Over at the excellent (but now defunct) Queer Faith blogsite, David Cornwell has published an insightful commentary on the Rev. Paul Barnes of Grace Church, South Denver, who is the latest evangelical pastor in the United States to confess to having “homosexual encounters”.
The part of David’s commentary which resonated most with me, and which in many ways is applicable to the Catholic Church, is as follows:
“The legalistic theology of fundamentalism [both biblical and doctrinal] only feeds the fear, loathing, self hatred, and sense of never-ending inner strife that tears at the heart of [gay] men and women.
“Being ‘born again’ will never cure a gay man. Engaging in spiritual struggle all one’s life will not bring a cure. True, one may be able to stay away from overt acts of sex. But the true nature of the gay man or woman cannot and will not be touched by a ‘new birth’ experience. It would be like praying to God that one’s handedness be changed through prayer. Or that one be delivered from having green eyes to having blue eyes. Many other examples could be given. But it boils down to this: one’s sexuality is a given, just as many other parts of one’s makeup come with birth, not new birth.
“This is difficult for a conservative Christian to swallow. His/her beliefs are based on a certain literalistic interpretation of scripture [and in the case of Catholic conservatives, a fundamentalist interpretation of doctrine]. However many other bad beliefs were condoned by appealing to scripture [and doctrine] for many years – centuries in the case of slavery. Almost exactly the same kind of mistake is taking place today in regard to sexuality.”
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Friday, December 08, 2006
The Dreaded “Same-Sex Attracted” View of Catholicism
Yet far from offering an informed opinion of the state of HIV/AIDS in Australia, Heard’s commentary served merely to promulgate his own ultra-conservative views on male homosexuality. Even by the “New Right” standards of The Australian, Heard’s piece seemed over-the-top – conveying more ideology than insight.
Problematic
According to Heard, “It is time to clear away the politically correct nonsense, to stop focusing on fripperies such as gay marriage and other diversions and start focusing on something that will really assist gay men and the wider community: an intense campaign aimed at HIV/AIDS prevention.”
This “campaign” of prevention, says Heard, should be fueled by “personal and collective shame” over reported increases in HIV infections in Sydney’s inner city gay population. Furthermore, the “notion of gay pride” (presumably for all gay people across the nation and perhaps even worldwide), along with discussion of “fripperies” such as gay marriage, should be suspended until those “bug-chasing” inner city gay guys in Sydney, along with their “homo-activist” allies, get their act together.
On numerous levels, Heard’s commentary is, to put it politely, problematic. Leaving aside the legitimate questions and concerns some scientists have raised around the origins and cause of AIDS as determined by the AIDS establishment, what I found most disconcerting about Heard’s commentary was his failure to disclose his obvious bias around the issue of homosexuality. After all, homosexuality, not HIV/AIDS, was the real focus of Heard’s December 1 commentary.
For a start, what exactly are Heard’s credentials in the HIV/AIDS community? Why is he so fixated on gay men when the HIV/AIDS community extends far beyond this particular group?
His narrow focus conveys (no doubt mistakenly) very little real concern for those living with HIV/AIDS. Accordingly, it’s difficult to picture Heard “in the trenches” with those dedicated to genuinely attempting to address the problems and questions associated with our brothers and sisters living with HIV/AIDS.
Indeed, if the style of Heard’s commentary is anything to go by, I hope he’s not in regular contact with those living with HIV/AIDS, as his words do nothing to encourage or inspire; they merely blame and shame. But perhaps that’s all he’s really interested in doing.
Ideological Agenda
After all, Heard’s mish-mash of selective statistics and rhetoric fail to disguise the fact that his December 1 commentary shamelessly uses World AIDS Day to cloak a vulgar ideological cudgel with which he takes broad swipes at legitimate issues facing the gay community (such as gay marriage) and at crudely-drawn caricatures – all of which are to do with gay men.
His self-identification as “same-sex attracted,” rather than “gay,” offers a clue to the ideological agenda behind Heard’s diatribe. The phrase, “same-sex attracted” was coined by the largely discredited U.S.-based National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), and has been increasingly employed by reactionary elements within the Catholic Church, including the U.S. Catholic organization, Courage – which likens homosexuality to alcoholism, and promotes the Vatican’s teaching that lifelong celibacy is God’s will for gay people.
A quick perusal of John Heard’s blogsite confirms that he proudly aligns himself with ultra-conservative Catholicism, its warped views on homosexuality, and its arrogant dismissal of many gay people’s experience of God in their relational lives.
Shouldn’t acknowledgment of such bias accompany such a prominent editorial in The Australian?
Should not Heard himself have disclosed his presuppositions and their narrow theological basis?
“Dreadnought”
Recently, Heard has added to his Dreadnought blogsite findings from a Dutch study which claims that currently in Amsterdam “86% (range 74-90%) of new HIV infections occur within steady partnerships.” The report concludes by saying that “most new HIV infections among homosexual men in Amsterdam occur within steady relationships. Prevention measures should address risky behaviour, specifically with steady partners, and the promotion of HIV testing.”
At first glance, such findings would seem to provide more ammunition for Heard’s crusade against gays and what he considers to be their innate promiscuous ways. Yet the methodology and conclusions of this particular study have been roundly discredited by Jim Burroway. His critique can be viewed here. (Another useful resource is Burroway’s How to Write an Anti-Gay Tract in Fifteen Easy Steps.)
Over the past year or so, I’ve exchanged a few e-mails with John Heard. I also occasionally visit his blogsite. Visually, it’s a dark and bleak corner of cyberspace, and it’s opening image of a pair of dangling legs, ostensibly from a figure sitting on a high wall, yet conceivably from a hanging body, isn’t exactly an encouraging sight.*
Perhaps it could be seen to serve as an unconscious acknowledgment on Heard’s part of the hopelessness of the position which he and the Vatican are offering to gay people; a position that denies any possibility of sexual fulfillment.
Heard frequently opts for a writing style which borders on the insufferable in its patronizing arrogance and pomposity. He seems unable or reluctant to allow much of his humanity to shine through his writings, which is perhaps an indication of the terrible price a gay man (or, more accurately, a “same-sex attracted” individual) must pay when all is surrendered at the altar of unquestioning obedience to the Vatican’s dysfunctional sexual theology.
In identifying as this type of Catholic, Heard finds nothing about being gay of which to be proud. My sense is that he similarly expects other gay men (he rarely acknowledges lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons) to be self-loathing individuals, stricken with “same-sex attractions” and reliant solely on the Vatican for insight and direction in how to exist accordingly.
The Allure of Inflexibility
As could be expected, his writings display, to paraphrase Cardinal Manning, the allure of inflexibility. Heard’s attitudes and words mirror those of the oak in the fable of the Oak and the Reed. This is because he is unbending in his support of a type of theological imperialism which, as author and theologian Darmuid Ó Murchú notes, is both “arrogant and oppressive.”
In Reclaiming Spirituality (Gill and Macmillan, 1997), Ó Murchú defines theological imperialism as “the Christian claim (to which Judaism and Islam also subscribe) that our religion contains the fullness of revelation, in the light of which all other religions are deemed to be somehow inferior” (p. 29).
A theology that proclaims it has all the answers is, understandably, fearful and dismissive of those whose experiences reveal new, or rather, ever unfolding insights into God and the human condition.
Such experiences and insights are neither respected nor welcomed by the self-appointed guardians of theological imperialism, as evidenced by Heard’s disdain for gay Catholics who, in good conscience, feel called to facilitate dialogue and reform within the Catholic Church as a result of their experiences of God’s transforming presence in their lives and relationships.
Ironically, in dismissing and maligning such lives and relationships, Heard and his ilk deny the incarnational God at the core of our Christian faith, and the incarnational engagement which, as Ó Murchú reminds us, was “central to Jesus’ own life.”
What we’re left with is a pretty dismal, dare I say dreadful, interpretation of what it means to be a Catholic follower of the way of consciousness and compassion modeled by Jesus. Heard’s rejection of “gay” seems to include every possible meaning of the word, which makes sense given his denial of Jesus’ joyful and liberating “good news” in the lives and relationships of those who don’t subscribe to the Vatican’s brand of religious imperialism.
And if that’s the type of Catholicism that comes with being “same-sex attracted”, then I’ll stick with being “gay.”
John Heard: Quote of the Day
– July 22, 2013
* Postscript (12/20/06): Since the posting of this commentary, John Heard has changed the opening image of his blogsite – though not before he wrote to me explaining the significance of the pair of dangling legs. Here’s what he had to say: “For the record, the banner image is called 'Ascension' and was taken after a sermon preached by a Jesuit poet/scholar at my college about depictions of the same. He focused on the Lord's feet in paintings/representations of the event and marvelled at the way artists had fixated on those sure signs of Christ's humanity even as His divinity was made plain to all with eyes.”
See also the Wild Reed posts:
• Be Not Afraid: You Can Be Happy and Gay
• Celebrating Our Sanctifying Truth
• The Real Meaning of Courage
• The Many Forms of Courage
• Sons of the Church: The Witnessing of Gay Catholic Men – A Discussion Guide
• Who Gets to Be Called Catholic - And Why?
• This “Militant Secularist” Wants to Marry a Man
• Vatican Stance on Gay Priests Signals Urgent Need for Renewal and Reform
• When Guidelines Lack Guidance
• A Catholic's Prayer for His Fellow Pilgrim, Benedict XVI
• Reflections on the Primacy of Conscience
• The Question of an “Informed” Catholic Conscience
• The Non-negotiables of Human Sex
• Keeping the Spark Alive: A Conversation with Chuck Lofy
• Somewhere In Between
• Soul Deep
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Callas Remembered
This past Saturday, December 2, marked the 83rd anniversary of the birth of soprano Maria Callas (1923-1977).
As Wikipedia notes, “[Callas] combined an impressive bel canto technique with great dramatic gifts, making her one of the most famous opera singers of any era. An extremely versatile singer, her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria, to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini, and Rossini, to Verdi, Puccini, and in her early career, the music dramas of Wagner. The phenomenal scale of her musical and dramatic talents earned her the title of La Divina”.
