Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph, San Jose, CA via

MetroActive, a Silicon Valley weekly, features a story this week on gay Catholics in the San Jose diocese, which a headline writer calls “the most gay-friendly diocese in the US”.

In the subtly detailed and long feature piece, reporter Jessica Fromm offers evidence of that headline assertion by reporting on several meetings and services held for gay Catholics in actual churches (something that has become quite rare). Fromm explains:

The Diocese of San Jose has long been one of the most gay-friendly Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territories in the United States. Few people know this, and many in the local Catholic community would like it stay that way.

On the orders of former Bishop Roland Pierre DuMaine and current Bishop Patrick Joseph McGrath, the diocese has been able to offer ministry and support to local gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Catholics for more than 20 years by operating under the radar.

Recently, progressive Catholic leaders and members of the San Jose religious community are working to change this tentative approach to gay Catholic ministry.

Must read: Gay Catholics find the way to acceptance in San Jose diocese [contd.]

In fact, led by Pedigo, St. Julie Billiart Parish has developed a strong following among Silicon Valley's gay Catholics. Currently, the church's pastoral staff is considering a proposal to take even more open and bold steps toward the establishment of church-directed LGBT outreach, along with helping other parishes extend a hand to their own gay parishioners.

Fromm also delves into the deepening difficulty clerics like McGrath face when trying to treat LGBT people with dignity in the increasingly reactionary Catholic church. (See this article in the magazine Public Eye for an explanation of how the church got to this situation.)

Still, the Vatican continues to assert that gay marriage is one of the biggest threats to morality in the modern world, and that homosexuality is a pitiable, "intrinsically disordered" condition no different from alcoholism. LGBT-identifying Catholics face a battle for acceptance even in the Bay Area, where there is perhaps more tolerance and support than anywhere.

Even the few clergy members who acknowledge the gay Catholic community feel that they have to keep their ministry on the down low. Many fear retaliation by conservative Catholic factions if they upset the apple cart, particularly those who supported Proposition 8 last year, like Oakland Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, who helped spearhead the initiative. Just last week, the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., announced its intention to withdraw all church-funded social services should the D.C. City Council legalize same-sex marriage.

Fromm does a good. and relatively sensitive job of explaining the Catholic “sin/sinner” way of dealing with gay people, and with the official church’s increasingly reactionary view of marriage and family in general (and does so without once using the word “reactionary”—but then she has more room for subtlety in the long article.)

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops is expected to discuss at a meeting this week a document that has long been in preparation by church bureaucrats. It’s called “Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan” and when adopted by the bishops will lay down a relatively strict anti-gay law for all bishops similar to that promoted in Maine by the state’s Bishop

A draft of the document that was leaked to the web last week goes into excruciating detail to assert that “same sex unions are one of the most troubling developments in contemporary culture” according to Fromm.

Update: The document was officially adopted by the bishops Tuesday.

She quotes the bishops’ draft document justifying opposition to what is “often equated with nondiscrimination”:

However, it is not unjust to oppose legal recognition of same-sex unions, because marriage and same-sex unions are essentially different realities. The denial of the social and legal status of marriage to forms of cohabitation that are not and cannot be marital is not opposed to justice; on the contrary, justice requires it.

But Fromm also talks with and elucidate the views of Catholic scholars who disagree (despite the dangers) with the current political drift of the hierarchy.

And more significantly, she talks to gay and lesbian Catholics who explain, in various ways, how and why they choose to remain members of a church that is hostile to their being.

She also talks at length to Rev. Jon Pedigo, the pastor of St. Julie Billiart parish in south San Jose:

Pedigo said that as he started to notice the growing LGBT Catholic community that was coming to St. Julie’s, he decided to consult the established gay Catholic community at the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in San Francisco's Castro District.

“I said, ‘Look, I’m a server in San Jose, and I have all these gay and lesbian people coming for baptism and wanting their babies to be baptized and raising their kids and their families Catholic. And we’ve got kids in the youth group who are sexual.’ I asked, ‘What do you guys do about this? What have you done?’”

“They said that your primary concern is to be open to them and hear their stories and minister to them just as you would anybody else, and not to see it as a special side ministry, but to see it as part and parcel to parish life.”

From that time forward, Pedigo has freely acknowledged and supported the gay and lesbian Catholics who flock to St. Julie’s. He publicly opposed Prop. 8, going so far as to post video interviews with gay Catholic families on his blog (www.frjonblog.org).

Pedigo says that when dealing with his gay parishioners, and especially with the teen group, he tries to emphasize that the process of coming out is not a big deal.

“With the kids, if you take away the elements of fear and shame, then they can be in a place to make a better psychological decision to choose a relationship that's healthy, that's not exploitive, that’s deep and meaningful, rather then just sex,” he says. “Then, your parishioner is a much healthier individual that will be able to exercise intelligent choices.”

Pedigo makes it very clear that it is not his or St. Julie’s agenda to stand up and challenge the official teaching of the Catholic Church, but that his flock is his first priority.

But, given the current situation in the church he chose, that’s doing quite a lot.

Source: San Jose is the most gay-friendly diocese in the nation | Emmaus Mass | News & Culture in Silicon Valley, CA | Feature Story