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Courage International, also known as Courage Apostolate, is an approved apostolate of the Catholic Church, which "ministers to those with homosexual or same-sex attractions".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Welcome to the Courage Community )〕 The group consists of laymen and laywomen usually under anonymous discretion, together with a priest, to encourage its members to abstain from acting on their sexual desires and to live chastely according to the Catholic Church's teachings on homosexuality. Courage also sponsors an outreach program, Encourage, which ministers to relatives and friends of persons with same-sex attractions providing help by "supporting one another and their loved ones through discussion, prayer and fellowship." As a means of guiding homosexuals to a life of penance and chastity, the ministry uses the pastoral letters issued in 1986 by Joseph Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and later Pope Benedict XVI,〔http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html〕 and those issued in 2006 by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.〔http://old.usccb.org/doctrine/Ministry.pdf〕 The apostolate was endorsed the Pontifical Council for the Family in July 1994 through the statement of Alfonso Cardinal López Trujillo.〔http://www.ewtn.com/library/Issues/Courage.txt〕〔http://couragerc.net/Endorsement.html〕 Its goals are primarily grounded on chastity, piety and the promotion of compassionate and charitable works. == History == New York Archbishop Terence Cardinal Cooke conceived the ministry in the early 1980s as a spiritual support system which would assist same-sex attracted Catholics in adhering to the Church's teaching on sexuality and sexual behavior. Cooke invited the moral theologian Fr. John F. Harvey, O.S.F.S. to come to New York to begin the work of Courage with Fr. Benedict Groeschel, C.F.R. The first meeting was held in September 1980 at the Shrine of Mother Seton in South Ferry. In 2003, it became a member of Positive Alternatives to Homosexuality. Courage has developed a program based on the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.〔http://www.couragerc.org/Twelve_Steps_of_Courage.html〕 Courage faced resistance from its establishment from conservative Catholics who did not believe any such organisation should be directing its attention fully towards supporting openly gay and lesbian Catholics. However, it helped that Courage maintained a number of endoresements from senior bishops officials within the Church.〔Williams, Howell, ''Homosexuality and the American Catholic Church: Reconfiguring the Silence, 1971–1999'', Florida State University, 2007, p118〕 Courage has faced criticism over the years in its approach from Catholics who disagree with church teachings about same-sex marriage and argue that the organization promotes "mandatory celibacy for gays and lesbians”. It believes that physical and mental suffering can often by linked to moral corruption or vice: the homosexual condition is a "cross to bear".〔Williams, Howell, ''Homosexuality and the American Catholic Church: Reconfiguring the Silence, 1971–1999'', Florida State University, 2007, p118〕 Hostility broke out between the groups working with these communities - Harvey set his organisation in opposition to DignityUSA and publicly criticised New Ways Ministry on a number of occassions. Both Dignity as well as New Ways Ministry have suggested that having a lesbian or gay identity is a blessing from God, and that Courage is therefore being "anti-pastoral" in its work, calling for a stronger attempt at reconciliation with gay Catholics, and recognition that stable homosexual relationships may be a good thing.〔Williams, Howell, ''Homosexuality and the American Catholic Church: Reconfiguring the Silence, 1971–1999'', Florida State University, 2007, p119〕 The leaders of New Ways Ministry, Gramick and Nugent, refused to recommend Courage to Catholics that they worked with because they fundamentally disagreed with the approach of Courage; particularly because Harvey insisted that homosexuality was an illness or sickness. 119 The executive director of DignityUSA in 2014 said that "''Courage is really problematic and very dangerous to people’s spiritual health. And we have been very concerned about it for a lot of years''".〔http://archive.freep.com/article/20140306/NEWS06/303060114/Chaste-Gay-Catholic-Courage-Group-Archdiocese-of-Detroit〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Courage International」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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