In remembering the life and art of Maria Callas, I’d like to share a clip of her singing one of my favorite arias, “O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi.
I'd like to share her performance of this aria that was recorded in Paris for a French television special in the year of my birth – 1965. Enjoy!
In the summer of 2005, I visited Paris with my parents. One of the places we visited in the city was the former home of Maria Callas, located at 36 Georges Mandel Avenue. Callas lived at this address from the late 1960s until her death on September 16, 1977.
In 2000, Georges Mandel Avenue was dedicated to Maria Callas. In attendence at the dedication ceremony was celebrated conductor Georges Prêtre, who had frequently worked with Callas and who can be seen conducting the orchestra in the above clip.
Here's a little known fact: In 1969, Callas teamed up with Marxist director Pier Paolo Pasolini to make her one and only film, a non-musical interpretation of Medea. To visit the website I’ve created which documents and celebrates this truly “hypnotic cinematic experience”, click here.
As Wikipedia notes, “[Callas] combined an impressive bel canto technique with great dramatic gifts, making her one of the most famous opera singers of any era. An extremely versatile singer, her repertoire ranged from classical opera seria, to the bel canto operas of Donizetti, Bellini, and Rossini, to Verdi, Puccini, and in her early career, the music dramas of Wagner. The phenomenal scale of her musical and dramatic talents earned her the title of La Divina”.
In remembering the life and art of Maria Callas, I’d like to share a clip of her singing one of my favorite arias, “O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi.
I'd like to share her performance of this aria that was recorded in Paris for a French television special in the year of my birth – 1965. Enjoy!
In the summer of 2005, I visited Paris with my parents. One of the places we visited in the city was the former home of Maria Callas, located at 36 Georges Mandel Avenue. Callas lived at this address from the late 1960s until her death on September 16, 1977.
In 2000, Georges Mandel Avenue was dedicated to Maria Callas. In attendence at the dedication ceremony was celebrated conductor Georges Prêtre, who had frequently worked with Callas and who can be seen conducting the orchestra in the above clip.
Here's a little known fact: In 1969, Callas teamed up with Marxist director Pier Paolo Pasolini to make her one and only film, a non-musical interpretation of Medea. To visit the website I’ve created which documents and celebrates this truly “hypnotic cinematic experience”, click here.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Keeping the Spark Alive
In this post I'd like to share a second Rainbow Spirit interview.
This particular interview was conducted with “modern mystic” Chuck Lofy in the summer of 2005, and was featured in the fall 2005 issue of the Rainbow Spirit, the journal publication of the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities (CPCSM).
On September 12, 2005, Chuck launched CPCSM’s fall education program with an insightful presentation at the Church of the Holy Name in Minneapolis.
A Conversation with Chuck Lofy
By Michael J. Bayly
Rainbow Spirit
Fall 2005
Described by City Pages as a “modern mystic”, Chuck Lofy has spent a lifetime studying spirituality by means of sacred scripture, depth psychology, mythology, literature, and the arts. A Jesuit for sixteen years, Chuck received rigorous instruction in the spiritual practices of St. Ignatius of Loyola. He earned his doctorate in theology after studying under the German theologian Karl Rahner, who is widely ranked among the twentieth century’s greatest religious thinkers.
A presentation by Chuck will open CPCSM’s Fall 2005 Education Program. Recently, CPCSM coordinator Michael Bayly caught up with Chuck at the home he shares with his wife of 37 years, Mary Mead Lofy (pictured with Chuck at right).
Michael Bayly: Chuck, your presentation for CPCSM on September 12 is entitled “Keeping the Spark Alive: Finding Hope for GLBT People in the Wisdom of the Great Spiritual Traditions.” What do you mean by “the spark”?
Chuck Lofy: Jesus said, “I come to cast fire on the earth.” In Christian terms, this “fire” is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, the guiding and illuminating Spirit that according to the great religious traditions, is deep within all of us. The “spark” comes when we recognize and affirm ourselves as one with this Spirit. It has to do with catching fire with the realization that we have our destiny in our own hands, in the sense that we are free to choose how to respond to what comes our way. For instance, we can buy into what the institutional church says about homosexuality, or we can say, “No, you’re wrong. You’re blind. You haven’t evolved far enough yet.”
Michael Bayly: How would you respond to those who say that within the great spiritual traditions of humankind there is nothing that can give hope to GLBT people?
Chuck Lofy: I would say that such people don’t know that heritage very well. In some cases, they perhaps don’t want to be conscious but simply safe. They may not want to go beyond what they’ve been told. And when people just want to be safe, they create monolithic, rigid forms or systems wherein they hide from doing what conscious people do, which is, in the words of Scott Peck, to “march to a different drum.”
Yet in the history of religion there has always been a movement away from the monolithic, hierarchical paradigm. Both Paul Tillich and Carl Jung did histories of Christianity and both discovered that there are two parallel streams. One is characterized by external form while the other is characterized by internal experience. And both streams can be traced back to the Resurrection and the different ways in which it was experienced by Mary Magdalene and Peter.
When Peter saw that Jesus had risen he told the disciples and they said, “Jesus has risen and has appeared to Peter”. They took it on Peter’s word that Jesus had risen, which gave Peter a lot of clout. Mary Magdalene, on the other hand, didn’t need Peter’s because she saw the risen Jesus herself. So you’ve got these two different streams – those who want to remain children, spiritually, and march to the beat of the Church’s drum, no matter what, and those who seek and live from their own direct experience. Such people experience what the Greeks called gnosis – “inner knowledge.” They “know really.”
This knowing, based on direct personal experience of God, is in all of the great religious traditions, as are the parallel streams of orthodoxy and mysticism. All the great religious traditions say that eternal life is to know, and that you are therefore ultimately identified with the Spirit you are seeking. This Spirit is in the very fiber of our being. This teaching of ultimate oneness with God is very threatening to the monolith which discourages such self-awareness.
When we go back to the story of the Garden of Eden, we find that it’s been interpreted so that Adam and Eve sinned against God, and God exiled them. But if you look at it from the point of view of spiritual development, Adam and Even had a fall forward into consciousness. What they were not supposed to eat from was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Well, that’s adult consciousness: to know the difference between good and evil, and to know that difference experientially. And when we go into adult consciousness we often feel naked in the the sense that we don’t always have the forms of our parents or the church or anything else to tell us we’re right. Thus in the transition into adult consciousness it can feel as if we’re sinning. Yet that is when Luther said we must “sin bravely.” That’s a brilliant psychological insight.
Michael Bayly: One of the aims of your spirituality seminar, “Fire in the Bones: Igniting Spiritual Vitality,” is for participants to experience clarity in their lives. Can you talk about clarity and what you mean by the “process of clarification”?
Chuck Lofy: I think clarity is the great gift. It means to be clear, aware of one’s thoughts and actions.
Clarity comes from knowing what the facts are, doing your own inner reflection, and dialoguing with others – including those who can help you get to your unconscious resistance. This is what I call the process of clarification, and it comes with a moral imperative. When I come to clarity, there’s such a realization of the calling of my deepest spiritual stirrings that I would be sinning against myself if I didn’t go with what’s become clear to me.
Now, what motivates this process? It can be called by many names – the Divine, the Spirit Within, the Self, God. I like calling it the Universe.
Michael Bayly: In terms of human sexuality, the hierarchy of the Catholic Church attempts to give the impression that it has all the answers and that these answers are non-negotiable. For the hierarchy, GLBT people, for instance, can never experience God in their loving, sexual relationships but only through a life of celibacy. What insights can be gained from the wisdom of the great spiritual traditions about such rigid institutional declarations of absolute certainty?
Chuck Lofy: A problem with the Catholic Church is that the power is in the hands of celibates. As a result, human experience of God within the full range of human sexuality has not been recognized or valued. What’s valued is a system of logic. So for the pope it is logical that when you think of the penis and the vagina, the point of sexuality is to procreate within the framework of heterosexual marriage. It’s a logical, intellectually-based paradigm. But it doesn’t align with human experience in the real world.
The place where the church impinges itself on the conscience of the Catholic is almost invariably in the area of sexuality – whether that’s masturbation, divorce, birth control, homosexuality, premarital sex, or married priests. These realities don’t fit into the limited logical paradigm of someone like the current pope. Yet at the same time there are all kinds of inconsistencies within this particular paradigm; for example, allowing sex when one or both partners are past the age of procreation. Or the fact that priests in the Greek Orthodox Church, which is aligned with Rome, can and do, in fact, marry. Gary Will in his book Papal Sin, accurately identifies such inconsistencies as examples of “intellectual dishonesty.”
The institutional church is a power structure that in some areas of life is intellectually dishonest or spiritually blind – something that Jesus consistently warned against. For me, one of the most important things Jesus said was when he said to the religious leaders of his time, “If you knew you were blind, you would have no sin. It’s because you say, ‘We see’, that your sin remains.”
What happens in religion is that people have experiences of God that are ineffable. And they’ll lay down their lives for what they’ve experienced. When people start taking the names that the mystics have given to these experiences and pass them on, then for the next generation or two there’s not necessarily the experience underneath the names. And so we end up with language that, as Joseph Campbell says, is “not transparent of the transcendent.” It’s become opaque. It’s become like a rock. It’s monolithic.
The temptation for any form, image, or organized structure is to become monolithic; to become crystallized and to become an end unto itself. In some ways that is what’s going on with the church right now. The function of any monolith can become primarily to continue itself in its current crystallized, opaque form. Yet Jesus said the form profits nothing. It’s the spirit that gives life.
All of this can, of course, be overstated. The church is, of course, a beacon of light to the world in many ways. But like all of us, it has a shadow side and, in my view at least, that shadow side lies in the area of sexuality.
So if I had to say what people – GLBT or straight – can do to go beyond monolithic structures and language, it would be to become conscious, to embark on the Hero’s Journey of consciousness.
