The teaching of the Church is quite clear. It is not permissable to conduct a requiem Mass in a Catholic Church for someone who was no longer a member of that Church - either through living in an irregular relationship; being a public and unrepentant sinner; having left the Faith Community, and so on.
Stephen Gately might have been a sweet man in human terms, but God’s ways are not ours. The way we love God is much deeper than just being a pleasant person (even the pagans can do that) - it is in trying to avoid sin, being as faithful as we can, and being obedient to His laws (even if they don’t make sense to us in the world we find ourselves). Nowadays it seems that the Western world is obsessed with giving homosexual sexual relationships the same status as married relationships. In God’s eyes there is only one form of vaild human sexual relationship - marriage, and that is definied as a man and a woman living as one body, in unity under Christ. This is the way God has guided and proteced humanity from the very beginning. It is His will. This young man, through the misguided zeal for promoting his sexuality, had in effect left the Catholic Church (many homosexuals see the Church not as the loving Mother she is, but as some kind of oppressive anti-gay regime - the Devil rejoices to join forces with such men, who do his work for him…i.e. in causing rebellon against God and His Holy and most Beautiful Church, the Bride of Christ). From what I read Stephen Gately dabbled in Buddhist and Eastern types of spirituality (Christ is the Way, not Buddha or Muhammad!), and it seems had rejected his Catholic faith - leading to a rift with his Catholic family. He also entered into a union (civil partnership) which once entered into excluded him from the sacraments, and therefore effectual membership of the Faith Community. He was in effect excommunicated. He seemed comfortable with being called another man’s husband - an impossiblity for the Church, and a mockery of marriage (an institution most strongly defended by the Son of God and Price of Peace). Many poor souls would have been led away from the Faith by this example - in that they would have reason to think that it is somehow “OK to be gay” and live in direct conflict with the Kingdom of God, forgetting that the Great Teacher of the Faith, St Paul of Tarsus, warned all Christians that “sodomites… do not inherit the Kingdom of God”! A public sinner is therefore a scandal to the little ones called by Christ - and this must be taken seriously! Souls do go to Hell, the three saints of Fatima saw them (countless in number), and Our Lord warned us, more than anyone else, about the reality of this horrific, evil place. It is our choice whether we want to go there or not (free will), and the way we choose is by the way we live our lives - with Christ, or against Him. He is found in the Church, given to St Peter and his Successors. He is not found in those who mock (with no justification) the Catholic Church.
It seems that this poor soul did not publicly repent of his sin, he did not leave the union he was in, and he was not reconcilled to the Church. We can only hope, that by some mercy of God, he was given a few moments to repent just before Death. God, can and does so often allow the soul this one last grace…but a man tied up in the bonds of sin will find it very difficult to resist the whisperings of satan at this last trial. Our prayers, even now, in temporal ways beyond the time of his death, may actually be able to have an effect on that moment - through their eternal merits. Of course, no one knows the day nor the hour, and that is why we must always be aware that our enemy, the Devil, is always on the prowl looking for a soul to devour. He is real, he is after us, but if we place our little souls into God’s mercy he can never have the victory over us. But sin has dreadful consequences - it does lead to early death and to Hell…Let us take this sad tale as a warning, a parable of how we should always be on our guard against the enemy of mankind! Do not listen to the World and those who love it - its Prince is the one cast out of Heaven!
We can only hope that Stephen Gately managed to turn to God at the last moment, and that his all night drinking, cannabis smoking and picking up of a man from a gay bar will not have damaged his faculties to reason too much. The Church should not have buried him - as a sign that those who leave her, through their own will, have left her bonds of grace. Remember the foolish virgins of the Gospel - there are foolish ones around today who somehow think that there’s always enough time to repent. There is not. Now is the time to repent, now is the Judge standing at the door, now is the appointed time! The Church should pray for him, though, for who knows what God’s will is…He was baptised, after all, and that is the most powerful of sacraments. He would have had Our Lady’s prayers “nunc et in ora mortis”. Also, it is an act of great mercy to pray for the dead - however they died and whoever they might have been. His family (not civil partner - who I guess is not a Catholic) will need the comforts of their faith, and it would be only right for the Church to offer them some consolations - a Mass, a blessing, the ministry of the parish priest. As for Stephen it might have been best for the Archbishop of Dublin to keep to his pastoral mission for all the souls of his Diocese and advised that he be buried in another place, though prayers for the repose of his soul, and maybe, after some time, even a Mass, could be offered for this intention.
It concerns me that the Church has been so infected by the present age that it may have become a stumbling block to those searching for the Truth - which always and ever will be the surest sign of Love.
