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Courage International
Courage International, also known as Courage Apostolate and Courage for short, is an approved apostolate of the Catholic Church, founded in 1980 by John F. Harvey as part of the ex-gay movement. It claims it does not practice conversion therapy and instead runs a twelve-step program, similar to that of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), aimed at helping gay people remain abstinent.
The organization runs support groups led by a priest to encourage its members to abstain from acting on their homosexual desires and to live according to the teachings of the Catholic Church on homosexuality. Courage also has a ministry geared towards the relatives and friends of gay people called Encourage.
Its approach has been criticized from Catholics who argue that the organization promotes "mandatory celibacy for gays and lesbians". Courage has also received criticism from LGBT advocacy groups, such as New Ways Ministry, which say that Courage's methods are "problematic and very dangerous to people's spiritual health". In 2015, the Southern Poverty Law Center listed Courage International as one of the ten most prominent "ex-gay" anti-LGBT organizations.
In the 25 years prior to creating Courage, John F. Harvey researched and wrote on homosexuality. His first article in 1955, Homosexuality as a Pastoral Problem, argued that homosexuality was caused by overbearing mothers and weak fathers, and that gay men should not marry women but lesbians "could render the marriage debt faithfully, bring children into the world, and fulfill at least the essential duties of wife and mother and homemaker". By 1969 he began arguing that lesbians should also be discouraged from heterosexual marriages. In 1973, when homosexuality was removed from the DSM by the American Psychological Association, he argued Catholic moralists should continue "to teach the immorality of homosexual acts" and encourage homosexuals to be chaste.
Starting in 1978, he led retreats for same-sex attracted Catholic priests and men. In 1979, he proposed a homosexuals anonymous like program, drawing on the 14 step program by Homosexuals Anonymous. The first meeting of Courage was held in September 1980 at St. Joseph Church in New York City including only Harvey and 5 other male participants.
In 1986, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons which was protested by pro-gay Catholics. A year later Harvey published The Homosexual Person: New Thinking in Pastoral Care which opened by defending the CDF statement. He compared his approach with the protestant ex-gay organizations, stating "The Protestant support systems and Courage agree that homosexual acts are always immoral" but that while the Protestants supported chastity for homosexuals as a step towards heterosexuality, he supported chastity as the end goal.
In 1987, Courage had 7 chapters across North America. In the late 1980s it grew to one of the largest ex-gay organizations in the world and has continued to operate into the 2020s while other prominent ex-gay groups disbanded.
In 2016, Courage priest Paul Scalia, son of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, said "Gender ideology" was "demonic" and that "It doesn't mean that those who endorse [it] are demonic or possessed [...] rather, that the reasoning and results of that philosophy [...] line up with the desires, tactics, and resentments of 'Old Scratch' himself".
Courage International
Courage International, also known as Courage Apostolate and Courage for short, is an approved apostolate of the Catholic Church, founded in 1980 by John F. Harvey as part of the ex-gay movement. It claims it does not practice conversion therapy and instead runs a twelve-step program, similar to that of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), aimed at helping gay people remain abstinent.
The organization runs support groups led by a priest to encourage its members to abstain from acting on their homosexual desires and to live according to the teachings of the Catholic Church on homosexuality. Courage also has a ministry geared towards the relatives and friends of gay people called Encourage.
Its approach has been criticized from Catholics who argue that the organization promotes "mandatory celibacy for gays and lesbians". Courage has also received criticism from LGBT advocacy groups, such as New Ways Ministry, which say that Courage's methods are "problematic and very dangerous to people's spiritual health". In 2015, the Southern Poverty Law Center listed Courage International as one of the ten most prominent "ex-gay" anti-LGBT organizations.
In the 25 years prior to creating Courage, John F. Harvey researched and wrote on homosexuality. His first article in 1955, Homosexuality as a Pastoral Problem, argued that homosexuality was caused by overbearing mothers and weak fathers, and that gay men should not marry women but lesbians "could render the marriage debt faithfully, bring children into the world, and fulfill at least the essential duties of wife and mother and homemaker". By 1969 he began arguing that lesbians should also be discouraged from heterosexual marriages. In 1973, when homosexuality was removed from the DSM by the American Psychological Association, he argued Catholic moralists should continue "to teach the immorality of homosexual acts" and encourage homosexuals to be chaste.
Starting in 1978, he led retreats for same-sex attracted Catholic priests and men. In 1979, he proposed a homosexuals anonymous like program, drawing on the 14 step program by Homosexuals Anonymous. The first meeting of Courage was held in September 1980 at St. Joseph Church in New York City including only Harvey and 5 other male participants.
In 1986, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) issued On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons which was protested by pro-gay Catholics. A year later Harvey published The Homosexual Person: New Thinking in Pastoral Care which opened by defending the CDF statement. He compared his approach with the protestant ex-gay organizations, stating "The Protestant support systems and Courage agree that homosexual acts are always immoral" but that while the Protestants supported chastity for homosexuals as a step towards heterosexuality, he supported chastity as the end goal.
In 1987, Courage had 7 chapters across North America. In the late 1980s it grew to one of the largest ex-gay organizations in the world and has continued to operate into the 2020s while other prominent ex-gay groups disbanded.
In 2016, Courage priest Paul Scalia, son of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, said "Gender ideology" was "demonic" and that "It doesn't mean that those who endorse [it] are demonic or possessed [...] rather, that the reasoning and results of that philosophy [...] line up with the desires, tactics, and resentments of 'Old Scratch' himself".