Rift between Detroit archdiocese and LGBTQ group highlights Catholic divide
The interior of the Sacred Heart Chapel at Marygrove College. Photo courtesy of Frank D'Amore.
DETROIT — While the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has shuttered churches across the country, the Archdiocese of Detroit and Catholic LGBTQ group Dignity/Detroit are waging a doctrinal battle over who can attend services and the role of gay Catholics once houses of worship reopen.
In a letter to priests, Auxiliary Detroit Bishop Gerard Battersby said Dignity/Detroit had “long operated its ministry in the Archdiocese of Detroit while rejecting some of the church’s teachings on sexual morality.”
“These teachings, though challenging, promote human flourishing and bring joy when received with open hearts,” he added in the March 9 letter, days before the pandemic forced churches to close in Michigan and across the country in an effort to stop the virus from spreading. “This situation is thus a source of sadness, for those who reject the teachings deprive themselves of the blessings that come with living a life in Christ.”
The letter is the latest salvo in the ongoing war between traditional forces within American Catholicism and the LGBTQ community trying to push the church to more progressive positions on an array of social issues.
The Catholic church considers sexual activity between members of the same sex a sin, a teaching bolstered by the Vatican’s 1986 “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons” that took place under the pontificate of John Paul II. The letter called for ending any support of groups that do not explicitly reaffirm the church’s teachings on the immorality of same-sex sexual relationships.
Asked about gay people in 2013, Pope Francis famously said, “Who am I to judge?” The comment fueled doctrinal ambiguity, while galvanizing conservative voices within the church. Pope Benedict XVI, for instance, signed a document in 2005 that stated men who had homosexual tendencies should not consider being ordained priests.
Conservative Catholic forces have grown in popularity and influence in recent years, thanks in part to the internet and in contrast to Francis, in some parts of the United States. Dignity/Detroit, a local chapter of DignityUSA, had been allowed to use church property for decades until now, despite the group’s national chapter calling for same-sex marriage to be blessed as a sacrament and openly advocated for the ordination of women to the priesthood. Both positions are at odds with church teachings.
Dignity/Detroit President Frank D’Amore, who has been a member of the group for 35 years, said Battersby’s letter shocked the organization.
“When the letter first came to the organization, it was handed to me because I’m the president,” D’Amore said. “It was a very cordial letter saying he wanted to sit down and meet and talk. And then a couple weeks later he sent a letter to the clergy saying nope, not anymore. Dignity will not be allowed to gather on Catholic grounds or say Mass.”
D’Amore said the relationship between the archdiocese and Dignity had been amicable .
“For over 40 years, the archdiocese and Dignity tolerated each other,” D’Amore said. “We never ever did anything to embarrass the archdiocese. It was peaceful coexistence.”
Archdiocese of Detroit spokeswoman Holly Fournier declined to comment further on the letter, but said in an email statement that the archdiocese had to take a stand to show it didn’t support the group’s approach to LGBTQ ministry.
“Dignity/Detroit has operated its ministry for some time in the Archdiocese of Detroit, though it has done so in opposition to the Catholic church's clear teaching on sexual morality and chastity,” the statement read. “While elements of their ministry, such as outreach to the poor, are commendable, the organization’s rejection of church teaching is something the Archdiocese cannot condone.”
The Catholic League, a conservative group, applauded Battersby for upholding church doctrine.
“There was nothing strident or caustic about their response to Dignity,” the group said in a statement. “They knew that if the Catholic church is going to hold Masses for organizations that unequivocally and publicly reject the Church’s teachings on sexuality, it would give scandal to the faithful, making them wonder what to believe. They acted with fortitude and honesty.”
By contrast, Detroit’s now-retired Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton had advocated for LGBTQ rights for decades, putting his at odds with the Vatican’s official position on the issue. He began in 1974 by joining the call for an end to LGBTQ discrimination after the firing of a gay employee at the diocesan newspaper. He eventually went so far as to wear a miter with a pink triangle, a rainbow and a cross. A church-sponsored program, Courage, aims to help LGBTQ Catholics live chastely.
“They interview people who have gone through that program and what it has done to them,” Gumbleton said. “It simply does not work, and sometimes it causes deep psychological problems in trying to force a person to be who he or she is not. It’s a misunderstanding about sexuality, where people believe it’s simply a choice.”
John Grabowski, a professor at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. and an expert on sexual ethics and virtue theory, said chastity is at the core of the church’s teachings when it comes to sexual morality.
“John Paul II would say chastity is possessing ourselves so we can freely give ourselves as a gift,” he said. “Chastity lived by unmarried people takes the form of refraining from genital sexual expression. This doesn’t mean refraining from love, friendship or gifting oneself to others.”
Victor Clore, a priest at Christ the King parish on the northwest side of Detroit for the past 30 years, has openly disagreed with the church’s teaching on sexuality and the position taken by local church leaders led by Archbishop Allen Vigernon.
“Our sexuality is part of our physical and sexual being,” Clore said. “How we exercise it is an important thing, but it stems from love. If you love each other and are affectionate to one another, then your physical relationship needs to manifest that love. If it does, you're being chaste.”
Clore has said Mass for Dignity Detroit members for years. He first met the group in the 1970s eating dinner at Holy Trinity Church in downtown Detroit.
“All kinds of people ate dinner there,” Clore said. “It was a great place. When the Dignity people approached Father [Clement] Kern, he let them hold a Mass there. I got involved volunteering to do that.”
D’Amore said Dignity/Detroit exists to provide LGBTQ Catholics a place to gather with people who understand each other’s experiences. He called it a family atmosphere and said the liturgies they celebrate are the same as those in any other church.
Grabowski said there is room for both sides. He said the church isn’t “going to change its teaching on this matter,” but need to “not weaponize it.”
“The church’s teaching is supposed to be an invitation to life, to freedom and to joy,” he said. “People need to hear that.”
Debrah Miszak is a junior studying journalism and comparative cultures and politics at Michigan State University.