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Are Marginalized
Lesbian and Gay Catholics
Welcome in the Church?by
John Montague
May 2002
For the complete article
on one webpage click here.For the first of three sections click here.
For the second of three sections stay here.
For the third of three sections click here.
For the bibliography click here.
Church as Sacramental Mystery
Church as Prophetic Voice in a Sinful World
A Reign of God Ecclesiology
Theological Anthropology - Gaudium et Spes
Theological Anthropology and Nature, Grace, and Sin
Theological Anthropology and Sexual Ethics
Endnotes
The concept of the Church as sacrament developed from the synthesis between the institutional and mystical visions of the Church. In an attempt to bring together the external and internal elements twentieth century theologians appealed to the concept of Church as sacrament. Henri de Lubac suggests this model combines both aspects:
"If Christ is the sacrament of God, the Church is for us the sacrament of Christ; she represents him, in the full and ancient meaning of the term, she really makes him present. She not only carries on his work, but she is his very continuation, in a sense far more than that in which it can be said that any human institution is its founder's continuation." (25)In the first article of Lumen Gentium, Vatican II declared that by virtue of its relationship to Christ: "..the Church is a kind of sacrament of intimate union with God and of the unity of all mankind; that is, she is a sign and instrument of such union and unity." The concept of the Church as sacrament also occurs in Lumen Gentium, Articles 9 and 48; Sacrosanctum Concilium, Article 26; Ad Gentes, Article 5; and Gaudium et Spes, Article 42.My proposition is that: The Church is a sacrament of God's kingdom only when she is embodied somehow within a particular worshipping community. We are the present disciples at the table of life: the sacrament of the Church. This sacramental mystery transcends and is visibly present in the world. When Christians witness both in worship and service to the truth of the gospel they do so because of heartfelt conviction inspired by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and not as in the institutional model, to fulfill a 'Sunday obligation'. Those who fully participate in the Church and actively constitute it as a sign, share in its reality as sacrament.
The sacramental model of Church is helpful in bridging the institutional model, and the model of mystical communion. It supports the relationship between the visible institution, with the tangible communion of grace. It gives ample scope to the workings of the Holy Spirit beyond the limits of the institutional Church.
A criticism of the model of Church as sacrament is that it: "… can induce an attitude of narcissistic aestheticism that is not easily reconcilable with a full Christian commitment to social and ethical values." (26) In this respect the notion of the Church as a 'sacrament of dialogue with the world' to reform injustice brought about by evil, somewhat balances this criticism. The Church has failed however to accomplish this search for justice for lesbian/gay people largely because the Church has not attempted to understand the lives of people with this orientation.
Church as Prophetic Voice in a Sinful World
The prophetic role of the Church includes the social justice dimension. The fundamental option for the poor calls us to reach out to the marginalized in our midst. It is a liberation theology based on Jesus' example of healing, and welcoming everyone into community. It is about koinonia, which means sharing in Christ's sufferings (Phil 3:10), and subsidizing those in need (Rom 15:26). This prophetic witness of the Church in the modern world is the real challenge of Vatican II, which emphasized that: "The holy People of God share also in Christ's prophetic office." (27) None of the models of Church are exhaustive of all the dimensions that constitute this bride of Christ. While each is important, they are all incomplete in reaching for the Reign of God, which this servant of God professes to the world.