Becoming conscious means that you really understand what’s going on within you as you encounter the forces of the monolith, and that you develop an almost detached – or perhaps better stated – more mature, adult-relationship with the institution you’re trying to change.
It’s a paradox, I know, and it can cause a lot of grief. Internally what people need to do is affirm themselves, while externally they need to be doing just what CPCSM is doing – fostering dialogue, building networks of support, and building community. It’s spiritual work and it’s prophetic work.
In light of such work, the question becomes: How can we create forms in the church and in our lives that nurture and express our spirit, that enable us to be vital? The church always has to be in reform. There always has to be a reforming according to new insights, according to the ever-changing historical realities. We no longer think slavery is right. Some day the church won’t teach that homosexuality is wrong.
I agree with the definition of religion of Isaac Bashevis Singer, the Yiddish writer who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978. He wrote that, “Religion is a mysticism that has been transformed into a discipline, a mass experience, and thus grown partially diluted and often worldly. The more successful a religion is, the stronger its influence, the further it recedes from its mystical origin”. That is why all religions need to renew themselves by returning to, and revitalizing, the original experiences that gave rise to the religion in the first place.
Michael Bayly: Many GLBT people think they’re alienated from God because of their alienation from the institutional church. What words of advice and encouragement can you give to such people?
Chuck Lofy: I had an experience when I was trying to decide whether or not to leave the priesthood and get married. The church was not responding to my request and basically told me, “Leave and we’ll approve of your marriage afterwards; we’ll excommunicate you and then we’ll remove the excommunication.” And that’s basically what happened.
At one point as I was facing the prospect of excommunication, at about three o’clock in the afternoon when I was taking a nap, I suddenly woke up with the realization that God couldn’t excommunicate me. I mean, if God said, “Chuck, I want you to leave”, where would I go where God wouldn’t be? And that’s when I had this great revelation that God can’t be the church. And that therefore, the church is not God.
I also think it’s important to remember that in the Catholic tradition it has always been the case that the ultimate norm of morality is one’s conscience. And if you put this in ethical terms, it simply becomes a matter of prudence. Prudence is the virtue by which we decide, in a particular situation, where only I know all the details, what it is I’m going to choose to do. And then to take and live the consequences for that choice. This is what is meant by mature spirituality.
We all come to a point when we have to chose whether or not to affirm ourselves and make the choices and take the actions that flow from this self-affirmation. Paul Tillich said, “The greatest human act is to affirm who you are.” And he wrote the book, The Courage To Be – and what he meant was the courage to be yourself. And then the secondary courage is to live your affirmation of yourself. “To be or not to be?” really is the question.
Chuck Lofy (above left) pictured with CPCSM executive coordinator Michael Bayly and pastor of Holy Name Catholic Church, Leo Schneider – September 12, 2005.
For the first Rainbow Spirit interview, see The Voice of a Good Heart: An Interview with Kathy Itzin.
Opening image: Artist unknown.
Monday, December 04, 2006
The Voice of a Good Heart
Above: CPCSM's March 20, 2006 forum at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, “Putting a Human Face to the Marriage Amendment Issue”, drew a record crowd for a CPCSM educational event. Pictured from left: John Watkins, his partner Andrew Elfenben, and their son, Dmitri; Carol Anderson and her partner Kathy Itzin; Michael Bayly (CPCSM executive coordinator); and Susan Lee (St. Thomas the Apostle).
In my role as both executive coordinator of the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities (CPCSM) and editor of Rainbow Spirit, CPCSM’s journal publication, I’ve had the honor of interviewing some very inspiring people over the past three years.
I’d like to share these interviews via The Wild Reed, and will begin today with the first interview I conducted in the fall of 2003, shortly after my election by the CPCSM board to the position of co-president – a position that morphed into pastoral coordinator and then executive coordinator.
The fall 2003 issue of the Rainbow Spirit was also the first one I worked on as editor – although I had helped launch the very first issue of the publication back in 1997.
I’ve always enjoyed interviewing people and given the events in the Twin Cities during the summer of 2003 surrounding Kathy Itzin, she seemed the perfect person to be my first Rainbow Spirit interviewee.
And after reading Kathy’s honest and insightful responses to my questions, I’m sure you’ll agree.
An interview with Kathy Itzin
By Michael Bayly
Rainbow Spirit
Fall 2003
Kathy Itzin, religious educator and member of St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, was unwittingly in the news this past summer. CPCSM co-president Michael Bayly caught up with Kathy over coffee to find out what all the fuss was about.
Michael Bayly: Can you explain the recent incident involving the rescinding of your catechetical award by Archbishop Flynn?
Kathy Itzin: Earlier this year I was nominated for a Catechetical Leadership Award. It’s given annually to a number of professional educators in the diocese – to youth ministers, religious education directors, and teachers in Catholic schools.
The person who nominated me filled out a three-page form which asked things like: How [does the person being nominated] reach out to the poor? How do they work for justice? How do they show excellence in teaching? How do they further their own spiritual development? [The nomination process] was very holistic.
I was honoured to be nominated and then later, honoured to be selected. Two days before [the awards ceremony] the archdiocese called to let me know that because they had concerns about my “lifestyle”, it was impossible to give me the award.
Michael Bayly: What has been the most painful part of this experience for you?
Kathy Itzin: I’ve really tried to live a life of integrity – a life of justice and honesty. I try to make choices in my day-to-day life [that reflect these qualities]. Before I had children, when I had more time to volunteer, I would do [that type of activity]. I enjoy it and believe in it.
From my perspective I have a really happy, healthy life – and a happy, healthy family. I’m very grateful and feel very blessed by that. So it’s difficult to have somebody say that my example of who I am and what I do is contrary to Christian doctrine. If you’re looking at the letter of the law, it is. But from my perspective it’s the exact opposite.
Michael Bayly: How has it been for your kids?
Kathy Itzin: It was hard at first with all the media attention. My oldest daughter, Annie – who’s just turned thirteen – thought she should stay home from school because she was worried about me. I told her I was fine and to hightail it to school. When she got there and her teacher asked how she was doing, Annie started crying.
[My partner] Carol and I have received letters from all over. A huge number are positive, but there’s always a few that are, like, what you’d call hate mail. People have called us on the phone and it’s happened that they’ve all been positive. But I’ve been talking with my children about how if they answer the phone and somebody’s saying something really mean, they just hang-up.
[Despite] the tenseness [of the situation] our home life is still pretty normal. But just the number of supportive phone calls at night meant no bedtime story for three days. So it’s been stressful for them in that way.
Michael Bayly: Why do you remain in the church given its stance on gender and sexual orientation?
Kathy Itzin: I see it as like being in the United States. I’m really against the war in Iraq, I’m really against the insane government cuts to programs serving the poor. It makes me incredibly angry that in many ways the United States government does not share the values that I have. But I’m not going to move to Canada.
In a similar way there are certain things about the church that drive me insane. Yet there is more about the church that I see and which can give hope and courage to people. [There are aspects of the church] that encourage spirituality and empowerment to transform the bad things in the world into good things. I’m able to be part of that while I’m in the church. And at the same time, I get nurtured and challenged and transformed also.
Michael Bayly: What have been some of the steps in your journey whereby you have reconciled being both Catholic and lesbian?
Kathy Itzin: There’s been several. One step involved realizing that God and the church are two different things. [Another is that church] teaching evolves – and is always evolving. Once I realized that God’s fine with [who I am], it made all the difference.
At St. Benedict’s I was taught many things about faith and spirituality that I appreciate. It was a very stable community. I majored in theology and was taught that it is important to be questioning all the time, to be encouraging the church to grow. That became part of me.
Michael Bayly: Have you ever questioned your decision to be out, and to be an educator and - to varying degrees – an activist with groups like CPCSM and Rainbow Families?
Kathy Itzin: I decided a long time ago that this is my life. I’m not going to live my life based on fear, based on hiding. This is who I am and I’m happy about that. I’m also happy with my family and the choices I’ve made to get the family I have.
It’s not, like, I broadcast it around – I don’t. However, I don’t apologize for my life or our family. This is who we are and we participate in the community [of the church] like every other family – and on some level more so – simply because I’m on the staff [of St. Joan of Arc].
Michael Bayly: The local church, and in particular the community of St. Joan of Arc, clearly acknowledges your story, i.e., the human dimension of your struggle to live a full and meaningful life as the person you were created to be. Why do you think stories like yours are not acknowledged and nurtured by the majority of those “higher” in the hierarchical church?
Kathy Itzin: It’s important to remember that s much is changing so quickly. I mean it was only in 1973 that the American Psychiatric Association declared that homosexuality was not a mental disorder. So in terms of two thousand years [of the Christian tradition], thirty years is not that long. Much of the information we have about sexual orientation has happened in a very short period of time.
Church teaching on important issues has evolved and continues to evolve. I mean, it took the church until 1860 before it came out against slavery. [With regards to sexual orientation issues] it’s starting – we’re getting a lot of education in the last sixty years.
Scripture, tradition, experience – we need to integrate all of these through open discussion. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been a lot of this type of discussion within the church. We need to have people of good hearts, versed in theology as well as their personal experience, getting together and honestly discussing these types of issues. That’s what we need to be fostering. That’s the only way you arrive at truth – to have honest discussion by people of good heart.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Questioning the Unquestionable
It can be viewed here.
Elsewhere on the web, Dr. Culshaw writes:
My work as a mathematical biologist has been built in large part on the paradigm that HIV causes AIDS, and I have since come to realize that there is good evidence that the entire basis for this theory is wrong. AIDS, it seems, is not a disease so much as a sociopolitical construct that few people understand and even fewer question. The issue of causation, in particular, has become beyond question – even to bring it up is deemed irresponsible.
Why have we as a society been so quick to accept a theory for which so little solid evidence exists? Why do we take proclamations by government institutions like the NIH and the CDC, via newscasters and talk show hosts, entirely on faith? The average citizen has no idea how weak the connection really is between HIV and AIDS, and this is the manner in which scientifically insupportable phrases like 'the AIDS virus' or 'an AIDS test' have become part of the common vernacular despite no evidence for their accuracy.
