Nov 19, 2004  |  By: ADRIAN BRUNE  | COMMENTS     

It was just minutes before the start of the plenary mass for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and devout Catholics Kara Speltz and Mike Perez were running late.

With the clock ticking and the 200 or so bishops lining up for the procession, they finally abandoned their spots on the picket line outside to take their carefully selected seats in the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, just as they have for the past four years.

Perez wore a rainbow sash, something the bishops have found offensive in the past, and Speltz wore a rainbow cross, both symbols in full view.

An hour into the lengthy ritual, the gay activists rose for communion. As he has for the past two years, Monsignor Walter R. Rossi, hesitated when he saw them. He offered Perez only a blessing, and in a show of solidarity, Speltz refused the host.

It was an about-face from two years ago when Rossi mistakenly denied Speltz, too, and she protested vociferously, leading to her arrest after which she was jailed for 30 hours. The incident received national attention.

But Speltz’s resolve to see her church change has not weakened.

“Our goal is to help these bishops have the courage to tell the truth they know in their hearts,” Speltz said.

Each November, bishops from all over the country come to Washington to discuss the church’s pastoral needs, followed by dozens of gay protesters who stage long vigils outside of the Hyatt Regency hotel where they congregate.

But the perennial showdown takes place at the Shrine, before what Catholics say symbolizes the body of Christ. The church says it won’t tolerate a group of people using the sacrament as a protest tool. The gay Catholics contend they’re not; they’re just asserting the fact that they exist.

“The protesting is taking place outside,” said Brian McNeill, the head of the Rainbow Sash Alliance, the group that has raised the ire of Catholic leaders. “We’re just wearing who we are.”

The communion controversy represents myriad issues gay Catholics have with their church these days, but mostly they want an end to “spiritual violence,” a term they use to describe adverse teachings from the pulpit. Though many believe their visibility has resulted in some recognition and therefore, progress, with more and more stringent language coming from the Vatican, bishops still remain reluctant to engage them — at least publicly.

Many bishops have come to accept the gay protesters and passively take their brochures. However, after four days of long vigils and run-ins with angry Catholics, there’s little visible support for the gay cause within this very hierarchical religion.

“I haven’t given their literature deep reflection yet,” said New Orleans Auxiliary Bishop, Roger Morin, after picking up a Soulforce “Stories of Courage” pamphlet, “but I have no feelings of animosity toward them.”

The protesting began early Sunday, as bishops arrived at the Hyatt Regency near Capitol Hill. Dignity USA, the most familiar of the gay Catholic groups, had scheduled a lay liturgy — most bishops have orders not to preside at any of their meetings — but the group didn’t show.

“We didn’t have the numbers to do anything,” said Matthew Gallagher, Dignity’s executive director. “From talking to our members, I sense real discouragement.”

Later that afternoon, about 50 members of Soulforce, an interfaith movement, and Rainbow Sash arrived for their vigil. They received significant media coverage, but little clerical attention.

However, on Monday as the bishops were electing USCCB’s new president, Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash., a bishop who plans to declare his diocese in bankruptcy due to sexual abuse claims, the protesters were demonstrating in full force.

Again, Soulforce stood in solidarity, while SNAP, the Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, expressed grave concern.

“We see with the elevation of Skylstad that the problem is not being fixed in the church,” said David Clohessy, SNAP’s national director. “Bankruptcy obscures the truth and delays healing; it sets up another arbitrary and unjust deadline by which victims must immediately come forward or be left out in the cold again.”

Disappointed and defeated — SNAP had put forward a list of candidates, but was also rebuffed — the group departed later that afternoon, leaving the more optimistic contingency of Soulforce alone ...