John Sobrino conceptualizes the 'eschaton' not in the sense of the four last things, but as the Reign of God:
"What is ultimate in Christian faith. ..It is up to theology to seek out that ultimate element that will the best account of the totality of the faith, and the element selected will determine the character of the theology that selects it. In our opinion, this is what has been occurring in theology for a century now, with the rediscovery that Jesus' message was eschatological. Those who made the discovery proposed a concrete content for this eschatological message: the Reign of God." (28)Anne Clifford suggests that people who identify with the 'Reign of God' model of Church look to the heart of the individual believer. This approach is the extreme opposite of the institutional model. She states however that: "Persons attracted to this model are likely to speak of their Christian commitment as divine election or in relationship to a 'born again" experience. Persons who favor this model do not believe that any specific organizational structure is necessary for the church to be true to the gospel." (29) In the oft-quoted phrase of Iranaeus, "Where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and every grace." (30)Jesus message was that the Kingdom takes shapes in the present (Mt 4:23; 9:35). He proclaimed in Mk 1:15 that the Kingdom of God has come near. Kingdom and Reign of God are inter-changeable in this context. Historically: "While the NT did not identify God's kingdom with the church, from the time of St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) this has often been done." (31) The primacy of the Reign of God relates to the concern of liberation theology for the oppressed poor of this world. The opposite of the Reign of God is non-reign of God, the history of grace and sin. Sobrino states it is about the triumph of justice:
"The concept of the Reign of God evinces the ultimacy of the will of God, the design of God, the transcendence of God - as well as the content of the concept of God as the supreme god: love and tenderness. Liberation theology calls this God the God of life. By virtue of the very nature of the Reign, God does not appear as a God jealous of the good of human beings; on the contrary, the glory of God consists in the life of the poor. But God is jealous of other idols - the idols with which God is in strict contrariety. Therefore the love of God can be denominated justice - love in opposition to the death procured by other gods." (32)Theological Anthropology - Gaudium et SpesWhat understanding of anthropology can complement our ecclesiology? The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World begins with the 'preferential option for the poor': "The joys and hopes, the grief and anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these too are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts." (33) The joy and hope Jesus left his Church are transmitted when the community takes seriously the mandate to welcome both the strange and the stranger. This document advocates for social justice, and peace appealing to solidarity with the whole human race. The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World suggests the Church is a healer and servant. People find the grace of Lumen Gentium when they experience Gaudium et Spes. We cannot be light to the peoples of this world unless we are experiencing hope and joy, at least some of the time. In the logic of Gaudium et Spes all humanity are in God's image, and all humanity are included in Christ's salvation, but with a special priority for the poor. In this way, economic injustice is now not just an issue of charity but also of Christology. "God becomes the God of the victims of this world, and this divine solidarity goes as far as the very cross, and so authentically that it becomes meaningful to speak of a crucified God." (34)
We help poor people not so that we can see Christ in them, but because as transformed Christians we realize that they are our brothers and sisters. Economic injustice perpetuates class distinctions that create living conditions of human inequality by which the vulnerable poor are perceived as totally 'other'.The fundamental option for the poor is about returning to people what belongs to them in justice. The same dynamic occurs with lesbian/gay folk. It is easier for many to see them as totally 'different', and therefore rightfully excluded from the decision-making structures of church and society. Only by relating to them as people with the same needs and emotions as everyone else can they be understood and loved as brothers and sisters in Christ.
The Christ event embraces all (section 22). The solutions to the despair and dehumanization of modernity are in the Gospel. Rather than 'Christ above culture' now "Christ transforms culture'. This transformation consists of an active historical engagement with the world seen not merely as an event but an unfolding. It speaks about a new consciousness of the Church's responsibility for the world. The ecclesiology of Lumen Gentium spoke of 'the People of God' with custodial hierarchy, and the 'Body of Christ' with sacramental responsibility. Gaudium et Spes speaks about the Church as a Servant-Healer in collaboration with the world. Unfortunately in the past few years the Servant-Healer dialogue that is required to heal divisions within the Church is lacking. John O'Malley writes in 1983 about the disillusionment following Vatican II.
