Catholics Name Gay, Lesbian to Advisory Board : Religion: Appointments by the L.A. archdiocese are part of the church’s outreach to homosexuals. But its stance against sexual activity by unmarried people is unchanged, a spokesman says.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles said Tuesday that a new advisory board that includes a gay man and a lesbian has been appointed to assist the church’s outreach to homosexuals.

But the archdiocese, which in 1989 prohibited its priests from celebrating Mass for a group of gay and lesbian Catholics known as Dignity, made it clear it is not backing down from traditional church teaching.

“The church’s teaching is non-negotiable, so (in that sense) there’s nothing for anybody to be advised about,” Father Gregory Coiro, the archdiocesan spokesman, said.

The church holds that although homosexual orientation is not sinful in itself, all sexual activity by unmarried people, or by married people using artificial birth control, is morally wrong.

Coiro and Father Peter J. Liuzzi, director of the archdiocese’s Pastoral Ministry to the Lesbian and Gay Community, said the idea is to make gays and lesbians feel welcome and provide an environment where they may eventually “choose the good.”

Liuzzi said he hopes the advisory board can assist in suggesting how best to present the church’s teaching without alienating gays and lesbians. His outreach is intended to show them “hospitality,” which he said includes acceptance, understanding and Christian love.

But he said the ultimate aim is to help gays and lesbians remain celibate. “This is a delicate ministry because it involves moral issues,” Liuzzi said.

Asked how the church responds to gays and lesbians who are unable or unwilling to remain celibate, Liuzzi replied: “I think you have to do what Jesus did. He continued to show hospitality . . . and created an environment in which the person could continue and struggle and move in the direction of being totally faithful to our call.”

The announcement was greeted with guarded approval Tuesday by Lee Werbel, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation/Los Angeles.

“Any effort to allow people to practice their spirituality is definitely welcome,” she said. But she considered it a first step. “It’s really hard to grow up practicing a religion that actually says you’re excluded. . . . That would cause a lot of pain. That’s why my hope is this would be a very initial, baby first step in the process of actual acceptance, and eventually the teaching would change.”

In 1989, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony joined the bishops of four other Southern California dioceses in ordering all priests to cease celebrating Mass for Dignity, a national organization of gay and lesbian Catholics. The bishops imposed the sanctions after Dignity two years earlier repudiated the church’s “clear and constant moral teaching” on homosexuality.

Members of the new advisory board are Rafael Vega and Marilyn Pires, representing gay and lesbian Catholics; Jeff and Peggy Stabile, representing parents of gay children; Jerome Porath, superintendent of Catholic schools; Msgr. Gabino Zavala, rector of St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo; Joan Vienna, director of family life for the archdiocese; Father Jeremiah McCarthy, author and professor of moral theology at St. John’s Seminary, and Father Gerald Coleman, a writer and lecturer on homosexuality and rector of St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park.