Month: October 2022

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Ex-gay monk has a dream wedding after being forced out of the Catholic Church

Anselm Bilgri

Anselm Bilgri, a former gay monk who left the Roman Catholic Church, says he would like same-sex marriages to “become normal” by marrying his longtime partner. (YouTube/Reuters)

Anselm Bilgri, a former gay monk who left the Roman Catholic Church, married his longtime partner in a beautiful ceremony.

Bilgri was ordained in 1980 by Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 and served as head of the Roman Catholic Church until February 2013. He was a Benedictine monk for decades.

Bilgri, now 68, left the Catholic Church in 2020 because he was frustrated with the Church’s inability to keep up with the times due to its stance on same-sex marriage. He was also among several figures who left the Catholic Church in Germany following abuse scandals.

Bilgri married partner Markus Achter, 41, in a beautiful ceremony in a Munich church on October 8 by a priest from the Old Catholic Church. The Old Catholic Church allows priests to marry and approves same-sex relationships.

The couple say Reuters that they hoped their marriage would help normalize LGBTQ+ relationships and same-sex marriages.

“I immediately thought: now I have actually received the seven sacraments, from ordination to marriage,” Bilgri said. “And I would like it to become normal.”

He continued, “It goes without saying that two men, two women… It doesn’t always have to have a sexual connotation.

“Maybe they just want to support and help each other. People who want to belong together, which is also a form of love, let that become normal and possible.

Bilgri ran the brewery of a Munich monastery before becoming the prior of Andechs Abbey, where Benedictine monks have worked and prayed on Bavaria’s “holy mountain” for hundreds of years.

The former gay monk converted to the Old Catholic Church and serves as a priest in the community in Germany

Achter thought their marriage was a “very big sign” that same-sex marriages were “becoming more normal”.

“I think that’s a really big sign and it’s also becoming more normal because you often think it’s not extraordinary when you live in an environment like Munich,” Achter said. “But it’s not that normal, and it’s still something extraordinary when two men get married.”

Achter continued, “And I always think that if it becomes more and more obvious, then at some point it won’t be something special anymore.

“And that’s where we actually want to go and maybe we put a sign for that today.”

Pope Francis ended all hope of same-sex marriages in the Catholic Church when he declared in 2021 that the Church “has no power to change the sacraments”.

“I spoke about it clearly, didn’t I? said Francois. “Marriage is a sacrament. Marriage is a sacrament. The church does not have the power to change the sacraments. It is as our Lord has established.

In September, a group of Roman Catholic bishops from Belgium challenged the Vatican and allowed same-sex union blessings. The Flemish bishops said the blessing – which includes a ritual of prayers and a pledge by the couple to be faithful to each other – is part of a “welcoming church that excludes no one”.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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‘The church is our rightful home’

— At Catholic Mass for LGBTQ community, a message of inclusion

The Rev. Greg Greiten presides over the LGBTQ Mass of Celebration and Inclusion at St. Bernadette Catholic Parish in Milwaukee on Saturday, Oct. 8. He was joined by Deacon Sandy Sites, left, parish director of Good Shepherd Catholic Church.

By Sophie Carson

Milwaukee-area Catholics gathered Saturday evening at a parish on the northwest side with a message of support for LGBTQ people.

The Rev. Greg Greiten, who is openly gay himself, organized the “LGBTQ Mass of Celebration and Inclusion” because it was important for the community to feel welcome in the church, he said.

“My first words are: I love you. You are loved. You are beloved. You are holy. You are made in the image of God,” he said at the start of his homily.

The Mass and subsequent reception at St. Bernadette Parish drew about 100 people, including a handful of young people, who were eager to remain in the Catholic faith while also pushing for change.

Hailey Hable, 22, of Milwaukee spoke during the homily about struggling to accept herself as a transgender person while enrolled at an all-boys Catholic boarding high school. She considered suicide but found strength in her faith, she said.

