LGBTQ advocates say many Catholic secondary schools are working to support students. But they also believe there's a harmful trend: new diocesan-approved policies or guidelines on gender identity and sexual orientation.
LGBTQ Catholics are still processing the recent denial of church blessings to people in same-sex unions. Many are also watching a Supreme Court case that continues a national debate over LGBTQ rights versus claims of religious liberty.
More than 100 vehicles parked across from Indianapolis' Catholic Center for a socially distant "Rally for Equality Caravan," calling on the archbishop to roll back new Catholic school policies on transgender students.
Frank D'Amore, director of the local group for LGBT Catholics, said that despite the archdiocesan mandate, Dignity Detroit will continue. "We're not having liturgy because of the virus. But we are alive and well."
Grace on the Margins: The Detroit chapter of Dignity has been expelled from its sacred space during a pandemic, a time in which our senses of space, location and home are already in disorienting flux.
Dignity was founded in 1969 in San Diego by Fr. Patrick Nidorf, an Augustinian priest and psychologist who felt that the pastoral needs of his city's gay Catholic community were being ignored.
Perspective: As faithful Catholics committed to full equality, we came to speak, to listen, to be seen and to be heard. The buttons we passed out said it best: "It's our church too."
German Cardinal Reinhard Marx seems to recognize that the church is failing many. But his case-by-case approach only reinforces the church's inability to fully embrace LGBTQI people.
The Field Hospital: The online petition responds to a recent advisory to priests from the vicar general, discouraging Catholic funerals for those in same-sex relationships.
