Springs diocese starts 12-step program for gays
The Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs is borrowing a page from Alcoholics Anonymous by launching a 12-step program that offers pastoral care and support for homosexuals.
“It’s not about therapy and not about activism,” said the Rev. Larry Brennan, diocese director of priest formation. “It’s about support.”
The Catholic Church views homosexual relations as a sin, but not homosexual thoughts. It expects those with same-sex attraction to be celibate.
“The exercise of sexuality is reserved for marriage, and that can only happen between a man and a woman,” Brennan said.
Jim Fitzgerald, executive director of Call to Action, a national progressive Catholic group headquartered in Chicago, is skeptical of Twelve Steps of Courage because he contends homosexuality isn’t sinful.
“It restricts people’s freedom to be the kind of person they were created to be,” Fitzgerald said of Courage.
But Brennan says the program is not for people comfortable with their gay lifestyle. “The people we want to reach are those who experience this as a burden,” he said.
Over the years, many organizations have appropriated AA’s 12 steps to reach out to people with addictive behavior, such as shopaholics and workaholics.
The Catholic Church’s Twelve Steps of Courage is another version of AA’s steps. Participants admit they are powerless in overcoming same-sex attraction, ask God for help, and make amends to those they’ve hurt, among other steps.
Though new to the Springs diocese, the Twelve Steps of Courage has been part of the Catholic Church since 1980, when the late Rev. John Harvey founded Courage International.
The program has 110 chapters worldwide, including one in Denver, according to its website.
The website offers a few testimonials of success but no statistics or studies regarding the program’s effectiveness.
Courage International officials weren’t available Tuesday to comment on its effectiveness.
The idea to bring a Courage chapter to Colorado Springs was hatched last October by diocese bishop Michael Sheridan, Brennan said.
Besides Brennan, Sheridan asked the Rev. Mark Zacker of Corpus Christi Parish to be a 12-step facilitator.
The first step toward participation is a one-on-one pastoral counseling session. That’s followed by possible membership in the program, which are weekly confidential meetings run by members, who can be Catholic or non-Catholic.
Brennan and Zacker agreed to be facilitators because over the years, through pastoral counseling, they discovered that a large number of people struggle with same-sex attraction.
“This is a population that is underserved,” Brennan said. “They are not comfortable with the gay agenda and not comfortable with family oriented (events).”
A 12-step program for lesbians may also be created if there is demand for it, Brennan said.
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For more on Courage, go to Barna’s blog at www.thepulpit.freedomblogging.com.
Twelve Steps of Courage
More info: call the Rev. Larry Brennan at St. Peter Church, 481-3511; or the Rev. Mark Zacker at Corpus Christi Church, 633-1457; or go to http://www.couragerc.net
