Call for Submissions: LGBTQ+ Catholics, Share Your Pride and Hope

Happy Pride Month from New Ways Ministry! We need your help to celebrate our Pride as LGBTQ+ Catholics in the Jubilee Year of Hope. As we mourn Pope Francis, we honor him by answering his call to become Pilgrims of Hope. Too often, LGBTQ+ Pride is criticized as spiritually flawed because of superficial or erroneous understandings of what “pride” is. This month we want to reclaim “pride” as a virtue, and as a great leavening agent provided to the universal church by its LGBTQ+ members.

We didn’t have to look far to do this. In fact, St. Paul has already done it for us, in the very same passage from his letter to the Romans from which Francis took the name for his papal bull declaring the current Holy Year (Spes non confundit). In the fifth chapter of his letter to the Romans, St. Paul writes:

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Emphases added).

This Pride Month we invite all LGBTQ+ Catholics to boast in their hope of the glory of God, in their afflictions, their proven character, their hope, and their hearts overflowing with the love of God (what a happy act of Providence that we get to celebrate Pride and the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the same month!).

What we ask:

• A 100-150 word reflection on your Pride Pilgrimage: what makes your proud to be an LGBTQ+ Catholic?; What sustains your Queer Catholic hope?
• The term or terms that identify you in the Catholic LGBTQ+ community (e.g. lesbian, nonbinary, ally, etc.)
• A one-sentence biographical statement explaining your connection to LGBTQ+ Catholic experience.
• OPTIONAL: Your parish or faith community, with your city, state, country.
• OPTIONAL: A portrait photo.

How will we use these materials?:

• Selected submissions will be shared on our blog and social media platforms.

How do you submit?:

• Complete this form by Sunday, June 15, 2025.