History Shows Church Leaders’ Rigid Sex Binary Is “Theological Choice,” Argues Scholar
(Phoebe Carstens. New Ways Ministry)
Gender fluidity was once recognized within the Catholic Church, and today’s rigid adherence to a sex binary by some church leaders is a “theological choice,” not an absolute truth, argues one scholar
U.S. Bishops’ New Sexuality Website Fails to Account for LGBTQ+ Perspectives, Advocates Say
(Robert Shine, Managing. New Ways Ministry)
What do LGBTQ+ Catholics and allies think about the U.S. bishops’ conference new website defending marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution?
Some LGBTQ-Positive Members Appointed to Synod Study Groups
(Robert Shine. New Ways Ministry).
When the Vatican released the Synod on Synodality’s latest working document two weeks ago, it also published the members for the previously-established study groups addressing specific questions raised during the synodal process.
LGBTQ+ Ministry Book Wins Catholic Publishing Award
(Robert Shine. New Ways Ministry).
The Association of Catholic Publishers recognized a book on LGBTQ+ ministry as part of its 2024 Excellence in Publishing Awards. The book, New Ways and Next Steps: Developing Parish LGBTQ+ Ministry, authored by New Ways Ministry’s executive director, Francis DeBernardo, and published by Liturgical Press, tied for second place in the”Resources for Ministry” category.
New Synod Document Offers Hope for LGBTQ+ Issues: Some Excerpts
(Robert Shine. New Ways Ministry).
The Vatican released the latest working document for the Synod on Synodality, a text that will guide the second, and final, session of the synod’s General Assembly, to be held in Rome in October.
New Ways Ministry: Synod Document Opens Door for Greater LGBTQ+ Inclusion
(New Ways Ministry. Francis DeBernardo).
Today, the Vatican released the latest working document for the Synod on Synodality. This document, known as the Instrumentum Laboris, will guide deliberations at the Synod’s final General Assembly in Rome this October. This week, Bondings 2.0 will provide ongoing coverage about the document and its reception, beginning with the following statement.
Even without specific mention of LGBTQ+ issues, the latest working document for the Synod on Synodality opens the door for greater inclusion in the Catholic Church, if Catholics commit to living its vision.
(New Ways Ministry).
The U.S. bishops’ spring meeting is generally not a newsmaker, and indeed, has sometimes just been a private retreat. This June, however, was far more controversial than usual, and often for LGBTQ-related reasons. Today’s post provides updates on some of the speeches and votes relevant to gender and sexuality issues. Study on Transgender Vowed Religious Convened Responding to news that Lexington’s Bishop John Stowe, OFM, Conv., had received the vows of a transgender diocesan hermit, Br. Christian Matson, the chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance said the committee would prepare a study of the issue of transgender vowed religious. Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illiniois, the committee chair and one of the episcopal conference’s most LGBTQ-negative members, told Our Sunday Visitor that the issue “is now on our agenda” as some bishops have requested “a clear analysis that will give the doctrinal and canonical guidelines.” Already, a “preliminary discussion” by the committee had found an “initial consensus” that “it’s not really possible for a (transgender) person to be admitted to the role of a hermit or consecrated life if they are not repentant of what they’ve done.” Paprocki denied this study was related to any particular bishop’s actions.
(New Ways Ministry. Gregory Greiten).
Before attending the theater with a friend last March, we enjoyed dinner at the Saint Kate-The Arts Hotel in Milwaukee. As we wandered the lobby, enjoying the art decorating the walls, we stumbled upon an exhibit room entitled, “The Closet.” Taking a peek inside the small room, I lightheartedly said to my friend, “I am going to step back into the closet. Would you take my picture to capture this moment?” As I momentarily stepped into the closet exhibit, my friend snapped the picture. I quickly leaped out of the closet remarking to him, “I spent way too many years of my life locked up in the closet. I don’t ever wish to go back.” After coming out of the closet publicly as a Roman Catholic priest in December 2017, I have finally been able to live authentically and with integrity, no longer being silenced by our Church leaders, but being truthful about who I am. As we end Pride Month, I want to offer love and support to those in the LGBTQ+ community who let their lights shine brightly for others to see, especially to those who may have stepped out of the closet, but also to those who are unable to come out because of the real negative consequences they would have to endure.
(New Ways Ministry. Ariell Watson Simon).
LGBTQ+ Catholics are “the church’s future saints,” says Angela, a woman interviewed in a National Catholic Reporter article that featured the voices of queer Catholic women. Angela says of the LGBTQ+ faithful, “Every voice around them in the church and outside of the church tells them that they don’t really belong ….[T]o be able to ignore that and stay focused on Christ is saintly, I think.”
