Singapore’s Cardinal-Designate Seeks LGBTQ Welcome; And More News
Cardinal-designate William Goh of Singapore
The following are some items that may be of interest:
1) Cardinal-designate William Goh of Singapore listed LGBTQ people as among those who needed to be included in the church, making his remarks in a wide-ranging interview with Vatican News. Goh commented:
“We need to be compassionate, to feel with those who are struggling to live up to their faith. I like the Holy Father’s emphasis on compassion and inclusivity. Everybody must somehow be embraced by the Church, whether those who are divorced, those who are LGBTQ, those who are on the peripheries, the poor. And I think this is what the Church is all about.”
This welcoming statement comes just months after Goh stated his opposition to repealing the nation’s law criminalizing homosexuality, though called for non-enforcement of it and said LGBTQ should not be marginalized. He will be created a cardinal at the upcoming consistory on August 27th.
2) Fr. Jeff Eppler, pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in Grafton, North Dakota, published a comment in the parish bulletin that encouraged parents to not send their children to a nearby Lutheran Bible camp because a transgender minister and other LGBTQ-affirming leaders were included on the speakers list. Eppler stated the camp could “no longer be trusted to promote genuine Christian morality” as a result. The trans minister has since withdrawn from the camp.
3) A field trip to see the new Disney movie Lightyear was cancelled by St. Clare of Assisi Catholic Elementary School in Hamilton, Ontario because school leaders said the film included “questionable content,” likely a scene of a lesbian couple kissing briefly. That scene has elicited criticism from LGBTQ-negative political leaders in the U.S., and has caused it to be banned in some countries.The field trip later took students to see another movie, reported CTV News.
4) The final season of Killing Eve, a television show featuring a lesbian protagonist, was negatively reviewed in America, in part because the reviewer, Sarah Vincent, said it fell into a “bury the gays” trope, whereby LGBTQ characters are more easily killed or removed than their straight and cisgender counterparts. For another take, see Elise Dubravec’s review for Bondings 2.0 that celebrates the shows as queer-affirming.
5) Stan “JR” Zerkowski, the executive director of Fortunate Families, published a memoir titled Coming Out and Coming Home. Zerkowski, who also heads LGBTQ ministry in the Diocese of Lexington, said his reason for writing the memoir was so people see, “There is hope, there is light at the end of the tunnel.” Lexington’s Bishop John Stowe wrote the foreword, according to the Bay Area Reporter.
—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, July 25, 2022
He recently appointed a Courage priest. That coupled with what’s menyioned, his support for keeping homosexuality criminalised, says enough.
The Cardinal from Ghana wants the same thing. The one from East Timor spoke of ‘LGBT’ lobby groups as if they were a threat.
Why will Francis make these men cardinals?