The Archdiocese of Philadelphia found itself at the center of another LGBT-focused public dustup this week — and again redirected the blame.
Several national LGBT organizations were scheduled to stage a one-day workshop next month on gender identity and Catholicism at St. John the Evangelist Church, which was supposed to host a number of LGBT families coming to town for the World Meeting of Families. The international Catholic conference is expected to bring thousands to the city at the end of September for four days of workshops and discussions on the Catholic family, whose numbers are anticipated to swell to up to 2 million when Pope Francis visits at the end of the conference.
However, it was announced Monday that St. John’s cancelled its hosting of the LGBT event and families; the LGBT organizers reported being told by the church’s pastor that the archdiocese disapproved of the workshop on gender identity. However, the archdiocese emphasized that while it advised the church, it was the church’s decision to cancel the programming.
The language hearkens back to earlier this summer, when the archdiocese sought to distance itself from the firing of a gay religion teacher at Waldron Mercy Academy. Though the archdiocese acknowledged it consulted on the situation, it noted the final decision rested with the sisters of Waldron Mercy.
On paper, these decisions may have been made by the hierarchy at the school and church, respectively. However, having an archdiocese that financially supports their operations — and one that is led by a virulently antigay archbishop — breathing down their necks certainly doesn’t put those entities in positions that allow for much variant decision-making.
While the archdiocese has shifted the responsibility again off of itself, what it has also done with this latest action is definitively tell LGBT people, and transgender people in particular, that they are not welcome as part of the Catholic family. That “family” will be explored through dozens of workshops at the World Meeting of Families — including one that advocates for celibacy for gays and another that, according to its description, will question, “What really is the logic of same-sex marriage?” It’s clear where the direction of the conference is headed, and that is not one that includes LGBT people.
Again, the local archdiocese has painted Catholics with an undeserved narrow-minded brush; there are undoubtedly countless modern Catholic people, many of whom may be participating in the World Meeting of Families, who would be open to exploring gender variance and the role of transgender people in the Catholic community. However, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has again shut, and locked, the door to dialogue.