University News (Irving, Tex.), Vol. 15, No. 8, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 16, 1991 Page: 3 of 15
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3
October 16,1991
University News
Commentary
On The Road: Homosexuality Can Invite Christian Sacrifice
n
dent Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Ameri-
school in Latin America. Health care
bashing” because it fails to distinguish
between homosexual orientation and
the rich of his country, perhaps mem-
bers of his family and some of his
friends. He had to endure loneliness
wherever he went. All of these prob-
lems, just so that a few people could
live more decently and longer. I ad-
mire him. I doubt that I’ve ever done
have gained for their disorders. The
'are
decent men and women who try to deal
with homosexual inclinations in faith
and without ideology....
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terest and application. With his kind
permission (and that of Crisis'), I am re-
printing a portion of the letter here:
here taught me many things, but mostly
that I had a lot of work ahead of me. I
went to Mexico to start doing just that.
Francois (I never knew his last name)
was in my class. We talked as much as
we could. This proved to be difficult,
because broken Spanish was the only
common language, and politics the
favorite subject. (Most Romers have
had similar experiences.) I really en-
Love, God’s merciful love in which we
humans are called to share, is the only
source of authentic renewal or true
of the coin is depicted in the lives of a
great number of courageous men and
women who sincerely believe that they
have a homosexual orientation, but be-
cause of moral, religious or other con-
victions choose to live chastely. These
people, through their struggles, are
invited to live a life of heroic virtue. 1
stand in awe of those who are able to
sacrifice their sexuality, to “die to self,”
for the sake of a higher good. While this
sort of continence appears to me so
striking and admirable, really it is no
different in kind than the sacrifice of a
priest who is faithful to his vow of
celibacy, or of a married couple who
live in accord with the laws of the Church
and of nature, or even of a single hetero-
sexual person who struggles success-
fully to live chastely.
Gay [men and women]...should be
met with authentic love, because au-
thentic love is the only reality which will
win them away from the ideology which know that
alike, have to struggle to integrate—
' ' ’ - our l
ried man who demands intercourse
unlovingly from an unwilling spouse,
the heterosexual who seduces his date,
the “straights” who pour over Playboy
of all and Hustler are every bit as disordered
sexually as a man who wrestles with
sexual attraction for another man.
Sexual disorder is not the unique prob-
sakeoflove, not to the detriment of love. lem of the homosexually inclined.
complete sexual abstinence. Those who
are homosexual and not gay recognize
authentic love and strive at least as
well as their heterosexual brothers and
sisters to achieve such love in their
lives. Theirs may be a rockier road
than the one most heterosexuals travel,
j even be some subjec-
tively excused sexual activity along the
way; but, those who are homosexual
’) one
with all human beings in our common
need for God’s mercy, and in our
know I’ve never had across to bear like
his.
Remembering our discussions, lean
safely assume that he supported Presi-
so that he could help them.
He had numerous difficulties in
realizing this vocation. A foreign lan-
one’s immediate wants or demands for
the sake of one’s own greater good and that is, or der
charitable remarks about these folks the good of others. Jesus Christ is the
and what they were up to. For this I am principal exemplar of this sacrifice. No
ashamed.
I cite my experience with co-work-
by Aaron Reed
For the
past month or
more I’ve been
waiting tables at
a popular Dal-
las restaurant. I
was at first
shocked, then
Ik
saddened and at last provoked by the
openness with which a (surprisingly
large) number of my fellow employees,
male and female, proclaimed their gay
lifestyles. I was shocked that they were
so frank and unapologetic about their
sexual activities. I was saddened that it
seemed there was no common
for us to even begin to discuss the prob-
lems of sexuality in a constructive way.
In the end, my homophobia (a fear
.which I had long maintained is quite
healthy for a young man) came to the
fore, and I made more than a few un-
Regardless, Francois will return to
his native country as a doctor sooner or
later. He will find the difficulty in
aiding the poor will have increased, and
that the tears run faster and the pain
deeper in his country.
Francois and I didn’t exchange
mailing addresses as we said good-bye.
We must have figured we wouldn’t
have bothered to keep in touch. He is a
memory now. Sometimes I m afraid
that he has faded in my mind to the
extent that he seems to have become a
figment of my imagination. But I am
glad I knew him as a person, because
beyond the friendship we offered to
each other, he has personalized for me
events occurring in a country I might
have otherwise overlooked.
deepest despair when Christ’s grace
can be most manifest. In Saint Paul’s
second letter to the Church of Corinth,
he speaks of his “thorn in the flesh
(12:7) and says that Christ, rather than
removing it as Paul pleaded, replied
that “My grace is sufficient for you, for
power is made perfect in weakness.
(12:9) Cold comfort, you say? Then
I someone else is looking to
has captured them. Gay ideology is you for encouragement and inspiration,
simply wrong about what love really is. because almost certainly someone is.
Letters Policy
The Editor encourages letters from all members of the
University. Send us your questions, comments and
concerns! All letters must be typed and signed. Due
to space constraints, the University News canrxrt guar-
antee that any particular letter will be printed in its en-
tirety, if at all. Any letter considered to be in poor taste
or libelous will nor be printea.
greater love than this, to lay down one ’ s
life for one’sfriends.’ (Johnl5:13) The
ers as an example, because it illustrates greatest love defines the essence < _
one side of a coin, that is, those homo-
sexually oriented people who actively
guage is tough, any way you look at it.
