One Young Man’s Struggle With SSA

Those of you following Grace Pending may have already read my review of Gay and Catholic, fellow-Patheos blogger Eve Tushnet‘s book about her life and her faith.

Here’s what I said in my introduction at that time:

The Catholic Church has long recognized that a not negligible number of men and women experience deep-seated homosexual tendencies. Catechism of the Catholic Church (“CCC”) 2358. It further recognizes that for many these tendencies constitute a very real trial. Importantly, the Church doesn’t try to analyze – either psychologically or theologically – why these tendencies exist. Nor does it condemn those who experience them. What the Church does do is set forth certain moral obligations and guidelines – but not solely for those who are gay. The Church makes clear that homosexuals “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity [and that] every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided”

It is not my intention here to make blanket statements about whether all those who have experienced Same Sex Attraction (SSA) are called to change. I have no basis to do so. And, I note, that not even the Church has made such a claim.

But if we are honest and compassionate, we must recognize that there are at least some who have arrived at that place as a result of one or more negative life experiences. And many of those are honestly seeking a way to heal, a way forward, that would allow them to lead lives free of this struggle.

Courage, a Roman Catholic Apostolate endorsed by the Holy See, is a support group for those SSA Catholics struggling to live within their faith. Following in the footsteps of other 12-step organizations, Courage states:

We admitted that we were powerless over homosexuality and our lives had become unmanageable.

We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

We made a decision to turn our will and our lives to the care of God as we understood Him.

We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

We were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of our character.

We humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.

We made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make direct amends to them all.

We made the direct amends to such people wherever possible except when to do so would injure them or others.

We continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for the knowledge of God’s Will for us and the power to carry it out.

Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to others and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Nothing in Courage’s five stated goals, which were created by members themselves, demands or even compels a member’s re-orientation or change. It seems to me that acceptance of one’s self and learning to live within one’s faith is Courage’s primary undertaking.

Now, one young man, Andres Castañeda Treviño, Courage’s Latino Chihuahua’s Lay Coordinator, has recently come forward with his story, revealing his own struggle with both SSA and pornography.

It is an important and compelling read.

Written by an older friend who has experienced similar struggles throughout his lifetime, Andrés’ story is – in my opinion – one that may well show the way for some who seek healing, and a release from their own present struggles.

I also believe that Andrés’ story confirms that SSA – in at least some individuals – can be honestly addressed and effectively overcome. Deep faith may well play a huge role in such cases, however, as it clearly did here with Andrés.

Read Andrés full story here, and be sure to read the comments as well. They tell a significant part of the story.

I’ll close here with the story’s own concluding paragraph:

People do not change overnight, and just like all of us whose sexual identities have for whatever reason been broken, this young man is still growing into his manhood. But, as he aptly puts it, “I came to Courage shattered, broken and torn apart inside, but standing, and ready to work.” And work he does.

Today he no longer sees himself as “gay” or homosexual but simply as God’s child. Nothing more or less. No other labels are needed to define this young man of God. He is, at his young age, the Courage Latino Chihuahua’s Lay Coordinator, and I for one believe nothing will stop him in his quest for holiness and wholeness (emphasis added).

I, too, believe that it would be a very good thing if we were to drop the sexual-orientation labels that we, all too often, unnecessarily and hastily (in my view) place on ourselves.

Perhaps if we did, we could finally come to see ourselves – gay and straight – as children of a God.

Children who continue to seek their own directed path to holiness.

Peace

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain (Saints Sergius and Bacchus). I thank New Advent for linking to the original story discussed here.