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by Jim Holman.
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More Moral Ambiguity

OUTFEST REACHES OUT TO CATHOLIC HOMOSEXUALS

By Christopher Zehnder

"I am writing to inform your parish about a new screening series about gay and lesbian Catholics that members of support groups you work with may have an interest." So began an April cover letter written by Morgan Rumpf, executive director of Outfest, the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. The letter, along with program information, was sent to parishes with a homosexual outreach.

The "first gay and lesbian Catholic film retrospective," ran every Wednesday from April 7 to May 5, 1999 at Ed Gould Plaza in the Village, screening five feature length films and four short films. In his letter to the parishes, Rumpf said "I believe this series would be of interest to your gay and lesbian parishioners. If a mention of the series is appropraite in the parish bulletin, we would appreciate the listing. If there is a way to distribute our schedules for the series to gay and lesbian Catholics we can send them over to the parish or pay for mailing, if appropriate."

It may seem strange that an organization such as Outfest, which represents a view of homosexuality which the Catholic Church rejects (more on this, below), should send schedules of its series to Catholic parishes. What may seem stranger is that this was, seemingly, blessed by Father Peter Liuzzi, director of the Los Angeles archdiocese's ministry to gay and lesbian Catholics. In his letter, Rumpf wrote that "Fr. Peter Liuzzi, from the Ministry with Gay and Lesbian Catholics of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles mentioned that St. [Name] is a church in which gay and lesbian Catholics are welcome and worth contacting about this series."

Could an official of the archdiocese sanction a homosexual Catholic's association with a group such as Outfest, espcially in light of the Vatican document Pastoral Care for Homosexual Persons? That document states: "No authentic pastoral programme will include organizations in which homosexual persons associate with each other without clearly stating that homosexual activity is immoral. A truly pastoral approach will appreciate the need for homosexual persons to avoid the near occasions of sin." I contacted Father Liuzzi's office and left messages both by phone and via e-mail and received no response. When I finally spoke to Father Liuzzi's administrative assistant, Marge Mayer, on Monday, June 7, I was told that Father Liuzzi was out of town for the week.

Morgan Rumpf, however, in an e-mail response, told me he indeed "spoke directly with Father Liuzzi" about the gay and lesbian Catholic film retrospective "and sent him the program information. He sent me," continued Rumpf, "a short list of parishes with gay and lesbian Catholic ministries, and a short list of parishes that welcome gay and lesbian Catholics and said that I was welcome to contact these parishes directly and let them make the decision about their interest in letting their parishioners or specific ministries know about the series. Most of those with ministries distributed the program flyers we provided to the members of the ministry at GLO [Gay and Lesbian Outreach] meetings or via the mail. Most parishes chose not to make bulletin announcements."

In a subsequent June 7 telephone conversation, Rumpf said he wanted to make it clear that neither Father Liuzzi nor the archdiocese of Los Angeles sanctioned the film retrospective, though he admitted that he received permission from Father Liuzzi to use his name on his cover letter. "He gave access to information," said Rumpf. "It was public information as to which churches had gay and lesbian ministries, and I contacted them directly. What I got was the information, and if that was misconstrued in my letter, then I apologize for that. It was my fault, not his. What I did is call up what was a resource, and said what are the churches that would be potentially interested or have ministries that would be interested in" the retrospective.

The features screened by Outfest were: The Boys of St. Vincent, parts one and two (1993), which is about boys sexually abused by a Christian Brother in Canada and the subsequent scandals arising therefrom. Another, Black Narcissus (1946), tells of a group of nuns sent to a mountaintop convent in the Himalayas. These sisters, according to the Outfest program information, "encounter difficulty maintaining their tidy social order and ultimately, their sanity. The lustiness of the local people, the remoteness of their outpost, and intense, interpersonal jealousies acted out with tinges of eroticism all contribute to a heady swirl of sensuality which together have made this picture a perennial cult favorite."

The third film, presented in collaboration with Dignity, Jenipapo, is a 1995 Brazilian film, presented in collaboration with Dignity, which features an American journalist in Brazil whose fascination with a priest and liberation theologian, Father Stephen Louis, leads him "to question his own motivations for caring so much" about the priest, "while Father Stephen takes stock of his own reasons for eschewing public life." The fourth film, Extramuros (1985), deals with a fake 16th century Spanish stigmatist, Sor Angela, who "supported by lover Sor Ana...staves off the despotic Mother Superior, but must then reckon with members of the Inquisition who pay a not-so-friendly visit to the saint." The final film, I, The Worst of All (1990), portrays 17th century Mexican poet, Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz, who, "to pursue her passion to write...enters the convent" where she "develops an intimate friendship with the vicereine who inspires both Juana's poetry and her passion, until the nun falls victim to the hostilities of the church and is confronted with insurmountable difficulties."