Reporter Emily Claire Schmitt gathered the stories of queer women who, like Angela, understand and live their sexuality in a variety of ways, showcasing the spectrum of experiences among LGBTQ+ Catholic women. “Without exception,” Schmitt, who is a queer Catholic, concludes, “every woman I spoke with had read the catechism — as well as additional church documents on the subject — and understood that the church does not view sex-same desire as inherently sinful, but considers same-sex acts sinful. However, the women differed on whether or not they accepted this teaching.” Those interviewed include women in queer partnerships, living celibately, and in mixed-orientation marriages.
(New Ways Ministry. Brian Flanagan).
For many theologians, June, in addition to being Pride Month, is a month of conferences. As the academic year ends, we take trains, planes, and automobiles to the meetings of the College Theology Society (CTS), the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACHTUS), the Catholic Theological Society of America (CTSA), and others. You can spot us in airports, dragging a carry-on full of books and muttering to ourselves about not getting enough work done, or on trains finishing our last PowerPoint slides for the meeting. Part of my work at New Ways Ministry has been connecting and supporting the work of fellow LGBTQ+ Catholic theologians, and this year’s conference season has felt like a watershed moment for our presence and our voice in the church and academy in the United States. Discussions of LGBTQ+ issues and gatherings of LGBTQ+ theologians have happened at such meetings before, including an important CTSA panel on the important perspectives of LGBTQ+ theologians of color in 2023, and the establishment of an LGBTQ+ caucus at CTS that same year.
(Sarah Cassidy. New Way Ministry).
Beyond the rainbows and glitter everywhere on display at Rome’s Pride celebrations this year, one could also find papal hats, Vatican T-shirts, and cardboard cutouts of Pope Francis in great abundance throughout the Eternal City.
(New Ways Ministry. Robert Shine).
A Filipino student has cautioned Pope Francis against using derogatory language about LGBTQ+ people, coming after reports the pope twice used an anti-gay slur. Last week, Pope Francis joined twelve students from the Asia-Pacific region for a Zoom conversation, part of the Building Bridges Initiative from Loyola University Chicago and several Vatican dicasteries. At one point during the conversation, Catholic News Service (via OSV) reported:
(New Ways Ministry. Angela Howard-McParland).
An extensive report by the National Catholic Reporter details how two anti-transgender groups have been building influence and shaping diocesan policies for several years, especially those written for Catholic schools. NCR’s Katie Collins Scott focused her investigation on the efforts of the Person and Identity Project, a part of the larger anti-LGBTQ+ Ethics and Public Policy Center, as well as the Cardinal Newman Society, a conservative group largely known for its attempts to police Catholic colleges and universities. According to NCR’s investigation, the groups began influencing Catholic policy around 2016 when then-president of the Ethics & Public Policy Center Ed Whelan spoke out in support of a North Carolina law preventing transgender individuals from using restrooms aligned with their gender. To counter trans acceptance, Whelan and the Center created the Catholic Women’s Forum Gender Project, a precursor to the Person and Identity Project, to “respond to the challenges of gender ideology.”
(New ways ministry. Robert Shine).
The debate over LGBTQ+ issues and Canada’s Catholic schools, particularly how to mark Pride Month, has roiled those publicly-funded Catholic school systems for years. A hallmark of this debate has been votes on whether to fly rainbow flags in June. With the school year concluding, today’s post features four news stories where communities have resisted anti-LGBTQ+ efforts to quell celebrations, and have instead endorsed Pride.
Catholic Elementary School Offers Pride Day Celebrations
For the third year, St. Denis Catholic School, Toronto, hosted a daylong celebration of Pride that included an assembly with pro-LGBTQ+ presentations, a hoisting of the rainbow flag, a dance party, and “a visit to the school from an ice cream truck [where] rainbow sprinkles are on the menu,” reported Beach Metro Community News. Parents and older students were invited to a film screening of With Wonder, an award-winning documentary about whether someone can be Christian and queer. A conversation with the director, Sharon Lewis, was held after the film.
(New Ways Ministry. Sarah Cassidy).
The Diocese of Lexintgon, Kentucky, led by Bishop John Stowe, has reaffirmed its support for a vowed diocesan hermit who recently came out as transgender, acknowledging “his witness of discipleship, integrity and contemplative prayer for the Church.” On Pentecost Sunday, Brother Christian Matson, a hermit Kentucky who made vows to Stowe, announced that he is transgender. The Lexington diocese responded positively to the announcement with a brief statement: “On Pentecost Sunday, Brother Christian Matson, a professed hermit in the Diocese of Lexington, has made it public that he is a transgender person. Brother Christian has long sought to consecrate his life to Christ in the Church by living the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. He has consistently been accompanied by a competent spiritual director and has undergone formation in the Benedictine tradition. He does not seek ordination, but has professed a rule of life that allows him to support himself financially by continuing his work in the arts and to live a life of contemplation in a private hermitage. Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv., accepted his profession and is grateful to Brother Christian for his witness of discipleship, integrity and contemplative prayer for the Church.”
