Eve Tushnet
…Even aside from the sad fact that Catholics have often used the Church’s teaching as an excuse for cruelty and prejudice, there are many problems. Why is it that we only ever hear homilies about two lifelong vocations, marriage and the priesthood? Why are gay men and women so often spoken about as political opponents rather than people? Why do some orthodox Catholics still scoff at the idea of homophobia and acts like anti-gay bullying is nothing to worry about?
When reading the ‘New Homophiles’ the words ‘friendship’ and ‘vocation’ come up again and again. Joshua Gonnerman believes that the experience of being gay can be a spur to form deeper, more intimate friendships, and Eve Tushnet writes that a rediscovery of friendship as a vocation equal to marriage could help, not just gay people, but the Church as a whole. Intense, sacrificial love is not the preserve of sexual relationships or religious life: it can be present in one-to-one friendship as well as in extended families and lay communities. Cardinal John Henry Newman was buried with his friend Ambrose St John, and wrote about his death: “I have ever thought no bereavement was equal to that of a husband’s or a wife’s, but I feel it difficult to believe that any can be greater, or anyone’s sorrow greater, than mine.”
more (lol “New Homophiles,” I have no idea, but this is a heartening piece)
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