Whether or not you agree with Culshaw's views, I'm sure you'd agree that it's important that there are individuals and groups willing to intelligently question the seemingly unquestionable.
See also the related Wild Reed post:
• HIV on Trial
Thursday, November 30, 2006
The Catholic High Mass - Beautiful and Inherently Gay?
Although Andrew Sullivan’s politics suck (he supports the so-called “War on Terror”, and considers Michael Moore anti-American and Noam Chomsky a “liar”), he can occasionally offer humorous, though not entirely convincing, insights into the state of the Catholic Church.
Here’s an excerpt from Sullivan’s latest offering:
Hmm . . . I can't say that my first experience of a gay disco (the Saloon in downtown Minneapolis in February 1994!) brought to mind for me a Catholic liturgy - High Mass or otherwise. Then again, I'm a bit of a failure in terms of embracing those supposedly typical gay things like Broadway musicals, Madonna, and, er, lace.
That being said, I do think that gay people, like many others who have undergone long and difficult struggles to find and embody what is most true and beautiful within themselves, are often attuned to seeking and revealing beauty around them. I think that's why a lot of gay men, for instance, do indeed excel at bringing beauty to church liturgies - whether via contributions to ritual, music, and/or the actual physical space of a given place of worship.
Here’s an excerpt from Sullivan’s latest offering:
I've often wondered how many straight Catholics fully appreciate how gay their church has always been. Especially in the old days. High Mass was, in its heyday, more elaborate and choreographed than a very melodramatic Broadway musical. Do people really believe that gay priests and religious had nothing to do with it? They had everything to do with it.
The first time I walked into a gay disco, with all those lights, music, ritual and smoke, my immediate thought was: church! . . . It's theater, sweetie, theater. And the Church once understood that – which was part of its beautiful Catholicity. Gone, now, alas. But Benedict is helping nudge it back. And although I tease him about it, it's a wonderful thing. More incense, please. And lace.
Hmm . . . I can't say that my first experience of a gay disco (the Saloon in downtown Minneapolis in February 1994!) brought to mind for me a Catholic liturgy - High Mass or otherwise. Then again, I'm a bit of a failure in terms of embracing those supposedly typical gay things like Broadway musicals, Madonna, and, er, lace.
That being said, I do think that gay people, like many others who have undergone long and difficult struggles to find and embody what is most true and beautiful within themselves, are often attuned to seeking and revealing beauty around them. I think that's why a lot of gay men, for instance, do indeed excel at bringing beauty to church liturgies - whether via contributions to ritual, music, and/or the actual physical space of a given place of worship.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Authentic Catholicism: The Antidote to Clericalism
.
Pope convenes the Council of Istanbul!
First task: the eradication of clericalism and the building of an authentically “catholic” community of spiritual seekers!
Yes, I know, these are headlines that are yet to appear. But, ever the optimist, I remain hopeful, and here’s why . . .
Pope Benedict XVI is currently conducting his historic visit to Istanbul, the cultural heart of Turkey; and, I must say, I am somewhat envious. The beautiful and ancient city of Istanbul, situated midway between East and West, is a place I’ve long desired to visit.*
Interestingly, Loreena McKennit’s latest album, released here in Australia just prior to the Pope’s visit to Istanbul, contains a number of songs inspired by the singer/songwriter's own visits to various Turkish locales – including Istanbul, Gordion, Ephesus, and Cappodocia.
In the liner notes for one of these songs, “The Gates of Istanbul”, McKinnett notes that the reign of Mehmed II (1432-1481) was “a time of creative renaissance as well as religious tolerance, when people were invited to repopulate the city now known as Istanbul, bringing with them their hopes and aspirations”.
Time for the Council of Istanbul
As Benedict XVI breathes the air and walks the ancient streets of Istanbul, my hope is that he may be similarly moved and inspired to usher in a “renaissance” within the Catholic Church – a new era marked by creativity, tolerance, and the inclusion of the experiences and insights, hopes and aspirations of all.
Just as Mehmed II revitalized Istanbul, may Benedict XVI facilitate a renewal within Catholicism. This “renewal” could be initiated by the Pope’s convening of a truly ecumenical council –perhaps in Istanbul!
On various levels I envision this council being attended by representatives from the entire human race. After all, we are all infused by - and thus part of - that ultimately mysterious and unbound reality of the sacred. The understanding of the Mystical Body of Christ can be seen as one way that Catholics have grappled with this wondrous awareness of the sacred's pervasive presence within and beyond humanity and creation.
Accordingly, the Council of Istanbul would be attended not just by Catholics, and not just by Christians; not just by bishops, and not just by men; not just by heterosexuals, and not just by celibates. Rather, all would be included in discerning the calling of God's spirit in our world today.
Does this sound like a logistical nightmare? Well, then let us utilize the wonders of the internet and other forms of contemporary communications technology for this ecumenical council centered in Istanbul. Creativity, after all, is one of the values this council would be dedicated to fostering!
One of no doubt many issues that would need to be rigorously and honestly addressed by the Council of Istanbul would be clericalism – an obvious obstacle for any hoped for renaissance within the Church.
For as theologian Diarmuid Ó Murchú notes in his book, Rediscovering Spirituality (Gill and Macmillan, 1997): “The Catholic Church universally consists of 1.1 billion members, 99 per cent of whom are lay people of non-clerical status. Yet anywhere and everywhere [the] church is both defined and activated primarily according to the rules and expectations of its governing clerical body. Ultimately, whether in the North, South or Far East, it is clericalism that runs and controls the Catholic Church.”
Yet what exactly is clericalism? And why is its control of the Catholic Church such a bad thing?
“A Diseased System”
In his book, Between the Rock and a Hard Place: Being Catholic Today (ABC Books, 2004), theologian Paul Collins provides an insightful analysis of the meaning and historical development of the Catholic Church’s celibate clerical system. It’s a system, writes Collins, “which has developed a kind of moral immunity over the centuries. While it existed before the time of Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085), it was he who imposed celibacy universally on the clergy of the Western Catholic Church, and the development of a distinct clerical caste can be roughly dated back to then. Over the centuries, clerics have gradually gained a kind of extraterritoriality by which some of them see themselves as exempt from the usual constraints that govern human behavior.”
“What happens”, says Collins, himself a former priest, “is that everyone who works in the system, no matter how generous, saintly, and virtuous they are, has to struggle to avoid being inexorably caught up in a clericalism that misuses power and that is essentially deceitful and corrupt.”
Collins is quick to point out that he doesn’t believe that priests themselves are necessarily corrupt. Many, he notes, are “men of considerable integrity”. Nevertheless, “they work in a diseased system and it is very difficult for them to avoid the consequences of clericalism.”
Ó Murchú offers a similar analysis, observing that, “Innate to clericalism is a patriarchal, subconscious driving force which is much more about power in the name of religion, rather than about service in the name of spirituality.”
An Antidote
Like Ó Murchú, Collins, and the vast majority of Catholics, I don’t belong in the closed world of clerical domination. I concur whole-heartedly with Ó Murchú when he declares: “I am weary of power games, ritualism, moralism, and all the empty rhetoric” of clericalism, and am much more interested in “egalitarianism, vulnerability, prophetic contestation, engaging with the God of flesh, the God of passion, the God of real personal, interpersonal, and earthly incarnation”.
The shift from clericalism to authentic Catholicism, and thus to a “renaissance” based on the compassion and radical (and thus subversive) inclusiveness of Jesus, won’t, of course, be achieved by a single church council – even if it is the one in Istanbul I envision. But such a council would be a start, and Benedict XVI could make it happen.
Until he does, rest assured that a significant number of non-clerical Catholics will continue doing what they’ve always done: embody a catholicity of life; a way of being unfettered by trappings of imperial power; a way dedicated to seeking, discerning, and celebrating the presence of God in the lives and relationships of all.
It’s a “way” exemplified by Jesus, who, Ó Murchú reminds us, “proffered a counter-cultural view: a new world order, marked by right relationship of justice, love, peace, and liberation”.
It’s also a “way” that increasing numbers of Catholics are recognizing is simply not being embodied by the “official” Catholic Church, burdened as it is by clericalism.
For the sake of all of us, but especially those mired in the corrupting influence of clericalism, the Council of Istanbul can’t come soon enough.
* One of my favorite films is Ferzan Ozpetek's Hamam: The Turkish Bath (1997) which is set in Istanbul. For my theological reflections on this film, click here.
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
A Catholic’s Prayer for his Fellow Pilgrim, Benedict XVI
A Dangerous Medieval Conviction
Beyond a PC Pope
Vatican Stance on Gay Priests Signals Urgent Need for Renewal and Reform
A Not So "New" Catholic University
Casanova-inspired Reflections on Papal Power - at 30,000 Ft.
First task: the eradication of clericalism and the building of an authentically “catholic” community of spiritual seekers!
Yes, I know, these are headlines that are yet to appear. But, ever the optimist, I remain hopeful, and here’s why . . .
Pope Benedict XVI is currently conducting his historic visit to Istanbul, the cultural heart of Turkey; and, I must say, I am somewhat envious. The beautiful and ancient city of Istanbul, situated midway between East and West, is a place I’ve long desired to visit.*
Interestingly, Loreena McKennit’s latest album, released here in Australia just prior to the Pope’s visit to Istanbul, contains a number of songs inspired by the singer/songwriter's own visits to various Turkish locales – including Istanbul, Gordion, Ephesus, and Cappodocia.
In the liner notes for one of these songs, “The Gates of Istanbul”, McKinnett notes that the reign of Mehmed II (1432-1481) was “a time of creative renaissance as well as religious tolerance, when people were invited to repopulate the city now known as Istanbul, bringing with them their hopes and aspirations”.
Time for the Council of Istanbul
As Benedict XVI breathes the air and walks the ancient streets of Istanbul, my hope is that he may be similarly moved and inspired to usher in a “renaissance” within the Catholic Church – a new era marked by creativity, tolerance, and the inclusion of the experiences and insights, hopes and aspirations of all.
