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- Category:
- News
- Author:
- Ani Lamont
- Posted:
- Thursday, 26 June 2008
The Catholic Church has been accused of contributing to youth suicide because it stymied the organisation of a conference on sexuality and religion.
Gay Catholic group Acceptance had planned for the “Living a Christian Commitment: Different Sexualities Among Catholic Youth” forum to be held during World Youth Day celebrations next month, but has had to change location after the planned venue pulled out following pressure from the Catholic Church.
PFLAG president Judy Brown said the church’s move could have dire consequences.
“If people are not accepted when they come out and are thrown out they tend to gravitate to the city and get involved with drugs and the wrong sorts of people, which contributes to youth suicide,” she told Sydney Star Observer.
“With the Catholic Church not wanting to enter into a dialogue or provide support, they are contributing to that youth suicide problem.”
The Jesuit group MAGiS offered to host the event as part of its Youth Festival at St Aloysius College in North Sydney, but MAGiS provincial delegate Edward Dooley said the group was instructed to withdraw the forum by World Youth Day officials.
“Somewhere down the line WYD found out about the Acceptance workshop, MAGiS has no knowledge of how they’ve received that information, and we were instructed by WYD officials to withdraw the event,” he said. “But we have always been willing and supportive of Acceptance’s workshop.”
Acceptance was then offered the use of St Joseph’s Catholic Church in Newtown, where it meets for mass, but decided against it after learning of the pressures placed on MAGiS.
“We had everything organised and then 48 hours after finalising with MAGiS, we got a phone call and all they said was that instructions had come from the top that the workshop couldn’t go ahead,” Acceptance co-convenor Paul Harris said.
“Acceptance does not aim to be confronting. It’s meant to be a positive thing that gives gay and lesbian people a sense of belonging. We’d gone to extraordinary lengths to get people with important stories to tell and to make sure that nothing in the forum went against the church.”
Ms Brown said PFLAG had planned to have two parents at the event to speak about their experiences as Catholics with gay children.
“The majority of our PFLAG group are Catholic or Christians of some denomination and the majority of people who contact us tend to be Catholic — they tend to have the most difficulty with coming out or accepting their sons and daughters,” she said.
Harris said the event would go ahead, but the group is now looking for a non-church affiliated venue.
“The message, as far as I can tell, is that they don’t want dialogue unless they can control it,” he said. “I don’t think we’re going to be solving anything, but dialogue is healthy. So, although we’re very disappointed about what’s happened we haven’t lost hope and we are looking for a new venue.”
Tags: catholic
July 2nd, 2008 @ 1:22 pm
Does the Catholic Church and the organisers of WYD think that this sort of thing is going to win them any friends?
“Church asked for ‘annoy’ law, says Iemma”
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/church-wanted-annoy-law-iemma-no-says-church/2008/07/02/1214950807788.html
July 3rd, 2008 @ 12:27 pm
Hhhmm interesting. Yet again my opinion on religeon (thanks to WYD officials etc) is no better than what it was years ago. They present as dogmatic and controlling. Quite frankly, the work that Acceptance are trying to achieve is what I see WYD to be all about. They are aren’t asking for tax payers to foot the bill, they aren’t trying to force anything down anyones throats, but want to contribute to helping today’s youth come to grips with their sexuality and how God made them. The Catholic Church and it’s officials could actually take a leaf out of Acceptance’ ‘Good Book’.
July 4th, 2008 @ 3:26 pm
Whether it be Catholics, Hillsongers, Anglicans. They all love to make you “Feel Guilty”
July 5th, 2008 @ 3:29 pm
I think it’s time to up the anty in these Catholics, on the day of the Pope’s arrival and as the motercade passes Oxford Street, I dare someone to hoist a hug pride flag out of one to the buildings, any building, like for instance Kingsteam for instance with a banner informing the Pope.
To Pope Banadict the 16th, Cum inside for a nice massarge and we’ll show you fun.
As for the NSW government who has put into place Nazi inspired laws against free speach they should be ashamed of them selves, yes we know that the Pope is a German, but we needn’t be reminded of that horid past with laws like this anti anoyance laws.
Regards from Mark in Brisbane.