NEWS NOTES: March 3, 2016

computer_key_Quotation_MarksHere are some news items that you might find of interest:

1) A U.S. Marine was convicted of killing Jennifer Laude, a trans woman in the Philippines killed in 2014.  Joseph Scott Pemberton, received lessened charges due to a successful “trans panic” defense. Laude’s murder drew international attention, in part because of Catholic leaders spoke out strongly against the crime. The local bishop provided Laude a funeral respectful of her gender identity, and top religious leaders publicly advocated for justice in what they acknowledged was an anti-trans hate crime.

2) Archbishop Thomas Gullickson, a conservative U.S. prelate who is now the new Vatican nuncio to Switzerland, has said bishops were “only making themselves unpopular” by opposing marriage equality. While stating that the church could never change its teaching, Gullickson said this reality “doesn’t mean that one hates those who are of a different opinion,” according to the National Catholic Reporter.

3) Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, eulogized David Bowie in The Tablet. Ravasi, who tweeted Bowie lyrics when news of the musician’s death broke, said Bowie, made “the souls of all those with a restless conscience vibrate.”

4) Laurie Goodstein’s  New York Times July 2015 story about how LGBT Catholics to Pope Francis was nominated for a GLAAD Award for “Outstanding Newspaper Article.” Her piece featured quotations Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry, Deb Word of Fortunate Families, Lui Masuo of Call to Action, and Marianne Duddy-Burke of DignityUSA.

5) The St. Vincent de Paul Society in Ireland folded a fund committee in Galway which incited controversy last year after granting €45,000 to Amach! LGBT Galway, a resource center in the city, reported The Irish Times.

6)  Gary Meier,  an openly gay Catholic priest, published an open letter on The Huffington Post to gay men in the Catholic priesthood after the question of gay priests rose to prominence via an article last month in The Washington Post. Meier said he lived in the same “culture of silence and shame” that gay priests may currently exist in, but called on them to come out despite the fear and risks. You can read his letter here.

–Bob Shine, New Ways Ministry

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