The Self-Interest Case For Better Ministry To Gay People

For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it. Matthew 19:12

He who marries does right, but he who does not marry does better. 1 Corinthians 7:38

If any one saith, that the marriage state is to be placed above the state of virginity, or of celibacy, and that it is not better and more blessed to remain in virginity, or in celibacy, than to be united in matrimony; let him be anathema. Council of Trent, Session 24, Canon 10

Let us grant, if only for the sake of argument, that some people have profound and irrefragable same-sex attraction. Let us grant that such persons are, thereby, called to lifelong sexual continence.

Though this teaching has been underemphasized in recent decades owing to understandable fears of clericalism, it remains a clear Biblical and Traditional doctrine that those who are called to virginity or celibacy or continence for the sake of the Kingdom have received a lofty vocation; in fact, the highest one there is, the most “blessed” (cross-shaped, yes–cross-shaped therefore blessed), the one of Christ our Lord and his apostles.

One who is called to celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom is so because she is called to do great things for the Kingdom that would not be possible in the state of matrimony, as the witness of countless saints attests. Celibates are supposed to be the elite, the shock troops, the Marines, of the Catholic Church.

The “problem” of ministry to gay people, then, is not merely that people are led to sin, or that another front has opened up in the culture wars that must be somehow dealt with. The true problem is that God is calling a lot of people to be the spearhead of the Kingdom, and the Kingdom is not exploiting this valuable resource, at a time when it can ill-afford to be so lackadaisical. There is, you will recall, a cosmic spiritual war going on, of which so-called culture wars are merely a shadow.

The famed Preacher of the Papal Household, Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, OFMCap, points out that with every era of great missionary activity of the Church, a different kind of “protagonist” was raised up to be the spearhead of this missionary activity: in the Roman Empire, the bishops; in the Dark Ages, the monks; in the New World, the friars; and now–lay people and lay movements. This, in large part, is what the New Evangelization is all about. More particularly, at a time of sex-obsession, and in the face of a culture that proclaims that sexual activity is a necessary and sacred component of well-being, the best gift that the Church can give the world is the counter-cultural witness of joyful celibacy–clerical celibacy, but also the historically underemphasized vocation of lay celibacy. This goes way beyond “the gay issue”, but it incorporates it and brings it to light in a new way.

To sum up: if simple compassion won’t get us to do the right thing, then perhaps evangelization concerns will.