The Papal Visit and the Questions the Church Refuses to Answer

In a major article in the new issue of Hot Press, the magazine has challenged Archbishop Diarmaid Martin to answer a set of questions about the Roman Catholic Church’s position on homosexual sex.

The challenge is made in advance of the so-called World Meeting of Families, which takes place in Croke Park, Dublin on August 26, and will be attended by Pope Francis as part of his itinerary, when he arrives in Ireland, for his upcoming visit.

There has been considerable controversy about the attitude of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Ireland to families which involve same sex couples, with gays being consciously omitted from literature about the World Meeting of Families. The Pope is coming under increasing pressure to clarify the Church's stance on homosexual sex.

“Given the extent of the historic persecution of gay people, which is ongoing in certain parts of the world, and can result in lengthy jail sentences, torture and execution, depending on the brutality of the regime, it is imperative for the Church to come clean with everyone in relation to its views on the issue,” Hot Press editor Niall Stokes says in an editorial in the magazine. “What homosexuals, male or female, do sexually is either sinful or it is not. It is either completely acceptable to the Catholic Church or it is not.”

The magazine also publishes the correspondence between it and the Archbishop's office. A courteous reply from the Dublin diocese’s Director of Communications Annette O’Donnell suggested strongly that any response to the questions is unlikely. “I will add your request to our list of requests,” she said, “but I should point out at this juncture, it is highly unlikely that the Archbishop will have time to facilitate everyone."
The questions asked of Archbishop Martin include the following:

• Can "practising homosexuals" be fully accepted members of the Roman Catholic Church completely free of the taint of being judged as committing a sin, every time they have sex with their same-sex partner or partners?

• You say same sex couples are welcome to come to the so called World Meeting of Families. Is this an unequivocal statement by you that same sex couples are fully equal to families involving heterosexual couples – and no less ‘right' in what they do sexually?

• Is there not an issue here of you, and the Church, in saying same sex families are ‘welcome’, trying to have it both ways?

• In the end, does it not come down to something very simple: either homosexual acts between consenting adults are a sin or they are not?

• Can you please explain what exactly it is that is wrong about one man making another have an orgasm?

• Or what exactly is wrong with one woman making another woman have an orgasm?

In all fifteen questions were asked of Archbishop Diarmaid Martin by Kevin Worrall, who recently wrote about his own experiences as a young gay man growing up in Ireland for the magazine. It is now Hot Press' intention to ask the same questions of the Pope.

“They need to provide the answers,” Niall Stokes said in conclusion of his editorial in the latest issue, referring to the Pope and Archbishop Diarmaid Martin alike. “Gay people are entitled to them."

You can read the full feature in the new Hot Press, which is out now: