Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Washington Blade - August 19, 2005
Dyana Bagby
The Metropolitan Community Church of Greater New Orleans was told Aug. 4 it had 90 days to vacate its temporary space at the Project Lazarus complex, a Marigny AIDS hospice that is overseen by the Catholic Church.
The MCC and the Catholic Church entered into a one-year lease agreement on May 15 for the gay church to worship at the Catholic facility. But according to an archdiocese spokesperson, after the contract was signed and more inquiries were made into the MCC, the Catholic Church learned of its stance in support of same-sex marriage and decided to terminate the contract.
"We do not want to give the impression that we support [same-sex marriage]," Father William Maestri said.
"My understanding is that [the lease contractors] did not know about MCC's support of same-sex marriage until later," he said. "And we do not support [the MCC's] teachings."
Rev. Dexter Brecht, pastor of the 45-member MCC of Greater New Orleans, said he and officials with Project Lazarus had no conflict, but the archdiocese said it was "inappropriate" for the MCC to worship on its property.
"Those with Project Lazarus are personally open, but the archdiocese owns the property. It didn't dawn on me the archdiocese might step in," Brecht said.
'You'll bury us, but you won't marry us'
Rev. Troy Perry, the outgoing moderator of Metropolitan Community Churches, the parent denomination of the New Orleans church, issued a written statement criticizing the decision.
"I am saddened that the archdiocese is expelling the rent-paying, lease-holding congregation, not from a church building, but from an AIDS hospice," Perry said.
"They are sending a clear message to people with HIV that the Roman Catholic Church welcomes you as a sick or dying person, but not as a living, loving person.
"We've grown weary of a church that will condescend to bury us but not have the simple courtesy to marry us," he said.
Maestri stressed that a clause in the lease agreement allowing either party to back out within 90 days was requested by the MCC, and added that although the Catholic Church does not support same-sex marriage, it is not homophobic.
"I don't know how we are being presented as homophobic when in fact Project Lazarus was the first facility to care for HIV patients in New Orleans. And we never ask how anyone contracts AIDS," Maestri said. "How that is homophobic, I just don't quite understand it."
Brecht disagreed with Maestri's reasoning.
"He can call it whatever he wants to, but the bottom line is he's enforcing official doctrine that says homosexuality is inherently wrong. If that's not homophobia, I don't know what is," Brecht said.
Mark Jordan, a religion professor at Emory University and author of "The Silence of Sodom: Homosexuality in Modern Catholicism," said the New Orleans Catholic leaders are simply parroting what they are told to say by the church's hierarchy.
Jordan called current Catholic teachings against homosexuality "loud and severe" and encouraged Catholics in New Orleans to worship at the MCC on Sunday to protest the "official injustice" from the archdiocese.
"The reasonable thing - not to say, the Christian thing - would be to continue the lease as an ecumenical gesture while repeating gently that a lease doesn't imply an endorsement," Jordan said. "Of course, the more Christian thing would be for the archdiocese to repent of the sin of persecuting queer people."
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