Four Bishops Join Group Asking Pope to Condemn Gay-Bashing : Catholicism: More than 8,000 have signed open letter to John Paul II, who will visit Denver next week.

Four Roman Catholic bishops, including a retired auxiliary bishop from the Los Angeles area, are among some 8,000 individuals and organizations who have signed an open letter to Pope John Paul II urging him to condemn discrimination against lesbian and gay people during his visit to Denver next week.

The letter is scheduled to be published Aug. 11 as a paid advertisement in the Denver Post, the day before the Pope arrives for a four-day stay. About 168,000 young people from 70 countries are expected in Denver for several days of teaching, religious services and papal events during World Youth Day, the first international gathering of young Catholics with the Pope to be held in the United States.

Greg Link, director of New Ways Ministry of Mount Rainier, Md., said the letter has 8,490 signers, including many priests and nuns. The four bishops who signed the letter are Juan Arzube, 75, an auxiliary bishop who headed the San Gabriel pastoral region until his resignation earlier this year; Charles Buswell of Pueblo, Colo.; John Fitzpatrick of Brownsville, Texas, and Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit. All except Gumbleton are retired.

New Ways Ministry advocates lesbian and gay rights within the Catholic Church. The church traditionally has condemned gay or lesbian sexual activity, and in recent years, church leaders in Rome have broadened their opposition, taking strong stands against homosexuals filling roles such as teachers or coaches. One recent document advised bishops that discrimination against gays may be appropriate in some circumstances.

Documents in recent years from the Vatican’s office on doctrine have described homosexual orientation as “objectively disordered,” a phrase connoting a condition that inherently tends toward evil.

Link said the open letter was hand-delivered to the Vatican representative to the United States, Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan, in mid-July. Cacciavillan’s office later confirmed that the letter had been forwarded by diplomatic pouch to the Pope in Rome, Link said.

In the letter, the Pope is asked “to be mindful that some of the young people you address will be gay or lesbian.”

“Because of societal pressures, many of them are denying or hiding their sexual orientation from parents and friends,” the letter says, “resulting in division and alienation in family life or even suicidal feelings. We ask you to speak words of encouragement and healing to these young people.

“We ask you to condemn bigotry and discrimination against gay and lesbian persons as contrary to the spirit of Jesus and the Gospel. Catholics have often heard about the wrongness of homosexual acts, but much more needs to be said by church leaders about the dignity of gay and lesbian persons and the need to rid ourselves of prejudice against them.”

The letter mentions that Colorado voters passed an amendment last year prohibiting the passage of anti-discrimination laws for gays and lesbians.

“In your remarks to the young adults in Denver,” the letter concludes, “we ask you to speak out for the human and civil rights of lesbian and gay persons who are part of the oppressed peoples of our land.”