The son of Ireland’s former President, Mary McAleese, has called on the Church to revise its attitude to gay Catholics.
Justin McAleese, who is gay and a practising Catholic, this week made public correspondence between himself and the Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin, aimed at clarifying the Church’s teaching on homosexuality.
Writing in the Irish Independent Mr McAleese said Archbishop Martin referred him to a 16-page document from the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference called “Guidelines on Relationships and Sexuality Education”, a document intended to inform all aspects of teaching on sexuality in Catholic schools.
However, according to Mr McAleese, the document makes no mention of gays, lesbians or homosexuality. When asked about specific guidelines for gay and lesbian Catholics, the archbishop said he was not aware of any and referred him to the work of Christopher West, an expert on Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. Archbishop Martin added that the Church’s teaching on sexuality is “well-known”.
When asked by The Tablet about any ministry provided by the Church in Ireland to gay Catholics or guidelines on this, a spokesman for the bishops said he had “no information”.
After Ireland voted in favour of same-sex marriage this year, Archbishop Martin called for the Church to “re-commit ourselves to the pastoral care of anyone in society who experiences victimisation and stigmatisation”.
In response, Mr McAleese asked in his article: “How can he even seriously consider pastoral care when his own guidelines don’t even acknowledge the existence of homosexuals?”
Fr Gerry O’Connor, a member of the Association of Catholic Priests’ leadership has called for a re-examination of the Church’s understanding of homosexuality. Fr O’Connor warned that the Irish Church faces “a dilemma of considerable proportions with respect to bridging the gap between the Church and families blessed with family members of a homosexual orientation”. The traditional pastoral practice is not so much redundant as tired, he suggested.
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