"Especially in Gaudium et Spes it held out the hopes for a world in which justice and peace would reign and in which religion and technology would cooperate for a more humane environment. ..It helped create a vision of hope in a world receptive to such a message. But visions of hope, unless somehow soon realized, tend after a short while to be forgotten or to turn sour. It seems to be true, unfortunately, that the 'rhetoric of reproach' has more staying power." (35)The anthropology of Gaudium et Spes views human beings as comprised of both body and soul (sections 14-21). Dignity consists in sharing in the light of truth. Conscience refers to 'loving the good'. Freedom is not a license but a condition for good. Atheism and nihilism are presented as inadequate responses to the mystery of death. In sections 23-32 they speak of the false 'interdependence' of self-interest. The unity of people mirrors the relationships within the Trinity. 'Duties' and 'dialogue' are presented as responsibilities. Rights are based on justice and love. Genuine equality is premised on a shared ethic. The Word of God ends isolation and restores unity. "It seems fair to say that the language here chosen deliberately disavows any lingering sentiment favoring a ghettoized Church or any attempts to implement some medieval vision of a Christian theocracy." (36)Vatican II which sees the world of sin and grace, is emphasizing in this document the mission of the church, rather than the constitutive elements of it's ecclesiology. Gaudium et Spes lacks any overarching systematics; it is very much about 'what', and little about 'how'.
"This Constitution announced that the church is to be a player in the theater of human history. The church will no longer stand apart from but must be involved in the massive social and cultural transformations of modern times. How to act out of this new stance has occupied much of the discussion about the church's mission and nature in the post-Vatican II period." (37)Theological Anthropology and Nature, Grace, and SinGerald O'Collins and Edward Farrugia definition of grace states:
"(Lat.'favor'). Any undeserved gift or help freely and lovingly provided by God, but above all the utterly basic gift of being saved in Christ through faith (Rom 3:21-26; 4:13-16,25; Eph 2:5-8), a grace that God wishes to give all human beings (1 Tm 2:4-6). The fullness of Christ's grace (Jn 1:16-17) brings us new birth (Jn 1:13; 3:3; 1Pt 1:3-5) and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Rom 5:5), making us adopted children of God (Rom 8:14-16) and members of Christ's body (1 Cor 12:27). The self-communication of God (often called uncreated grace) means the deification of human life (2 Pt 1:4) and lifts to a new and undeserved level the relationship of creature to creator, thereby transforming human nature (created grace) and anticipating the future life of heaven. From the beginning Christians have recognized the special role of the sacraments in the life of grace. It is through the grace of baptism, for example, that our sins are forgiven and that we are justified and sanctified (1 Cor 6:9-11)." (38)The phenomenon of suffering is universal to all humankind. For Christians life is about how we enter the story of the cross and resurrection in our own unique circumstances."The difference between redemptive and non-redemptive suffering is in the interpretation, not the event. Conversion is a shift of the interpretive horizon, which effects a change in the possibilities of transformative action. Resistance and surrender restructure a new set of choices and values emerging from love rather than fear. Suffering is accepted as a consequence of moral choices proceeding from love rather than as a means to an end. " (39)Revelation teaches both in scripture and the tradition, that the law of the cross is the solution to the problem of evil. The embrace of our exiled self involves pondering the cross like Mary did at the crucifixion. By holding the tension between "carrying unfairness and proper self-assertion…" (40) grace can transform the tension into compassion. This requires insight, or what Lonergan called 'aha'. Embracing travail is the secret of transformative change because it requires that we share our dependency with a lover greater than ourselves, who will teach us how to grow in generosity. It is grace, which shifts our appetites from self-absorption to self-surrender without fear of sadism or masochism. Cynthia Crysdale describes how this grace applies in specific circumstances. "It can also involve the general stirring up of Desire that grants us antecedent willingness. In this case we are moved in a deep and perduring way to long for, seek, and abide in communion with God, which, in turn, leaves us open to whatever actions God might call us to." (41)Truth is contained not in rigid formulations of our projections onto God, but in our readiness: "…to have our religious experience and ideas about God broken wide open." (42)
Grace also shifts our bias to reject tradition while refusing to explore redemptive truth within it, and "Inauthentic faith succumbs to the temptations of certitude and control, packages God and prescribes salvation." (43) Grace, conversion, and the law of the cross go together. They cannot be separated. This is the confusion of our post-modern society that values individualism, while experiencing alienation from spiritual imtimacy based on authentic relationship with self, community, and God. Confusion, anger at institutional religion, and fear of conversion involving genuine change, are obstacles to the operation of grace.
