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Friday\u2019s Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage across the country presents an interesting moment for Catholics in the U.S. The church opposes gay marriage, and this likely won\u2019t change even under Pope Francis the Troublemaker. But we also must acknowledge that this moment is a great joy for many Catholics\u2014gay and straight. In recent history, many upstanding and faithful Catholics have said that they have heard the voice of Jesus say to them that the love between two persons of the same-sex isn\u2019t sinful, but holy, sanctified, and blessed.<\/p>\n
I myself struggle with this conundrum. There\u2019s nothing more important in my life than being Catholic and a part of the universal Church of Jesus Christ. For me, it\u2019s not just membership in a fraternal organization or civic group, but in a family that gives me my identity, my roots, and my wings. I take my faith\u2019s teaching on every issue\u2014including gay marriage\u2014seriously, but I, too, can\u2019t help but feel joy for my LGBT friends who celebrated Friday\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
Many Catholics who experience these complex and conflicting feelings are wondering what the way forward could be. I think there are three important ways Catholics are called to respond to Friday\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n
1. We must acknowledge God\u2019s particular love for the LGBT community.\u00a0Our faith tradition teaches that God has a preferential option for the poor and a bias for the excluded. We can\u2019t be blind to the fact that many LGBT individuals and families have faced a culture of exclusion, hatred, and even death in our nation, around the world, and, yes, in the Church.<\/p>\n
Jesuit Father James Martin said he thinks we have a long way to go to communicate God\u2019s love for this community. \u201cNo issue brings out so much hatred from so many Catholics as homosexuality,\u201d\u00a0Martin wrote in a Facebook post Friday<\/a>. \u201cThe Catholic church must do a much better job of teaching what the Catechism says: that we should treat our LGBT brothers and sisters with \u2018respect, sensitivity and compassion.\u2019 But God wants more. God wants us to love.\u201d<\/p>\n 2. We must be a Church that listens before it speaks.\u00a0Last year, Pope Francis said that \u201cwe must lend our ears to the beat of this era and detect the scent of people today, so as to be permeated by their joys and hopes, by their sadness and distress.\u201d As\u00a0Franciscan priest Daniel Horan noted Friday,<\/a>\u00a0we do this so that the \u201cjoys and hopes\u201d and the \u201csadness and distress\u201d of others becomes our own.<\/p>\n When we listen to each other with big hearts, we can begin to overcome the unfair stereotypes that divide us. We can put to rest the great lie that everyone who opposes gay marriage is a bigot and that everyone who supports it is a bad Catholic. We can begin to understand and form ourselves again around the fundamental truths of our faith: that God loves us, that the Church welcomes us, and that Jesus walks with us.<\/p>\n 3. We must work together to strengthen family life.\u00a0As the Catholic Archbishop of Atlanta Wilton Gregory\u00a0said so beautifully Friday,<\/a>\u00a0\u201cThe decision has offered all of us an opportunity to continue the vitally important dialogue of human encounter, especially between those of diametrically differing opinions regarding its outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n One area where we all can work together on is building strong families, which is the fundamental cell of human society. There are many threats to family life here in the U.S. and around the globe. No matter what one thinks about gay marriage, we all can remain committed to strengthening family life against some of its greatest threats: an economy that kills, environmental exploitation, dictatorships of relativism, consumerism, superficiality, and indifference.<\/p>\n