Just as Mehmed II revitalized Istanbul, may Benedict XVI facilitate a renewal within Catholicism. This “renewal” could be initiated by the Pope’s convening of a truly ecumenical council –perhaps in Istanbul!
On various levels I envision this council being attended by representatives from the entire human race. After all, we are all infused by - and thus part of - that ultimately mysterious and unbound reality of the sacred. The understanding of the Mystical Body of Christ can be seen as one way that Catholics have grappled with this wondrous awareness of the sacred's pervasive presence within and beyond humanity and creation.
Accordingly, the Council of Istanbul would be attended not just by Catholics, and not just by Christians; not just by bishops, and not just by men; not just by heterosexuals, and not just by celibates. Rather, all would be included in discerning the calling of God's spirit in our world today.
Does this sound like a logistical nightmare? Well, then let us utilize the wonders of the internet and other forms of contemporary communications technology for this ecumenical council centered in Istanbul. Creativity, after all, is one of the values this council would be dedicated to fostering!
One of no doubt many issues that would need to be rigorously and honestly addressed by the Council of Istanbul would be clericalism – an obvious obstacle for any hoped for renaissance within the Church.
For as theologian Diarmuid Ó Murchú notes in his book, Rediscovering Spirituality (Gill and Macmillan, 1997): “The Catholic Church universally consists of 1.1 billion members, 99 per cent of whom are lay people of non-clerical status. Yet anywhere and everywhere [the] church is both defined and activated primarily according to the rules and expectations of its governing clerical body. Ultimately, whether in the North, South or Far East, it is clericalism that runs and controls the Catholic Church.”
Yet what exactly is clericalism? And why is its control of the Catholic Church such a bad thing?
“A Diseased System”
In his book, Between the Rock and a Hard Place: Being Catholic Today (ABC Books, 2004), theologian Paul Collins provides an insightful analysis of the meaning and historical development of the Catholic Church’s celibate clerical system. It’s a system, writes Collins, “which has developed a kind of moral immunity over the centuries. While it existed before the time of Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085), it was he who imposed celibacy universally on the clergy of the Western Catholic Church, and the development of a distinct clerical caste can be roughly dated back to then. Over the centuries, clerics have gradually gained a kind of extraterritoriality by which some of them see themselves as exempt from the usual constraints that govern human behavior.”
“What happens”, says Collins, himself a former priest, “is that everyone who works in the system, no matter how generous, saintly, and virtuous they are, has to struggle to avoid being inexorably caught up in a clericalism that misuses power and that is essentially deceitful and corrupt.”
Collins is quick to point out that he doesn’t believe that priests themselves are necessarily corrupt. Many, he notes, are “men of considerable integrity”. Nevertheless, “they work in a diseased system and it is very difficult for them to avoid the consequences of clericalism.”
Ó Murchú offers a similar analysis, observing that, “Innate to clericalism is a patriarchal, subconscious driving force which is much more about power in the name of religion, rather than about service in the name of spirituality.”
An Antidote
Like Ó Murchú, Collins, and the vast majority of Catholics, I don’t belong in the closed world of clerical domination. I concur whole-heartedly with Ó Murchú when he declares: “I am weary of power games, ritualism, moralism, and all the empty rhetoric” of clericalism, and am much more interested in “egalitarianism, vulnerability, prophetic contestation, engaging with the God of flesh, the God of passion, the God of real personal, interpersonal, and earthly incarnation”.
The shift from clericalism to authentic Catholicism, and thus to a “renaissance” based on the compassion and radical (and thus subversive) inclusiveness of Jesus, won’t, of course, be achieved by a single church council – even if it is the one in Istanbul I envision. But such a council would be a start, and Benedict XVI could make it happen.
Until he does, rest assured that a significant number of non-clerical Catholics will continue doing what they’ve always done: embody a catholicity of life; a way of being unfettered by trappings of imperial power; a way dedicated to seeking, discerning, and celebrating the presence of God in the lives and relationships of all.
It’s a “way” exemplified by Jesus, who, Ó Murchú reminds us, “proffered a counter-cultural view: a new world order, marked by right relationship of justice, love, peace, and liberation”.
It’s also a “way” that increasing numbers of Catholics are recognizing is simply not being embodied by the “official” Catholic Church, burdened as it is by clericalism.
For the sake of all of us, but especially those mired in the corrupting influence of clericalism, the Council of Istanbul can’t come soon enough.
So now, if our hearts be true
And like a pool reflect the sun
We will find honor there
And keep us safe and lead us from all harm.
Excerpted from “The Gates of Istanbul”
by Loreena McKennitt.
And like a pool reflect the sun
We will find honor there
And keep us safe and lead us from all harm.
Excerpted from “The Gates of Istanbul”
by Loreena McKennitt.
* One of my favorite films is Ferzan Ozpetek's Hamam: The Turkish Bath (1997) which is set in Istanbul. For my theological reflections on this film, click here.
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
A Catholic’s Prayer for his Fellow Pilgrim, Benedict XVI
A Dangerous Medieval Conviction
Beyond a PC Pope
Vatican Stance on Gay Priests Signals Urgent Need for Renewal and Reform
A Not So "New" Catholic University
Casanova-inspired Reflections on Papal Power - at 30,000 Ft.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Vatican Considers the "Lesser of Two Evils"
There’s talk once again of a shift in thinking on the part of the Vatican with regards to condom use.
John Cooper of the Guardian of London, for instance, writes that, “the Roman Catholic church has taken the first step towards what could be a historic shift away from its total ban on the use of condoms”.
Elaborating, Cooper notes that, “Pope Benedict XVI's ‘health minister’ is understood to be urging him to accept that in restricted circumstances – specifically the prevention of AIDS – barrier contraception is the lesser of two evils. The recommendations, which have not been made public, still have to be reviewed by the traditionally conservative Vatican department responsible for safeguarding theological orthodoxy, and then by the Pope himself, before any decision is made.”
I’ve discussed this issue previously, noting that the “lesser evil” argument was insightfully explored by John Allen in the May 5 issue of the U.S.-based National Catholic Reporter.
“If the [expected Vatican] document simply asserts that a condom is a ‘lesser evil,’” wrote Allen, “experts say it would do little more than ratify what is already a broad consensus among Catholic moral theologians. Traditionally, confessors and pastors have long been permitted to counsel a ‘lesser evil’ to prevent greater harm . . . As applied to condoms, the ‘lesser evil’ argument [says that] if there’s a danger of HIV infection, a married couple should abstain from sex altogether. If they can’t be persuaded to do so, however, it’s better that they use the condom rather than endangering life.”
As I’ve previously observed, such an argument could be applied to the issue of homosexuality. For example, given the statistics on GLBT persons, substance abuse, and suicide, a gay man could legitimately argue that it’s a “lesser evil” for him to seek and build a loving, sexual relationship than be in a lonely, potentially depressed state wherein he would be prone to self harm through alcohol abuse and/or suicide.
Of course, many people view the whole “lesser evil” argument as deeply flawed. After all, the Vatican’s deliberations and pontifications on many of the sexual matters to which the argument could be applied, stem from the dubious belief that the essential purpose of sex is procreation.
Such a contention, theologian Daniel Helminiak notes, emphasizes “the generically animal (biological), rather than the distinctively human (interpersonal)” dimension of human sexuality. In addition, the “sex = procreation” argument ignores contemporary research and personal experience with regards human sexual relationships.
Helminiak, and others, argue (the rather obvious reality) that in Church practice, procreation is not essential to sex.
“Stoic philosophy,” Helminiak writes, “held that conception of offspring is the only ethically acceptable reason for having sex. Especially through St. Augustine, early Christianity incorporated this notion, and some churches invoke it to condemn homosexual acts. Yet many Christian denominations allow the use of contraceptives and marry couples who plan to remain childless, and all [including the Catholic Church] allow marriage and sex between known sterile couples or between couples beyond childbearing age. Even the Catholic Church has recently emphasized the emotional bonding and loving sharing that are central to sexual intimacy and, while forbidding use of ‘artificial contraceptives,’ does allow the use of the ‘rhythm method’ to deliberately avoid conception – which distinction is questionable. Evidently, the churches do not really believe that the essential purpose of sexual sharing is procreation. Religious insistence on procreation is disingenuous.”
And thus so too are notions of “lesser evil” when contemplating and discussing non-procreative sex between loving couples - gay or straight.
See also the previous Wild Reed post, Those Europeans are at it Again.
John Cooper of the Guardian of London, for instance, writes that, “the Roman Catholic church has taken the first step towards what could be a historic shift away from its total ban on the use of condoms”.
Elaborating, Cooper notes that, “Pope Benedict XVI's ‘health minister’ is understood to be urging him to accept that in restricted circumstances – specifically the prevention of AIDS – barrier contraception is the lesser of two evils. The recommendations, which have not been made public, still have to be reviewed by the traditionally conservative Vatican department responsible for safeguarding theological orthodoxy, and then by the Pope himself, before any decision is made.”
I’ve discussed this issue previously, noting that the “lesser evil” argument was insightfully explored by John Allen in the May 5 issue of the U.S.-based National Catholic Reporter.
“If the [expected Vatican] document simply asserts that a condom is a ‘lesser evil,’” wrote Allen, “experts say it would do little more than ratify what is already a broad consensus among Catholic moral theologians. Traditionally, confessors and pastors have long been permitted to counsel a ‘lesser evil’ to prevent greater harm . . . As applied to condoms, the ‘lesser evil’ argument [says that] if there’s a danger of HIV infection, a married couple should abstain from sex altogether. If they can’t be persuaded to do so, however, it’s better that they use the condom rather than endangering life.”
As I’ve previously observed, such an argument could be applied to the issue of homosexuality. For example, given the statistics on GLBT persons, substance abuse, and suicide, a gay man could legitimately argue that it’s a “lesser evil” for him to seek and build a loving, sexual relationship than be in a lonely, potentially depressed state wherein he would be prone to self harm through alcohol abuse and/or suicide.
