Work in Progress in the Social Studies (WIPSS): 2015/6

Tuesday 10 May

Destroying false images of God: The experiences of LGBT Catholics

Ms Angele Deguara 

On Tuesday 10 May, the WIPSS seminar will host Ms Angele Deguara, who will give a seminar entitled Destroying false images of God: The experiences of LGBT Catholics.  Ms Deguara writes:

‘Charles de Montesquieu once wrote that, “If triangles had a God, they would give him three sides”.   Perceptions of God tend to be based on one’s perception of self and change as one’s perception of self changes.   LGBT Catholics’ image of God changes as they struggle to reconcile their religious and sexual identities, as they go through a process of “conversion” from deviants and sinners to loved children of God.  Giovanni, one of the study informants from Palermo compares his faith in God to peeling an onion, “With every layer one peels off, one destroys false images of God.”  

This study is based on my fieldwork with Drachma LGBTI in Malta and with Ali d’Aquila in Palermo as well as with LGBT Catholics who do not frequent either group. Both communities offer a space where individuals may explore and deepen their spirituality as persons whose sexuality does not conform to the heteronormative model.    Most of the study participants are male, in their mid- thirties and well educated although both groups are frequented by individuals who do not fall within these general categories.  My main research question concerns how individuals whose sexuality and lifestyle choices do not conform to Catholic Church morality deal with the inevitable conflict between their religious and sexual identities in a secular age.

Many of my informants have moved away from the image of God often projected in religious art, books or in catechism classes (Mużew); many have shed traditional images of God transmitted to them by their mother or other close family members.   Among the childhood images of God that stuck in the mind of my informants were: God as a mystery or as a magician who grants one’s wishes upon hearing prayers;  God as creator of Adam and Eve; God as the setter of morality, as someone who watches over people from above, as someone who takes account of what we do and to whom we have to answer on judgement day.  Most of the study informants believe in a Catholic or Christian God.  A few still see God as a father or brother, as a creator, as someone who they have to answer to after they die.  Most refer to God in the masculine but not everyone personifies God.  Some do not “see” God.  They conceive of God as a force, as energy, as light.  Others see him in mundane things or in nature.  Regardless of how he is projected, God’s image in the mind of LGBT Catholics tends to eventually evolve from that of accountant, judge or law-giver to that of a loving God who embraces them as spiritual and sexual creatures.’  

Angele Deguara is a lecturer and subject co-ordinator of Sociology at the University of Malta Junior College. She is currently conducting Ph.D. research in the anthropology of religion and sexuality with LGBT Catholics in Malta and Palermo. She is the author of Life on the Line: A Sociological Investigation of Women working in a Clothing Factory in Malta.  She is also an activist for social justice and civil rights. 

Tuesday 10 May, 18:15-19:15, Gateway Building Hall E (ground floor) followed by discussion. Students are encouraged to attend. The public is cordially welcome.

Convenors: Paul Clough, Peter Mayo and Michael Briguglio