From Talking “About” to Talking “With”: Encountering the Queer Catholic Community in Germany

Today’s post is from guest contributor John Crowley-Buck (he/him). John is a Catholic theologian and ethicist. He has taught at Georgetown University, Loyola University Chicago, and Lewis University, and is co-editor of Democracy, Culture, Catholicism: Voices from Four Continents (Fordham University Press, 2015). He holds a Ph.D. in Christian Ethics from Loyola University Chicago, an M.A. in Theological Ethics from Boston College, and a B.A. in Theology and English, also from Boston College.

“The best part of our Catholic tradition has always paid attention to human experience and the multiplicity of ways that God reveals God’s self, often to our surprise.” So claims Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv., in his forward to Queerness in the Catholic Church: Wanted, Loved, Blessed (Paulist Press, 2024).

But how, then, do we discern the resonance of God’s voice within human experience? Drawing on his work for the Synod on Synodality, Bishop Stowe invites us to listen – carefully, closely, and humbly – to the voices claiming their space in the pages of this collection. It is through the hard work of careful, considerate listening that we can begin to hear the voice of God in human experience.

Queerness in the Catholic Church is a collection of first-person reflections from members of the German Catholic community. Edited by Fr. Wolfgang Rothe, this collection takes an uncensored dive into the experiences of German Catholics who identify as members of, or as allies to, the LGBTQ+/Queer community. These two identities – Catholic and LGBTQ+/Queer – frame the tensions that move throughout the text, as the authors wrestle with bringing together these sometimes collaborative, sometimes combative identities in their own persons, families, communities, and church.

The encounter between Catholicism and queerness is not always a positive, affirming one, and for many in this collection that reality rings true. The Church has, for some of the contributors, been a source of pain and sadness, of rejection and manipulation. Not all the contributors to this volume have remained members of the Catholic Church as a result of the clash between doctrine and their experience of queer identity. For almost all contributors, however, separation from the Church has not meant a separation from relationship with God–or, at least, the sincere hope for such a relationship. While these pages illustrate how the Catechism and the Code of Canon Law have at times been wielded as instruments of spiritual and psychological pain and violence, a strong sense of hope remains for a future where these texts, and the institution they buttress, will be seen as opportunities for relationship, rather than devices of division.

The majority of narratives presented in this collection speak to the goodness and the beauty that is possible in the encounter between Catholicism and queerness. From families embracing the queerness of their members, to parishes celebrating the diversity of their communities, to priests confirming the inherent goodness and dignity of queer individuals and relationships, this collection is replete with narratives of experience that not only warm the heart, but offer support for those searching to build and sustain such life-giving and loving families, parishes, and religious communities.

While much of the global conversation around the Catholic Church and the LGBTQ+/Queer community in recent years has focused on the “do’s” and “don’t’s,” on the “immutable” truths, and on the “facts” of human sexuality, Queerness in the Catholic Church offers thoughtful and constructive insights into how the act of listening attentively, authentically, and lovingly can not only jumpstart stymied conversations, but also open up new avenues of dialogue and encounter.

The collection’s editor, Fr. Wolfgang Rothe, insists that “it is time to make queer people visible in the Church and for the Church to give them a voice, to let them speak.” This, of course, is the primary task of the text: to let the queer members of the Catholic community speak their truth, as well as to provide a space for the Church, in turn, to listen to its community. “Things can change,” says Fr. Rothe, “only if we no longer simply talk about those concerned but finally also talk with them.” This collection is an effort toward making that hope a reality.

Queerness in the Catholic Church is a thoughtful text for anyone interested in engaging in the difficult work of listening–and the perhaps equally challenging work of conversation. It offers starting points and pathways for opening dialogue with family, friends, parish communities, and religious communities around what it means to construct loving, welcoming, and sacred spaces for all members of the Catholic Church. It also provides pointed warnings about what can happen when we do not listen, when we are not loving, and when we deploy our sacred spaces as bulwarks against a feared and maligned “other.”

For so many of the contributors to this volume and, for so many in the Queer Catholic community more broadly, we stand at a point in time from which we cannot go back. To do so would be to abandon the work of the Spirit, and to abandon those whom the Spirit enlivens. Queerness in the Catholic Church is an invitation to engage, an opportunity to listen, and an example of how we can work toward building a community marked by desire, love, and blessedness.

–John Crowley-Buck (he/him), March 6, 2024