ALL ARE WELCOME: Pope Francis' Impact Visible During Pride Celebrations
The ALL ARE WELCOME series is an occasional feature on this blog which highlights Catholic parishes and faith communities that support and affirm LGBT people.
LGBT and ally Catholics appeared at Pride festivities around the world this month, visible signs of Pope Francis’ desire for a more merciful and welcoming Church. Canadians welcomed Catholics from around the world for WorldPride 2014 celebrations, while Catholics in the U.S. participated in local celebrations.
Toronto was the site for WorldPride this year. All Inclusive Ministries (AIM), based at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in that city, brought “its message of faith and love to this celebration” by welcoming Catholics from around the world to their monthly Mass and gathering. AIM began with support of the Archdiocese of Toronto in 2012 after the Jesuit parish ended its affiliation with Dignity Toronto Dignité, which now meets elsewhere. Another church, St. Joseph’s Church in Ottawa, sent a delegation to join AIM’s liturgy and march in the WorldPride parade, having witnessed in their local parade for many years.
The Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) also marched in WorldPride’s parade following several months of criticism from Toronto’s cardinal and others who opposed the teachers union’s decision to march. OECTA President James Ryan told the National Post the teachers’ participation was an “internal union matter” made through a democratic process. The paper reports further:
“In March, the OECTA voted to send a contingent of more than 100 to the parade as a visible and vocal message that Catholic-school teachers in the province want students to feel supported and free from discrimination.
“OECTA is just aligning with other public unions and teachers’ unions Canada-wide, said Mr. Ryan, whether Catholic or not.
” ‘Coast to coast in Canada, pretty much every teachers’ union I know of does support LGBT rights without exception,’ [Ryan] said. ‘The Canadian Teachers Federation has been very forward with its support for LGBT rights.’ “
You can read Bondings 2.0‘s ongoing coverage of OECTA’s decision this spring by clicking here.
Catholic parishes in the U.S. marched in Pride parades in their citis, as well. In Chicago, St. Clement Church parishioners marched alongside Dignity/Chicago members for the second year in a row. The Chicago Tribune reported on the marchers:
” ‘We don’t want to be dictated to anymore,’ said Rob Svendsen, 41, a parishioner at St. Clement for nine years. ‘With the new pope, we’ve all been given a new ray of hope.’…
Great coverage showing the universality of being proudly LGBT & proudly Catholic! Here in London, we no longer use the title ‘Soho Masses’, since we’re no longer based in the Soho district as such, even though, for technical reasons, we’re still using that as our website name. We are ‘LGBT Catholics Westminster’.
Christ the King and Gesu Catholic parishes participated in Metro Detroit Pride on June 7 and 8. Both parishes are located in the city of Detroit and are welcoming parishes.
We were in Pittsburgh and New Orleans during their Pride parades this year. May have missed it –but I saw no representation of Catholic institutions though several other churches like the Unitarians and Methodists were conspicuous. We appear to be better at expressing atonement (after the fact and after forced discovery) than in addressing injustice and bigotry when it is present in our midst. That especially hit home when we attended service, a couple of days after the NOLA Pride, at St. Augustine’s –oldest African American Catholic church in the US and saw the tomb of the unknown slave. Deeply moving and a reminder that to be Christian is to walk with others.http://dawnmorais.com/2014/06/23/corpus-christi-at-st-augustines-nola-remembering-slaves-and-sinners/
I hope this is posted on Facebook. Great information.