(New Ways Ministry. Sarah Cassidy).
The Diocese of Buffalo has cancelled a scheduled concert by the city’s gay chorus, which was scheduled to be held at the local cathedral as part of a city-wide choral festival. However, some Catholics, including a U.S. congressman, have pushed back.
The Buffalo Gay Men’s Chorus was set to perform at St. Joseph’s Cathedral as part of an event by the Greater Buffalo Friends of Music, which also had invited several other singing groups. However, the Buffalo diocese eventually decided not to host the concert because “a choir identified to perform is a group whose values are inconsistent with Catholic teaching.” A diocesan spokesperson later confirmed that referred to the gay men’s chorus.
The Buffalo Gay Men’s Chorus issued a statement expressing its frustration with the diocese’s lack of inclusion, posting on Facebook:
“The Buffalo Gay Men’s Chorus is angered and deeply disappointed to learn the Choral Festival scheduled on Sunday, June 9th at St. Joseph Cathedral, was to be cancelled by the Catholic Diocese, in part due to the inclusion of the Buffalo Gay Men’s Chorus.”
(New Ways Ministry. Phoebe Carstens).
In the National Catholic Reporter, a recent profile of a New York City parish highlighted its efforts to be widely inclusive, including of LGBTQ+ people.
The Church of St. Francis Xavier in Manhattan’s West Village neighborhood was the subject of NCR’s report about how the parish is redefining what acceptance in the church means.
According to NCR, “over the past 40 years since, it has stood out among others in the New York Archdiocese for its pastoral activities aimed at LGBTQ parishioners’ inclusion, its constant liturgical and eucharistic renewal to make the sacraments more accessible to everyone, and its mission to fight racism, poverty, hunger and homelessness.”
That commitment to greater LGBTQ+ inclusion is evident through dedicated small groups, educational programs, liturgical choices, and elements of the physical sacred space. For example, there is a small side altar consecrated as a memorial for those who have died of HIV/AIDS. The altar is dedicated to Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, patron of, among other things, AIDS patients and caregivers. For 10 years, the parish hosted “Gonzaga Group,” a place of spiritual support for LGBTQ+ parishioners living with HIV/AIDS. And in 1986, St. Francis Xavier was the first U.S. Catholic parish to hold a memorial service for a man who had died of AIDS.
(New Ways Ministry. Kevin Molloy).
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has released its next national synthesis for the Synod on Synodality, and the document notes the passionate tensions among U.S. Catholics, including disagreements over LGBTQ+ issues.
The National Synthesis of the People of God in the United States of America for the Interim Stage of the 2021-2024 Synod, drawn from over 1,000 listening sessions involving 35,000-plus participants, reported that participants articulated two hopes for Catholicism: that it be a church of “Safe Harbor of certainty and openness and prophetic mystery [which] is at the heart of our Fiery Communion.”
As a church of Safe Harbor, the USCCB acknowledges that many participants in listening sessions believe the “‘Church is at its best when it’s warm, welcoming, and focuses on community building and doing more for other people’ (Region XII).” The report recognizes, too, that the church is a vastly diverse community, and U.S. Catholics want to focus on diverse community building. The report stated:
(New Ways Ministry. P. Jos Moons, SJ).
Should gay men be admitted to seminaries? Can they be ordained? During a recent conversation with Italy’s bishops, the Pope has said “no.” I am not sure that “no” is the best answer. Unfortunately, a calm conversation on the matter is difficult.
Pope Francis’ comments about gay priests and his use of an offensive term have brought the question of gay men in the priesthood into the spotlight once again. Let’s begin analyzing his remarks by noting that insults and disrespectful comments never serve a good cause. This rule applies equally even to Pope Francis. The disrespectful language he used indicates that, in this regard, he is still in need of conversion—that is, adopting a new mindset. Apparently his 2013 remark, “Who am I to judge?” has not been fully integrated into his way of thinking. But he has apologized, which is a good start.
(Robert Shine. New Ways Ministry).
In what is perhaps an historical first, a diocesan hermit has come out as transgender, and has done so with the support of his local bishop. The hermit’s hope is to expand what gender-diverse Catholics understand to be possible for them in the church.
On Pentecost Sunday,Brother Christian Matson publicly announced he was trans. His bishop is Bishop John Stowe, OFM, Conv., of Lexington Kentucky, who as been a vocal supporter of LGBTQ+ people.
“Matson, who is also a Benedictine oblate, believes he is the first openly transgender person in his position in the Catholic Church. It is a difficult claim to confirm — even Stowe told RNS he did not know for sure if Matson is the first — but Matson’s status is at least highly unusual, and comes at time when church officials are grappling with how to address transgender Catholics.