Cardinal Mahony

As the cardinal’s official liaison with the gay community and as coordinator of AIDS ministry in this archdiocese, I believe that your reporting of the cardinal’s relationship to the gay community and his outstanding leadership in the present AIDS pandemic is unfair.

As chief shepherd of the largest archdiocese in this country, no one can doubt the cardinal’s uncompromising fidelity to church doctrine. He is clearly its defender and teacher. What is less known and appreciated is the cardinal’s pastoral sensitivity and concern for all the members of his flock including gay Catholics and persons living with HIV-AIDS. You single out the cardinal’s relationship with a group of gay Catholics who publicly take issue with the church’s teaching on human sexuality. You fail to mention the Pastoral Ministry to the Lesbian and Gay Community (an official gay ministry since 1986) and Comunidads, which are small communities of gay Catholics who are welcomed and integrated into regular parish life.

In our Catholic faith every member of our church--the single, the engaged, the married, the divorced, widowed, teen-ager, straight or gay--is called to live out human sexuality guided by the virtue of chastity according to one’s state in life and the gift of God’s grace. The cardinal has never asked gay Catholics for anything he doesn’t expect of every Catholic.

I have yet to hear or see him “rebuke those gays and lesbians who are not celibate.”

With regard to AIDS, the church offers more than caution against the use of condoms, which remain a serious risk to health, and the unrepeatable gift of human life. In the U.S. bishops’ pastoral letter, “Called to Compassion and Responsibility,” our bishops have challenged all the members of the Catholic Church to respond to the present health crisis in radical ways that offer all people of goodwill a fresh alternative to this crisis in the context of values and concerns too easily overlooked. Cardinal Mahony was one of the principal initiators and forces behind this document. This pastoral letter paints a more accurate picture of where the energy of the Catholic Church is being directed.

My words are not meant to whitewash the Catholic Church. We have yet to make our mark on the AIDS crisis and our relationship to the gay community leaves much to be desired. I only ask that you not gloss over the church’s struggle to respond to both issues as the church speaks the truth in love.

PETER J. LIUZZI, O.CARM.

Director, Pastoral Ministry to

the Lesbian and Gay Community

Archdiocese of Los Angeles