Befriending one's shadow side means that: "The comfort of the psychic status quo must be surrendered, the superego must yield to an intentional conscience, and guilt must give way to Desire." (44) Moral conversion using co-operative grace here means choosing value over mere satisfaction and changing distorted patterns of acting. Intellectual conversion includes seeking graced insights: "…even when such insights are into a network of great pain - either the pain of victimization or the pain of repentance or, most likely both." (45)
Moral conversion is the shift in realizing that pleasure is not a value. It is this hermeneutic of experience that I share with Augustine, as evidenced in my intellectual and affective response to his unparalleled work, Confessions. The current television series 'Queer as Folk' is a painful reminder of my selfish pre-conversion behavior. In the experience of primordial absence of the heart, I like Augustine, sought to fill the void of emptiness: "…in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. The lovely things kept me far from you…" (46) Augustine describes his libertine lifestyle wherein people became sexual objects as gratification to fill the void in his heart. Because his addictive cravings ran so deep, he realized that only God could fill them. The union with the 'Beloved' for which I also longed, is portrayed by Augustine: "You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." (47)
In reading the 'Confessions' I intellectually experienced a memory. Prior to my conversion, I knew that there had to be more to life than what I experienced through the senses. Like Augustine I deluded myself: "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet." (48) Affectively, the Confessions are validating to me as a testament to unchanging human nature that for some of us has included addictive behavior. I identify with Augustine's acknowledgement of his search for spiritual freedom.
Distinct from Pelagius, Augustine's notion of freedom affects the inner being, not merely the desire to act out of necessity. Duffy writes: "Freedom, Augustine thinks, is opposed not to necessity but to an inner servitude that coerces me into acting contrary to my authentic nature." (49) The prior reaching down by God to humankind vitiates the position that human effort is all we require for salvation. Sexual and spiritual unions both require surrender. It is in this kenosis that we find ourselves, and know something of the God of 'unknowing'. In speaking about vulnerability that is at the heart of freedom, Laporte says: "It requires a letting go, a flowing with the spontaneity which alone brings effective power." (50)
Augustine's weakness became his strength in co-operating intellectually, morally and religiously as well as in a psychic way with God's grace. For Augustine as for me, God's mystery is revealed in vulnerability. The heuristic approach to mystery Augustine points out is similar to Paul's kenotic letting go of self before Trinitarian awesome splendor. In 7:18 Augustine states:
"He would cure them of their pride that swelled up in their hearts and would nurture love in its place, so that they should no longer stride ahead confident in themselves, but might realize their own weakness when at their feet they saw God himself, enfeebled by sharing this garment of our mortality." (51)In describing how the Church understands the complexity of human existence, grace, and sin, McBrien writes:"Thus, the Church's moral vision and its approach to the demands of Christian existence are qualified always by its confidence in the power of grace and by its readiness to expect and understand the weaknesses and failures rooted in Original Sin. And so Catholicism is a moral universe of laws but also of dispensations, of rules but also of exceptions, of respect for authority but also for freedom of conscience, of high ideals but also of minimal requirements, of penalties but also of indulgences, of censures and excommunications but also of absolution and reconciliation." (52)The tension between grace being offered and how it is received suggests that we examine how sexual ethics impacts on the real lives of lesbian/gay people.Theological Anthropology and Sexual Ethics
Distinct from pure spirits and other animals, humans organize themselves culturally and socially around established sexual roles and behaviors related to gender. Aristotle understood 'nature' as the cause or source of activity in a being. The Romans emphasized the 'law' of the natural order. Cicero defined the natural law as the innate power of reason to direct action. The third century Roman jurist Ulpian distinguished 'jus naturale', meaning what nature has taught all animals. Aquinas accepted both interpretations of natural law. The first developed by Stoics and Ulpian emphasized biological structures given in nature as the source of morality. The second is the 'order of reason from the tradition of Aristotle and Cicero considered the human's ability to learn from experience. Gula suggests that: "The vacillation between the 'order of nature' and the 'order of reason' as the basis of moral teaching has caused great confusion in Catholic moral thought." (53)
What distinguishes humans from animals is our ability to employ reason to make sense of our human instincts. Reason in the sense of 'recta ratio' involves using the whole of reality including observation and research, intuition, emotions, and common sense. Gula explains that modern understanding of 'nature' sees the biological orders not dictating moral obligations, but rather providing the data and the possibilities for persons to use in order to achieve human goals.
