Is the US Catholic hierarchy softening its stance on gay rights?

When New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan told national news programmes on Easter Sunday that Catholic leaders need to do a better job of showing that their opposition to gay marriage is not “an attack on gay people”, the top Catholic bishop in the US seemed to be signalling an important shift in tone, if not policies, that acknowledges two new realities.

One is the election of a new pope, Francis, who in less than a month has demonstrated a clear preference for engagement and inclusion (washing the feet of women and Muslim inmates at a Rome youth prison, for example).

The other is the ongoing shift in favour of same-sex marriage in the court of public opinion and — if recent arguments on Proposition 8 and the Defence of Marriage Act are any guide — perhaps soon in the US Supreme Court.

Christopher Hale, co-founder of the Millennial blog for young Catholics and an adviser for President Obama’s re-election campaign, said Cardinal Dolan’s office had responded positively to his March 26 Washington Post column that urged the very kind of pastoral shift on gays that he seemed to adopt.

“I know he listens,” he said. 

“I know he has his finger to the wind on this issue” of the church’s attitude towards gays and lesbians.

Other leaders apparently do as well. Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, and his predecessor, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, were also on Sunday morning news shows addressing the issue of gay rights and stressing that the church needed to be welcoming. As Cardinal McCarrick put it, the church could be open to civil unions as an alternative to gay marriage.

Interestingly, it’s the same tact Francis tried to take in Argentina, voicing support among Argentine bishops for civil unions against a national bid to allow gay marriage. He ultimately lost both battles.

During the 2012 presidential campaign, a number of US bishops said that those who support civil marriage for gays should be barred from Communion, and Cardinal Dolan and other bishops cast the battle over gay marriage, and against Obama, in almost apocalyptic terms.

But as the Cardinal conceded at Easter, the bishops “try our darnedest to make sure we’re not an anti-anybody”, but up to now “we haven’t been too good at that”.

While gay rights activists in the church welcomed the change of tone as “nothing short of an Easter miracle”, in the words of Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, church leaders also stress that they aren’t softening their opposition to same-sex marriage.

At most, it appears that some leaders could be open to favouring civil unions or some alternative to gay marriage.

Another strategy: Shifting the focus from opposition to gays and lesbians to ensuring religious freedom and conscience rights are respected in future gay rights laws.

But the hierarchy will also face strong calls from its right flank to take a more vocal stand against gay rights.