It was important to share her story because, she said, she now had the opportunity to help others feel welcomed and accepted.

“I had never felt that way growing up,” she said.

Married couple Deborah and Kim Cavaliero-Keller, who also spoke at the Mass, believe it is their mission to create a more inclusive environment for LGBTQ people in the Catholic Church.

“Let’s build a larger table instead of making marginalized people feel less-than,” Kim Cavaliero-Keller said.

The official church teaching is that homosexuality is “objectively disordered.” Meanwhile, support for same-sex marriage has continued to rise among U.S. Catholics, polling shows.

In 2021, 74% of Catholics were in favor of same-sex marriage, according to the Public Religion Research Institute. And 81% supported laws that would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination.

Greiten holds onto glimmers of hope that things are changing, such as supportive comments from Pope Francis and recent reports from synod listening sessions that show lay Catholics want the church to reach out more to LGBTQ people.

“The church is our rightful home,” Greiten said. “The LGBTQ community has been a part of this community and is here to stay.”

Working for change from within the church

Those at the Mass said it was an important step toward a better future.

“It means we’re on the right road,” Deborah Cavaliero-Keller said.

Peter Govern, 18, a Marquette University student, called the Mass “unconventionally compassionate” for the Catholic Church and an example of how accepting the church could be.

Govern grew up attending St. Bernadette and changed his work shifts so he could attend the Saturday evening Mass. It was important to make time to attend it, he said.

“It’s really a hope that by showing support for something like this, it’ll continue to grow, it’ll continue to flourish,” he said.

Mary Syverson of Sussex said Catholicism is her spiritual home, but she always felt like she was betraying her two gay siblings by remaining in the church. Getting involved with a group called Gay and Straight in Christ at her Menomonee Falls parish has been a way to work for change from within.

“I want to help one person at a time make change,” she said.

Valeria Spinner-Banks, a former Catholic school teacher and administrator at Mount Mary University, disagreed with the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s new policy on transgender individuals, which calls for Catholic school students to use the pronouns, uniforms and bathrooms that match their sex assigned at birth.

“I understand the trauma these kids go through day by day,” she said. She was bothered that students have “something extra now put on them.”

Still, Spinner-Banks will not abandon her Catholic faith.

“You don’t let anybody run you from your God,” she said. “If I leave, I can’t make a difference.”

Welcoming ‘lost sheep’

Stephen, 21, a Marquette University student who asked that his last name not be used because of safety concerns, grew up Catholic but as an adult did not feel comfortable attending a church where he might not be accepted.

The Mass on Saturday brought Stephen to tears at points.

“It’s cool to be accepted,” he said, adding that it was nice to hear Greiten say LGBTQ people were loved.

Greiten said he knows of many people who left the church because they did not feel they were welcome.

“I will spend my priesthood, and every remaining day, searching after the lost sheep. I will find them. I will welcome them. I will tell them I love them,” he said in his homily.

After the Mass, Greiten sat at one of the long tables in the church hall and watched as people milled around, enjoying refreshments and chatting.

“It’s just wonderful. This is what people should experience almost every weekend. It should be that place,” he said.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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Key Biblical Passages That Support Women’s Ordination To the Priesthood

By Dennis Knapp

In past articles, I wrote about The Jesus Prerogative on women’s ordination and on whether or not the Catholic Church can change its view on women’s ordination. In this article, I will examine the biblical passages that support women’s ordination. What do these passages teach us? Given these passages, can the Catholic Church amend its views on women’s ordination?

Passages In Direct Support of Women’s Ordination

Sadly, no passage in the bible directly supports women’s ordination. In fact, when it comes to women leaders in the early Church, St. Paul stated the following:

Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. (1 Corinthians 14:34-35)

And

Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control. (1 Timothy 2:11-15)

Ouch! These passages not only speak against women’s ordination, but they also sound very misogynistic to today’s readers. How could St. Paul write such things? Didn’t he know Mary Magdalene?