Some scholars adopting post-modern ideas propose a quasi-deconstructionist stance toward nature and biblical authority in the last few decades. Nelson states: "Our bodies are always sexual bodies, and our sexuality is basic to our capacity to know and experience God." (54) Pope John Paul II stated: "…sexuality ..is by no means something purely biological, but concerns the innermost being of the human person…" (55) The Magisterium has come to see sex as essentially constitutive of personal identity, adopting the language of the couple's inter-subjectivity to express sex's moral meaning. Cahill suggests that: "…a cautious but essentially realist ethics is necessary to avoid the social ineffectiveness of moral relativism." (56) She proposes that by using a practise based approach to moral discernment we can generalize to objective though revisable evaluative judgments to avoid rigidity and abstraction. The 'nature' of sexuality is constituted by ongoing reinterpretation and understanding in the context of new insights from all the bio-psychosocial sciences.
The tension between the 'order of reason' and the 'order of nature' has bedeviled Christian thought. Dealing with that tension is at the heart of any real ethic. There is a third element operative which sublates the other two. The relation of passion and reason depends on how we view the 'flourishing human person'. If, as in much of neo-Patonism, it is the 'self' devoid of passion and living by 'pure reason', then the passions are at war with us. Yet, Cahill notes, there is a fuller sense which sees passion as a ground and guide for reason. Nature and reason are both aspects of something broader, namely the fullness of humanity as a transcendent good.
Aquinas says that the highest faculty of the human person is the ability to love. Love can shape our reason, will, actions and our development as humans. Lonergan brings fresh thinking into the older doctrine of marriage by distinguishing the essential end of procreation from what he terms the most excellent end on the supernatural level of personalist development. "There results more than a suggestion that as fecundity is for offspring so sex has a personalist finality of its own." (57) Love is the basic principle of union between subjects. Referring to Casti Connubii Lonergan writes: "…there can be no doubt that the encyclical is speaking of a process of development through conjugal love to the very summit of Christian perfection." (58)
With the development of the personalist vision of sexuality one can finally speak of sexuality per se, not merely as a function of marriage. For the Christian this raises the question of how sexuality is integrated with the life of grace. Lonergan says that grace comes to us through the realities of life in all dimensions. We adapt to God's nature, which is love, through loving. In Lonergan's anthropology, relationship and friendship are necessary for our own perfection. Pleasure exercises a positive aspect in his thought. While knowing that sin is real, his emphasis is on the relation with God implanted in us through creation and allowing for pleasure in all dimensions of the self. Discernment guides us to see in such pleasure an opening for growth.
No topic in sexual ethics is more controversial for our contemporary church than the meaning of homosexual love. In talking with people attempting to reconcile gay feelings with their faith in Jesus Christ, pastoral counselors are confronted with a person who stands on the margin of the sheepfold asking for acceptance.
