"Trajectory is More Important Than the Current Status"

. . . So says Frank Cocozzelli in response to an article I shared yesterday on Facebook. It was an article about how Pope Francis, at the opening of the Synod of the Family, had, "reminded everyone that the Catholic Church is against gay marriage."

As I mentioned on Facebook, it would have been more accurate to say that the pope reminded people that the Catholic hierarchy is against gay marriage. This hierarchy, of course, is not "the church." No, the church is much bigger that the Roman Catholic clerical caste. And in many parts of the world, Catholics very much support marriage equality for their gay loved ones. It's a support that is growing. Yes, the trajectory of the Catholic faithful is more important than the current entrenched status of the hierarchy.

And this trajectory is for greater recognition, acceptance and celebration of God's loving and transforming presence in the lives and relationships of LGBTI people. It's thus the trajectory of the sensus fidelium, the "sense of the faithful" – a sense that's already far ahead of the bishops, mired in their erroneous and dysfunctional understanding of both gender and sexuality and thus, as Jason Steidl reminds us, the "systematic sin and injustice" that is institutionalized homophobia.

Yet I believe that even the bishops will, in time, join us in the holy journey of ever-expanding consciousness and inclusion.

And I take heart in the words of Buffy Sainte-Marie, who in an interview earlier this year, shared the following insight:

Everybody's always waking up. . . . We're all ripening every minute, all of us – even the guys that we think are the "bad guys." They too are evolving. So for me the whole idea is being willing to mutate, in a good way, and recognizing in other people that each of us is evolving, ripening, growing in our own way. That is very good news.

Indeed!

And it's this same generous and hopeful insight that Buffy expresses in her song "We Are Circling."

We are spiraling, spiraling together;
Onward, inward, creature to creation.
Holy Mystery, Mother Earth – Child Birth;
This is Mother Nature, this is sacred.

. . . We are ripening, ripening together;
Babies, elders, bozos and angels.
This is how we grow,
this is how we get to know;
This is celebration, this is sacred.

Related Off-site Links:
Pope Opens Synod; Calls for Welcoming Church But No Gay Marriage – Philip Pullella (Reuters, October 4, 2015).
Pope Francis Opens Roman Catholic Synod Amid Gay Row – BBC News (October 4, 2015).
Rainbow Catholic Network Launches as Pope Condemns Same-sex Marriage – Nick Duffy (Pink News, October 5, 2015).
Pope Francis’ Actions May Speak Louder Than His Words on LGBT Issues – Francis DeBernardo (Bondings 2.0, October 4, 2015).
This Pope is Keeping Hope for Change Alive – Margery Eagan (Crux, September 16, 2015).
The Pope's Encore: Reforming the Church – Mary E. Hunt (The Baltimore Sun, October 2, 2015).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Remembering and Reclaiming a Wise, Spacious, and Holy Understanding of Homosexuality
• The Onward Call
• Good News on the Road to Emmaus
• Celebrating Our Sanctifying Truth
• Marriage: "Part of What is Best in Human Nature"
• A Head and Heart Response to the Catholic Hierarchy's Opposition to Marriage Equality
• Catholic Hierarchy Can Overcome Fear of LGBT People
• Progressive Catholic Perspectives on the U.S. Supreme Court's 2015 Marriage Equality Ruling
• Singing Their Own Song in Ireland