ANTIPOLO City, Nov. 13, 2014—Jovi Atanacio says it is possible to be a faithful son of the Church and to be gay, sharing how ultimately, the faith shows homosexuals how to “truly love.”
“This is my cross …I may be attracted to males … but I love God more,” he said, noting how God through the Church invites all to true love.
“…The Church seems to be the only institution that is inviting [gays] to love. We are created for love, and our lives make no sense if we don’t experience it,” Atanacio, who admits to same sex attraction, but who has decided to remain celibate, said.
According to him, while members of the same sex desire union because of their love, Atanacio stressed true love desires more than physical and emotional union.
“It desires the good of the other. It desires heaven for the other person and will encourage him or her to embrace the virtue of chastity. This is not a renunciation of love, but a profound and courageous expression of it…I can still love,” he said.
Atanacio bemoaned that what is often overlooked amid the heated rhetoric on LGBT rights issue is that the Church has consistently invited everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation, to love.
“As surprising as it may sound, the Church today does not forbid people who experience same-sex attractions to love one another,” stressed Atanacio, one of the many actively engaged in the promotion of the devotion of Lipa’s Mary, Mediatrix of All-Grace, as well as a former moderator for an aftercall community of people with Same-Sex Attraction (SSA).
Single and celibate, Atanacio, who also maintains the Facebook group “Wanted: Filipino Saints”, however, pointed out the need to grow in the understanding of what love really means.
“If two members of the same sex love one another, they will do what is best for each other. They will encourage one other to identify themselves as beloved children of God who happen to experience same-sex attractions, rather than people who are defined by their sexual urges and happen to believe in God,” he explained. (Raymond A. Sebastián)