NEWS NOTES: Baptisms, Hermits, Movie, and Protests
Here are some items that you might find of interest:
1) At an ordination in Rome, Pope Francis told 19 priests “With baptism, you unite the new faithful to the People of God. It is never necessary to refuse baptism to someone who asks for it!” According to The National Catholic Reporter’s Joshua McElwee, these words “may be interpreted to rebut Catholic priests who refuse to baptize children of same-sex couples.”
2) The bishop of Northampton, England, has removed three members of a hermit community from a local presbytery after they refused to continue distributing vicious anti-gay material, according to The Tablet.
3) On America‘s blog, Nathan Schneider gave a positive review to “Owning Our Faith,” a short film produced by the LGBT ministry at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church, Manhattan. Bondings 2.0’s very favorable review can be found by clicking here.
4) Some graduating seniors at LeMoyne College, a Jesuit school in Syracuse, N.Y., will be protesting the school’s commencement speech this year, which is to be given by N.Y.C.’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan, according to TWCnews.com. Dolan’s record of being critical of LGBT equality is part of the motivation for the students’ protest.
5) At the annual March for Marriage in Washington, DC, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, who is president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, spoke against marriage equality for lesbian and gay couples, calling it “the greatest social experiment of our time,” according to The Catholic Sun. Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, also attended the rally and gave the opening prayer.
–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry
I wonder if the Northampton post should have said they refused to stop distributing anti-LGBT emails.