NEWS NOTES: October 1, 2013

Here are some items you might find of interest:

1) Marianne Duddy-Burke, DignityUSA’s executive director, has penned a beautiful, reflective Huffington Post essay on 15-year Catholic marriage to Becky Duddy-Burke.

2) Joseph Gentilini, whose new book Hounded By God: A Gay Man’s Journey to Self-Acceptance, Love, and Relationship, is interviewed about the connections between sexuality and spirituality in The Columbus Dispatch.

3) Maurice Monette’s new book, Confessions of a Gay Married Priest: A Spiritual Journey, has won the 2013 Global Ebook Award for best LGBT nonfiction, reports IndyBay.org

4) Croatia, a largely Catholic European nation, is poised to institute civil unions for lesbian and gay couples, reports Gay Star News.  Catholic church officials had organized a 750,000 signature petition to constitutionally ban same-gender marriage, though there were reports that some of these signatures were not collected fairly.

5) The Ukranian Catholic Church’s hierarchy is among many religious leaders in that nation to reject the European Union’s demands for new gay rights laws, reports London’s Catholic Herald.

–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry