Award for Bishop Barron Criticized; And Other News Items

Here are some items you might find of interest:

Bishop Robert Barron

1. The diocesan lay council of the Diocese of Munster, Germany, are criticizing the decision by the Josef Pieper Foundation to present their top award to Bishop Robert Barron, of the U.S. Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, because of previous anti-LGBTQ+ statements he has made, and because of his public support for Donald Trump’s anti-transgender policies, according to Katholisch.de. The Foundation and prize are named after a German philosopher. You can read the statement of the diocesan council by clicking here.

2. Once again, the almost exclusively Catholic nation of Malta (98% of the population is Catholic) took first place in ILGA-Europe’s ranking of the most LGBTQ-friendly nations in the small continent, according to The Advocate. A quotation from the ILGA report said: “A survey conducted by the EU [European Union] Agency for Human Rights revealed that 62 percent of LGBTI people in Malta feel comfortable disclosing their sexual orientation, surpassing the EU average of 51 percent.”  The island nation has long been recognized by a number of organizations and publications, including Bondings 2.0, as being among the most LGBTQ-friendly in the world.

Allison Connelly-Vetter

3. Allison Connelly-Vetter, a contributor to New Ways Ministry’s Bondings 2.0, wrote an Ascension Day reflection for U.S. Catholic, focusing on the goodness of the human body.  In the essay, she observes:

“. . . [I]f the fully human body of Jesus can enter heaven, the holiest of holy places, surely there is an intrinsic goodness in human bodies. And not just in flawless, gorgeous, fit bodies, but in disabled bodies, like Jesus’, who was disabled by crucifixion. In bodies of those killed by state violence, as Jesus was by the Roman Empire. In the bodies of those who, like Jesus, are tortured, traumatized, and publicly humiliated by people with power to prove a point.

“Sometimes, Catholic theology is interpreted in ways that degrade certain human bodies, especially those of people on the margins: those of LGBTQ+ people, or people who experience sexual violence, or people who have had abortions.”

4. Among the several affinity graduation ceremonies celebrated on the campus of Georgetown University, a Jesuit school in Washington, DC, was the Lavender Graduation for LGBTQ+ students, a tradition since 2009.  The ceremony included 93 graduate students and  71 undergraduates, according to The Georgetown Voice.  Student speaker Emery Moynihan told the graduates:

“We’re coming from different backgrounds and going down different paths, but we’re united by our queerness. Our queerness empowers us, it opens our eyes to be radically compassionate both in our community and outside of it.”

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, May 31, 2025