Still catching up on posts and news from before the holiday. Amy Welborn had some trenchant observations regarding the reception of the US bishops’ recent document on homosexuality by diocesan ministries to gays, especially the National Association of Diocesan Ministries to Lesbians and Gays (NACDLGM), led by Fr. James Schexnayder. I’ve written about the NACDLGM before, most recently regarding its national conference this past September in Brooklyn. Even the descriptions of the speeches, seminars, and workshops showed a definite bias against the Church’s teachings on homosexuality. Schexnayder has also been prominent in the news as openly dissenting as this article from San Diego News and Notes about another NACDLGM conference shows.
In a Catholic News Service article, Schexnayder’s response indicates that any statement of the Church’s teaching will be regarded as hostile and unacceptable, and even moreso, that diocesan gay ministries are often merely shills for gay activists, dismissing the Church’s teaching, while continuing to take a paycheck from that Church.
“For more than 25 years, diocesan ministries have welcomed in the church gay and lesbian Catholics who understand and affirm their sexual orientation as intrinsic to their identity,” he wrote. “It is profoundly sad that many of them and their families will be unnecessarily alienated by the tone of this document.”
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