By Aby Thomas
A few minutes before 7:30 on a cold Sunday evening in January, Gary Spokes stands by the door of St. John’s in the Village Church. His white hair slicked back, a rainbow ribbon sticking out of his shirt pocket and a smile on his old, pink face, Spokes greets almost everyone who’s entering the church. He seems to know everyone coming through the doors, but in case he doesn’t, he makes it a point to ask.
Once he knows your name, Spokes looks through a stapled sheaf of labels, and pulls out a sticker with your name on it. If, in any case, your name is not already present in his collection of labels, he pulls out a pen, writes your name on a blank label, and gives you that label, to be stuck onto your shirt. “I’m the doorkeeper,” Spokes says, as he introduces himself. “I’m the St. Peter of this church.”
After the church has more than 30 people gathered together, the mass begins with a passionate signing of a hymn. Bible readings from the Old and New Testaments follow, interspersed with more hymns sung by the choir. The congregation, consisting almost entirely of men, participates actively in the mass that seems to follows the traditional Roman Catholic Church’s model.
However, there is one thing that is decidedly un-Catholic—at least by the Church’s standards—about this congregation. This weekly celebration of the Eucharist is organized by the New York chapter of DignityUSA, an organization that bills itself as the country’s foremost movement of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Catholics. In their mission statement, DignityUSA, a national organization since 1973, “envisions and works for a time when gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics are affirmed and experience dignity through the integration of their spirituality with their sexuality.”
The Roman Catholic Church hierarchy does not permit Dignity to meet in Catholic Church buildings. St. John’s, where the mass is being held, is an Episcopal church.
The Rev. Jim Morris, an ordained priest “on leave” from the Roman Catholic Church, is leading the mass, and he now calls on John Doyle to address the gathering. Doyle is called the in-house speaker of DignityUSA—a bespectacled man with white hair and a white beard.
In his sermon, Doyle starts by touching on the readings from the Bible: the Deuteronomy reading on the laws of the Old Testament on false prophets: “Any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak–that prophet shall die.”
Doyle then goes on to talk about St. Paul’s views on celibacy in his letter to the Corinthians, in which St. Paul states, “I say all this for your own benefit, not to put any restraint upon you, but to promote… devotion to the Lord.” Doyle explains how St. Paul’s views are just his opinion, and how they do not take on the tone of the Old Testament laws.
He then mentions Pope Benedict’s recent statement to the ambassadors to the Vatican that “policies like same-sex marriage undermine the family, threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself.”
Doyle reads the Pope’s words verbatim, pauses for a moment, and says, “Really? Really?”
The congregation enjoys a brief eruption of laughter, before Doyle continues. “He completely ignores all the scientific evidence to the contrary and he makes absolutely no indication that this is just his opinion… leaving all who heard him and the world at large free to assume that he was speaking in God’s name and delivering God’s own teaching.”
Doyle then makes a mention of the reading from the Gospel for the day, a passage from the book of Mark detailing Jesus driving out a demon from a man, and says that he wishes a similar miracle to happen with the pope, rather than the Deuteronomy prediction of “death to false prophets.”
“I do kind of wish that Jesus would come to him [the pope] like he came to the disturbed man with an unclean spirit in tonight’s Gospel reading, and tell him to ‘be silent’, and then, drive out that demon of homophobia that seems to have infected his mind.”
Doyle ends his speech by calling the audience’s attention to the word of the year, as coined by the American Dialect Society. “Occupy,” he says. “Let’s all work for justice every day this year in 2012, and occupy the place the Lord our God is giving us!” In the midst of a resounding applause, Doyle returns to his seat at the back of the church.
Doyle explains his rationale behind his usage of “occupy” in the context of the Catholic Church. “The hierarchy would like us to go away, and we’re not going. That’s my attitude. I wouldn’t give them that satisfaction. I want to stay around and be a thorn in their side, and make them deal with me.”
“Because it’s my church,” Doyle continues, angst in his voice.“The church is defined as the people of God. So, we are the church. The hierarchies are the caretakers. They work for us.”
“And they’re doing a lousy job,” he adds.
Later, once the mass has ended, another member of the church pats Doyle on his back, and congratulates him on his speech. “Keep fighting,” Doyle says to the man. “Occupy!”
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