Gay Today: World

Australian Archbishop Promotes
U.S. Style Gay 'Cure'

Compiled By GayToday

Melbourne, Australia—The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne is promoting a U.S. style ex-gay Ministry which teaches that homosexual orientations can be changed by prayer and therapy.

The ministry takes its name from Catholic Courage, founded in 1980 in New York by Father John Harvey and which treats homosexuality with an Alcoholics Anonymous approach.

Father Harvey first became known in American gay communities as early as 1964 when he was allowed by the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. to take part in the first gay movement-sponsored ecumenical panel at a conference of ECHO or East Coast Homophile Organizations. That panel consisted of Methodist, Unitarian, Jewish, and Swedenborgian clergy, most of whom were far more liberal in their approaches to same-sex love and affection than was the Catholic Harvey.

Sixteen years passed before Father Harvey founded Courage and now, nearly twenty years after that, his anti-gay methodology has surfaced in Australia. The Melbourne Archdiocese has mailed a pamphlet recommending the Harvey group's procedures to approximately 300 priests in the area..

Gay and lesbian Catholics can be damaged, Australian medical professionals insist, their self-images torn apart and undue tendencies to suicide activated if they feel pressured by religious mythmakers into changing their sexual orientations.

The Archdiocese says Courage "enjoys the blessing of the Archbishop George Pell," who, only a few months ago, was widely criticized in Australia's mainstream press for having expressed abject ignorance about both homosexuality and AIDS.

The Vicar General, Bishop Denis Hart, in a document addressed to Melbourne's priests, ministers to a million Melbourne Catholics, says Courage is a support group offering prayer, fellowship and education for those "struggling with a homosexual orientation'' or who may be involved in a "homosexual lifestyle" and who wish to live a "chaste life in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church.".

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Related Sites:
Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, Australia

Catholic Courage

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But Courage founder Harvey, tells audiences:

"Most people who have homosexual inclinations have a terrible hatred of themselves. They see themselves as inferior.''

In his book The Truth About Homosexuality, Father Harvey makes clear Courage rejects homosexual sex (also Catholic teaching) and promotes "prayer, group support and sound therapy'" to turn homosexuals into heterosexuals and to encourage them into heterosexual marriage.