Courage International
Courage, a Roman Catholic apostolate
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| Founded | 1980 |
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| Founder | John Harvey |
| Type | 501(c)(3) nonprofit |
| Headquarters | Norwalk, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Mission | "To assist men and women with same-sex attractions in living chaste lives in fellowship, truth and love" |
| Website | www |
Courage International, also known as Courage Apostolate and Courage for short, is an approved apostolate of the Catholic Church that counsels "men and women with same-sex attractions in living chaste lives in fellowship, truth and love". Based on a treatment model for drug and alcohol addictions used in programs like Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Courage runs a 12-step program aimed at helping gay people remain abstinent from sex.
The organization runs support groups led by a priest to encourage its members to abstain from acting on their sexual 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.
The apostolate was endorsed by the Pontifical Council for the Family in 1994 through the statement of Alfonso Cardinal López Trujillo.
Courage has received criticism from other LGBT advocacy groups, including other Catholic groups such as the New Ways Ministry, which feels 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 anti-LGBT organizations offering counseling that purportedly helps gay people stay celibate.
Terence Cardinal Cooke, Archbishop of New York, conceived the ministry in the early 1980s as a spiritual support system which would assist gay Catholics in adhering to the teachings of the Church on sexuality and sexual behavior.
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