Tag: Vatican Spring

Posted on

Activists hope pope’s approval of same-sex blessings will ease anti-LGBTQ+ bias and repression

The Rev. Wolfgang Rothe, left, blesses Christine Walter, center, and Almut Muenster during a service in St. Benedict’s Church in Munich in 2021.

By NICOLE WINFIELD

Pope Francis’ green light for Catholic priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples is in many ways a recognition of what has been happening in some European parishes for years. But his decision to officially spell out his approval could send a message of tolerance to places where gay rights are far more restricted.

From Uganda to the United States, laws that discriminate against LGBTQ+ people or even criminalize homosexuality have increased in recent years, leaving communities feeling under attack. Pastors in some conservative Christian denominations, and the Catholic Church in particular, have sometimes supported such measures as consistent with biblical teaching about homosexuality.

In Zimbabwe, a country with a history of state harassment of LGBTQ+ people and a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, news of Francis’ approval was met with cautious optimism among activists.

But Chesterfield Samba, director of Zimbabwe’s GALZ association, which represents LGBTQ+ people, said same-sex unions would likely remain taboo regardless of the pope’s stance.

“Christians here are of the view that they are devoid of sin and cannot be aligned with LGBTQ+ people,” Samba told the Associated Press.

By contrast, a Catholic priest in the United States — Alex Santora of Hoboken, N.J. — was elated by the pope’s declaration, hoping it would clear the path for him to bless a same-sex couple who had been part of the parish throughout his 19-year tenure there.

The Vatican says gay people should be treated with dignity and respect but that homosexual acts are “intrinsically disordered.” Francis hasn’t changed that teaching, but he has spent much of his 10-year pontificate offering a more welcoming attitude to LGBTQ+ Catholics.

The Vatican statement Monday marked a new step in Francis’ campaign, explicitly authorizing priests to offer non-sacramental blessings to same-sex couples. The blessings must in no way resemble a wedding, which the church teaches can only happen between a man and a woman.

The Rev. Wolfgang Rothe, a German priest who participated in open worship services blessing same-sex couples in May 2021, said Tuesday that the approval essentially validated what he and other priests in Germany have been doing for years. But he suggested it would make life easier for homosexual couples in more conservative societies.

“In my church, such blessings always take place when anyone has the need,” Rothe said.

But “in many countries around the world there are opposing moves to maintain homophobia in the church,” he added. “For homosexual couples living there, the document will be a huge relief.”

In Nigeria, authorities arrested dozens of gay people in October in a crackdown that human rights groups said relied on a same-sex prohibition law.

Nigeria is among 30 of Africa’s 54 countries where homosexuality is criminalized with broad public support, though its constitution guarantees freedom from discrimination.

Uganda’s president this year signed into law anti-gay legislation that prescribes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” which is defined as sexual relations involving people infected with HIV, as well as with minors and other vulnerable people.

In the United States, the Human Rights Campaign has identified an “unprecedented and dangerous” spike in discriminatory laws sweeping statehouses this year, with more than 525 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced.

“Given the homophobic and transphobic climate created by many bishops in the United States, the average same-sex couple likely still won’t feel comfortable presenting themselves to their local bishop or priest to ask for a blessing,” said Jamie Manson, a lesbian and president of Catholics for Choice.

Starting from his famous “Who am I to judge” comment in 2013 about a purportedly gay priest, Francis has evolved his position to increasingly make clear that everyone is a child of God, is loved by God and welcome in the church.

In January, Francis told the Associated Press: “Being homosexual is not a crime.”

Raul Peña, a spokesman for Crismhom, Madrid’s main Catholic LGBTQ+ association, said small-town, conservative dioceses in rural Spain could benefit from Francis’ message.

“If the priest from your town talks about gays being the devil in his sermons each Sunday, which some priests do, now you have the pope signing a document saying that homosexuals who live as a couple can be blessed,” he said. “It’s a fundamental step for those hierarchies and for those people who are in places where being LGBT is difficult.”