Of course, many people view the whole “lesser evil” argument as deeply flawed. After all, the Vatican’s deliberations and pontifications on many of the sexual matters to which the argument could be applied, stem from the dubious belief that the essential purpose of sex is procreation.
Such a contention, theologian Daniel Helminiak notes, emphasizes “the generically animal (biological), rather than the distinctively human (interpersonal)” dimension of human sexuality. In addition, the “sex = procreation” argument ignores contemporary research and personal experience with regards human sexual relationships.
Helminiak, and others, argue (the rather obvious reality) that in Church practice, procreation is not essential to sex.
“Stoic philosophy,” Helminiak writes, “held that conception of offspring is the only ethically acceptable reason for having sex. Especially through St. Augustine, early Christianity incorporated this notion, and some churches invoke it to condemn homosexual acts. Yet many Christian denominations allow the use of contraceptives and marry couples who plan to remain childless, and all [including the Catholic Church] allow marriage and sex between known sterile couples or between couples beyond childbearing age. Even the Catholic Church has recently emphasized the emotional bonding and loving sharing that are central to sexual intimacy and, while forbidding use of ‘artificial contraceptives,’ does allow the use of the ‘rhythm method’ to deliberately avoid conception – which distinction is questionable. Evidently, the churches do not really believe that the essential purpose of sexual sharing is procreation. Religious insistence on procreation is disingenuous.”
And thus so too are notions of “lesser evil” when contemplating and discussing non-procreative sex between loving couples - gay or straight.
See also the previous Wild Reed post, Those Europeans are at it Again.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Remembering Sister Rita
Yesterday afternoon, Tuesday, November 21, my friend Rita Steinhagen passed away in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Sister Rita was a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. She was also a life-long justice and peace activist, an avid angler, the founder of both the Free Store and The Bridge for Runaway Youth in Minneapolis, an author, a “jailbird”, and an all round inspiration to countless people – myself included.
I first meet Rita in early 1997 at the weekly peace vigil outside the corporate headquarters of Alliant TechSystems – Minnesota’s largest military contractor. These weekly gatherings marked the genesis of my life as a justice and peace activist. Of course, related to this was my coming into awareness of the crucial role that militarism plays in shaping and expanding US foreign policy.
It was due to the positive and consciousness-raising influence of Sister Rita and others that such a social and political awareness was possible. It was also due to Sister Rita and others that this awareness found expression in non-violent words and actions imbued with the spirit of the Gospel.
As a consequence of such awareness and activisn, I was able to write the following to my parents in Australia at the end of 1997: “I’m not sure where my involvement in such [justice and peace] issues will lead me. But I know that in the last year I've changed a lot - mainly in relation to the way I view [the U.S. government], militarism, and the economic system that we currently have and which is obviously not working in a just way for a vast number of people. I have no alternative to offer, yet know that there's no going back to the way I used to view things. Basically, I'm just trusting that the Spirit will lead me in right ways of thinking about such things and accordingly, in how I should live my life.”
One place to which such “involvement” did take me was the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia – home to the infamous School of the Americas (SOA).
And Rita Steinhagen – along with many other dedicated and inspiring advocates for justice and peace – was standing right there beside me.
It was at the annual protest of the SOA in November 1997 that I took the above photo of Sister Rita.
On my website, Faces of Resistance, the following words accompany this particular image: “Rita crossed the line onto the army base with 600 others in an act of civil disobedience to protest the SOA. The majority of the protesters were arrested and released with a warning. Yet for 22, including Rita, it was their second year of crossing the line. Accordingly they were trialed and sentenced to prison – in Rita’s case for six months. At her sentencing she declared to the judge: ‘When decent people get put in jail for six months for peaceful demonstration, I’m more scared of what's going on in our country than I am of going to prison’.”
Rita’s experience in the Federal Penitentiary in Perkin, Illinois was life-changing. “I was in with 300 women, all non-violent offenders” she would later say. “Most were convicted of some type of drug offence and given long sentences due to the mandatory sentences that many of them had. Five, ten, fifteen, even twenty years. Nearly 80% were mothers with small children, now being raised by others. Prisons do not rehabilitate. It is just plain warehousing of people.”
For those of us who knew Rita and her passionate commitment to social justice, it was not at all surprising that upon her release from Perkin, she became an informed and dedicated advocate for prison reform.
When I presented the performance/arts component of my thesis – one that explored the coming out process of gay men as a spiritual journey – I can vividly recall Rita sitting in the front row at St. Martin’s Table, her good friend Marv Davidov beside her. I recall that I felt very nervous as I began sharing my story in this very public way, yet all fear dissipated when I saw the encouraging look on Rita’s face. Like so many of the Sisters of St. Joseph, she was supportive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people – their lives and their loving relationships. I sensed that for Rita, who we loved was irrelevant. The important thing is that we love.
Rita loved in great abundance – and her love was embodied in her activism, her writing, and her genuine concern and advocacy efforts with and for all who were marginalized, oppressed, and forgotten.
I can’t be with my friends in the Twin Cities for Rita’s funeral on Friday. But my thoughts and prayers are with them as togther we grieve the loss of our dear friend Rita, and celebrate and remember her inspiring life.
Following is columnist Doug Grow’s reflection on Rita, published in today’s Star Tribune.
____________________
Sister Rita was activist, writer
– and a jailbird
By Doug Grow
Star Tribune
November 22, 2006
Sister Rita Steinhagen was a little giant. Not to mention a medical technologist. And a founder of a place called the Bridge, which served runaway youth. And a founder of the Free Store, which served the poor for decades. And a resilient peace activist. And a woman who served in war-torn Latin American countries as well as the Twin Cities. And an angler, who wore a cap, “I Fish, Therefore I Lie.” And a poet and a writer and . . .
An ex-con, federal prisoner No. 88119-02.
On Tuesday afternoon, this gentle soul died at a St. Paul hospice. In 1998, this gentle but powerful soul was sentenced to serve six months in the federal pen in Pekin, Ill. She had trespassed at Fort Benning, Ga., during a protest of U.S. policies in Latin America.
The sister didn’t take this business lightly, telling the sentencing judge: “Your honor, I'm 70 years old today and I’ve never been in prison and I’m scared. I tell you, when decent people get put in jail for six months for peaceful demonstration, I’m more scared of what's going on in our country than I am of going to prison.”
The judge’s response?
“He didn’t say anything,” she recalled. “He couldn’t care less.”
The nun served her time – and her fellow prisoners.
“Don't forget us,” pleaded women who were serving long drug-related sentences when Rita was released.
And, of course, she didn't.
Even in her last days, as old friends came for final visits, the 77-year-old nun, whose health had been failing for months, offered encouragement.
For example, last week, Marv Davidov, a longtime peace activist and Rita’s fishing buddy, stopped to visit.
“What am I going to do next summer?” Davidov asked, tears in his eyes.
“Fish,” the nun said.
They both laughed.
Born in Waconia, raised in Walker, Steinhagen never set out to be a nun. But, at age 23, she went to visit a pal who had joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Paul. While Rita waited for her pal, she got into a conversation with the nun who directed the novices.
“Do you think I belong here?” Rita asked the nun.
“I certainly do,” was the response.
A few months later she showed up at the convent, ready to begin her new life.
In Hooked by the Spirit, the autobiography she completed last year, she wrote, “I believe that everyone is begotten of the Spirit but we are blown in many directions. In trying to capture the reason for my many wanderings, I can only surmise that the Spirit assigned to me had an extra wandering gene, which at times caused Her to push, lead or entice me to places I never dreamed of going. She has been a faithful traveling companion, and I am so grateful She was assigned to me.”
In a classic bit of twinkle-in-the-eye Rita-ese, she added: “Please don’t try to figure this out theologically. Relax. Go with it. Enjoy.”
Services for Sister Rita will be held at 7 p.m. Friday at the Presentation of Our Lady Chapel, 1880 Randolph Av., St. Paul.
To read the Sisters of St. Joseph’s tribute to Rita, click here.
To view a wonderful collection of images of Rita, visit the Remembering Rita galleries at CircleVision.org.
To read Rita’s article, “Federal Prison Has Changed My Life Forever”, click here.
To read “Sister Soldier”, City Pages’ extensive 1998 article about Rita, click here.
For information about Rita’s autobiography, Hooked By the Spirit: Journey of a Peaceful Activist, and to read an excerpt, click here.
Sister Rita was a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. She was also a life-long justice and peace activist, an avid angler, the founder of both the Free Store and The Bridge for Runaway Youth in Minneapolis, an author, a “jailbird”, and an all round inspiration to countless people – myself included.
I first meet Rita in early 1997 at the weekly peace vigil outside the corporate headquarters of Alliant TechSystems – Minnesota’s largest military contractor. These weekly gatherings marked the genesis of my life as a justice and peace activist. Of course, related to this was my coming into awareness of the crucial role that militarism plays in shaping and expanding US foreign policy.
It was due to the positive and consciousness-raising influence of Sister Rita and others that such a social and political awareness was possible. It was also due to Sister Rita and others that this awareness found expression in non-violent words and actions imbued with the spirit of the Gospel.
As a consequence of such awareness and activisn, I was able to write the following to my parents in Australia at the end of 1997: “I’m not sure where my involvement in such [justice and peace] issues will lead me. But I know that in the last year I've changed a lot - mainly in relation to the way I view [the U.S. government], militarism, and the economic system that we currently have and which is obviously not working in a just way for a vast number of people. I have no alternative to offer, yet know that there's no going back to the way I used to view things. Basically, I'm just trusting that the Spirit will lead me in right ways of thinking about such things and accordingly, in how I should live my life.”
One place to which such “involvement” did take me was the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia – home to the infamous School of the Americas (SOA).
And Rita Steinhagen – along with many other dedicated and inspiring advocates for justice and peace – was standing right there beside me.
It was at the annual protest of the SOA in November 1997 that I took the above photo of Sister Rita.
