Celebrating 7 Years of Catholic LGBT Blogging!

Bondings 2.0 turns seven years old this week.  Whew!  I’m pretty amazed that this project, which I thought would be a diversion from regular work, has developed into a diverse resource for news, information, opinions, spiritual reflection, and research.  I’m always amazed to hear from people how important a place in their lives the blog posts have become.  Many have told me that the first thing they do every morning is read the post which arrives in their email box.  Students have told me that they use the blog for researching their academic papers.  Pastoral ministers tell me that they send blog posts containing good news to people who feel alienated from the church because of LGBT issues. Journalists have said they use it not only to keep up on the news, but to investigate the background material of breaking news stories.  A number of people have told me that they use the blog content in their daily prayer rituals.

We’re celebrating the blog’s seventh birthday today (the actual date is Wednesday, November 28th) because today is Giving Tuesday, a day set apart during the holiday shopping season for people to stop and consider making a donation to a cause or organization they support.  The blog birthday is the only time of the year when we ask you to contribute to help keep this free resource going.  Your support would go a long way to keeping the news and information coming to you every day, which we have done every single day since November 28th, 2011.  That’s a record we are quite proud of, especially since our staff is so small and involved in producing other programs and resources.

Would you consider supporting the blog by making a donation today?  It’s as easy as clicking here and filling out our online form. Or you can send a check made to  “New Ways Ministry” to 4012  29th Street, Mount Rainier, Maryland 20712.  Every little bit of  your tax-deductible donation can help.  However you donate, please be sure to let us know it’s for Bondings 2.o by writing  “Blog” in the “Comments” box of the online form or on the memo line of your check.  We are so grateful for your support!

If you are an employee of the U.S. federal government, you can make a contribution through the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) at your worksite.  Our CFC number is 11699.

If you can’t donate financially, you can support the blog by letting your friends know about this resource and encourage them to subscribe.

The blog birthday is also a time to look back at how far we have come.  Here’s a list of some of the blog’s major accomplishments of the last year:

• “The Many Faces of Pope Francis: A Five-Year Timeline of His LGBT Record” is a comprehensive record of Pope Francis’ LGBT-related statements and actions, which can be viewed chronologically or according to five key categories. The timeline is also available as a separate resource on the website, which you can find here.
• LGBT Acceptance Survey: In response to a GLAAD report that showed LGBT acceptance in the U.S. declined for the first time since 2014, we posted our own survey about LGBT acceptance in the Catholic Church during that time period. You can find the poll results here.
• Fr. James Martin Interview: We published one of Fr. James Martin’s first interviews about the second edition of his book, Building a Bridge, that was released in March. You can read that interview here.
• What Makes a Family Holy?: For the Feast of the Holy Family, we invited blog readers to submit photos of their “holy family” and answer the question “What makes a family holy?” in just three words. You can see their responses here.
• Spiritual Reflections: We have continued with guest spiritual reflections for Advent and Lent. Last year, our Advent theme was “‘Fear Not to Cry Out’: Challenging White Supremacy and Anti-LGBT Prejudices to Prepare the Way for Our God.” You can find posts from that series here. Starting next Sunday, we will introduce a new kind of Advent reflection section–one where YOU, the readers, do the reflecting!  Check back here next Sunday to see what we mean!
• World Meeting of Families:  We had press credentials to this Vatican-sponsored event in Dublin his past summer, and we produced 20 posts in eight days. At the daily press briefings, we were able to raise questions about LGBT exclusion from the event.  Check out our coverage here.
• Vatican Synod on Young People, the Faith, and Vocational Discernment:  Having received press credentials again for this Vatican meeting of bishops from around the globe, we produced daily posts throughout the month of October, providing in-depth coverage of how LGBT issues were–and were not–being discussed at the event.  You can read all the posts here.

These are in addition to the many great guest posts we’ve had from theologians, advocates, pastoral ministers, LGBT Catholics, and other newsmakers.

We are grateful for the support of Bondings 2.0 from our loyal readership!  Thanks for being a part of this online community through your thoughts, suggestions, and comments.  We would greatly appreciate any donation you can provide to help us keep making this resource viable and free for all!  It’s as easy as clicking here to donate.

Many thanks!  And Happy 7th Birthday to us all!

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, November 27, 2018