Santora, pastor of the Church of Our Lady of Grace in New Jersey, said the pope’s declaration would be welcome in a parish that celebrates an annual Pride Mass and has many LGBTQ+ parishioners.

“This is a very important step, people realizing the church is finally recognizing the goodness of their lives,” he said.

Santora wants to set a date soon to bless a same-sex couple that has been part of the church for many years. Santora recently learned that they had yearned for his blessing but feared getting him in trouble.

“So this comes at the right time,” the priest said. “It’s a new way to set a date.”

Santora worries, though, that some gay and lesbian Catholic couples in the U.S. won’t be so fortunate.

“There are priests, many of them young, who are behind the times — they won’t do this,” he said. “It’s going to cause more hurt in some communities.”

Gary Stavella, a 70-year-old retiree, helps lead the LGBTQ+ outreach ministry at Our Lady of Grace.

He said he was elated by the pope’s declaration, particularly on behalf of LGBTQ+ Catholics in countries where homosexuality is criminalized.

“There are a lot of anti-LGBTQ cardinals in those countries, and in ours,” Stavella said. “For their boss to say, ’You can’t condemn them, you should bless them’ is a sea change. It can save lives.”

Antonella Allaria, who lives in New York City with her wife, Amanda, and their 6-month-old son, said the pope’s decision is a positive step for her family and the church as a whole.

“I’m gay and it’s OK to be a person and to be gay. Where before yesterday, in the Catholic Church, it was not that OK,” she said. “I feel things are getting normalized. And it’s about time.”

Kimo Jung of Pittsburgh, a lifelong Catholic, met his future husband 34 years ago when they both attended a New York parish. Jung, 60, sees the Vatican declaration as monumental for the church, but less so for himself and his husband, whom he married in a civil ceremony in 2016.

“I would certainly ask my friends who are priests to convey such a blessing, but I wouldn’t approach any other church official to demand a rite to be blessed, because I already know God has blessed my relationship.”

Posted on

Pope’s same-sex blessings policy triggers both healing and pain for LGBTQ Catholics

— Pope Francis made a historic change to Vatican policy Monday, allowing priests to bless same-sex couples.

Pope Francis during the weekly general audience at Paul-VI Audience Hall in the Vatican on Wednesday.

By Matt Lavietes

Greg Krajewski never misses Sunday Mass at his local Catholic church in Chicago. But even if he were to, it’s unclear if his fellow congregants would notice. As a gay man, he says he largely keeps to himself.

“People talk about the church being a place where people can come together, gather and be with each other,” he said. “That’s not what the church is for me, because it can’t be in many ways.”

But for the first time in his life, Krajewski, 34, has hope that could soon change.

Pope Francis made a historic change to Vatican policy Monday, allowing priests to bless same-sex couples. Some LGBTQ Catholics, including Krajweski, say the policy change may bring about a long-awaited healing to queer people who had faced the church’s decades of institutional rejection.

“Pope Francis is saying, ‘You belong here,’” Krajewski said. “‘No matter what you’ve been told, no matter what your quote-unquote sins are, you are wanted here.”

Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, which advocates for LGBTQ rights within the Catholic Church, called the policy change “groundbreaking” for queer Catholics, and for straight and cisgender Catholics who have gay and transgender friends or family members.

“They will welcome this as a way of easing the tension that they may have felt for years between loving some important person in their life who’s in a relationship and church teachings that say that that’s less than God’s plan for humanity,” she said.

Kellen Flatt, 28, said Catholicism was at the center of her childhood, especially with her grandfather being a deacon at her local church in Marietta, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb. But as a teenager, she said, she struggled with Sunday school teachings that often equated being gay with sins such as murder or robbery.

“A lot of times, I would leave and go to the bathroom and do my best not to cry, because at this time my religion was very important to me,” Flatt, who is gay, said. “It felt like it was no longer a home for me.”

Kellen Flatt.
Kellen Flatt.

Flatt left the church almost a decade ago and hasn’t been to Mass since. But on Monday, following Francis’ announcement, she was open to the idea of returning for the first time, she said.