On my website, Faces of Resistance, the following words accompany this particular image: “Rita crossed the line onto the army base with 600 others in an act of civil disobedience to protest the SOA. The majority of the protesters were arrested and released with a warning. Yet for 22, including Rita, it was their second year of crossing the line. Accordingly they were trialed and sentenced to prison – in Rita’s case for six months. At her sentencing she declared to the judge: ‘When decent people get put in jail for six months for peaceful demonstration, I’m more scared of what's going on in our country than I am of going to prison’.”
Rita’s experience in the Federal Penitentiary in Perkin, Illinois was life-changing. “I was in with 300 women, all non-violent offenders” she would later say. “Most were convicted of some type of drug offence and given long sentences due to the mandatory sentences that many of them had. Five, ten, fifteen, even twenty years. Nearly 80% were mothers with small children, now being raised by others. Prisons do not rehabilitate. It is just plain warehousing of people.”
For those of us who knew Rita and her passionate commitment to social justice, it was not at all surprising that upon her release from Perkin, she became an informed and dedicated advocate for prison reform.
When I presented the performance/arts component of my thesis – one that explored the coming out process of gay men as a spiritual journey – I can vividly recall Rita sitting in the front row at St. Martin’s Table, her good friend Marv Davidov beside her. I recall that I felt very nervous as I began sharing my story in this very public way, yet all fear dissipated when I saw the encouraging look on Rita’s face. Like so many of the Sisters of St. Joseph, she was supportive of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people – their lives and their loving relationships. I sensed that for Rita, who we loved was irrelevant. The important thing is that we love.
Rita loved in great abundance – and her love was embodied in her activism, her writing, and her genuine concern and advocacy efforts with and for all who were marginalized, oppressed, and forgotten.
I can’t be with my friends in the Twin Cities for Rita’s funeral on Friday. But my thoughts and prayers are with them as togther we grieve the loss of our dear friend Rita, and celebrate and remember her inspiring life.
Following is columnist Doug Grow’s reflection on Rita, published in today’s Star Tribune.
– and a jailbird
By Doug Grow
Star Tribune
November 22, 2006
Sister Rita Steinhagen was a little giant. Not to mention a medical technologist. And a founder of a place called the Bridge, which served runaway youth. And a founder of the Free Store, which served the poor for decades. And a resilient peace activist. And a woman who served in war-torn Latin American countries as well as the Twin Cities. And an angler, who wore a cap, “I Fish, Therefore I Lie.” And a poet and a writer and . . .
An ex-con, federal prisoner No. 88119-02.
On Tuesday afternoon, this gentle soul died at a St. Paul hospice. In 1998, this gentle but powerful soul was sentenced to serve six months in the federal pen in Pekin, Ill. She had trespassed at Fort Benning, Ga., during a protest of U.S. policies in Latin America.
The sister didn’t take this business lightly, telling the sentencing judge: “Your honor, I'm 70 years old today and I’ve never been in prison and I’m scared. I tell you, when decent people get put in jail for six months for peaceful demonstration, I’m more scared of what's going on in our country than I am of going to prison.”
The judge’s response?
“He didn’t say anything,” she recalled. “He couldn’t care less.”
The nun served her time – and her fellow prisoners.
“Don't forget us,” pleaded women who were serving long drug-related sentences when Rita was released.
And, of course, she didn't.
Even in her last days, as old friends came for final visits, the 77-year-old nun, whose health had been failing for months, offered encouragement.
For example, last week, Marv Davidov, a longtime peace activist and Rita’s fishing buddy, stopped to visit.
“What am I going to do next summer?” Davidov asked, tears in his eyes.
“Fish,” the nun said.
They both laughed.
Born in Waconia, raised in Walker, Steinhagen never set out to be a nun. But, at age 23, she went to visit a pal who had joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in St. Paul. While Rita waited for her pal, she got into a conversation with the nun who directed the novices.
“Do you think I belong here?” Rita asked the nun.
“I certainly do,” was the response.
A few months later she showed up at the convent, ready to begin her new life.
In Hooked by the Spirit, the autobiography she completed last year, she wrote, “I believe that everyone is begotten of the Spirit but we are blown in many directions. In trying to capture the reason for my many wanderings, I can only surmise that the Spirit assigned to me had an extra wandering gene, which at times caused Her to push, lead or entice me to places I never dreamed of going. She has been a faithful traveling companion, and I am so grateful She was assigned to me.”
In a classic bit of twinkle-in-the-eye Rita-ese, she added: “Please don’t try to figure this out theologically. Relax. Go with it. Enjoy.”
Services for Sister Rita will be held at 7 p.m. Friday at the Presentation of Our Lady Chapel, 1880 Randolph Av., St. Paul.
To read the Sisters of St. Joseph’s tribute to Rita, click here.
To view a wonderful collection of images of Rita, visit the Remembering Rita galleries at CircleVision.org.
To read Rita’s article, “Federal Prison Has Changed My Life Forever”, click here.
To read “Sister Soldier”, City Pages’ extensive 1998 article about Rita, click here.
For information about Rita’s autobiography, Hooked By the Spirit: Journey of a Peaceful Activist, and to read an excerpt, click here.
The Thorpedo’s “Difficult Decision”
Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe, winner of five Olympic, eleven World Championship, and ten Commonwealth gold medals, has announced that he is “discontinuing” his professional swimming career.
Ian Thorpe is quite an amazing young man – thoughtful, articulate, and honest. At his press conference in Sydney where he made his announcement, the 24-year-old Thorpe appeared equal parts calm, grateful, and relieved as he talked about his illustrious swimming career and his “difficult decision” to end it.
Listening to him speak, I was reminded in many ways of the experiences of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) people (myself included) and our choice to leave behind previous lives, relationships, and/or careers in order to “come out” and be true to our deepest, truest selves.
I need to say from the outset that I’m not suggesting that Ian Thorpe is gay. Though it’s true that others have speculated on his sexuality – primarily in response to his quiet, mild-manner, and his long-standing interest in fashion and the development of his own line of designer jewellery and underwear – I’m not particularly concerned about his sexual orientation.
Instead, I’m simply intrigued with how the way he described his decision to quit swimming so closely matches the words and experiences of GLBT people’s decision to “quit” previous modes of being so as to live more authentically.
For instance, Thorpe talked about his swimming career as providing a “safety blanket”, one that in many ways prevented him from living a more “balanced” life.
How many GLBT people have hidden “safely” behind the straight personas demanded of them by their careers and/or their standing in the social status quo? I know I certainly did.
Thorpe also noted that even though it would have been “easy to follow the status quo”, he would have been “dishonest” to himself if he had continued swimming for the sake of others’ expectations and dreams.
How many GLBT people have stayed painfully closeted for the sake of others’ expectations and dreams for them? Some have even ignored their inner calling to the extent that they go through marriages with people of the opposite gender – all for the sake of satisfying others’ and societal expectations.
Like GLBT individuals on the verge of “coming out”, Thorpe acknowledged that in considering giving up swimming his first reaction was one of fear, followed by excitement about the ways his life would open up once the decision was made. He is now “proud”of making his “difficult decision”, and is looking forward to now being able to pursue the things that will make him a “better” person.
Like many GLBT people, I can strongly attest to the myriad of ways my life expanded and opened up as a result of “coming out”. Energies that had been employed in maintaining and safeguarding a secret, hidden life were now able to be directed into much more creative and life-giving endeavours. Since coming out I have blossomed in many ways. My relationships with self, God, and others have deepened and become more fulfilling.
I'm sure that now Ian Thorpe has abandoned a way of life no longer either satisfying or inspiring, he too will experience a blossoming of new and renewed energies.
As I said earlier, I’m not concerned about Thorpe’s sexuality. I don’t know if the guy’s gay, and I don’t particular care. However, even though I can’t say that Ian Thorpe is gay, I can say he’s queer. And I use this term in its most fundamental and positive sense: to be queer is to be “different”, or, according to the Collins Australian Dictionary, “not normal or usual”. Thus one doesn’t have to be gay to be queer.
In 2002, Thorpe himself acknowledged as much, saying that, “I’m a little different to what most people would consider being an Australia male. That doesn’t make me gay.”
So what does it mean to be queer? Well, as I’ve noted in a previous post, to be queer is to be open and willing to go beyond (in thought, word or deed) the parameters of gender, race, heterosexality, patriarchy, and other socially-constructed (or manipulated) concepts.
My sense is that many young men of Ian Thorpe’s generation are ditching the narrow and destructive “macho” understanding of what it means to be a man. In its place, they have embraced and embodied something quite different - a “queer” spirit of openness, inclusiveness, sensuality, and vulnerability.
Gay, straight, or somewhere in between, Ian Thorpe embodies this queer spirit. And we’re all the better for it.
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
The New Superman: Not Necessarily Gay, but Definitely Queer
A Fresh Take on Masculinity
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The Bishops’ “Guidelines”: A Parent’s Response
I’ve long maintained that the most effective advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people are these same people's parents and family members.
Whereas those opposed to the reality of LGBT people and rights frequently dismiss people like myself as “gay activists” and “militant secularists” determined to promote an anti-family “gay agenda”, it’s much more difficult for them to dismiss the loving and affirming words and actions of parents of LGBT people.
I was once again reminded of this when my friend Georgia had a letter published in the November 17 edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune (see below). This letter was in response to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ recent document, Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination.
Georgia and her husband Conrad are the proud and happy parents of two children – one gay and one straight. Georgia and Conrad are also members of Catholic Rainbow Parents.
_________________________
Learn to Accept
The Catholic bishops’ latest regressive statement on homosexuality is a sad commentary. It betrays unprecedented levels of institutionalized self-rejection. It is no secret to Catholics or non-Catholics that significant numbers of Catholic priests, bishops and beyond are homosexual persons. Their persistent inability to fundamentally love themselves lies at the heart of their twisted policies regarding gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) persons.
But we will not allow their problem to become our problem. We Catholic families of well-adjusted, functional, out-of-the-closet GLBT adult children and grandchildren reject out of hand the bishops’ notion that any human person is automatically called to celibacy and silence by virtue of his or her sexual orientation.
We know from real-life experience that homosexuality is a normal variation of the God-given gift of human sexuality. It is a gift that our adult children are called to express lovingly and responsibly.
