75% of Dutch Catholics Support Marriage Equality in the Church; And Other News

The following are some items that may be of interest:

1) A new survey of Catholics in the Netherlands finds that “[t]hree-quarters of active Catholics said they are in favor of women in the priesthood and LGBTQI+ marriage in the church,” reported NL Times. Notably, even with  wide differences between the responses of Dutch lay people and those of  church leaders on questions of gender and sexuality, just 8 percent of people surveyed said they would ever leave the church because of this divide.”

2) Bahaghari (Rainbow), an LGBTQ group in the Philippines, commended Pope Francis for calling on parents to support and accompany gay children. UCA News quoted the group’s statement, which included a note that even while there is “still a long way to go,” Francis’ words were helpful and healing.

3) A set of Catholic parents in Florida are suing their child’s school district after the child, who was questioning their gender identity, attempted suicide twice. The lawsuit contends that educators allegedly concealed evidence about therapy they offered to the child. The parents, who were not supportive of their child’s gender issues, claim that school officials withheld that information because the parents are Catholics. More information on the lawsuit is available at The Hill.

4) Amy Schneider, the transgender Jeopardy contestant who won nearly $1.4 million dollars on the game show, shared in The New York Times about her Catholic upbringing and her experience seeing Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day in 2002. According to Schneider, she camped out with family members in a field where it began raining in the middle of the night. She commented of her life now, “Whenever it gets bad, I think, ‘I’m not lying in a field in the rain.'”

5) Emmanuel Campos Gonzalez, a gay Catholic, has brought an employment discrimination suit against a non-profit organization called World Relief, an Evangelical agency. Campos Gonzalez claims the agency withdrew a job offer when it found out about his same-gender marriage. The full story is available at Religion News Service.

6) The Washington Blade ran a profile on CUAllies, the unofficial LGBTQ student group at The Catholic University of America. The group has advocated for recognition from the university for more than a decade. While some resources for LGBTQ students have been implemented at the school, the Blade article makes clear how much work is left.

—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, February 26, 2022