The American Catholic Bishops in their 1976 pastoral letter "To Live in Christ Jesus" wrote: "…because heterosexuals can usually look forward to marriage, and homosexuals, …might not, the Christian community should provide them a special degree of pastoral understanding and care." (59) John Coleman states that the letter addressed to the world's Bishops ten years later by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: "…subsumes some pastoral applications under the moral rubric, but studiously avoids any statement of pastoral compassion for the struggles of homosexual Christians." (60) He suggests that moral theology and pastoral ministry exist in a certain tension: "Conspicuously absent from the CDF letter is the sense of the moral life as a growth process and attention to persons and situations as well as ideal norms…" (61)
The argument that homosexuals are 'objectively disordered' and that homosexual genital acts are 'intrinsically evil' were included in the 1986 letter. This was done to counteract a benign interpretation that was developing since the 1975 previous document of the CDF entitled 'Persona Humana', 'Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics'. The argument emphasizes the procreative end of marriage as being the purpose for which God created sexuality. Peter Hebbblewaite comments on the Vatican document:
"For the whole structure of Aquinas's ethics reposes on the relationship between function and God-intended purpose, and pleasure or delectation are the sign that we are in the presence of a well-ordered appetite. This is still the basis for the procreation-sexuality link which I consider so important. But if God has created people who are so blighted that pleasure and delectation come only in some nonprocreative way in which they are not allowed to be engaged, then God is a very cruel god indeed. God has made a botch of creation. There are two ways out of this dilemma. Either you say that those of a homosexual orientation have a perfect right to loving sexual fulfillment just as much as anyone else - and that lets God off the hook - or you elude the distressing conclusion that God is a tyrant and a bungler by abandoning the 'orientation is OK, acts are not OK' argument altogether. This is precisely what we see happening in the CDF letter." (62)Christians need both psychological and theological soundness to integrate homosexual feelings. The attitude that being gay means license to live without boundaries in sexual behavior creates a spiritual vacuum. Mature Christian life involves careful discernment and prayer. It also needs to be acknowledged that God calls some people to celibacy either as lay people or to religious life. From a pastoral standpoint young people who are just 'coming out' can benefit from meeting homosexuals who live in monogamous committed loving relationships that are life giving. Lesbian/gay persons are blessed if they meet wise Christian people who listen to them. Potential manipulation by emotionally immature gay people can reinforce a negative perception and cynical view of healthy relationships, and values based on Christian ethics.Practice wisdom exists in the Christian gay/lesbian community, among groups like Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), and in some quarters of the theological academy, and in Catholic parishes with high geographical concentrations of gay persons that have attempted to include the marginalized and alienated in their Christian community. The question then becomes how to reach out to the thousands of former gay and lesbian Catholics who do not know that there is a welcome ear for those who can accept it. Ministry to gay/lesbian people requires addressing the following two questions:
"How does the primacy of individual conscience, a principle that the Church has always recognized, figure in discussions about gay and lesbian committed relationships? Is the dignity of each person's and couple's educated conscience in discerning the call of God, self and others being respected? " (63)Obviously, the struggle to form and respect conscience and the critical issue of 'human dignity' form two poles in the concern with justice, which is so foundational to the life of Christians. The problem with individual conscience as an ultimate issue is that it tends to deprive the person of the wisdom of the community, and the community of the wisdom of the person. Understanding conscience as dialogical and communal is going to be central to any way forward with regard to homosexuality.The meaning of 'homosexuality', as distinct from its origins or purpose, is a key concern. We have moved beyond the sense of its being a perversion in all cases to a more nuanced approach. It does lack a critical good in sexuality, i.e. the good of procreation, though that is also true of sterile couples.
"The Thomistic structure does certainly place the emphasis on beatitudo, which is always pleasant as the fulfillment of the human person. One of the key concerns in this discussion is going to have to be how we understand both the meaning of pleasure and the nature of fulfillment; note how much of the debate assumes understandings of both of these. We need to test those out as part of theological wisdom." (64)Justice is very much an issue that needs to be included in any discussion of sexual ethics in our contemporary world. The structure of patriarchy needs to preserve power through exclusion so that there can be some way of guaranteeing privilege. The broader issue of marginalization is important. Both sides of the debate on homosexual love can justify their own position through a 'rational' rejection of the other. A key ethical concern is how one overcomes that type of radical alienation. Inclusion really touches upon the ethical demands of the Reign of God. This can only be done through cooperation with God's grace in humble dialogue.At the "New Ways Ministry Symposium" in March 2002 Bishop Matthiesen suggested, that if Bishops were to speak to members of their own families who are lesbian and gay, as Bishop Gumbleton has with his brother, they would become less defensive and more loving towards them. They would realize how the Church has marginalized gays and lesbians, and generally stifled healthy ministry and refused to welcome them into full participation in Christian community.(65) This is an example of the dialogue that is often lacking, particularly with respect to questions of sexual ethics.
