Source: Windy City Times, Washington Blade, New York Times, Slate, Gay City News, Time, USA Today
Gay and lesbian Catholics were among those who flocked to events in Washington, DC during Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the United States. They predicted in a sternly worded statement released as the pontiff's plane touched down at Andrews Air Force Base that there would be few smiles upon their faces.

They came, they said in the statement, to protest the career of a man noted for his antigay positions in his service to the Church.

“We are holding up the Pope's words and actions to confront him with the horrific nature of the dehumanizing and demeaning language he has used against gay people for so long. We want to contrast that with the tremendous gains that GLBT Catholics have made in the Church in recent decades,” said Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of Dignity USA.

But in their closest encounter with the pope -- as his motorcade passed a group of Dignity members along a street near Dupont Circle -- members of the gay Catholic group seemed to be just as awed as everyone else by the chance to see the pontiff, according to a report by the Washington Blade's Lou Chibbaro, Jr.

The Dignity members remained silent as the pope’s glass-enclosed Popemobile drove past them along a section of Rock Creek Parkway that drew only a small number of spectators, allowing the Dignity contingent to stand out. The pope waved to the group as he passed.

“Whether he actually saw or read our sign, we’ll never know,” Dignity member Bob Miailovich told the DC gay paper's veteran reporter. “It was nice to see him, and it was all very prim and proper. He waved in our direction and that was very nice.”

While Dignity members were pleased that the pope appeared to have noticed them, issues surrounding gays and the church were overshadowed in the news media during the pope’s first two days in the U.S. by reports of separate protests from groups representing victims of sexual abuse by American Catholic priests over the past decade.

Calls by abuse victims groups for the pope to speak out on the pedophile priest scandal that engulfed Catholic parishes throughout the U.S. prompted Benedict to tell reporters during his flight from Rome that he was “deeply ashamed” of the improper conduct by priests.

The New York Times reported that Benedict made a clear distinction during a brief talk with reporters on his plane between priests with “homosexual tendencies” and those likely to sexually abuse children.

“I would not speak at this moment about homosexuality, but pedophilia, which is another thing,” the Times quoted Benedict as saying. “And we absolutely exclude pedophiles from the sacred ministry.”

The pope said church officials were going through the seminaries that train would-be priests to make sure that those candidates have no such tendencies. “We’ll do all that is possible to have a strong discernment, because it is more important to have good priests than to have many priests,” he said.

During a speech to American bishops Wednesday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Benedict restated the "deep shame" at the scandal that he first announced on the plane to Washington; and recalled how individual bishops have spoken to him about "the enormous pain that your communities have suffered when clerics have betrayed their priestly obligations and duties by such gravely immoral behavior."

But the Pontiff also seconded American Cardinal Francis George's introductory statement that the abuse was "sometimes very badly handled" by the Church hierarchy, Time reports.

The acknowledgement that guilt might rest not only with pedophile priests, but with members of the church hierarchy, provoked surprise. "That is significant, that's new," said Fr. Thomas Reese, senior fellow at Georgetown University's Woodstock Theological Center who famously lost a previous job because of Cardinal Ratzinger. "John Paul II never said that."

The distinction he made on the plane between pedophiles and gay priests is also something of a surprise because it's a distinction that many of Benedict's most conservative church allies have been reluctant to make especially because he was thought to have instituted an outright ban on gay seminarians in 2005.

In 2005, news of a such a ban whipped through the media, according to Michael Sean Williams, an author and former seminarian who wrote a column about the ban for Slate.

News of the purported ban was spread, Williams wrote,  by "right-wing gossips in the church" attempting to advance a policy on seminary practices that had been in the drafting stages for years.

Many news reports in the Fall of 2005 quoted "officials" who said Benedict was close to signing the document in 2005. In November, an Italian blog even printed the actual document, New York Times reported at the time.

The policy, which was finally made official on November 29, allows ordination only for candidates who experienced "transitory" homosexual tendencies that were "clearly overcome" at least three years before ordination as a deacon, the last step before priesthood. It does not define "overcome."

Several critics at the time worried that that language would make it nearly impossible for men who believe their basic orientation is gay - but who are celibate - to become priests.

The guidelines specify at least three years of celibacy for a prospective seminarian who has a homosexual inclination.

Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas of Tucson says the same criteria hold for heterosexuals as well. "If their defining understanding of self is centered on their sexuality, they can't get beyond their own needs. So what is meant to be a joyful and fulfilling life is instead an agony and a sadness. That's not good for the church or the person."

But one gay priest, who spoke with USA Today on condition of anonymity for fear of losing his job, still fears a witch hunt starting in the seminaries, until "soon they'll be questioning our ordinations."

This priest, who was in his 40s and had been a priest for more than 15 years, told USA Today he first thought "openly and honestly" about sexuality when he was already in the seminary. "I realized I could answer the calling to be celibate like the vast majority of all priests, gay and straight. The church never required only saints need apply."

Many thought that the draconian ban, and the months-long campaign of leaks about it, was partly intended to scare gay priests more deeply into the closet.

That's what makes Benedict's distinction significant even though wasn't explained further to the reporters who weren't allowed to ask questions.

But even if the distinction that he made on the plane while it approached US shores represents a slight softening of the pope's stance, the history of his approach to gay clerics is what will resonate with the gay Catholics who attempt to confront him during his visit.

Benedict was behind the silencing of eminent gay priest Father John McNeill, founder of Dignity/NY, and his expulsion from the Jesuit order.

McNeill told Gay City News, "God blessed us with a fallible pope who misunderstands homosexuality. We have to find what God wants in ourselves. We depend on the fallibility of the pope to free ourselves of external authority and to mature," reminding us that "Jesus said I have to go away for the spirit to come."

McNeill acknowledged that Benedict is "an extreme homophobe. When you run into that, you are inclined to believe it is based on self-hatred." He said, "I don't feel animosity for him, I feel pity," adding that the pope is representative of "a patriarchy that has disappeared just about everywhere else."

Father Bernard Lynch, a therapist and out gay Catholic priest, told Gay City News that Benedict is "more politically astute than his predecessor," John Paul II, "who was more obvious in his homophobia," but does not think that will make him any more effective.

"The Western World has completely passed him by" on gay issues, Lynch said, and now Latin America, predominately Catholic, is progressing in protecting its gay citizens. "We're now dealing with a Christianity of human rights rather than dogma."

But it was the plight of lay Catholics that Dignity members and other gay Catholics were most concerned with during the Pope's visit.

The April 16 appearance by Dignity members along the pope’s motorcade route took place five days after another gay-supportive Catholic group, New Ways Ministries, delivered to the Vatican Embassy in Washington more than 40 letters addressed to Benedict from gay Catholics from across the country.

Among those who submitted letters addressed to the pope were Heather Mizeur, the lesbian member of Maryland’s House of Delegates, and Gregory Maguire, a gay author of best-selling children’s and adult novels. Both read their letters to Benedict at an April 10 news conference at the National Press Club.

“Three years ago, my spouse, Deborah, and I exchanged eternal vows at a large public ceremony with our closest family and friends,” Mizeur read during the news conference.

“Pope Benedict, I would challenge you to get to know us and our love for each other, for our Lord, and for our church — and compare our relationship against any other you consider as a role model,” Mizeur stated. “Honest reflection could lead you to only one conclusion: ours is a marriage blessed by God.”

Mizeur won election to the Maryland House of Delegates in 2006 and represents a district that includes Takoma Park and Silver Spring. She has been a strong advocate for a same-sex marriage rights bill.

“It is fair to say that this Pope has used more shameful rhetoric abut the gay and lesbian community than any religious leader of the modern era.” His continued opposition to the use of condoms to reduce the spread of HIV “has left him with the blood of millions on his hands.”

“He needs to own up to the damage that his policies have caused. And see all of the ways that dogma triumphing over compassion is the antithesis of the gospel he is supposed to represent,” she said.

“We present ourselves to Pope Benedict to remind him that God does not make mistakes and welcomes all of us into the Church. We expect as the Vicar of Christ, so should he,” said the Washington chapter of Dignity in a statement released just days before the Pope's plane touched down.

Full article: Dignity Confronts the Pope | Windy City Times
Pope waves to gay Catholic group | Washington Blade
Pope Begins U.S. Visit; Says He Is Ashamed of Sex Scandal | New York Times
Anti-Gay Auto-Da-Fé | Slate
Is the Pope Catholic? | Gay City News
The Pope Faces His US Flock | Time
Vatican publishes, defends gay priest document | USA Today (11/29/2005)