Courage International

Not to be confused with Courage UK.
Courage International, Inc.
Founded 1980 (1980)
Founder Fr. John Harvey, OSFS
Type 501c3 Nonprofit
Headquarters

8 Leonard Street

Norwalk, CT 06850
Mission "In helping individuals gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the Church’s teachings, especially in the area of chastity, Courage extends the Church’s invitation to a life of peace and grace. In chaste living, one finds the peace and grace to grow in Christian maturity."
Website www.couragerc.org

Courage International, also known as Courage Apostolate, is an approved apostolate of the Catholic Church, which "ministers to those with homosexual or same-sex attractions".[1]

The group consists of laymen and laywomen usually under anonymous discretion, together with a priest, to encourage its members to abstain from acting on their sexual desires and to live chastely according to the Catholic Church's teachings on homosexuality. Courage also sponsors an outreach program, Encourage, which ministers to relatives and friends of gay people by providing help by "supporting one another and their loved ones through discussion, prayer and fellowship."[2] As a means of guiding homosexuals to a life of penance and chastity, the ministry uses the pastoral letters issued in 1986 by Joseph Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and later Pope Benedict XVI,[3] and those issued in 2006 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.[4]

The apostolate was endorsed the Pontifical Council for the Family in July 1994 through the statement of Alfonso Cardinal López Trujillo.[5][6] Its goals are primarily grounded on chastity, piety and the promotion of compassionate and charitable works.

History

New York Archbishop Terence Cardinal Cooke conceived the ministry in the early 1980s as a spiritual support system which would assist gay Catholics in adhering to the Church's teaching on sexuality and sexual behavior.

Cooke invited the moral theologian Fr. John F. Harvey, O.S.F.S. to come to New York to begin the work of Courage with Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R. The first meeting was held in September 1980 at the Shrine of Mother Seton in South Ferry.

Courage faced resistance from its establishment from conservative Catholics who did not believe any such organisation should be directing its attention fully towards supporting openly gay and lesbian Catholics. However, it helped that Courage maintained a number of endorsements from senior bishops officials within the Church.[7]

In 2003, it became a member of Positive Alternatives to Homosexuality.

Courage has developed a program based on the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.[8]

Organization

Courage has chapters in many U.S. cities and several foreign countries, and has official recognition from the Church, having the endorsement of the Roman Curia.[9]

In the United States, Courage International is commonly known as Courage. It is financially supported by the Archdiocese of New York and by donations. Individual chapters are self-supporting and exist with the permission of their diocesan Bishop. Courage was recommended as a support-group for gay Catholics in the 2006 document by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, "Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination: Guidelines for Pastoral Care".[10]

In 2005, Courage International formed a Spanish-speaking branch, based in Cuernavaca, Morelos called Courage Latino. It currently extends to seven countries: Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Argentina, Colombia, Spain, and Venezuela.

Courage describes its goals as "Chastity," "Prayer and Dedication," "Fellowship," "Support" and "Good Example",[11] and has a program based on the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.[12]

The current head of the US branch is Rev. Paul Check. He states the program does not support conversion therapy. He has at times been asked to comment on the group experiencing protests from those who object to its belief homosexual activity is sinful.[13][14]

Courage International and Ignatius Press organized a Pre-Synod conference, "Living the Truth in Love", which took place in Rome, on 2 October 2015, to address the pastoral needs of gay Catholics. The conference featured Cardinals George Pell and Robert Sarah, Jennifer Roback Morse, of Ruth Institute, among other speakers; it also heard the testimony of Catholic homosexuals who followed the Catholic Church doctrine on sexuality.[15]

Opposition from dissident Catholic LGBT groups

Courage has faced criticism over the years in its approach from Catholics who disagree with church teachings about same-sex marriage and argue that the organization promotes "mandatory celibacy for gays and lesbians”. It believes that physical and mental suffering can often by linked to moral corruption or vice: the homosexual condition is a "cross to bear".[16]

Hostility broke out between the groups working with these communities - Harvey set his organisation in opposition to DignityUSA and publicly criticised New Ways Ministry on a number of occasions. Both Dignity as well as New Ways Ministry have suggested that having a lesbian or gay identity is a blessing from God, and that Courage is therefore being "anti-pastoral" in its work, calling for a stronger attempt at reconciliation with gay Catholics, and recognition that stable homosexual relationships may be a good thing.[17]

The leaders of New Ways Ministry, Gramick and Nugent, refused to recommend Courage to Catholics that they worked with because they fundamentally disagreed with the approach of Courage; particularly because Harvey insisted that homosexuality was an illness or sickness. 119 The executive director of DignityUSA in 2014 said that "Courage is really problematic and very dangerous to people’s spiritual health. And we have been very concerned about it for a lot of years".[18]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Welcome to the Courage Community". Courage. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
  2. ↑ "Encourage". Courage. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
  3. ↑ http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html
  4. ↑ http://old.usccb.org/doctrine/Ministry.pdf
  5. ↑ http://www.ewtn.com/library/Issues/Courage.txt
  6. ↑ http://couragerc.net/Endorsement.html
  7. ↑ Williams, Howell, Homosexuality and the American Catholic Church: Reconfiguring the Silence, 1971–1999, Florida State University, 2007, p118
  8. ↑ http://www.couragerc.org/Twelve_Steps_of_Courage.html
  9. ↑ "Courage: Pastoral Care for Homosexual Persons". EWTN. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
  10. ↑ United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, "Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination: Guidelines for Pastoral Care", released at the November 2006 bishops' meeting. Courage and Encourage are mentioned on p. 22 n. 44.
  11. ↑ Catholic Philly.com
  12. ↑ National Catholic Reporter
  13. ↑ Detroit Free Press
  14. ↑ The Toronto Star
  15. ↑ Courage International to Hold Pre-Synod Conference in Rome, National Catholic Register, 14 September 2015
  16. ↑ Williams, Howell, Homosexuality and the American Catholic Church: Reconfiguring the Silence, 1971–1999, Florida State University, 2007, p118
  17. ↑ Williams, Howell, Homosexuality and the American Catholic Church: Reconfiguring the Silence, 1971–1999, Florida State University, 2007, p119
  18. ↑ http://archive.freep.com/article/20140306/NEWS06/303060114/Chaste-Gay-Catholic-Courage-Group-Archdiocese-of-Detroit

Further reading

External links

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