We hope that the church can eventually learn to love and accept itself on this issue, and be open to the wisdom and love we have gained as parents of GLBT persons.
Georgia Mueller
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Making Sure All Families Matter
Catholic Rainbow (Australian) Parents
Grandma Knows Best
When "Guidelines" Lack Guidance
Be Not Afraid: You Can Be Happy and Gay.
For more Catholic responses to Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination, visit the CPCSM website.
Whereas those opposed to the reality of LGBT people and rights frequently dismiss people like myself as “gay activists” and “militant secularists” determined to promote an anti-family “gay agenda”, it’s much more difficult for them to dismiss the loving and affirming words and actions of parents of LGBT people.
I was once again reminded of this when my friend Georgia had a letter published in the November 17 edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune (see below). This letter was in response to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ recent document, Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination.
Georgia and her husband Conrad are the proud and happy parents of two children – one gay and one straight. Georgia and Conrad are also members of Catholic Rainbow Parents.
_________________________
Learn to Accept
The Catholic bishops’ latest regressive statement on homosexuality is a sad commentary. It betrays unprecedented levels of institutionalized self-rejection. It is no secret to Catholics or non-Catholics that significant numbers of Catholic priests, bishops and beyond are homosexual persons. Their persistent inability to fundamentally love themselves lies at the heart of their twisted policies regarding gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) persons.
But we will not allow their problem to become our problem. We Catholic families of well-adjusted, functional, out-of-the-closet GLBT adult children and grandchildren reject out of hand the bishops’ notion that any human person is automatically called to celibacy and silence by virtue of his or her sexual orientation.
We know from real-life experience that homosexuality is a normal variation of the God-given gift of human sexuality. It is a gift that our adult children are called to express lovingly and responsibly.
We hope that the church can eventually learn to love and accept itself on this issue, and be open to the wisdom and love we have gained as parents of GLBT persons.
Georgia Mueller
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Making Sure All Families Matter
Catholic Rainbow (Australian) Parents
Grandma Knows Best
When "Guidelines" Lack Guidance
Be Not Afraid: You Can Be Happy and Gay.
For more Catholic responses to Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination, visit the CPCSM website.
More Remnants of a Life Past
Following is a second selection of photographs taken during my six years of teaching at Sts Peter and Paul’s Primary School in Goulburn, New South Wales (1988-1993).
To view the first selection, click here.
Above: Jason and the Argonauts set sail on the Argo! From left: Anthony Hutchins, Robert Elder, Stephen Polzin, Jason Kelly, and James Stephens.
Above: Jason and the Argonauts do battle with the Skeleton Warriors!
Here’s what I had to say about this particular play in the school newsletter:
Following are comments from the cast on their characters and the performance:
Above: James Baird as the Australian bushranger, Captain Midnite, with his clever Siamese cat, Khat, played by James Condylios.
5B’s play was based on Randolph Stow’s children’s novel, Midnite: The Story of a Wild Colonial Boy, and was performed for the school community in 1993.
Above: At one point in 1992, we had the bedroom of the young son of the last Russian tsar set up at the front of the classroom! Pictured sitting from left: Briody Connor, Bernice Wolford, Tess McGowan, and Sharnee Fleming. Standing from left: Nicole Guthrie, Amy Gerard, Lauren Shinfield, Jodie Glanville, Rachael Gordon, and Joanne Graham.
I first starting developing and teaching a unit of work on Russian culture and history in 1988 – my first year of teaching. Of course back then, the Soviet Union was still in existence. The momentous events of the following year meant major changes had to be made to this particular unit of work. Yet the part of it that always held the most interest and fascination for the students remained the same – the life and tragedy of Tsar Nicholas II and his family.
We would watch excerpts from the 1971 film Nicholas and Alexandra and role play the tragedy of the imperial rulers’ young son, Alexei, who suffered from haemophilia, and his seemingly miraculous healing at the hands of Rasputin.
The girls in the class particularly enjoyed setting up the bedroom of Alexei – complete with framed photographs of the imperial Romanov family, candles, and Russian icons. The students of 5B would stage their re-enactment of Alexei’s mishap, confinement to bed, and subsequent recovery (based on the real life events at the Polish hunting lodge of Spala) several times, as different students wanted a turn at playing the coveted roles of the ailing Alexei, the haughty yet desperate Tsaritsa Alexandra, and her four young and beautiful daughters, the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Marie, and Anastasia.
Above: The Goulburn Post’s report on 5B’s 1992 construction of Spook City from Michael Ende’s classic book, The Neverending Story. As the newspaper notes, “Students used extracts from the novel as well as Gothic architecture to plan and build their model of the crooked and eerie city of spooks.”
Above: Bastian (Chris Hogan) and Atreyu (Ben Smith) do battle in the play I wrote based on Chapter XXII (“The Battle for the Ivory Tower”) of The Neverending Story, and which 5B performed for the school community in 1991.
For the school’s newsletter, numerous children were asked to comment on this production. Here are some of their responses:
Above: Easter 1993. We’re at St. Michael’s Noviciate performing Sara’s Gift, an Easter play I wrote and which a number of 5B classes performed over the years.
Above: Adrian Zantis as the resurrected Jesus in Sara’s Gift – 1993.
Above: “Mr. Bayly” – in typical late ’80s/early ’90s attire.
See also the Wild Reed posts:
• Goulburn Revisited
• Goulburn Landmarks
• Goulburn Reunion
To view the first selection, click here.
Above: Jason and the Argonauts set sail on the Argo! From left: Anthony Hutchins, Robert Elder, Stephen Polzin, Jason Kelly, and James Stephens.
Above: Jason and the Argonauts do battle with the Skeleton Warriors!
Here’s what I had to say about this particular play in the school newsletter:
5B’s dramatic interpretation of Jason and the Argonauts owed much of its success to the children of 5B, who worked hard to stage this Greek legend concerned with the quest for the Golden Fleece. A big thank you and congratulations is due to Danielle Lewin who, at extremely short notice, took on the lead role of Jason.
Following are comments from the cast on their characters and the performance:
“It was a real challenge learning and acting out the part of Jason. I enjoyed playing the hero of the play.” – Danielle Lewin (Jason).
“It was a hard role, but fun. I tried hard to put as much feeling into the character as I could.” – Linda Coady (Medea).
“It was good to play the role of a king. I had no difficulty learning my lines.” – Adam Bush (King Aietes).
“It was exciting to rip the paper that we were pretending was the ground we were hiding underneath. It took a long time to make and paint the ground but only a few seconds to destroy it.” – Ryan Robson, Angus Peden, and Matthew Bugden (Skeleton Warriors).
“It was really fun. The best part was squirting the boy sitting in the front row in the eye.” – Alice Connor (Head of Dragon).
Above: James Baird as the Australian bushranger, Captain Midnite, with his clever Siamese cat, Khat, played by James Condylios.
5B’s play was based on Randolph Stow’s children’s novel, Midnite: The Story of a Wild Colonial Boy, and was performed for the school community in 1993.
Above: At one point in 1992, we had the bedroom of the young son of the last Russian tsar set up at the front of the classroom! Pictured sitting from left: Briody Connor, Bernice Wolford, Tess McGowan, and Sharnee Fleming. Standing from left: Nicole Guthrie, Amy Gerard, Lauren Shinfield, Jodie Glanville, Rachael Gordon, and Joanne Graham.
I first starting developing and teaching a unit of work on Russian culture and history in 1988 – my first year of teaching. Of course back then, the Soviet Union was still in existence. The momentous events of the following year meant major changes had to be made to this particular unit of work. Yet the part of it that always held the most interest and fascination for the students remained the same – the life and tragedy of Tsar Nicholas II and his family.
We would watch excerpts from the 1971 film Nicholas and Alexandra and role play the tragedy of the imperial rulers’ young son, Alexei, who suffered from haemophilia, and his seemingly miraculous healing at the hands of Rasputin.
The girls in the class particularly enjoyed setting up the bedroom of Alexei – complete with framed photographs of the imperial Romanov family, candles, and Russian icons. The students of 5B would stage their re-enactment of Alexei’s mishap, confinement to bed, and subsequent recovery (based on the real life events at the Polish hunting lodge of Spala) several times, as different students wanted a turn at playing the coveted roles of the ailing Alexei, the haughty yet desperate Tsaritsa Alexandra, and her four young and beautiful daughters, the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Marie, and Anastasia.
Above: The Goulburn Post’s report on 5B’s 1992 construction of Spook City from Michael Ende’s classic book, The Neverending Story. As the newspaper notes, “Students used extracts from the novel as well as Gothic architecture to plan and build their model of the crooked and eerie city of spooks.”
Above: Bastian (Chris Hogan) and Atreyu (Ben Smith) do battle in the play I wrote based on Chapter XXII (“The Battle for the Ivory Tower”) of The Neverending Story, and which 5B performed for the school community in 1991.
For the school’s newsletter, numerous children were asked to comment on this production. Here are some of their responses:
“It was a great play. The best part was when I kicked the throne off the platform.” – Chris Hogan (Bastian), 5B.
“It was spectacular. I especially liked the painted backdrops and the characters.” – Clint Bopping, 6B.
“I thought the person who played Bastian was good.” – Jamie Moran, 3B.
“It was very well done. The monsters were a bit gruesome with the blood on their swords.” – Graham James, 6L.
“It was exciting and enjoyable. The best part was when the giants carried the throne down the aisle.” – Lisa Moore and Melissa Clements, 6B.
“It was a very good play, especially how they memorised their lines.” – Brooke Fielding, 6B.
Above: Easter 1993. We’re at St. Michael’s Noviciate performing Sara’s Gift, an Easter play I wrote and which a number of 5B classes performed over the years.
Above: Adrian Zantis as the resurrected Jesus in Sara’s Gift – 1993.
Above: “Mr. Bayly” – in typical late ’80s/early ’90s attire.
See also the Wild Reed posts:
• Goulburn Revisited
• Goulburn Landmarks
• Goulburn Reunion
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