The shorts featured during the retrospective included one that asks the question, "What does the Pope-mobile have in common with a condom?" Another, Damned if You Don't, "tells the story of a young nun fighting a losing battle against her sexual desires." Another short, The Way of the Wicked, speaks out about "the repression of the female body in Catholicism."

I asked Morgan Rumpf, who told me he was a practicing Catholic, a parishioner at Saint Monica's in Santa Monica, and a member of the Gay and Lesbian Outreach there, whether any of these films potray Vatican teaching on homosexual issues. "Absolutely," he said. "they portray Vatican church issues, primarly because the films we chose are primarily historic in nature. Films like Extramuros or like I, the Worst of All showed that people died because of the Church teaching." Rumpf noted that the films did not necessarily portray homosexuality in a positive light. Homosexuality, he said, "was portayed as negative, that this was not a positive thing as seen by the Church. When you look at Extramuros or I, the Worst of All, they did not live happilty ever after. Or Jenipapo, which was a Brazilian film, the priest dies near the end; it was none of those things where you say, look how great it is to be a gay Catholic."

Rumpf said that the films in the retrospective had no explicit sexual content. "There was no nudity," he said, "not even any overt kissing, or that kind of thing. That's just not in the nature of these films. When you're dealing with the 17th Century, what you are dealing with is almost an emotional love, emotional attachment that can be seen as something very different. It doesn't have to be seen as even gay; it can be seen as kind of a love for a fellow person that's more agape than eros. In the case of Black Narcissus, it's not even that there is even any lesbian content in there; it was something that was campy. It's a 1946 film starring Deborah Kerr. There's one nun in this group of nuns who is very very butch, and there's a kind-of camp element to that, but there's certainly nothing that would be objectionable from a homosexual nature. It would be objectionable to the Church on a number of other fronts; this 1946 film was controversial back in 1946. I doubt anyone would find this film very controversial now."

If none of the films in the Catholic retrospective had explicit sexual matter, that is not true of other films advertised in the same program information. One film short, Pavane Pour Un Infante Defunte (1997), is noted as having "explict sexual content." Its theme is "Disrobing to Debussy: beautiful, brawny bodies blithely bask on the beach." Other features clearly promote non-Catholic perspectives on homosexuality. A 1998 film, Get Real, tells of a teeenage boy, Steven, who falls in love with Dixon, the top athlete in his school. According to the Outfest program information for this film, "Steven struggles to hide his feelings from his parents and classmates until the day that Dixon himself notices Steven's attention -- and Steven's world is beset with new thrills and dangers. This fresh, youthful and invigorating feature from Great Britain takes us on an incisive voyage into the life of a gay teenager, trying to tell the world that there's nothing wrong with being in love."

Morgan Rumpf said he did not want to show the Catholic Church in a bad light. "I don't want to do that. I'm a practicing Catholic. I want to support the Church and be in a more inclusive environment." The films in the Catholic retrospective, however, he said "raise the dialogue" between the Catholic Church and homosexuals. That dialogue Rumpf thinks is valuable. "The points of view are interesting to discuss," said Rumpf. "It's important for gay and lesbian Catholics to know what the Church's official position is and whether we believe in that or not, is not the point. The point is to have the knowledge and share the dialogue. I know the Mission is a very conservative organization and feels very strongly that homosexuality [Editor's note: homosexual activity] is a sin and those of us who are gay and lesbian Catholics need to abstain -- and I think a number of these films actually promote that very clearly, which is the irony for me showing them, when that's not my personal opinion. But I do believe that opinion needs to be out there and discussed.

"I think all the films try to do is show the moral ambiguity," continued Rumpf, "that it's not easy to make this determination. It's a hard discussion, on both sides. It's hard to say, 'you are wrong, you are bad, you are evil!' when, at the same time, we have a very loving Christ who wants to save each and every one of us, and that is the ambiguity that is going on here."

What would Father Liuzzi say to this? Unfortunately, I was unable find out.

-- from the Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, July/August 1999

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