Mary Magdalene: the Apostle to the Apostles

Did St. Paul not know of Mary Magdalene’s preeminence among the early disciples of Jesus? Many that support women’s ordination see in Mary Magdalene the key that unlocks women’s ordination to the priesthood. One such person is Professor Joan Taylor of King’s College, London. She states:

Within the Church she does have tremendous power, and there are lots of women who look…to Mary Magdalene as a foundation for women’s leadership within the Church.

Moreover, let’s not forget Mary the mother of Jesus. If any such person deserves to speak in the Church, its her. Did St. Paul not know of her status among the early Christians? Obviously, St. Paul knew of these extraordinary women, yet he still wrote the passages above.

Passages In Indirect Support of Women Ordination

Many who support women’s ordination do see some passages (and some references to individual women) as biblical support for women’s ordination. Consider the following:

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

The argument goes that since Christians are one in Christ, all are equal in Christ and therefore ordination is open to women. Remember, the same person who wrote this verse also wrote the verses 1 Corinthians 14:34-35. Can we come to such a reading given St. Paul’s other teaching on the subject?

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a servant (deacon) of the church at Cenchreae. (Romans 16:1)

The Greek word for servant is diakonos. Some translations either use deacon or servant. The meaning of this word by St. Paul is clear. Phoebe was a servant of the Church at Cenchreae.

Greet Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners. They are well known to the apostles, and they were in Christ before me. (Romans 16:7)

Some translate this passage as if Andronicus and Junia were apostles. Some translate this verse as if they were well known or prominent among the apostles, not that they were themselves apostles. The Catholic Church does not count them as apostles.

I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life. (Philippians 4:2-3)

Some read this passage as an indication that these women lead the Church at Philippi. Again, given St. Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, this understanding seems a bit off. How did they labor “side by side” with St. Paul? St. Paul offers no explanation or further information.

Women of the Old Testament

Furthermore, to many that support women’s ordination, two women leaders stand out in the Old Testament as exemplars that prefigure women’s leadership and eventual ordination in the Church—the judge Deborah and Queen Esther.

Deborah

Deborah was a judge and prophetess in pre-monarchy Israel. Judges 4:4-6 states:

Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgment.

Eventually, Deborah advises Barak to raise an army of 10,000 men to defeat the Canaanites at the river Kishon. He does so, but only if Deborah accompanies the army. She warns him that his reliance on her will diminish his glory after the victory promised by the God. For the full story of Deborah, click here.

Queen Esther

Esther stands out as the one of only three women in either the Catholic Old and New Testament with whom there exists an entire book about (the other two are Ruth and Judith). The story of Esther shows how God uses Esther as queen of Persia to save the people of Israel from destruction at the hands Xerxes I’s evil vizier, Haman. As queen, Esther used her influence over Xerxes to save her people. The Jewish holiday Purim celebrates this event. Read the full story of Esther starting here.

God’s Prerogative

Moreover, clearly God chose to use two extraordinary women in His plans to save His people. God holds this prerogative. So too does Jesus. Just as God chose women in His salvation of His people in the Old Testament, Jesus also could have chosen women in His plan of salvation in the New Testament. Jesus had the precedent of Deborah, Esther, Ruth, and Judith to work with to make this choice, yet He did not…

Final Thoughts On the Biblical Case for Women’s Ordination

In conclusion, what do these biblical passages teach us about women’s ordination? These passages teach us that there exists no real biblical support for women’s ordination. Not directly or indirectly. St. Paul seems to come off as almost misogynistic in his assessment of woman leadership in the Church. The passages naming individual women also leave much open for debate and multiple interpretations. What is a deacon in the early Church? Is it an ordained office? Were there differences between men and women under that title? What did it mean to work “side by side” with St. Paul? Did it mean as an equal with St. Paul? Clearly, St. Paul’s word in 1 Corinthian 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11-15 indicate he did not mean what those who support women’s ordination hope it means.

