 So I'd like to ask our friends in the crow's nest up there to put up the goals of the Courage Apostlet for us to review so that we could see exactly what it is the church is asking in this very difficult and demanding ministerial field. I think there isn't as far as I can see in coming up on 20 years of priesthood an area where our confidence in the teaching of the church is challenged as much as it is here. And why is that? Because we want to have an open heart to everyone and we want to, as David said, convey a sense of hope to people that the desires that are in their heart can be fulfilled. Now the challenge for us is going to be distinguishing authentic desires, desires consistent with our human nature from those that we know we all have that can veer off course. So let me offer this one thought to you this morning to begin. And that is that the search for understanding in this very difficult and demanding question of pastoral ministry, the search for understanding here is not a search for blame. It is not a search for an accusation. This is something especially important when we think about our conversations with parents because they can be sensitive on the topic of where or how did this come about in my child. But it's not just limited to parents. So as we proceed this morning and certainly we are just beginning a reflection on the topic of homosexuality, I ask you to keep that in mind. A distinction between trying to understand something that is complex, painful, personal, emotional and blaming or accusing someone of having done something. The gospel is I think in one sense divided into two parts. The first part is our Lord's generosity in understanding the tangle of the human heart. I love the line from Jeremiah, what is more tortured than the human heart. Who can understand it? It's not the last word, but it's a good word. And his earnest plea for us to avoid self-harm, which is what sin is, self-inflicted wound. So that describes maybe half of the gospel. The other half of the gospel would be if we've stepped over the line, which we all do, there's a way home. There's a way back. This is the preaching of course of the mercy and the generosity of God. One of my favorite votive masses is the one that's second in the list of the votive masses in the back of the missile, the votive mass for the mercy of God. So on the one hand is the warning, please don't do these things. They will hurt you. They will hurt others and they offend God. But if you step across the line, there's a way back. So our preaching embraces both of those things, doesn't it, as we try to talk with people. Now on this topic, we have the story of Genesis and we have an understanding that comes to us just through natural reason. So if someone says, I believe God made me this way or God makes people to be gay, let's use that word here, then we have a problem we have to resolve because if that's true that God makes people gay, then either the Genesis story and what we know by natural reason does not apply anymore or does not apply universally and therefore would have to be changed or God deliberately sets up a certain demographic, a certain part of the community, up to fail and neither one of those things seems to me to reflect the goodness and the generosity of God. Now someone could say, but Father there's another way and that is that the church is wrong on this topic and we have to address that as well and that is part of where our confidence is being tested. But here we're not in the realm of divine revelation, even though divine revelation confirms what I think nature demonstrates to us and in the realm of divine revelation, in order for there to be revelation as you know, there has to be an authority that assures us who are not the immediate recipients of that revelation because it's been handed on to us through the tradition, through the apostolic preaching and apostolic tradition. With divine revelation there has to be a kind of authority that tells us that Jesus is Lord, the karygma. But when it comes to human nature, the situation is different and we can distinguish it. What the church teaches about human intimacy and love and sexuality is not true because the church teaches it's true, it's true and therefore the church teaches it. Now certainly within divine revelation there are things about human intimacy and love that are raised up to another state. One of the priests made the point yesterday about the relationship between grace and nature and Thomas tells us, St. Thomas says that grace perfects nature or elevates nature. So in the case of human marriage this becomes holy matrimony because it becomes a sacrament. But the foundation of that is already in our nature and that is taught to us by the church because she is recognizing already the truth that in a way precedes her. It is already there. So that's a distinction that I would want to offer to you as we think about how do we resolve this question in our minds about why people are erotically attracted to a member of the same sex. Is it true that God has made them like that? I think that's an assertion that's often made for which there is an evidence or for which I would say what is the authority for that statement. But this is something brothers that we have to wrestle down to the ground. So the first goal of courage here is a challenge to you and me immediately. Is chastity part of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ? And is it possible to live in all states of life? We believe that justice, mercy, grace, peace, and eternal salvation are all part of the good news. But is chastity part of the good news? Or is this something that we have to accept with a kind of reservation or strain? Now I know that it's a difficult teaching and it's not a popular teaching and it's one that is very hard to live and it requires a great deal of grace. But the question is first, is it part of the good news? Is that something that we're thinking about? I think in this culture today we have a plague, many, but one is a plague of loneliness. So let's ask the millennials this. Let's ask them if they know something about loneliness. My experience with them, anecdotal I admit, is that yes they do know something about loneliness. That the encounters that they have had have not fulfilled their hearts in the way that they had hoped. And I think that in addition to this plague