On St. Valentine's Day, Young Adult Catholics Consider Relationships

As the world celebrates relationships and friendships on today for St. Valentine’s Day, Bondings 2.0 offers a few highlights from the thoughtful and progressive insights of another blog called Young Adult Catholics.

Young Adult Catholics, a project of Call To Action, features posts from progressive members of the church in their 20s and 30s. A variety of issues are covered, but more often than not the posts return to sexuality, gender, and LGBTQ issues. For instance, delfin waldemar bautista (lower case is delfin’s usage) recently considered the question, “Are queer relationships compatible with Church Teaching?” He writes, in part:

“Many queer couples firmly believe that achieving a Christian partnership based on Christian values is achievable—their relationships are based on mutual love, mutual sharing, faithfulness, mutual commitment to pleasure…mutuality in its various forms and expressions.

“We believe in and live by ‘intimate and chaste union’; we practice and strive for self-giving to each other by caring for the other when sick and supporting each other’s adventures (such as working 3 jobs to support the other while in divinity school); we experience pleasure and enjoyment through our bodies by affirming each other’s beauty, balding, flat-footedness, and pudginess; and have transmitted life by affirming, celebrating, and challenging each other’s lives and personhood in fullness (even when we may not agree with each other)—our relationship has been life-giving to us and to those we welcome into our casa.”

In a post about family, Lacey Louwagie questions why some families are considered holy by the church and others remain excluded. She writes:

“[The priest who spoke against same-sex marriage] couldn’t offer clarification, of course, because as more GLBTQ people come out and more straight people can put faces on the ‘issue,’ all of the old excuses stop holding up so well. All the ready defenses crumble, so that the best you can do is make vague statements about your disapproval and hope that no one calls you on it…

“Progressives love to grab hold of Pope Francis’ now iconic ‘who am I to judge?’ comment as a signal of real change in the church. But the truth is, until the church holds its officials accountable for their hurtful choices, until the church rethinks its teachings on homosexuality and reexamines the meaning of love in all its complexity, diversity and simplicity, the church that our ‘non-judgmental’ pontiff leads is passing judgment every single day.”

Screen Shot 2015-02-13 at 10.17.12 PMFinally, Rachel Christian discusses how the suicide of Leelah Alcorn touches upon the need for Catholics to be allies and advocates for and with LGBT youth. Writing about the importance of good relationships that help others experience God’s love made real through human beings, she writes:

“[Leelah] needed God’s love, not God’s ‘help’ to reverse her transgender identity…Leelah did not know God’s love. In fact, she did not feel loved by anyone, especially her parents. They isolated her from her friends by making her transfer schools and taking away her phone and social media access…She needed to know her parents loved her, which to her and most LGBTQ youth means acceptance. She needed a community that embraced her fully. And more than that, Leelah needed to know that God loved her…

“Let’s be the Christians Jesus calls us to be—welcoming the outcast and sharing with them the good news of God’s all-encompassing love.”

To read more LGBTQ-related blog posts from Young Adult Catholics, visit youngadultcatholics-blog.com — and a “thank you” to those in their 20s and 30 struggling to find a path in the Catholic community without compromising the need for justice and intimate love.

Enjoy St. Valentine’s Day by celebrating and sharing love!

–Bob Shine, New Ways Ministry

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