Hi all,
My young adult ministry plan to do a talk on LGBT, I was asked to prepare it. So what do you suggest I need to cover. It will be about 1-2 hour and it will be very 101 and easy to understand.
Here we don’t have Courage Apostolate or anything similar. We don’t talk about homosexuality around the church as it is still a taboo subject.
So this could be a chance to reach out and teach what the real Catholic Church teachings on the subject.
Thanks!
Sorry if it’s in the wrong sub-forums,
(1) :aok: :tiphat: My #1 advice by far is to pretend as if someone in the room is homosexual. This might already be the case and you may already know it. But if you do not, plan the talk as if you are talking to someone who has same-sex attraction and is struggling with the church’s teaching. That is what I would want.
Naturally, this does not mean you hide the plain teaching of the church on the issue. But it does mean you talk sensitively, you listen, you put yourself into the other person’s shoes, and you recognize the complexity of an issue that affects real people.
(2)
And when you talk about homosexuality, do not elevate it as a disordered attraction to lust. That is part of it, but for many people, it is a small aspect of it. Homosexual persons do not just have an attraction to commit a certain sexual act with certain people: Even more than this, these people feel a deep, inherent orientation to form relationship with people of the same sex. Emotionally-fulfilling, love-filled, and familial-oriented relationships. Not everyone feels this way in the same way, but I am willing to bet any gay person attending church has those same desires.
(3) :console: Follow the way of Pope Francis as laid out in his Apostolic Exhortation on the family. Every person is different and must be accompanied. Simply relaying the church’s teaching as black-and-white moral doctrine will be of no avail. A pastoral approach considers the current place of the individual and realizes that not all people will perceive and achieve the truth and holiness in the same way, at the same level, and at the same time. The gay person active in a destructive and promiscuous lifestyle, a young boy first noticing his homosexual orientation, and a faithful gay couple who attend church are all at different stages and must be approached differently. The good from any individual’s situation must be highlighted.
(4) :banghead: All of these considerations so far are just as important as actually laying out the church’s sexual morality. Because if that is all you express, you will be preaching to the choir. No homosexual person wants to hear how his or her acts are deemed sinful or his orientation/attractions are “inherently disordered” — not because they are necessarily opposed to the truth, but because that is often
ALL they hear from Christians! And when you actually present the church’s teaching, you must also keep it in the larger perspective of what exactly marriage is. That any sexual act not open to procreation and outside of marriage is immoral.
(5) :grouphug: Very important!!! Remember the complexity of the issue. I have rolled my eyes so many times at “Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” presentations of the issue. That is, when people simply express the teaching as if the Catholic stance is obvious and apparent to all. Remember that the reality is there exist gay people and others who do not easily fit within the norm of the Christian perspective on marriage and sexuality. Not everyone easily follows the Catholic narrative of marriage and man and woman’s complementarity — whether intellectually, or their own experiences make it hard to accept.
(6) :hug1: Suggest that the intimacy and closeness homosexual individuals want is not a bad thing! It is our dumb modern culture that over-sexualizes everything: Any and all close relationships must somehow involve sex. But the truth is, God made us for relationship. “It is not good for man to be alone,” as the Genesis poetically states. So make the distinction between close, intimate, personal relationships and friendships with sexual activity, which is intimately connected with bringing new life into the world.
(7) :heaven: Above all, we are made for intimacy with Christ, and this intimacy with God is available to all through prayer and especially the Eucharist, which are the appetizers of the love we are made that will be fully realized in heaven.
