The Crisis and the gay faithful

>> Montreal’s queer Catholics aren’t too bothered by U.S. sex scandals

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

Depending on your point of view, this is a time when it’s either great or calamitous to be Catholic. Great, because the Pope’s just come off a spectacularly successful showing down the 401; calamitous, because, south of the border, American Catholics have been feeling so stunned and betrayed by revelations of priestly pederasty that they’ve baptized the entire sordid affair The Crisis. The Crisis spread north this week, when revelations broke that two elderly New Jersey priests have been implicated in a male prostitution ring in Montreal, involving rent boys as young as 14.

The priest sex-abuse scandals, however, have not caused the same fever-pitch fury in Canada as they have in the U.S. The majority of Catholics in Canada, as demonstrated with last weekend’s timely papal appearance, are happy to think that the scandal is the result of a few bad apples among an otherwise devout and proper clergy. And many of Montreal’s practicing Catholic gays, who have more reason than most to be wary of the Church, feel the same.

“Americans tend to exaggerate a lot,” says Michel Lirette, a 50-year-old payroll clerk and regular gay Catholic worshipper at L’Oeuvre de St-Pierre Apôtre, on Sherbrooke E. and de la Visitation. “They like to make things into a big scandal, to make a gros drame out of them. Canadians tend to be more discreet.”
American Catholics are indeed taking the story to new heights of anger. The Village Voice has called the scandal the “biggest denominational crisis since the Reformation.” Victims of abuse have made teary TV appearances, groups have called for Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston’s removal, and a Baltimore priest was shot by a man he allegedly abused as a boy. The American Catholic cauldron is boiling.

Outrage U.S.A.

In Canada, however, where there’s no shortage of scandals involving the Church, from the Duplessis Orphans to Mount Cashel to the clergy abducting native children, Catholics remain much more sanguine. That may be, according to Marianne Duddy, executive director of Dignity U.S.A., a Boston-based national gay Catholic advocacy group, because “Canada experienced its horrors years ago.” The Crisis is all very new—and very close—to Americans.

Much of the controversy in the States these days seems to stem not from the revelation of abuses of power, betrayal of trust, or even sexual assault, but by the fact that the victims of the assaults were boys and the perpetrators men. The tired, hateful and ludicrous link between homosexuality and pedophilia has, sadly, garnered more ammunition.

“It has been very difficult for people to absorb,” says Duddy. “In previous waves of abuse, a higher proportion of victims were female [without generating the present level of outrage]. But it’s still a misogynist culture here, and it’s still a homophobic culture.” Duddy says she has noticed a rise in homophobia in the States, pointing out, as an example, that the American Family Association is taking on the Big Brothers/Sisters organization over their policies of non-discrimination regarding their volunteers.

Still, Lirette thinks Duddy’s assessment of the situation in the United States is due more to lay American society and culture rather than any great failing on the part of the Church. In Montreal especially, the Catholic Church has been more progressive and welcoming to its gay parishioners.

“Many priests in Montreal go against what the Vatican preaches,” he says. “I’d say about 85 per cent of the congregation [at St-Pierre Apôtre] on Sundays is gay. The feeling I get is that we are all human beings, with our own values and our own way of thinking. We accept, we don’t judge.”

How the Church will recover from the latest round of scandals remains to be seen. The scandal itself, however, is far from over. Yves Manseau, the head of police-watchdog-cum-Church-opponent Mouvement Action Justice, says The Crisis has “certainly given us strength” to carry on the fight to expose abuse within the Church. He points out that there are two currents running through the Orphans, one devout, the other stridently anti-clergy; all are survivors, and will continue their protestations against Church leadership.

As for Lirette, who re-discovered the Church when he was diagnosed last year with brain cancer, and the parishioners of St-Pierre Apôtre, they will continue to attend regular Sunday mass. “Faith protects me,” Lirette says. “It gives me peace and serenity.” :