Bishop Calls Transgender Day of Visibility a “Source of Division”; And More News

Today’s post includes news about the closure of the homophobic website Church Militant, one U.S. bishop’s objections to Transgender Day of Visibility, and more.

1. The virulently anti-LGBTQ+ website “Church Militant” and its media operations will close this month after internal conflicts and an expensive defamation lawsuit. In February, Church Militant’s founder, Michael Voris, resigned after revelations he had engaged in explicit messaging with other men, and possibly harassed employees at the company. Voris and his colleagues have viciously attacked church leaders, and even parish-level LGBTQ+ church workers, sometimes leading to real life aggression and violence.

2.  Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington said President Joe Biden’s recognition of Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) was “offensive to many people and unnecessary,” given the day coincided with Easter Sunday. Burbidge said on his podcast, “Walk Humbly,” that he was “extremely, extremely disappointed” by politicians celebrating transgender people, a message, in his words, “that is political, it is, and a source of division.” Indeed, the bishop suggested that TDOV, which has been celebrated on March 31st since 2009, actually should have been transferred to another day because of Easter. He also criticized the lack of religious symbols at the White House’s Easter egg roll, despite that being the policy for nearly five decades. Burbidge is one of the U.S. episcopate’s most fervent opponents of LGBTQ+ rights, including having released harsh anti-transgender guidelines for his diocese in 2021.

3. Outreach, America Media’s LGBTQ+ resource, announced its first executive director, gay Catholic journalist Michael O’Loughlin, reported Gay City News. The organization was founded in 2021 by Fr. James Martin, SJ, and it is an extension of the LGBTQ+ ministry work he began after publishing Building a Bridge, a book based on the address he gave when receiving New Ways Ministry’s Bridge Building Award in 2016. For his part, O’Loughlin, who is the former national editor at America, said the position was “an opportunity to highlight the ways LGBT people can be Catholic and active in parishes, ministries and charities.”

4. The Holy Synod of Catholic Bishops in Greece, which serves as the nation’s episcopal conference, condemned the adoption of marriage equality by Greek legislators. Archbishop Josif Printezis of Naxos, Andros, Tinos and Mykonos, as head of the conference, said it would “cause us a lot of problems when it comes to baptisms and access to sacraments,” and that while Catholics “believe in equality,” same-gender couples were unlikely to be accepted. Previously in January, the Greek bishops issued a statement ahead of legislators’ vote on the law that said marriage equality was “a setback to our legal culture, to morals and culture in general — it marks a point of decline for Greek society.”

5. For the second time, a drag performer in the Philippines was arrested for a performance of the Lord’s Prayer that some deemed scandalous. Pura Luka Vega’s performance went viral last year, leading to the first arrest for blasphemy in October—after which, the performer, whose real name is Amadeus Fernando Pagente, said “drag is not a crime.” Human rights advocates have appealed for Vega’s release and the dropping of charges, which, if they lead to a conviction, could mean Vega goes to prison for up to 12 years. According to LGBTQ Nation, “Pagente told AFP they are a devout Catholic, and the Lord’s Prayer performance was meant to ‘reignite’ a sense of faith among LGBTQ people shunned by the Church.”

—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, April 6, 2024