“I don’t know if this is going to be something that leads me to start going back to Mass every Sunday, but it is something that when I drive by the church, I’m no longer going to feel like that is a part of my past,” she said. “I’m going to feel like that is a door that’s open for me.”

Conversely, some LGBTQ Catholics say that the policy change does not go far enough and that, in turn, brings old hostilities and pain to the surface.

The new Vatican policy allows for priests to bless same-sex couples, but it stresses that priests may not bless same-sex relationships themselves. It also reaffirmed that marriage is a lifelong sacrament between a man and a woman, and that same-sex blessings should not be given during civil union ceremonies that could be perceived as a wedding.

Carl Hendy, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, said they were excited when they first saw the news about the policy change, but after reading through its details described it “a lousy attempt from the pope to validate queer people.”

“It just felt very performative,” said Hendy, 30, who left the church when they were about 18. “What I want to see from the Catholic Church is them taking accountability for how they’ve treated LGBTQ people historically and then promise to validate them unconditionally by recognizing their marriages, their relationships, their families, the same way they do heterosexual people.”

Acknowledging the remaining caveats, Duddy-Burke said the policy change is nonetheless a step in the right direction for LGBTQ Catholics.

“It’s not everything that we who are looking for full equality and full inclusion want, but it’s a milestone on the journey that I think we have to pause and recognize and use to propel the next push towards those goals,” she said.

Krajewski met his husband in 2011 and said his family has always disapproved of their relationship because of their faith. The pair was not invited to attend the weddings of Krajewski’s sisters, because his family members did not want to appear as though they were endorsing his relationship, he said.

But now, following the pope’s announcement, he said he is hopeful his family may be open to reconciliation.

“This document is something that the church is saying out loud that says: We’re affirming you two, we’re OK if you’re here, and we’re going to bless your presence and the goodness that comes out of your relationship,” Krajewski said. “That’s the first time that the church has come out that I can think of, and said very specifically, something is happening here that is good. That’s a big change.”

Monday’s announcement regarding blessings for same-sex couples is just the latest example of Francis’ embrace of the LGBTQ community since becoming pope more than a decade ago, and particularly within the last year.

In January, Francis described laws that criminalize homosexuality as “unjust” in an interview with The Associated Press. The pope met with an international coalition of LGBTQ Catholics, including Duddy-Burke, at the Vatican in October. And just last month, the pontiff signed off on a document that said trans people can be baptized and can be godparents and witnesses at religious weddings.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

Posted on

Making History on a Tuesday Morning, With the Church’s Blessing

— A day after the pope’s announcement that Catholic priests may bless same-sex couples, one New York couple receives theirs.

The Rev. James Martin gives a blessing to Jason Steidl Jack, left, and his husband, Damian Steidl Jack, center, in Manhattan.

By Amy Harmon, Ruth Graham and Sarah Maslin Nir

As a Jesuit priest for more than two decades, the Rev. James Martin has bestowed thousands of blessings — on rosary beads, on babies, on homes, boats, and meals, on statues of saints, on the sick, on brides and on grooms.

Never before, though, was he permitted to bless a same-sex couple — not until Monday, when the pope said he would allow such blessings, an announcement that reverberated through the church.

On Tuesday morning, Damian Steidl Jack, 44, and his husband, Jason Steidl Jack, 38, stood before Father Martin in a living room on Manhattan’s West Side. The couple, running a bit late because of subway delays, dressed casually. Damian, a floral designer, complimented Father Martin on the pine smell of the Christmas tree.

In keeping with the Vatican’s admonition that such a blessing should not be performed with “any clothing, gestures, or words that are proper to a wedding,” Father Martin wore no robes, and read from no text. There is no blessing for same-sex couples in the thick book of blessings published by the U.S. Conference of Bishops. Instead he selected a favorite of his own from the Old Testament.

“May the Lord bless and keep you,” Father Martin began, touching the two men’s shoulders. They bowed their heads slightly, and held hands.

“May the Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his countenance to you and give you joy and peace.

