The Catholic lesson on managing the homosexuality question: go back to basics.

If you think about LGBT people, your thoughts this weekend will surely be drawn to the marking of Pride – and well they should be, for this event both celebrates the great strides that have been made towards LGBT equality, and reminds us that, particularly if we look to the global picture, there is much still to be done.
You might not have realised though that the subject has once again taken up a great deal of time at yet another Church of England synod.
This year, votes have taken place on whether to support a motion calling for a ban to so-called gay conversion therapy, and whether special services should be offered for transgender people in acknowledgement of a person’s new identity after transition.

I as a Catholic watch all this with bewilderment and a peculiar mix of emotions. Part of me wonders why they keep trying to achieve consensus, flogging a long-dead horse, however noble the intentions. Part of me envies my Anglican fellow Christians, for at least their church is having a debate. Mine regards the practice of homosexuality as a mortal sin (meaning a sin for which one will go to hell unless absolved through attendance at Confession) – a stance that I personally disagree with, but which far more importantly has the potential to be enormously damaging to LGBT Catholics who want to be part of our church. There are complex theological reasons why the flexibility of the Anglican and Catholic churches so widely differs, which we won’t go in to here.

My envy of the Anglican communion has diminished over the years, and, as a Catholic, I have come not only to be reconciled with a church which espouses ideas that are contrary to my own conscience, but to actually prefer that Catholic lack of doctrinal ambiguity.

Catholic synods are far less obsessed with homosexuality. They may explore bigger issues, such as the state of the family; engaging the youth or how to evangelise most effectively in this modern age. They are less obsessed because the parameters of debate are very clear. When we discuss sexuality, it is only those theologically ignorant enough to think that doctrinal change might be on the table who are left disappointed by Catholic synods. The rest know that participants will explore a subtler question: what is the balance between dogma and pastoral care? For me, that is a far more important question than anything that the Church of England is going to vote on this weekend. We know that the teachings are what they are, grounded and embedded in sophisticated theological reasoning. But to what extent should we emphasise those teachings, rather than focus on trying our best within these constraints to be a place of welcome and kindness where those who live contrary to such teachings can nonetheless encounter the love of Christ in all of us?
The Catholic church may not permit me to espouse a different view of the expression of homosexuality (yes, on gays having sex) – on that, Catholics have every right to criticise me for disobedience to the church. But it does allow me something far more important: the intellectual freedom to try and muddle through that inherently imperfect dogma/pastoral care conundrum. And by setting that conundrum as the parameter and scope of the sexuality debate, we can form a judgement and then move on to far more relevant questions, like how the church responds to Christianity’s loss of dominance in public discourse; the financial and moral poverty that pervades our world today; the many ethical questions modern scientific advancement is presenting us.
Meanwhile, the poor Church of England will flounder on for another 3 years working up an updated document on sexuality, sounding more and more stuck in the past and irrelevant. Its members will continue to make up their own minds, largely paying little attention to the great and the good – a strategy that works wonderfully for us liberal Catholics who love our faith.
As a Catholic, I can vote with my feet: I only get angry with the Catholic church when I think about the hierarchy’s position. It never plays out in my life as an active member of my local church, because we just don’t spend our days banging on about sex. If that changes, I can walk out and find a church whose clergy has a different focus. So, hate the Catholic stance on gays all you like, but if the Anglican communion went back to basics on the sexuality question it could put it to bed tomorrow.