Catholic culture of silence

On top of being a lifelong Catholic, I've been a church musician since the age of eight. My first extended venture outside of the Catholic Church occurred when I accepted an organist position at an Episcopal church during the summer after my junior year in high school.\nOne particular Sunday, the priest, in the midst of his sermon, arrived at a discussion of homosexuality. He blatantly raised his voice and said, "Let me tell you something about gay people. They're gay. They can't do anything about it. That's who they are."\nMy eyes nearly popped out. Never in my life had I ever felt so offended and yet so relieved. Offended because this priest dared to bring up this issue in church, and relieved, because he actually had the balls to do it. The Episcopal Church, like some other Christian denominations, holds extensive dialogues on homosexuality.\nThe American Catholic Church, on the other hand, is plagued by a culture of silence. After all my "churched" years, I still have yet to hear a homily on homosexuality (or abortion or birth control -- for that matter). Though some priests do give sermons on these issues, you will rarely hear about the real doctrine of the church -- that homosexuality is an "objective disorder" that has "a more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil."\nThe silence of the clergy is particularly disturbing because the clergy have a pastoral obligation to address the issue. The Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons (Oct. 1, 1986) reads, "The Bishops have the particularly grave responsibility to see to it that their assistants in the ministry, above all the priests, are rightly informed and personally disposed to bring the teaching of the Church in its integrity to everyone."\nBecause the Vatican has been so very vocal on the topic of homosexuality, one would expect to hear sermons on the issue. Hardly.\nTo give another example, I distinctly remember a Sunday several years ago where the people attending were encouraged to sign a political petition against same-sex partnerships. Every church in the archdiocese was asked to fill out this petition -- you would think that a priest would seize this opportunity to "bring" the Church's teaching on homosexuality to the people. But no, the Monsignor didn't say a single word about homosexual persons, homosexual relationships or sexual orientation.\nWhy are priests silent? For some priests, they are afraid to lose parishioners. For others, they just simply don't agree with the Catholic teaching. And for the large number of closeted gay priests in the ministry now, some avoid any mention of homosexuality as to avoid any suspicion among their faithful parishioners. "Practice what you preach" takes on a strikingly literal dimension when it comes to some Catholic priests.\n Whatever the reason, silence is unhealthy. Silence is, in a sense, the neutral ground. No one gets upset. Everyone can act as if the issue doesn't exist. But who does that serve?\n In his editorial "Losing a Church, Keeping the Faith" in The New York Times (Oct. 20, 2003) Andrew Sullivan writes about the pope: "He will send emissaries to terrorists, he will meet with a man who tried to assassinate him. But he has not and will not meet with openly gay Catholics. They are, to him, beneath dialogue."\nA lack of dialogue, a lack of listening and a lack of understanding has pushed Sullivan away from the church he loves. The American Catholic Church needs a sincere discourse on sexuality. If priests have issues with church doctrine, they should voice their opinions. Church officials need to open their ears and listen to all of their faithful. When this barrier of silence is broken, only then, will the Catholic Church seek to be more catholic in its thinking.