“And may almighty God bless you,” he said, making the sign of the cross, “the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”

And then, with emotion evident on their faces, the three men hugged.

Two men in suits kiss.
Damian Steidl Jack, left, and his husband, Jason Steidl Jack, on their wedding day at Judson Memorial Church in the West Village in 2022.

Father Martin is arguably the highest-profile advocate for L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics in America. He has met frequently with Pope Francis about making the Roman Catholic Church more inclusive, and in the fall he participated in a global gathering on the church’s future at the pope’s invitation.

On Tuesday morning, he was far from the halls of power. He was at home, making history. Father Martin had waited years for the privilege of saying such a prayer, however simple, out in the open.

“It was really nice,” Father Martin said on Tuesday, “to be able to do that publicly.”

The pope’s decision was greeted as a landmark victory by advocates for gay Catholics, who describe it as a significant gesture of openness and pastoral care, and a reminder that an institution whose age is measured in millenniums can change.

The decision does not overturn the church’s doctrine that marriage is between a man and a woman. It does not allow priests to perform same-sex marriages. It takes pains to differentiate between the sacrament of marriage — which must take place in a church — and a blessing, which is a more informal, even spontaneous, gesture. And, a priest’s blessing of a same-sex couple should not take place in connection with a civil marriage ceremony, it says.

News of the pope’s decision spread quickly among gay Catholics, many of whom began preparations for blessings of their own after the busy Christmas season.

On the morning of the pope’s announcement, Michael McCabe’s husband, Eric Sherman, ran into his home office in their apartment in Forest Hills, Queens, bursting with news: Their 46-year partnership could at last be blessed.

“You wait so long for the church to come around, you kind of give up hope,” said Mr. McCabe, 73, who attends Mass every Sunday at the Church of St. Francis Xavier in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.

Two men embrace.
Michael McCabe, left, and Eric Sherman at their home in Queens, New York. The two have been together for 46 years, and are looking forward to being blessed by a priest in the new year.

The couple married in 2010 in Connecticut, before same-sex marriages became legal in their home state of New York. They had long been resigned to the church’s stance, even if they had not fully made peace with it, Mr. McCabe said.

“I know that myself and my relationship with my husband are good things,” said Mr. McCabe, who taught catechism to first graders at the church.

Although the pope’s decision stops short of recognizing Mr. McCabe’s marriage, he said he could only find the joy in the news. After rejoicing with his husband on Monday, he emailed his priest. They plan to receive a blessing early in the new year.

It wasn’t immediately clear how different priests across the country would respond to the pope’s invitation to bless gay couples. The announcement gives individual priests latitude and encouragement to offer the blessings, but does not require them to do so. Gay couples living in more liberal dioceses may be more likely to find a willing priest than those living in conservative dioceses. In Chicago, Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, a close ally of Pope Francis, issued a statement saying that in his archdiocese, “we welcome this declaration, which will help many more in our community feel the closeness and compassion of God.” Many other bishops have remained mum so far. Conservative critics have said the pope’s move essentially encourages priests to bless sin.

“I’m sure many old bishops are open to this, and many young priests will have to be convinced,” said Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology at Villanova University, noting that young Catholic priests in the United States are overwhelmingly conservative.

In New York City, where a handful of progressive Catholic churches have been on the forefront of welcoming L.G.B.T.Q. parishioners, but have stopped short of marrying them and sanctifying their unions, the news from the Vatican was just as exciting for some priests as it was for their parishioners.

“I say it is about darn time,” said the Rev. Joseph Juracek, pastor of the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Midtown, who believes the church is finally aligning with Jesus’ teachings: “This is what he is all about: That God is for all people.”

While many Catholics celebrated the pope’s decision, others felt it was too little, too late. Some L.G.B.T.Q. people who left the church years ago, feeling unwelcome, said it was a half-measure that would not tempt them to return.

Thomas Molina-Duarte, 37, a social worker in Detroit, was an active member of his local Catholic parish for many years. But when he and his husband married, they had to do so in an Episcopal church, and they eventually joined a “home church,” where they gather with a small group to do close readings of texts from the Bible.

