Transcripts

CHRIS TETLIN: The complaint stems back to 1987, when the Twin Cities archdiocese informed a group called dignity that it could no longer lease space in the church-run Newman Center on the University of Minnesota campus. Dignity is a national organization of gay and lesbian Catholics. The Twin Cities chapter used space at the Newman Center for worship services and other meetings. Dignity paid $150 a month to rent the space, and the group's attorney, Elizabeth Pierce, says that makes the church a landlord.

ELIZABETH PIERCE: Because the Catholic Church has entered into a landlord relationship with some lessees, they are required to follow the civil rights ordinance and to rent to all the protected classes, Blacks, Muslims, Jews, any other protected class, and affectional preference is a protected class in Minneapolis.

CHRIS TETLIN: But church leaders say this is an internal dispute. They say the separation of church and state dictated in the US Constitution prohibit government officials from ruling in this case. The archdiocese last night asked the Civil Rights Commission to dismiss the case on those grounds, but the three member panel denied the request, explaining the church's position.

Archdiocese Spokesman the Reverend Kevin McDonough says Archbishop John Roach had no choice but to end the dignity lease. McDonough says a policy handed down from the Vatican in 1987 directed church leaders not to rent facilities to groups that refuse to follow church doctrine. Dignity holds that homosexuality is compatible with Catholicism, but McDonough says church teachings say something different.

KEVIN MCDONOUGH: Our sexuality is oriented towards the expression of love between men and women in a committed way and with the possibility of the reproduction of more human beings. As a result, the church says sexual expression, genital sexual expression between members of the same sex is a deformation of God's plan for the way the human being is created.

CHRIS TETLIN: Despite that clear cut language, McDonough says this case is awkward for Catholic leaders.

KEVIN MCDONOUGH: We find it a test of conscience for ourselves because the church in the United States, the churches in general, and the Roman Catholic Church in the Twin Cities I think have been fairly consistent spokespeople for human rights. And so to find ourselves being charged by people of good conscience with a violation of human rights under statutes that generally speaking were sympathetic to is a difficult position for us to be in.

CHRIS TETLIN: But the vice president of the Twin Cities Chapter of Dignity, Martha McDonnell, says the church has abandoned its commitment to justice and human rights when it comes to gay men and lesbians.

MARTHA MCDONNELL: I mean, Catholic Church talks about loving and caring for your neighbors, and your brothers, and your sisters. And then here they come out with an act like this. So it's just another one of the inconsistencies that we experience from our church.

CHRIS TETLIN: McDonnell says Dignity's membership has dropped from about 100 people to around 50 since the group lost its lease in the Newman Center. She says many group members became disaffected with the church after Archbishop John Roach asked the group to sign a statement saying it complied with church teachings that condemn homosexuality.

When group members voted not to sign such a statement, Roach declined to renew the lease. Dignity now holds services in a Lutheran Church building across the street. Dignity is asking the Civil Rights Commission to order the church to pay compensatory and punitive damages and to renew the lease. Dignity also wants the church to make a public apology.

Commissioners heard testimony from three Dignity members last night. Tomorrow night, experts in church law will testify. And next week, Archbishop Roach will testify. At the church's request, reporters are not allowed to record the proceedings. After next week's closing arguments, the commissioners have 90 days to issue a ruling in the case. This is Chris Tetlin.