And as a supplement to what I just posted: note the number of times in my conversation with Kathy at the Commonweal thread to which I draw readers' attention, when I asked Kathy what she thinks of Michael O'Loughlin's enumeration of the messages the church is giving its gay members today (and here).
And notice how she never once replied to that question, even as she maintained that the Catholic church is conspicuously welcoming to gay folks today, with the implication that I'm simply making up the message of unwelcome I hear as a gay person. Or that I'm defective or malicious.
Imagine a welcome sign for every Catholic church in the land, in which O'Loughlin's list follows the word "welcome."
And then imagine a discussion of the church's relationship to gay and lesbian people which simply ignores this list--as if it is not there. As if it is imaginary. As if the gay and lesbian people who report being made unwelcome don't exist. Or are defective or malicious, and therefore not to be heard.
And imagine, too, a discussion of Catholics leaving the church in droves that simply overlooks this large, conspicuous segment of brothers and sisters who report we are no longer in the pews, because we are not welcome.
And imagine such a discussion seeking to claim credibility as a meaningful discussion of the problem of attrition in American Catholicism today. Or as an adequately Catholic discussion.
Imagine all of this, and you'll begin to imagine where we really are today, in American Catholicism's analysis of its serious problem of attrition.
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