Colorado Catholic Church Launches 12-Step Program For Those With Same Sex Attraction That Is “Not About Therapy And Not About Activism” But “About Support”

The Catholic Diocese of Colorado Springs is launching a 12-step program that purports to offer pastoral care and support for homosexuals, reports the Gazette, the Reverend Larry Brennan, diocese director of priest information saying “It’s not about therapy and not about activism. It’s about support.” The Catholic Church regards homosexual relations as a sin, but not homosexual thoughts, and demands that those with same sex attraction remain celibate, Brennan saying “The exercise of sexuality is reserved for marriage, and that can only happen between a man and a woman.” Jim Fitzgerald, of the Chicago-based Call to Action, a progressive Catholic advocacy group, expressed scepticism about the Twelve Steps of Courage, because he argues homosexuality is not sinful, and the recovery program “restricts people’s freedom to be the kind of person they were created to be.” Reverend Brennan counters that the program is in fact created for those people not comfortable with homosexuality. “The people we want to reach are those who experience this as a burden.” The Twelve Steps of Courage has 110 chapters world-wide, and is modelled on the Alcoholics Anonymous program, participants asked to admit they are powerless in overcoming same sex attraction, asking God for help, and to make amends to those they have hurt, correlating, apparently, despite Reverend Brennan’s contention, homosexuality as a treatable disease, like alcoholism. The Twelve Steps of Courage does not offer any statistics or studies regarding the program’s success. The idea to bring the program to Colorado Springs was that of Bishop Michael Sheridan, who asked Reverend Mark Zacker to work with Brennan as facilitator. Brennan says that throughout the years he and Zacker have come in contact through counselling with a large local population struggling with same sex attraction. “This is a population that is underserved,” he said. “They are not comfortable with the gay agenda and not comfortable with family orientated (events).”