Pope Benedict XVI
may not see them or hear them, but aggrieved Roman
Catholic activists hope his U.S. visit this week will help
them draw attention to issues ranging from the
ordination of women and gay rights to sex abuse by
priests and the Vatican ban on contraception.
The groups have
planned vigils, demonstrations and news conferences to
press their causes as the pope visits Washington and New
York. On Monday evening, the eve of his arrival,
supporters of women's ordination will host what they
are calling ''an inclusive Mass'' at a Methodist church in
Washington, presided over by Catholic women -- including two
who were recently excommunicated.
''We cannot
welcome this pope until he begins to do away with the
church's continuing violence of sexism,'' said Sister Donna
Quinn, coordinator of the National Coalition of
American Nuns.
Participants in
the service will include Rose Marie Hudson and Elsie
McGrath, who were excommunicated last month by Archbishop
Raymond Burke of St. Louis because they were ordained
as part of a women-priest movement condemned by the
Vatican.
''In the face of
one closed door after another, Catholic women have been
innovative, courageous, and faithful to the church,'' said
Aisha Taylor, executive director of the Women's
Ordination Conference. ''They continue to make a way
where there is none.''
Gay Catholic
activists, who plan to demonstrate Tuesday along the papal
motorcade route in Washington, have compiled a list of
statements by Benedict during his career which they
consider hostile to gays and lesbians. These include
forceful denunciations of gay marriage and of adoption
rights for same-sex couples.
''He has issued
some of the most hurtful and extreme rhetoric against our
community of any religious leader in history, and we want to
call him into account for the damage that he's done,''
said Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of
DignityUSA.
Duddy-Burke said
she hopes the protests will be coupled with celebration
of the gains made by gay Catholics in America in recent
years. She cited the growing number of parishes
welcoming openly gay members and the dozens of
Catholic colleges that now have gay-straight alliances.
Another gay
Catholic group, New Ways Ministry, hosted a news conference
at which speakers conveyed what they would tell the pope if
they had the opportunity. The speakers included
Gregory Maguire, author of the best-selling novel
Wicked, who along with husband Andrew Newman is
raising three adopted children as Catholics in
Massachusetts, the only state to allow same-sex
marriages.
''We invite you
to spend a day, a meal, a weekend with us,'' Maguire said
in his message to the pope. ''We don't want to serve as a
poster-family for gay Catholics. ... We will just be
ourselves, in all our confusion, aspiration, need, and
joy.''
Another divisive
issue being raised this week is the Vatican's ban on
contraception. Gay rights groups and others say the ban
undermines programs promoting condom use to curb the
spread of HIV/AIDS.
In a conference
call Monday organized by Catholics for Choice, four
Catholic theologians will be examining the impact of the
1968 encyclical ''Humanae Vitae,'' which defined the
Vatican's opposition to artificial birth control.
''Catholics
wonder why there's this huge disparity between what the
hierarchy says we should do in regard to contraception and
what Catholics on the ground actually do,'' said
Catholics for Choice president Jon O'Brien.
He termed the ban
''a great tragedy ... a policy that lacks compassion
and understanding.''
Asked about the
prospects that Benedict might reconsider the ban, O'Brien
replied, ''I do believe in miracles.''
For many American
Catholics, the most distressing church-related issue of
recent years has been clerical sex abuse. Thousands of
molestation allegations have been filed against
Catholic clergy, and dioceses have paid out more than
$2 billion in claims since 1950.
David Clohessy,
national director of the Survivors Network of those
Abused by Priests, said his advocacy group would not be
mollified even if the pope meets privately with abuse
victims.
''Extraordinarily
few Catholics and victims will be moved in any way by
gestures, words, tokens,'' Clohessy said. ''It's as plain as
day that three years into his papacy, Benedict has
done literally nothing to protect the vulnerable or
heal the wounded.''
Clohessy said his
group will make use of the papal visit to press for
tough disciplinary action against bishops who covered up
abuses by their priests and to urge preemptive steps
by the Vatican against abuse by priests in other
nations.
Clohessy
expressed disappointment that the pope was not visiting
Boston, where the scandal burst into the national
spotlight in 2002.
''Showing a
willingness to visit the epicenter of the crisis -- that
would have been one gesture that might have been
effective,'' Clohessy said.
Voice of the
Faithful, a Boston-based reform group which emerged from the
scandal, placed a full-page ad last week in The New York
Times, costing more than $50,000, to air its call
for a transformation of the church.
The ad urged
Benedict to meet with abuse victims, oust bishops who
covered up abuse, and promote a greater role for lay
Catholics in running their parishes.
The extent to
which the pope addresses the varied grievances during his
trip remains unknown. But the Vatican's envoy to the United
States, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, said any dissent that
might arise was regrettable.
''Even in the
Catholic Church, nobody has the right to instrumentalize
the visit of the pope to serve their personal interests,''
Sambi told the National CatholicReporter. ''The problem is that there are too
many people here who would like to be the pope ... and who
attribute to themselves a strong sense of their own
infallibility.'' (David Crary, AP)