24 Anne Clifford, Introducing Feminist Theology, Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 2001. Page 136.
25 Henri de Lubac, Catholicism. London: Burns, Oates, and Washbourne, 1950. Page 29.
27 Ibid. Abbott. Lumen Gentium. Page 29.
28 John Sobrino and Ignacio Ellacuria (editors), Systematic Theology - Perspectives from Liberation Theology,Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books. 1993. Page 38.
29 Anne Clifford, Introducing Feminist Theology, Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books. 2001. Page 136.
31 Ibid. O'Collins and Farrugia. Page 132.
32 Ibid. Sobrino and Ellacuria. Page 69.
33 Ibid. Abbott. Gaudium et Spes, Preface. Pages 199-200.
34 Ibid. John Sobrino and Ignacio Ellacuria Page 69.
35 John O'Malley, "Developments, Reforms, and Two Great Reformations: Towards a Historical Assessment of Vatican II," Theological Studies, 44 (1983), Page 397.
36 Ibid. Abbott. Donald Campion commenting on Gaudium et Spes. Page 194.
37 Catherine Mowry LaCugna (editor), Freeing Theology - The Essentials of Theology In Feminist Perspective. New York: Harper Collins. 1993. Page 165.
38 Gerald O'Collins and Edward Farrugia, A Concise Dictionary of Theology. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press. 2000. Page 98.
39 Gordon Rixon, Power-point presentation of Notes on Grace. Regis College, Toronto. February 2000.
40 Ronald Rolheiser, Statement in Lecture given at Regis College: Toronto, 14 March 2001.
41 Cynthia Crysdale, Embracing Travail: Retrieving the Cross Today. New York: Continuum. 1999. Page 132.
46 Saint Augustine, Confessions, X: xxVii: 38. Translated by Henry Chadwick. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1991. Page 201.
48 Ibid. VIII. Vii.17. Page 145.
49 Stephen J. Duffy, The Dynamics of Grace: Perspectives in Theological Anthropology, Collegeville: Liturgical Press. 1993. Page 100.
50 Jean Marc Laporte, Patience and Power - Grace for the First World. New York: Paulist Press. 1988. Page 182.
52 Richard McBrien. Catholicism. San Francisco: Harpers. 1994. Pages 1195-1196.
53 Richard M. Gula, Reason Informed By Faith - Foundations of Catholic Morality. Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1989. Page 224.
54 James B. Nelson, Embodiment: An Approach to Sexuality and Christian Theology. Minneapolis: Augsburg. 1978. Page 126.
55 John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, No 11.
56 Lisa Sowle Cahill. Sex, Gender and Christian Ethics, New York: Cambridge University Press. 1996. Page 12.
57 Bernard Lonergan, Collection - Papers by Bernard Lonergan, Montreal: Palm Publishers. 1967. Page 16.
59 Jeannine Gramick, and Pat Furey (editors), The Vatican and Homosexuality - Reactions to the 'Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons'. New York: Crossroad. 1988. Page 18.
63 Editorial. Catholic New Times. 9 May 1999. Page 5.
64 Professor R. Mercier. Notes he provided to me in response to the seminar I led on Homosexuality on 27 March 2000 at Regis College.
65 Bishop Leroy Matthiesen, retired Catholic bishop of Amarillo Texas, gave a workshop with Bishop Daniel Gumbleton of Detroit, on 9 March 2002, at the New Ways Ministry Symposium in Louisville Kentucky.
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