of loneliness, we have in human history now unparalleled human intimacy in the sense of sexual intimacy. We have more sexual congress today than I think we've ever had because of the efficacy of chemical contraception, the widespread use of sterilization to occlude among people who go to mass at the places where you and I serve at the altar. And because of the fallback to failed or not used contraception, which is abortion, in another time people would have reservations about entering into this realm because they didn't want the unwanted consequence of a sexual encounter, which could be a pregnancy. But a lot of that has been removed. So my question is, is there a relationship between those two things? We have more physical intimacy, I think, because of contraception, sterilization and abortion, but we also have this plague of loneliness. So that raises the question for us. Sexual fulfillment and the fulfillment of the human heart, how are they related? They are, surely. But is there an equal sign between the two? That there is only fulfillment of the heart when there is sexual fulfillment. We know differently because the grace that's given to us in our vocation teaches us about fulfillment. Now I want to offer a distinction that came up or that certainly came up in my mind yesterday during some of the conversation and I would make a distinction between the grace that comes to us in a vocation to live celibacy, a grace that we have responded to and those who through no fault of their own may find themselves having to live the celibate life. Those are two different things and I would never say to someone, well I'm able to live celibacy therefore you can live celibacy. That wouldn't be fair because this vocation comes with the grace and it is something that's chosen, that's part of the love story between a priest's heart or religious's heart and the Lord. But for someone who doesn't have the grace of that vocation and they're living the celibate life, struggling to live this chastity, cooperating with grace which they still have, it's not an equivalent circumstance. I think we all see that and just as a matter of pastoral practice and charity I wouldn't want the two things to seem as though they are the same. Now I'd also like to suggest this. Are there any medical professionals in the room? Maybe there's a deacon who's a doctor here. So what's the first principle deacon of the medical profession? Do no harm. Thank you. I think that's also a principle that applies to us in ministry. That we do not want to harm people in any way in the words that we say, in the preaching that we do, St. Paul says don't let our ministry give offense. We want to be very thoughtful and careful about what we encourage, about what we say because we don't want to cause harm to anyone. Certainly physical, corporeal, bodily harm, harm to their emotions, harm to their heart, harm to their understanding of the truth, of who Christ is, who the bride of Christ is the church, and of course harm to their souls and to their salvation. So that's why here the diligence that you men are investing in this topic now is so indispensable. And I encourage you to continue it and I commend you for undertaking it because there is a lot of harm in this life, the homosexual life. If we had a psychologist here to do a presentation on the empirical data, then this would become very plain to you. In lieu of that, I would say go to the Center for Disease Control website, CDC, and look and see there the questions with regard to HIV and syphilis. These two things are plagues still. We don't hear about them as much as we might have at another time, but they are still plagues and they disproportionately affect one demographic within the population, men having sex with men, and both of them are very dangerous sexually transmitted diseases. So these are things that we want to be aware of, that we wouldn't even inadvertently want to encourage something that could lead someone down a path that could cause them to lose as much as 40% of their longevity. That's a long time. That's a lot of years. So we're examining these things and we're thinking about them. By the way, you may know that 50 years ago, I think it's about 50 years ago, there were only two sexually transmitted diseases that were considered epidemic by CDC, syphilis and gonorrhea. Today they're about 25 and they disproportionately affect two groups, men having sex with men and women. Women often are not even aware of some of the sexually transmitted diseases that they can contract until they are trying to have children and the search goes to the question of why there is infertility. So the chastity that's taught to us by the church is something that's also related to physical well-being, in addition to everything else. And I think as our preaching is consistent and coherent on this topic, then it will at least have an appeal if it's rejected. Nevertheless, it will still have an appeal because it won't sound like we're singling out a particular group. No. The chastity that is possible and certainly with the grace of God, even if it's a challenge to live, has great benefit to it, whether it is longevity, whether it is good health, whether it is peace of mind, and of course the benefits to the soul. So this is the first goal of the Courage Apostlet. And if we took out the last word and just said to leave Chaste Lives in accordance with the Roman Catholic Church's teaching period, then it would be very clear that what we're talking about is simply that which is held up to us, both in nature and in grace, as part of our authentic identity. Could I have a goal number two, please? Self-giving, the development of the interior life and the sacramental life. I mentioned yesterday that in the Magisterium of St. John Paul II, I believe the most quoted line, Gaudium at Spes 22, Christ the New Adam fully reveals man to himself in his most eye-calling, because our first parents tried to deny their identity. God, you are not our father, we are not your children, we're going this way. That's one way perhaps to understand original sin. What Christ comes to do is to restore our authentic sense of identity and how the heart is fulfilled. So we went through the virtues to love God, to love nature, to love neighbor to find fulfillment. Two paragraphs later in Gaudium at Spes, number 24, it shows us something that we