The Jesus Prerogative Revisited

Furthermore, since women like Deborah, Esther, Ruth, and Judith existed in Jesus’ past as heroines of faith, Jesus has a precedent with which to work (especially with the judge Deborah) if He desired to appoint female apostles. These same women apostles would eventually ordain women bishops and priests. These same women bishops would then ordain other women as bishops and priest, and so on…but such did not occur. We therefore must accept that Jesus did not will or desire this and nor should we.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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Clergy abuse has scarred minority Catholic communities

— Black people in the US have suffered from clergy sex abuse, but ‘it’s an invisible trauma’


An online forum titled “Neglected Voices in the Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis” discussed the clergy sexual abuse and trauma faced by the victims in the United States Oct. 5.

by Mark Pattison

The image of a white victim does not tell the complete story of clergy sexual abuse in the United States, according to a number of panelists during an Oct. 5 online forum titled “Neglected Voices in the Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis.”

Blacks have suffered from clergy sex abuse, but “it’s an invisible trauma. It’s an unknown trauma because there are Black victims, survivors, of the sexual abuse crisis,” said Father Bryan Massingale, author of “Racial Justice in the Catholic Church.” “Yet in the Catholic imagination, we usually see a white face — a white male face, overwhelmingly.”

“We as Alaska Native people, American Indian people,” panelist Elsie Boudreau, a Yup’ik Eskimo from Alaska, said, “are statistically number one in all of these different areas of suicide, alcoholism, homelessness, incarceration, childhood sexual abuse, domestic violence, and I know historically and through, you know, with our ancestors, that those are not part of who we are. Those are not our culture.”

“I believe that clergy sexual abuse has played a role in that,” said Boudreau, who herself is a survivor of clergy sexual abuse.

She and others were part of the forum sponsored by Georgetown University’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life.

Dr. Deborah Rodriguez, who herself was abused by a priest and now assists other survivors, said Hispanics are “a people of many histories and cultures. Now we are also people of many vulnerabilities. And think it’s these vulnerabilities that clergy abuse has impacted so directly.”

“Whereas sometimes we Latinos or Hispanics guard family secrets and sins, I believe abusing clerics took advantage of that vulnerability by forcing us to continue in silence to incorporate their sins upon us,” she added.

Maka Black Elk, now the executive director for truth and healing at Red Cloud Indian School in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, said boarding schools “took children from their families and placed them in these institutions run by federal governments, the Catholic Church and other denominations, (and) really gave predatory priests almost unfettered access to Indigenous children.”

Red Cloud is a former boarding school known as Holy Rosary Indian Mission school until 1969.

A process of truth and healing “starts with the truth,” Black Elk added. “We are not as an institution healing anyone. And, in fact, we are not capable of really doing that. The only thing that we are capable of doing is providing the things that individuals need in order to journey to their own healing.”

He said, “There’s no such thing as sort of collective healing in our work that we have seen so far. We can’t make whole groups of people heal. But what we can do and what we are responsible for and accountable to is providing that truth.”

“It’s going to take every one of us to work on this,” said Deacon Bernie Nojadera, executive director of the Secretariat for Child and Youth Protection at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

There is, he added, an “opportunity to again bring back humility, being able to listen, and to listen attentively, actively, to our brothers and sisters who have been crying and yearning and wanting to have their voice heard.”

Father Massingale, who teaches theological and social ethics at Jesuit-run Fordham University, pointed to realities that he said further marginalize Black abuse victims.

“Many of those in diocesan offices who are charged with ministering to the victim survivor community have not been culturally competent to work with Black people,” he said, also citing “the abandonment of the church in many ways, the closure of parishes in many urban areas.

Further, “Black people are seen as sexually irresponsible — more promiscuous and therefore, their stories are less likely to be believed, because, the understanding is that therefore, you must have contributed in some way” to the abuse, Father Massingale said.

