U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh has signed a petition by Boston College students calling for their university to establish an LGBTQ resource center and add gender identity to the university non-discrimination policy. In a related story, students from the same school have organized a petition opposing the Vatican’s ban on blessing same-gender couples.
Pope Francis has pushed ajar the door for the organic development of Catholic sexual teaching. It will require courageous bishops, pastors, laity, and LGBTQ individuals to work to push that door wide open. . .
s LGBT Catholics and allies it is hard sometimes to believe that one day we might get to the point as a society and as a Church where the lives and journeys of LGBT persons are not only tolerated, but celebrated!
Catholic leaders need to move beyond using doctrine as a cover for bigotry and imagine new ways that our tradition might inspire schools to treat LGBTQ members with dignity. The principle of “participation” from Catholic social teaching can be particularly helpful, and Catholic Schools Week provides an appropriate time to reflect on it.
Perhaps God uses those who appear the most implausible as a powerful reminder that we are all the least likely.
I see the Rainbow Christ who mirrors the image of God in all of us. I see the fragility of our life. I see eyes of love, compassion, inclusiveness and peace.
The message of the Epiphany is about universal inclusiveness. There’s no ambiguity in the story, no one at the door checking ID, no Point of Entry, no test of orthodoxy, no loyalty oaths.
During this Christmas season, many of us may be trying to wrap our hearts and minds around recent challenges and losses, especially those linked to the pandemic or the polarization in the U.S. The story of the birth of Jesus invites reflection on how God meets us not only in the high moments, the joys, but especially and precisely in messy, difficult realities.
Despite the depictions on countless greeting cards and stained glass windows, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus did not truly resemble a stereotypical modern, white, suburban family.
As Pope Francis has consistently emphasized, mercy encounters persons and their needs, not their moral infractions. When Catholic families and communities learn to see others with these eyes, new horizons in how we imagine the extent and diversity of our families may well unfold.