opinion

by tommi avicolli mecca

The Church won't change

A MEMBER OF Most Holy Redeemer Church, a congregation in the Castro that is overwhelmingly queer, asked an interesting question in a recent Bay Guardian report on the Vatican's current witch hunt against gay priests: "Why," he wondered, "would I abandon my church because of its leadership?"

Actually, what the church is doing, and has done, in his name is exactly why Catholics with a sense of social justice should stampede to the nearest exit. As author Joe Dignan observed, "If the Vatican forced out all the gay seminarians and priests, particularly in San Francisco, there wouldn't be many people left to tend to the Catholic flock." Add to that all of the Catholics who disagree with the declaration of this current pope that homosexuality is intrinsically evil, who support abortion and reproductive freedom, and who feel that divorced people should be allowed to take Holy Communion – and you have a lot of empty pews with no one to transubstantiate the bread and wine. The Vatican would have to run garage sales to pay its bills.

It would be a fitting end to a religion that has left irreparable scars on the human race: Wars fought to maintain an empire, forced conversions of masses of people by any means necessary, persecution of scientists, witch burnings, the Inquisition, and the attempted genocide of native peoples in the Americas. It's not a pretty picture.

Sure, the Church doesn't cut off the heads of heretics or Jews anymore. It uses its tremendous political muscle to lobby against gay marriage. It silences priests and nuns in Latin America who want land reforms that give the poor a better shot at feeding their families. It clings to outmoded notions of human sexuality and rejects science and evolution. In America its voice is never raised in support of a living wage, affordable housing, national health care, workers' rights, or any other issue that impacts poor and working people. In San Francisco, the church is vocal when the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are mocking Easter, but when the homeless lie dying in the streets or the poor are being gentrified out of yet another neighborhood, the silence is deafening.

Then there is the theology itself, at the core of which is the idea that we are all born with "original sin" on our souls. Redemption can only be achieved by following the dictates of men in cassocks who decide the rules of the game and change them to suit their whims or current church politics. It makes no sense in a modern world.

It's not easy to break away from it all. But it's important that people do. The Church can't be reformed. Martin Luther learned that. The Berrigans tried and failed. Gay Catholics haven't had much effect. Staying in the church and trying to reform it is more futile than continuing to fight for economic justice in the United States under a Republican administration. The difference is that, despite all of its many shortcomings, our country is still a democracy. In some instances, people can win reform, though not always to the extent they want. Three years ago, the US Supreme Court threw out the centuries-old ban on sodomy between consenting adults. It's not something I ever would've expected to see in my lifetime. In the United States, when it comes to social change, we have a wing and a prayer.

The church is not a democracy. The faithful don't get to choose the pope, vote on doctrine, or determine when it's time to move from the 12th to the 21st century. They only get to follow.

It's time for the faithful to follow each other out the door.

Tommi Avicolli Mecca is a longtime radical queer activist, performer, and writer who left the Church at age 16 when he discovered the joys of gay sex.