Minnesota's Bishops Making "A Significant Mistake"
A former presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has asked the Minnesota Catholic bishops to re-think their opposition to marriage equality. In an op-ed open letter published in today’s Minneapolis Star Tribune, Rev. Herbert W. Chilstrom tells the bishops’ that their support of the “so-called marriage protection amendment” is “a significant mistake.”
Rev. Chilstrom offers a suggestion to the bishops. It is one which New Ways Ministry and other Catholics have made to the hierarchy for many years:
“Let me put out a challenge to each of you brothers. Invite 15 gay and lesbian persons from your respective areas, one at a time, to spend two hours with you. . . . When you have finished your time with these sisters and brothers in Christ, spend a quiet hour reflecting on a single question: ‘As I understand the heart of my Savior Jesus, how would he treat these sons and daughters of my church?’ “
Let’s hope and pray that the Catholic bishops will heed this advice coming from one of their brothers in the faith.
–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry
Dorothy Day wrote, “The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?”
Like Dorothy Day, I think Rev. Chilstrom is suggesting a revolution of the heart — in which we dig deeply within ourselves to share our personal and family stories with our Catholic leaders. Cardinal John Henry Newman’s episcopal motto was “Heart speaks to Heart.” Through person-to-person interaction, our experience of love and relationship speaks to the hearts of the bishops and can act as a transformative catalyst for their conversion on this issue.
Kudos to Rev. Chilstrom for this article!