We owe Monsignor Eugene Clark some thanks for his homily at St Patrick’s Cathedral last Sunday. His views are shared by many prominent conservatives in the Church, especially among many older Catholics who grew up thinking of homosexuals as unspeakable, and still cannot acquiesce comfortably in their open presence in society. He’s misrepresenting Church teaching, however, by saying that the notion that some people are born gay is “not true.” In fact, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has specifically used the word “innate” to describe some homosexuals’ orientation. The trouble is, there has never been a widespread discussion of the church’s teachings on homosexuality within the church. To my amazement, when I’ve spoken at colleges like Notre Dame or Boston College on the subject, I’ve found that I was the first person ever even to delineate the church’s actual position in such a forum. Most Catholics are not even aware that their Church has broken with Protestant fundamentalists in describing many people’s homosexuality as an unchangeable, innate orientation. You can see why the silence exists. Conservatives are understandably squeamish about declaring so many of their fellow priests as ‘disordered’ and so many of their parishioners as uniquely susceptible to evil. Some good might yet come from this fiasco if this subject could become less taboo in the church. The pope must speak about it – since up to perhaps half of his own priests experience it directly. When an institution so disproportionately gay as the Catholic church cannot even discuss the issue of homosexuality, the kind of crisis we’re now witnessing will never end peaceably – except in immoral discrimination or widespread sexual laxity among the clergy. For a middle way to emerge, we have to talk. It’s a pity heretical bigotry should inflame the discussion, but at least it might get more in the hierarchy to talk openly about what can be ignored no longer.
THE BEING OF ACTING: “Working your way through a character’s evolution can therefore become, I discovered again, a little digression through your own needs and wants. It can let you say things you’d never say in real life but that make you feel more complete for articulating. It’s safe therapy, I suppose, in which you can feel things and say things and even believe things without ever having to take personal responsibility for them. You can call that acting. But you can also call it a kind of freedom.” Check out the rest of my piece on acting here. As I write this, I’ve just come back from our first dress rehearsal in front of an audience. The good news is: we finally did it. The bad news is: we open tomorrow night. Forgive the light dish today; I’ll supplement later. But I had to get a drink with the rest of the cast after tonight’s cathartic opener. I have to say that, however the play turns out (and it’s still needs work), it’s been such a great experience meeting and becoming friends with a crew of such surpassing kindness, talent, and hilarity that I barely care how it all ends up. We’ve had a great – if at times grueling – time.
The Dish 