“I welcome the news, but it’s not going to make me come back to the church,” Mr. Molina-Duarte said of the pope’s decision. “We’ve found a community of other people that we felt we could bring our full selves to.”

In New York City, Damian and Jason Steidl Jack, who were married last year, had previously discussed the possibility of a blessing with Father Martin, a longtime friend of Jason’s. When Father Martin texted on Monday afternoon and asked if they wanted a blessing, they leaped at the offer.

“God’s grace is at work in our lives, whether the Vatican issues an announcement or not,” said Jason, an assistant teaching professor of religious studies at St. Joseph’s University in Brooklyn and an advocate for gay Catholics. “But we are eager for the support of our communities and of our pastors who look after us.”

Walking back to the subway from Father Martin’s Jesuit community residence, Jason and Damian said the blessing he had given them felt both ordinary and profound.

“It’s one grace of many,” Jason said. They were a part of history, and they were also on their way to meet Damian’s mother at Walmart to shop for Christmas groceries.

“It’s like you said,” Jason told his husband, “It’s like we’re claiming our space.”

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

Posted on

Step by step, Francis has made the Catholic Church a more welcoming place for LGBTQ people

A representative of Dignity USA, a group of LGBTQ+ Catholics, wears pins on the lanyard of his pilgrim credential, outside the Sao Vicente de Paulo Parish Social Center, after Pope Francis visited it, in the Serafina neighbourhood of Lisbon, Friday, Aug. 4, 2023.

By DAVID CRARY

The Catholic Church, in its doctrine, still rejects same-sex marriage and condemns any sexual relations between gay or lesbian partners as “intrinsically disordered.” Yet Pope Francis, during his nearly 11-year papacy, has done far more than any previous pope to make the church a more welcoming place for LGBTQ+ people.

It became clear early in Francis’ papacy that he was going to articulate a gentler, more tolerant approach. The initial high-profile moment came in 2013 — during the first broadcast news conference of his papacy — with his memorable “Who am I to judge” comment when he was asked about a purportedly gay priest.

Signals of this approach had come earlier. As archbishop of Buenos Aires, he had favored granting legal protections to same-sex couples as an alternative to endorsing gay marriage, which Catholic doctrine forbids. The Vatican confirmed in 2020 that this was indeed the pope’s belief.

Some recent highlights:

In January 2023, Francis assailed the laws on the books in many countries that criminalize homosexuality and called for their elimination

“Being homosexual isn’t a crime,” Francis said during an interview with The Associated Press.

In 2008, under Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican had declined to sign onto a U.N. declaration calling for an end to such laws.

Francis acknowledged that Catholic bishops in some regions support laws that criminalize homosexuality or discriminate against LGBTQ people. But he attributed such attitudes to cultural backgrounds, and said bishops need to recognize the dignity of everyone.

___

Another reversal came in late 2023, when the the Vatican made public a statement saying it’s permissible, under certain circumstances, for transgender people to be baptized as Catholics and serve as godparents.

The document was signed by Francis and Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, who heads the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

If it did not cause scandal or “disorientation” among other Catholics, a transgender person “may receive baptism under the same conditions as other faithful,” the document said.

Similarly, the document said trans adults — even if they had undergone gender-transition surgery — could serve as godfathers or godmothers under certain conditions.

The new pronouncement reversed the absolute bans on transgender people serving as godparents issued by the Vatican doctrine office in 2015. Among the beneficiaries: a community of transgender women — many of them Latin American migrants who worked in Rome as prostitutes — who made monthly visits to Francis’ weekly general audiences and were given VIP seats.

The pope’s outreach to trans people contrasts with the stance of some conservative Catholic prelates. In the United States, several dioceses have targeted trans Catholics with restrictions and refusals to recognize their gender identity. Yet at the same time, a growing number of U.S. parishes have welcomed trans people.

