryonic stem cell and cloning center to San  Francisco.  

Board of Supervisors members include Sean Elsbernd and Michaela  Alioto-Pier, heterosexual and married, who both say they attend church  regularly. Both voted for the resolution condemning Levada and the Vatican  on homosexual adoption.  

Tom Ammiano, a homosexual and a former schoolteacher, rose to prominence  advocating gay rights after the slaying of Harvey Milk by a fellow  supervisor. As a school board member, Supervisor Ammiano spearheaded the  implementation of a sexual education curriculum in city schools that  presents homosexuality and its permutations as equal to heterosexuality.  Calling himself a "gay Catholic" as well as a father and a grandfather,  Ammiano is a father by virtue of sperm donation to a lesbian couple.  

Running for the state Assembly is the aforementioned Janet Reilly. Reilly  is running on a pro-abortion platform that included a link to a  pro-abortion site that attacked an initiative to require parental  notification of a minor's intent to procure an abortion. The measure,  which failed in the November 2005 election, was backed by the California  Catholic Conference. Reilly is now using her campaign website to support  gay adoptions by Catholic Charities. In a March 21 post, Reilly said: "For  me, the choice is clear - we should put our children first by continuing  the long time practices of Catholic Charities of placing children with any  stable and loving household. To do otherwise, would be to discriminate  against gay and lesbian Americans and it would also punish our children,  many of whom are languishing in the foster care system."  

What Next in San Francisco?  

Thus, for George Niederauer, the new archbishop of San Francisco, and for  San Franciscans, a challenge awaits. As he recounted at a news conference  after his appointment was announced, his predecessor and high school  buddy, William Levada had two words of advice for him: "Take courage."  

At that news conference in December, Niederauer said he saw his role as  bishop as "priest, prophet and shepherd."  

Asked by reporters how he would reconcile the "conservative" positions of  the Church with this "liberal" city, Niederauer said:  

"I want to get past labels. I think the ministry of Christ, the ministry  of Christ in his Church is to meet men, women and children everywhere...to  each the Good News which is the Good News for right, left and center."