In the recent RTE documentary ‘Divorcing God’, comedian Oliver Callan visited the parish of his childhood and remembered his time there. In the Church, he recalled that as a gay man he never felt condemned from the altar but by the same token, homosexuality was never mentioned or even alluded to which for him ‘was even worse’.
It would be easy for our Church to just ignore the Pride march in Dublin this weekend. Best not to mention it. But this looking the other way only exasperates the problem of alienation which we as Church are called to heal and bridge. Hence, this weekend seems like a good opportunity to bring your attention to a moving video called ‘The Third Way’ which tells the story of people of same-sex attraction who have found a path to holiness and happiness within the Church. These people challenge the perception that the Church and gay people are enemies or that Catholics are homophobes or that the Church is a cold place for them. It makes the point that just because the Church cannot subscribe to same-sex marriage, it does not condemn people to a life of loneliness and isolation.
Often, the culture of today presents us with two options – one, live your own life, find love and ignore Church teaching or second, leave your desire to love at the door of the Church and live a life of cold conformity. This documentary helps us see that these are not the only choices. There is in fact, a ‘Third Way’…..
CLICK HERE TO WATCH: