Courage/Encourage

Courage and Encourage are respectively two spiritual support groups helping Catholic men and women — and their families — to live in accordance with Catholic Church's pastoral teaching on homosexuality.
The goals and purposes of Courage as follows:

1. To live chaste lives in accordance with the Roman Catholic Church's teaching on homosexuality.
2. To dedicate our entire lives to Christ through service to others, spiritual reading, prayer, meditation, individual spiritual direction, frequent attendance at Mass, and the frequent reception of the sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist.
3. To foster a spirit of fellowship in which we may share with one another our thoughts and experiences and so ensure that none of us have to face the problems of homosexuality alone.
4. To be mindful of the truth that chaste friendships are not only possible but necessary in celibate Christian life — to encourage one another in forming and sustaining them.
5. To live lives that may serve as good examples to others with homosexual difficulties.

In addition to individual counseling, these support groups very often conduct their sessions with the assistance of the 12 Step format developed by Alcoholics Anonymous. Appropriate individuals are referred to Catholic therapists.

Encourage is the affiliate support group for friends and relatives of men and women with homosexual feelings. This support group works and prays to develop a Catholic outreach to men and women who struggle with these feelings. Contact can be made through anyone of the chapters of Courage, or by calling the central office in New York City. Each year, usually during the summer months, Courage holds a national Conference where hundreds of men and women gather to pray, to study, and to support each other. Individual Chapters of Courage will also sponsor Days Of Recollection at different times of the year to assist the members of our support groups.

Catholic Teaching

"The human person, made in the image and likeness of God, can hardly be adequately described by a reductionist reference to his or her sexual orientation. Every one living on the face of the earth has personal problems and difficulties — but challenges to growth, strengths, talents and gifts as well. Today, the Church provided a badly needed context for the care of the human person when she refuses to consider the person a "heterosexual" or a "homosexual" and insists that every person has a fundamental identity: a creature of God, and by grace, his child and heir to eternal life." (Letter from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Oct,1986)

Erroneous Assumptions

The Society of Catholic Social Scientists has recently (1/95) alerted our American Bishops about a trend among some ministries to homosexual Catholics that contradict authentic Catholic teachings on homosexuality and are founded upon erroneous scientific assumptions. The Society highlights:

1. False statements are being made about homosexuality being biologically determined.
2. Catholic homosexuals are being told wrongly that sexual orientation change is never possible.
3. The term "gay" is being used wrongly to describe people of a homosexual orientation who do not identify with the gay socio-political position.
4. A separate "gay spirituality" regrettably is being encouraged, and gay ministries tell us that a person who suffers from the homosexual disorder has special "gay gifts" for the Church.
5. Catholics are being informed wrongly that the homosexual condition is not disorder

Lansing Information
Call: 517-351-3315

National Information
Church of St. John the Baptist
210 West 31st Street
New York, NY 10001
Phone (212)268-1010 Fax (212)268-7150
Website: http://couragerc.net/
E-mail: NYCourage@aol.com