Monthly Archives: March 2015
Catholics Leave Mass Over Bigoted Homily, but Not All Priests Oppose Marriage Equality
Challenging the Basis for Catholicism’s Sexual Ethics
Challenging the Basis for Catholicism's Sexual Ethics
National Catholic Reporter: “One gay Catholic’s journey”
Most Holy Redeemer in San Francisco’s Castro, the best known lgbt – friendly Catholic parish, is the currently the focus of a series of articles at National Catholic Reporter. Because of it’s fame, the congregation attracts a steady stream of visitors from around the world. One post from the series, in which a visitor from Colorado shares his story, shows how there are in fact many other parishes across the US (and elsewhere) in which lgbt Catholics can find a welcome – but in most, that welcome exists only as long as we remain closeted.
Born in a small town in western Nebraska, his parents split when he was 2-years-old, and he was raised by his maternal grandmother. He attended Catholic schools, growing up in a traditional Catholic home. He had a solid Catholic foundation. “I always had people who believed in me,” Pickering told me. “My family showed me God’s love.”
He recalls having been “a geeky shy kid” growing up, often protected by teachers. That made him feel special.
In junior high he began to feel like there was something about him “like no one else in the entire world.” It was then he discerned that he was attracted to boys. It confused him and he often prayed to God to help him understand. “I prayed all the time. I asked God ‘why?’ And I cried.” One day something amazing happened to him, he recalls. “I felt God’s hand on my shoulder. From then I felt everything would be OK.”
– read the full report at National Catholic Reporter.
National Catholic Reporter: "One gay Catholic's journey"
Most Holy Redeemer in San Francisco’s Castro, the best known lgbt – friendly Catholic parish, is the currently the focus of a series of articles at National Catholic Reporter. Because of it’s fame, the congregation attracts a steady stream of visitors from around the world. One post from the series, in which a visitor from Colorado shares his story, shows how there are in fact many other parishes across the US (and elsewhere) in which lgbt Catholics can find a welcome – but in most, that welcome exists only as long as we remain closeted.
Born in a small town in western Nebraska, his parents split when he was 2-years-old, and he was raised by his maternal grandmother. He attended Catholic schools, growing up in a traditional Catholic home. He had a solid Catholic foundation. “I always had people who believed in me,” Pickering told me. “My family showed me God’s love.”
He recalls having been “a geeky shy kid” growing up, often protected by teachers. That made him feel special.
In junior high he began to feel like there was something about him “like no one else in the entire world.” It was then he discerned that he was attracted to boys. It confused him and he often prayed to God to help him understand. “I prayed all the time. I asked God ‘why?’ And I cried.” One day something amazing happened to him, he recalls. “I felt God’s hand on my shoulder. From then I felt everything would be OK.”
– read the full report at National Catholic Reporter.
In Grassroots Vote, US Church Approves Gay Marriage!
In their General Assembly 2014, the Presbyterian Church of the USA (PCUSA) approved a resolution to amend the church’s description of marriage from “between a man and a woman” to “between two persons” . However, to come into full effect, the resolution required ratification by a majority of the country’s regional presbyteries. That ratification has now been achieved. Alex Patchin McNeill,Executive Director of More Light Presbyterians notes in a press release that this is the first time ever that marriage equality has been approved by a faith tradition in a nationwide, grassroots popular vote.
Continue reading In Grassroots Vote, US Church Approves Gay Marriage!
LGBT Advocate Appeals for Church Reform at L.A. Religious Education Congress
School Uses "Catholic Teaching" to Penalize Bigotry.
Instead of using “Catholic teaching” as a cover for discrimination, a New Jersey school has used it to for its more important but neglected message – opposition to homophobia and bigotry.
We are depressingly familiar with Catholic bishops (Salvatore Cordileione and others) who are attempting to use the cover of “Catholic teaching” to police the private behaviour, and even the beliefs, of lgbt Catholics and their straight allies. The core problem with this approach is that it takes a very limited, selective view of “Catholic teaching”, exclusively through the prism of sexual ethics, ignoring the far more important dimension of Catholic teaching through the prism of social justice and radical inclusion of all.
In direct opposition to the familiar Vatican doctrine that opposes same – gender sexual activities, are others, ignored by Cordileone and his ilk, that “homosexuals” should be treated with dignity, compassion and sensitivity, that violence or malice (in speech or in action) should be opposed, and that discrimination against lgbt people is unjustified. Continue reading School Uses "Catholic Teaching" to Penalize Bigotry.