NEWS NOTES: Parish Supports Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” Charity; Other News
Here are some items that may be of interest:
1) The Gay Fellowship of Blessed Sacrament Church in New York City recently hosted a dance party, “Moving with the Spirit.” Proceeds from the event benefited the Born This Way Foundation, Lady Gaga’s charity for youth empowerment named after her LGBT-related song “Born This Way,” and the Ali Forney Center in New York City that helps shelter LGBT youth experiencing homelessness.
2) Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, criticized Bishop Thomas Paprocki’s latest discriminatory action that seeks to deny Communion to LGBT people, allies, and others in the church. Duddy-Burke said of the video in which he defends his decision, “What we seek is not for others to be subject to banishment and exclusion, as we too often have been.” She added, “Banning people from the sacramental table and. . .from the rituals that provide comfort and consolation at the time of death, are egregious violations of . . . pastoral responsibility.”
3) The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement critical of the nation’s Bill C-16 law passed in June which adds gender identity and gender expression as protected classes in the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code. The bishops’ response was moderate, opening with a statement that transgender people deserve “compassion, respect, and love” because they are made in God’s image.
4) A right-wing Catholic organization in Chile clashed with police after bringing two buses with anti-LGBT messages on their sides into Santiago. LGBT groups were present to counter-protest, bringing their own “diversity bus,” after which the 300 or so people gathered began to fight. Police had to intervene with tear gas and water cannons to get the crowd to disperse.
5) An author in England claimed a Catholic school cancelled an educational event with her because she is a transgender woman. Juno Dawson was scheduled to speak about her latest book, Margot and Me, at Brownedge St. Mary’s Catholic High School in Preston. Buzzfeed reported that the school “had previously been widely commended for its work on LGBT issues.” The school said the cancellation occurred because of the book’s content, though it was not specified what the offending content was.
—Robert Shine, New Ways Ministry, July 30, 2017
“The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops released a statement critical of the nation’s Bill C-16 law passed in June which adds gender identity and gender expression as protected classes in the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code. The bishops’ response was moderate, opening with a statement that transgender people deserve “compassion, respect, and love” because they are made in God’s image.”
Moderate? That’s what bishops’ conferences have been saying about LGB people all along. While at the same time they attack any legal recognition of us or our rights.
You know, I’m starting to come to the conclusion that ALL of us ought to boycott participation in Eucharistic Communion — as an act of solidarity with our GLBT family members and friends, who are being wrongfully denied such participation by Paprocki and his kindred trolls. I happen personally to have been celibate for nearly two decades. But I still can’t justify claiming a “privilege” which is being forbidden to our brothers and sisters who are living in faithfully bonded relationships, regardless of their incidental XX or XY chromosomal status. The spiritual damage that Paprocki and his misguided cohorts in the House of Bishops are inflicting upon the Universal Church is simply beyond all reckoning. I believe he’s got some serious explaining to do, when he gets summoned to his “Life Review Hearings” at the Heavenly Court.