And if “you can’t speak proper English, that is seen as a way of demonstrating your lack of credibility,” he added. “And so the inability to speak standard English already casts your testimony into some kind of doubt.”

Rodriguez said that not only is she a survivor of abuse by a priest in the Catholic elementary school her parents had scrimped and saved to afford, but “I am a survivor of reporting that very abuse as an adult to proper church authorities, which I consider a singular traumatic event as an adult.”

Hispanic victims of abuse can be traumatized when “we can’t speak the language, we don’t understand the legal system or, maybe perhaps our own legal status is at risk and that’s been used against us. But there’s also evil (in) taking advantage of those vulnerabilities.”

Boudreau said during the forum that she was 10 “when the abuse began.”

“And I came forward when my daughter turned 10 and I looked at her and I was like, ‘How is it that someone could take advantage of such innocence?'” she said. “And I couldn’t shield the truth from my consciousness anymore at that point.”

She added, “There are so many other survivors who have not spoken their truth.”

“We have to say this was an injustice, this was wrong, this was a crime,” Rodriguez said. “Admit it. Apologize for it. Be sorry and name it. What Pope Francis started in Canada was only the beginning: that every clergy, every religious leader needs to do: ‘I am sorry.'”

“If anything, with Pope Francis’ encouragement that we indeed be a field hospital and that we indeed smell like the sheep, it’s going to require much work,” Deacon Nojadera said. “This is just the beginning.”

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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Catholic priest in Italy suspended for pro-LGBTQ stance

‘We have blessed anything, including weapons and wars in the past. And we don’t want to bless real love?’ asked the Rev. Giulio Mignani.

By

An Italian priest, well known in the country for his support toward LGBTQ couples, abortion and euthanasia, was suspended by the Catholic Church on Monday (Oct. 3) for “holding positions that are not aligned with Church teaching.”

The Rev. Giulio Mignani, 52, a parish priest in a small Southern Italian town, has been barred by his bishop from celebrating Mass and the sacraments after vocally advocating for the welcoming of LGBTQ individuals in the church.

“The Church doesn’t condemn homosexuality but homosexual relations. Which is like saying that it’s ok to be hungry, but you can’t eat,” Mignani told Vanity Fair Italy in an article published on Wednesday.

“I mean it’s a paradigm that must be changed,” he continued. “Homosexual love is still considered a sin, a mistake, when it’s a fundamental aspect in the life of these people.”

Bishop Luigi Ernesto Palletti first reprimanded the priest in 2021, when Mignani refused to bless the palms on Palm Sunday after an announcement by the Vatican doctrinal department banning the blessing of LGBTQ couples.

Some priests in Germany began blessing LGBTQ couples in 2021 as the Catholic community in the country underwent the Synodal Path, a consultation of clergy and faithful on important topics. The Vatican’s department for the Doctrine of the Faith answered by stating that the church “cannot bless sin.”

“I said to myself: we have blessed anything, including weapons and wars in the past. And we don’t want to bless real love?” Mignani said.

The priest also appeared in local newspapers and media channels in support of an anti-LGBTQ discrimination bill named after its proponent, the left-wing politician Alessandro Zan. The Italian bishops’ conference opposed the bill, which was never approved by the Senate.

Mignani has also spoken in favor of abortion and euthanasia, both condemned by the church, and claimed Catholic doctrine is dated and out of touch with society. “To quote a parable of Jesus, today we don’t have one lost sheep and the other 99 in the pen, but the opposite,” he said in the interview.

Mignani said he doubts he will change his views after the period of reflection mandated by his bishop. He said he would like to continue being a priest and that he draws hope from the show of support he has received from faithful and clergy members.

“But most people don’t say it, because if they spoke up, they would be suspended like me,” the priest said. “But sometimes you have to take a stand in front of everyone, to give a new direction.”

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!