Patron Saint For Those With Same Sex Attraction

[Prodigal_Son]

As for Lwanga, calling him the patron saint of SSA people is a bit like calling Joan of Arc the patron saint of the English. It just doesn’t make any sense.

 

[2towers]

There is an article about the need for a celibate patron SSA or gay saint that Catholic gays can look up to.

Why the Church and the World Need Celibate Gay Saints

Recently there has been a “coming out” pandemic amongst celibate gay Christian bloggers. First Matt Jones—previously known as “Jordan” but now blogging under his own name at A Joyful Stammering (an…

spiritualfriendship.org

 

[Prodigal_Son]

Love this quote from the article:

Mary Stachowicz, for those who don’t know her story, was by all accounts a gentle, holy Catholic mother. She was brutally raped, beaten, stabbed, and strangled to death by a young gay man, Nicholas Gutierrez, after she tried to persuade him to give up his sexually active lifestyle.

I don’t doubt Stachowicz’s holiness, nor do I question her suitability for sainthood. But the suggestion that she would be an appropriate patron for homosexual Christians is unfortunate. Imagine if we were trying to choose a patron saint for New York taxi drivers, and instead of trying to find examples of devout Christian taxi drivers whom other taxi drivers wishing to become holy could relate to and imitate, we chose a woman who had been run over by a psychopathic cab driver in the midst of a killing rampage through the streets of New York.

 

[2towers]

Hmmm, the other side of that is she gave up her life in trying to help a person with SSA. For that reason, she might be willing to help others with SSA who seek her intersession. Makes “Catholic Sense” to me.

 

[Prodigal_Son]

Oh, I’m sure she would be a good intercessor. But do you know of other cases where the “patron saint” of a group is someone who was harmed by that group, and had (apparently) no positive interactions with that group?

 

[2towers]

There must be, or I would not have thought of it!

Seriously though, I think there is. I just have to remember.

 

[0Scarlett_nidiyilii]

Also, Wayward, in the olden days, homosexual behavior was condemned, but there was no precise name or concept for a person who only was attracted to their own sex.
Sigmund Freud was the first psychiatrist, and the first person to propose that “homosexual” was a type of person, rather than a type of behavior.
So, there may have (I would say probably have) been saints who had attractions to their own sex, but lived a life of chastity anyway, demonstrated heroic virtue anyway (in non-sexual matters), but didn’t have a clinical definition to apply to their feelings in the way we think of today.
On a side note, a lot of great saints had behavior patterns that today would be considered symptoms of emotional distress. AND they were amazing, Godly people.