Students who have gone on the Cuer-
navaca program probably realize the
same thing I did when I tried to master
Spanish on the “sink or swim” tech-
nique. After a while, talking to some-
one in English can be more important
than talking to someone you like. The
necessary intense concentration can be
that taxing. I always had other class-
mates or other English-speaking people
to turn to when I needed a break. Fran-
cois had no one.
Medical school itself has to be dif-
ficult on its own. When he enrolled in
a medical school, as I believe he has by
now, he would have to deal not only
with the course load but also the vo-
cabulary expected of a native Spanish
speaker.
My heart went out to him. It does
now, too. Here was a man whose
education revealed his wealthy back-
my thoughts off someone whose back- ground. Yet he had turned his back on
ground was nothing like mine. I, in
turn, would listen intently to what he
had to say.
He was Haitian, and a few years
older than me. He told me he needed to
’Gay’ denotes a complex ideology.
Being gay means that one strives to live
by this ideology. I will not attempt a
complete description of the complexi- and there may
ties of gay ideology, but according to
this ideology homosexual activity is
essentialfor those so inclined to achieve and not gay remain consciously
a reasonable sense ofwell-being. More
generically, the ideology asserts that
sexual activity, rather than self-sacri-
fice, is essential to love. The failure to
see that self-sacrifice is the essence of
ground love separates gay ideology from the
Christian faith, the claims to the con-
trary of some gay ideologues notwith-
me. It is often said that “God gives us
nothing we cannotbear.” Idon’tknow.
However that may be, many people are
tormented by their sexuality—daunted
by the challenge of achieving that
“authentic love.” Itis at times like these
when it is perhaps good to remember, as
Fr. Roach goes on to say that the I was recently reminded, that it is in our
suffering and sacrifice of homosexual
Gay ideologues claim that disorder
Sink or Swim:" Dictatorial Policies in Haiti
Threaten The Welfare of the Third World
the military will back down. We can’t
cans may have problems with the teach- tell what will happen.
ings of this 38 year old priest (even I find
slogans like “money is sin” uncomfort-
able), but then again, you and I didn’t
elect him. The Haitian people did.
Replacing the totalitarian Duvalier
family, Aristide has had many setbacks.
He has failed and hurt his people on
occasion, as any leader of a poor coun-
try will.
This does not justify what has hap-
pened. Aristide was deposed by a mili-
tary coup after only seven months in
power. He has left the country safely,
but his compatriots were not as lucky.
They are protesting the tyrannical acts
of their zealous generals even as you are
reading this article. Many Western
countries have placed economic sanc-
tions on this small nation in the hope that
is order; but in doing so they merely
echo what the vast majority of hetero-
sexual opinion makers in this culture
say. The straight, too, in this culture reform in the Church....
claim that sexual disorder actually is
order. There is no substantive differ- I’ll probably continue to be more
ence between gay and straight in this comfortable with my sins than those of
regard, except one could say that
straights were claiming that disorder is
by Mark
Zuniga
Reading
the news the
other day, I was
reminded of
someone I once
knew, and the
country he will
n.
t z
other people—after all, some of my
vices have been with me for quite awhile,
order before any homosexual became and I’m (sadly) kind of used to them by
gay. Since gays are in the minority, they now. But, I’ll also continue to reflect
strive to gain acceptance for the sexual upon the sanctifying nature of my
disorder ofwhich they approve to match struggles and those of the people around
common recognition that our sexuality the level of acceptance which straights
authentic love.
All authentic love demands some
engagein a gay lifestyle. The other side sacrifice of one’s sexual wants, for the
Some love may require the sacrifice of
always symbolize for me.
I was in Mexico the summer after
In fact, the more I reflect upon this, my freshman year. My Spanish classes
the more humbled I am by my own
sinful nature. Just because the next
fellow’s problems are different ones
than mine doesn’t mean that mine are
any less serious. After all, there are
none of us free of the sin of Adam and
of Eve. Likewise, though, we are all
equally redeemed and offered the op-
portunity to live heroic lives.
I was recently given a copy of a
letter written by Fr. Richard R. Roach, joyed our talks because I could bounce
S.J., a professor and theologian at
Marquette University, and printed in
the September, 1991 issue of Crisis
magazine. Fr. Roach in his letter re-
sponds to a review of the book, Gay
Priests, which he claims could inadver-
tantly contribute to instances of “priest- learn the language so that he could go to
was unheard of for the poor of his coun- anything that did as much good, and 1
gay lifestyle. Though Fr. Roach’s letter try, and he wanted to become a doctor
wassparkedbythetopicof“gaypriests,”
I believe that his compassionate and
clear-headed argument is of broad in-
is disordered.
Yes, homosexuality is not the only principal victims in this struggle
way in which our sexuality reveals that
it is disordered. All human sexuality,
except that of Jesus and Mary, is in
standing. The°self-sacrifice to which I some degree disordered. We all, homo-
refer means the willingness to sacrifice sexually and heterosexually inclined
sexuality. The mar- priests (and, I would add, lay men and
women) has been “an engine of redemp-
tive love in the Church.” He concludes
his letter by saying that:
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University News (Irving, Tex.), Vol. 15, No. 8, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 16, 1991, newspaper, October 16, 1991; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1218426/m1/3/?q=divorce: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Dallas.