On Synodality and Awakening
Are we awake? Is the Church awake? Is the Church a foolish bridesmaid or a wise one?
Yunuen Trujillo (she/her/hers) is a Catholic lay minister, a faith-based Community Organizer, and an Immigration Attorney. As a lay minister, she has served in Young Adult Ministry for more than 15 years and now serves in inclusive Catholic LGBT Ministry. Yunuen is a regular speaker at the yearly Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, a Congress that draws about 30,000+ attendants from all over the world, where she teaches about inclusive LGBT Ministry. As a community organizer, she has worked with L.A. Voice PICO, a faith-based, multi-faith, multi-racial organization that works to create a society that reflects the Dignity of all persons; working on issues such as immigrant rights, education, and criminal justice reform. Yunuen is also the founder of the Instagram @lgbtcatholics, an online platform of resources for Catholic LGBT Ministry, and she is the Religious Formation Coordinator (Sp) for the Catholic Ministry with Lesbian and Gay Persons of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. She is the author of the upcoming book "LGBT Catholics: A Guide for Inclusive Ministry," which is being published in Spring 2022 by Paulist Press.
Are we awake? Is the Church awake? Is the Church a foolish bridesmaid or a wise one?
When it came time to take Communion, I walked in line to receive, wearing my rainbow ribbon, now happily married. “Will my friend deny me the Eucharist? Will he hesitate?”
Let us rejoice in the movement of the Holy Spirit through Pope Francis, but let’s also remember that it is the Holy Spirit — not the pope or any other leader— who is moving this Church and the entire world in a more loving, inclusive, and welcoming direction for LGBTQ people.
What is Jesus really saying to LGBTQ Catholics and allies when he speaks of carrying our cross?
The time when LGBTQ Catholics had to leave the Church to be safe or to not make others uncomfortable is over. This is our rightful home, we are here to stay.
It is not a matter of if the Church will one day fully celebrate us as Children of God; it is a matter of when. The Holy Spirit cannot be contained.
Jesus tells us that, whenever a person strikes us in one cheek, we should offer the other cheek. Wait, what?
We must connect more and more with our human nature, with ourselves, and with those different than us so that our idea of God becomes more expansive.
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!
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