pastoral care from their parish youth ministry. If the Catholic Church is not careful, it may be criticized as suffering from LGBTQ ephebiphobia (the fear of teenagers) towards sexual minority adolescents.[1]
The three major Catholic Church documents concerning ministering to LGBTQ people are (1) the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith's document entitled Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons,[2] (2) the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' document entitled Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination: Guidelines for Pastoral Care,[3] and (3) another USCCB document titled Always my Children: A Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children and Suggestions for Pastoral Ministers.[4] All of these documents call for the church—institutions, organizations, and ministries—to have an empathetic heart and to provide pastoral care to the homosexual community. However, the three documents provide little by way of real pastoral care and seems out-of-touch with LGBTQ reality.
These three documents leave most LGBTQ people disappointed by their lack of pastoral concentration; the documents smack of institutional control as well as exacerbating cultural barriers.[5] It appears that neither the Magisterium nor the United States Catholic Bishops consulted critically or dialogued pastorally with anyone from the LGBTQ community.[6]
The 1997 U.S. Catholic Bishops' document, Always my Children: A Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children and Suggestions for Pastoral Ministers, provides some reassurance for Catholic parents and recommends the following:
- Accept and love yourselves as parents.
- Do everything possible to continue demonstrating love for your child.
- Urge your son or daughter to stay joined to the Catholic faith community.
- Recommend that your son or daughter find a spiritual director/mentor.
- Seek help for yourself, perhaps in the form of counseling, as you strive for understanding, acceptance, and inner peace.
- Reach out in love and service to other parents struggling with a son or daughter's homosexuality.
- Take advantage of opportunities for education and support.
- Put your faith completely in God.[7]
- ↑ Andrew Root and Kendra Creasy Dean, The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2011), 207. Ephebiphobia is the fear of teenagers and is very distinct from ephebophilia, the primary sexual desire and attraction of adolescents by adults. I am using the term in the context of the Church could be criticized as having ephebiphobia toward its homosexual teenagers.
- ↑ Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1986).
- ↑ USCCB, Ministry to Persons.
- ↑ USCCB, Always Our Children.
- ↑ Maher and Sever, "Educators in Catholic Schools," 83.
- ↑ Bayly, Creating Environments, 85.
- ↑ USCCB, Always Our Children, 6.