___

The pope’s mixed record on LGBTQ+ issues was epitomized by the Vatican’s 2023 synod bringing together hundreds of bishops and lay people from around the world to confer on the future of the church. The advance agenda specified that LGBTQ+ issues would be discussed; one of Francis’ hand-picked delegates was the Rev. James Martin, a U.S.-based Jesuit priest who is one of the most prominent advocates of greater LGBTQ+ inclusion in the church.

Yet when the final summary of the three-week synod was released, there was not a single mention of LGBTQ+ people, reflecting the influence of Catholic conservatives who oppose Francis’ overtures to that community.

___

On Monday, the Vatican released a document in which Francis formally approved allowing priests to bless same-sex couples, stipulating that people seeking God’s love and mercy shouldn’t be subject to “an exhaustive moral analysis” to receive it.

The document elaborates on a letter Francis sent to two conservative cardinals that was published in October. In that preliminary response, Francis suggested such blessings could be offered under some circumstances if they didn’t confuse the ritual with the sacrament of marriage.

The new document repeats that condition and elaborates on it, reaffirming that marriage is a lifelong sacrament between a man and a woman. And it stresses that blessings in question must be non-liturgical in nature and should not be conferred at the same time as a civil union, using set rituals or even with the clothing and gestures that belong in a wedding.

Even with these conditions, it’s a marked change from 2021, when the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said flat-out that the church couldn’t bless the unions of two men or two women because “God cannot bless sin.”

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

Posted on

Pope Francis wants to simplify papal funeral rites, be buried outside Vatican

Pope Francis attends the Holy Mass on the day of the feast of the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, at the Vatican, December 12, 2023.

Pope Francis, who has shunned much of the Vatican’s pomp and privilege, has decided to vastly simplify the elaborate funeral rites for a pontiff and be the first one to be buried outside the Vatican in more than a century.

The Pope, who turns 87 on Sunday, disclosed plans for his funeral in an interview with Mexico’s N+ television on Tuesday evening to mark the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

In the interview with the network’s Vatican correspondent, Valentina Alazraki, taped before the Pope presided at a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, Francis appeared to have recovered from a bout of bronchitis.

He laughed often while discussing subjects such as his health, migration, his relationship with the late Pope Benedict XVI, and travel plans. He said his health was good but asked for prayers as he deals with the limitations of old age.

Francis disclosed that he has been working with the Vatican’s master of ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, to simplify the elaborate, book-long funeral rites for a Pope that have been used for his predecessors.

Since his election in 2013, Francis has shunned the crimson, fur-trimmed “mozzetta”, or cape, and also does not wear a gold cross but has kept around his neck the same faded silver-plated one he used as archbishop of Buenos Aires.

He also has not used the plush red “shoes of the fisherman” used by his predecessors. He has kept the same simple black shoes he always used and wears a plastic watch, giving others away so they could be auctioned off for charity.

Health ‘good’, ‘improved’

Francis said that because of his devotion to Mary, the Mother of God, he has decided to be buried in Rome’s Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he traditionally goes to pray before and after each of his foreign trips. The funeral Mass itself would be expected to be held in St. Peter’s Square.

Many popes are buried in the crypts beneath St. Peter’s Basilica. The last pope to be buried outside the Vatican was Leo XIII, who died in 1903 and is buried in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome.

Francis has said he would be ready to resign – as Benedict did in 2013 – if his health became extremely bad, but also believes that papal resignations should not become the norm.

He acknowledged that since Benedict’s death a year ago perhaps he had become less patient and more firm with his more strident conservative critics who saw the late pope as their standard bearer, saying that sometimes “there are some you need to stand up to a bit”.

Francis took disciplinary action against two conservative US prelates last month.

Asked about his health, he said: “I feel good, I feel improved. Sometimes I’m told I’m not prudent because I feel like doing things and moving around. I guess those are good signs, no? I am quite well”.

The bronchitis forced Francis to cancel a trip to Dubai this month to attend the COP28 climate summit. He had surgery in June to repair an abdominal hernia and appears to have recovered completely from that operation.

He said he was hoping to make three trips next year, to somewhere in Polynesia, to Belgium, and to his native Argentina for his first visit there since his election in 2013.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!