| Summary: | This paper focuses on lgbt catholics and the ways in which they
try to manage the presumed discontinuity of homosexuality and Christianity
[O'Brien 2004, 179]. It is drawn from my MA and PhD fieldwork among lgbt
Catholics groups in Italy and the ways in which they negotiate their presence
and formulates their tactics [De Certeau 1980] of mobilization within the
Vatican Church. These tactics involve, among others, the importance of
setting up an informal dialogue with people in flesh and bone by re-casting
the concept of Christian witnessing, the importance of being in a loving
relationship, the use of an inclusive theology by challenging the applicability
and relevance of some so-called «homophobic» biblical passages in today's
socio-historical context and the importance of reconciliation within the
Church by avoiding to struggle against it. By questioning the concept of
"agency" as an attitude to subvert and rebel against the dominant situation
[Mahmood 2005], I take into account the experiences of the lgbt Catholis
groups in Italy and the ways in which they give sense of what it means to be
Catholics.
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