This about sums it up - on the confusion in the Church about the gays ...

Sometimes I just want to throw my hands up ...

Seriously.  I've read so much stuff in the last few days and every Tom, Dick, and Faerie is writing about gay ... all about the gay.  Dan Savage will be a keynote speaker at the Dignity conference - along with Sr. Campbell - spokes-nun for the Nuns on the Bus.  This weekend Arthur Fitzmaurice spoke at the Religious Ed. Congress in Los Angeles - I only learned about him via Joseph Sciambra's post on the subject. There are a ton of voices out there - New Ways Ministry - though cited as not Catholic, continues to have immense influence on Catholic education and pastoral care.  Then there is the gay-Catholics and Spiritual Friendship movement ... and, and, and ...

Me.  I waste my time with all of this - who am I kidding?  I've wasted almost ten years blogging about this crap.

Anyway.

Crux writer Michael O'Loughlin pretty much sums up the results of all the confusion in the Church on the subject of gay, don't say gay-Catholic, SSA-don't even suggest change, friendship-but don't say love, spiritual friendship-just make sure it's religious, and so on. What to do? What to say?  Be yourself?  Don't be yourself?  What?

Yeah.  So.  Without further ado, the Crux of the matter:

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Catholic Church “acts unjustly” toward gay and lesbian Catholics, who are “held to different standards than other Catholics,” a situation “harming” the Church — and one that must change.

That was the message delivered Friday at the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress by Arthur Fitzmaurice, an advocate for making the Church more welcoming for gay and lesbian Catholics.

His talk, delivered to 800 catechists and religious educators during an official Church event, comes during renewed clashes between Catholics who hold the line on the Church’s teaching on issues of sexuality, and those who support same-sex marriage and other gay rights. - Crux

Fitzmaurice echoes every other gay-Catholic activist complaining about the Catechism and how teaching is worded ... Really?  These people are probably the most well educated lay-Catholics in history, and yet they do not get what the Catechism clearly states?  How is that?

Fitzmaurice, resource director of the Catholic Association for Lesbian and Gay Ministry, said he, like many gay Catholics, has turned at various points in his life to Church writings for guidance, including the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The paragraph on homosexuality — which describes it as “intrinsically disordered” while also demanding respect for gays and lesbians — is placed in a section of the catechism paragraphs condemning “pornography, prostitution, and rape,” he said.

“To keep this abusive language in the Catechism and other Church writings is, in itself, gravely evil,” he said. - Read the entire article here.

It is all so very frustrating.  Fitzmaurice works for the archdiocese as  resource director of the Catholic Association for Lesbian and Gay Ministry and he teaches that people are born gay, as demonstrated in what he said this weekend:

He referenced recent high-profile firings of gay Church employees — such as a church musician in Chicago and a vice principal in Seattle — and said those episodes “reinforce the false message that being born LGBTQ is shameful.” - Fitzmaurice

"Being born LGBTQ"?  That's not even Catholic.

So it's here.  It's being taught.  Gay-Catholics will write their books ...

Talk amongst yourselves.

All I have to say is that if you want to accept authentic Catholic teaching on marriage, family, and sexuality - do that.  Go to confession - pray and frequent the sacraments.  You can do that - no matter what you call yourself.

If you want to make compromises, accommodations, go ahead - take your chances.  God loves you.  Just don't teach others how to do the same.  One kid at the conference told others: 

One participant in the gay and lesbian workshop told the crowd that he is drawn to being a catechist because he wants “to change the mindset” of Catholics who are opposed to homosexuality.

“You cannot be gay in a Mexican family, because they will say so much stuff to you that hurts you,” Anthony Marquez, a high school senior, told participants. “But what hurt me most was my confirmation teacher who told me it was a disease. I want to be a catechist so badly because I want to change that mindset. It’s not a disease. We can be good Catholics, even if we’re gay.” - Crux

Yep.  You can be a good Catholic even if you are gay.  The Confirmation instructor may have misspoke, what the Church teaches is that it is an objective disorder and homosexual acts are gravely disordered.  Catholic teaching doesn't diagnose and it is not uncharitable.