Your Holiness, Some Catholics are Gay. Get Over It!

One of my friends this morning on Facebook has posted this:

"happy to welcome the pope to Scotland but hopes that amid all the pageantry, the survivors of sexual abuse at the hands of catholic priests, will receive compassion, apology and a fair hearing. Oh and your holiness, some people are gay, get over it."

I was tempted to add the title of this blog post as a follow up, but decided it neither further expansion, so this is it.

I think that says a lot about where some of the disquiet about this state visit, but at the same times shows a sense of balance. It leads on from the debate on Better Nation yesterday where both myself and Caron added our balance tuppenceworths. I do like it when Liberal Democrats of faith and none can reach an agreement that freedom of religious believe is also embedded in the preamble to our constitution.

Over the last few days I've been seeing a lot of my gay friends and contacts on Facebook, Twitter or other media condemn the Popes visit for whatever reason. I've also seen some of my gay, Catholic friends looking forward the the visit which I why I think these needs saying.

Just as many of us don't agree with everything that our political leaders say, so do many of us not agree with everything that our religious leaders say (even if they claim divine infallibility). There are many of us in the churches of all types who have struggled with our own sexuality and what has been said from our pulpits. Many of us have to undertake a journey on our own with our bibles and with prayer to come to an acceptance of ourselves first and foremost as both gay and Christian. There are now some more support groups out there but many of us still make that journey on our own.

We do it alone fearing being ostracised or excommunicated from a church or religion (as it applies to other faiths too) that we feel in fellowship with and part of. Gay Christians tend to have two additional families outside of their own flesh and blood, the LGBT family and the church family yet they appear like the Montagus and Capulets from Romeo and Juliet always to be at each other's throats (there are of course exceptions).

I saw another tweet that said the Pope was not welcome until the progress was made on all the aspects at which there are dispute contraception, child abuse and homosexuality. The middle one of those I think is at the start of progress being made, however it may well take time. The other two similarly. As I have blogged before it took me over a decade to reconcile my own sexuality with my faith and that was just one individual looking at it out of self interest not the generalities with with the leadership of a church looks at it. Therefore I'm prepared for the churched to take their time to come to conclusions, what I do want however is for them to start on that journey.

As I would have said, because I know, some Catholics are gay, as are some Presbyterians, Baptists, Jews, Muslims etc. We need to all get over it, acknowledge it and work with it.