What is Courage and Encourage?

Courage

We provide a spiritual support group for persons with same-sex attractions and their loved ones. The Courage group is for those with same-sex attractions who are striving to live chaste lives.

The 5 Goals of Courage:

1. To live a chaste life in accordance with the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching on homosexuality.

2. To dedicate one’s life to Christ through service to others, spiritual reading, prayer, meditation, individual spiritual direction, and the frequent reception of the sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist.

3. To foster a spirit of fellowship in which one may share with others thoughts and experiences to ensure that no one face the difficulties of homosexuality alone.

4. To be mindful of the truth that chaste friendships are not only possible but necessary in celibate Christian life and to encourage one another in forming and sustaining them.

5. To live a life that may serve as a good example to others who struggle with homosexuality.

Contact:

If you are an individual with concerns about homosexual attraction and would like a safe place to talk and understand Catholic teaching in this matter, please contact:

Faith In Action – Courage
305 N 7th Avenue, Suite 100
Saint Cloud, Minnesota 56303
e-mail: fiacourage1@gmail.com

Or call Patrick at the Office of Marriage & Family at (320) 252-4721. (All contacts are kept confidential.)

Resources:

View for the International Courage EnCourage website
View the Courage Newsletter

Video Resources:

Desire of the Everlasting Hills. This moving documentary tells the story of three people who experience same-sex attractions and how they found freedom, peace, and joy in Christ and His Church. Comes with study guide. (See Programs – Special Topics) (Online video and DVD are available at Everlasting Hills.org.)

The Third Way. A 40-minute documentary film focusing on the Catholic Church’s teachings regarding Homosexuality.

Does God Make People Gay? Fr. Philip Bochanski, the Executive Director of Courage, addresses this challenging question in this short clip. To learn more, watch the entire talk from which the above clip was excerpted. Fr. Bochanski gave this presentation on Christian anthropology and sexual ethics as they relate to the experience of same-sex attractions at a 2016 Clergy Study Day.

“Magisterial Teaching and Practical Experience: A Priest’s Reflection on Courage’s Generation of Pastoral Care” “Whenever the Church says ‘no’, she must also say ‘yes’. There must be a ‘yes’ because that is what the Gospel is, as St Paul reminds us: an outstretched hand of practical help that understands the tangle of the human heart.” Watch as former executive director of Courage International, Fr. Paul Check, offers his perspective on what it means to offer pastoral and spiritual support to persons who experience same-sex attractions, all in the context of five key questions:

    1. What is Courage?
    2. How do we know what authentic pastoral care is?
    3. Is chastity part of the good news?
    4. How do we share that good news?
    5. What is indispensable to the future?