know, which is that the fulfillment of the heart comes through self-giving, that man realizes himself, finds himself in the sincere gift of self, another widely quoted line in the Magisterium since Second Vatican Council. So service to others is something that is healing, and one of the things that we encourage within our apostolate, because it's not just about prayer or working the 12 steps or sitting together or these valuable means, it's finding ways to give self. We know we're at our best when we're not thinking about ourselves and when we give ourselves. Number three, please, fellowship. Courage meetings are safe, peaceful places where people can do what you heard David do yesterday, disclose their struggles, their triumphs, their joys, their failures, their disappointments, their doubts, their fears, all within a peaceful setting. And so many of our groups do use the 12 steps as a way to kind of frame some of this conversation. The 12 steps are not in any way intended to be a substitute for the gospel. The five goals are the charism of courage, not the 12 steps. The 12 steps do, I think, have some benefit in the sense that they help to develop a kind of self-knowledge that leads to practical steps forward. But are they exclusive of the gospel or of prayer or the spirituality that is understood by us as ministers of the gospel? Of course not. But are they a useful frame? They can be. Some of you are probably one else for a show of hands but involved in AA in some way and AA using these over the years has been an assistance to people. When courage first began, many of the members, and this has been true up until more recent times, were men who were living in a certain way and wanted to step out of that addictive and self-destructive behavior. It doesn't mean that everyone who has same-sex attraction from our point of view is a sex addict. We're not making that claim at all. But we are from experience saying that it can be something very helpful to stepping away from addictive and self-destructive behavior. So this is the third goal which addresses itself to fellowship within the group. Number four, please. Stepping then next out of the group is the encouragement to form friendships. Loneliness is a big problem. Some of it is attributable, I think, to sexual promiscuity across the board. But in this particular demographic, isolation is an even worse problem than loneliness. And so there's no question that we're created in the image and likeness of the triune God. Therefore, relationships with other people are essential for human fulfillment. They don't have to be genital relationships, but they need to be relationships that fulfill the heart. So to form those good, healthy friendships. And number five, again another example of something that is embedded deeply in the gospel. Two other points quickly, and then I want to show a clip from our documentary, our award-winning documentary, as I said yesterday. John 8, the woman caught in adultery. Did any of you ever know the great moral theologian, Monsignor William Smith from Dunwoody, New York? A couple. Okay. He was, to my mind, is a moralist, the dean of American moral theologians for many years. And I heard him give a talk once and he said, John 8, the woman caught in unchastity in adultery is the gospel in miniature. And I like that very much. This is what he meant. Neither do I condemn you is the call to compassion, which is the preaching of the Lord. I understand your human weakness and I am not condemning you for that human weakness to which obviously we and all are prone. That is, let's say, half of the heart of Christ. Then go and do not commit this sin anymore is the other part of the gospel because that's the call to conversion. So that's why Monsignor Smith called it the gospel in miniature. An understanding in human compassion of human weakness and our propensity to sin and self-destructive behavior, but this wonderful, strong, clear, hopeful call to a change of life. Now I think that's a good way to describe the gospel and it doesn't make any sense unless there is some kind of a frame within us morally from which we tend to step away and to which we can return. Conversion of heart means that we are returning to the truth or we are turning more fully to the truth. And therefore the truth has to be something that exists. We can't be called to conversion and we can't call people to conversion except that that is already there and something that can be recognized. That will be true with all of the virtues, prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance, and of course the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity. Chastity is a virtue that typically falls under temperance, but when St. Thomas teaches it he also lets us know that it attends to the virtue of justice. That we render someone else their due according to our relationship with them and stayed in life. So John chapter 8, the call to compassion and the call to conversion and then its relationship to this frame within us morally speaking, spiritually speaking after baptism. And then John chapter 4, The Woman at the Well, another episode in which Chastity figures as part of the story. But the reason I bring up John chapter 4 here is in relationship to the good question that you would ask, many have asked, how do I talk to help and so on? I think John 4 gives us that pastoral plan because what we see there is an unfolding of a relationship in which trust is established. As our Lord moves from common ground, a mutual human need, which gives rise to the conversation, another step, talking about something that both are interested in, divine things. And then his instruction on how the divine life is accessed or received through grace, through the living water. And then he finally gets to the moral question to help her see that the way she's living is actually in contradiction to all of the previous steps. So he doesn't begin with the moral question, but he doesn't avoid it either. Something unfolds over a period of time in which she later goes out and says, this man took an interest in me. He was interested in my story. He knew my heart. He helped me to understand myself better, and she becomes a disciple. I know I'm putting some words on her mouth, on her lips, and that are not in John 4 per se, but it's a little bit of a gloss. As a pastoral guide, I think it's superb.