Month: February 2024

Posted on

New leader of LGBTQ+ Catholic group seeks to help the queer faithful find a welcoming home

Michael O’Loughlin is the new executive director of Outreach, which highlights welcoming spaces within the church while working to create more.

By

Many LGBTQ+ Catholics have a fraught relationship with the church, given its teachings against same-sex relationships and gender transition. Some leave for another faith or none at all, but some stay and try to make Catholicism work for them. As the new executive director of the LGBTQ+ Catholic ministry Outreach, Michael O’Loughlin’s goal is to help those who stay find welcoming spaces — and to create more of those.

“There can be room” for out, self-accepting LGBTQ+ people in the church, says O’Loughlin, a gay man who has worked as a journalist for The Advocate, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and numerous other publications.

He was most recently national correspondent for America, a magazine affiliated with the Jesuits, a Catholic religious order noted for scholarship and a commitment to social justice, and Outreach is an official Jesuit ministry. Founded two years ago by Rev. James Martin, a priest noted for his LGBTQ+ allyship, Outreach is a resource for LGBTQ+ Catholics, publishes a news and analysis website, and holds an annual conference. O’Loughlin is its first executive director, and Martin will continue to provide leadership in his role as founder.

O’Loughlin has spent the past few years promoting his book Hidden Mercy: AIDS, Catholics, and the Untold Stories of Compassion in the Face of Fear, about Catholics who stepped up to serve those affected by the epidemic even as the church sometimes turned away. In talking about the book, he encountered many LGBTQ+ people who longed for a welcoming space within the Catholic Church. He was attracted to Outreach because it’s creating those spaces, he says.

Trending stories

He was brought up Catholic and struggled at times to make sense of being both Catholic and gay. “Early on, I was confronted with the idea that I had to choose to live as a gay person or choose to practice my faith,” he says. In the end, though, he decided “you don’t have to choose one or the other.”

He realizes that not everyone can do what he did. “It’s fairly obvious that the church has been damaging to LGBTQ people throughout history,” he says, and notes that it’s understandable that some would leave. But with Outreach, he seeks to highlight the stories of those who’ve stayed in the faith and are not only feeling affirmed there but also providing important services to the church — teaching, serving as music directors, working in food pantries and homeless shelters, and more. They’re “living the gospel,” he says.

Most Recent

The ministry, he says, won’t shy away from the challenges facing LGBTQ+ Catholics; he acknowledges that some LGBTQ+ people have been fired by church-affiliated entities simply because of their identity, but he notes that there has been pushback against such discrimination, especially by the Jesuits. However, many LGBTQ+ Catholics are finding those welcoming spaces he talks about, he says, and Outreach can help parishes understand how to be more welcoming.

He has worked alongside Martin, editor at large for America, for several years. “What I admire about Jim’s work is he’s able to advocate for greater inclusivity while working within the framework of the church,” O’Loughlin says. “He’s been very successful in bringing people together.” Martin is the author of several books, including Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter Into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion, and Sensitivity.

“Everyone at Outreach is overjoyed,” Martin said in a press release announcing O’Loughlin’s appointment. “With his years of journalistic experience, his theological background, two books to his credit, and his deep knowledge of the LGBTQ community, I can think of absolutely no one better suited for this job. This is the perfect job for Mike, and Mike is the perfect person for this job.”

Outreach is not a competitor to other LGBTQ+ Catholic groups, such as DignityUSA and New Ways Ministry, both of which have a mission of advocating for LGBTQ+ equality within the church, O’Loughlin says. “There is room for all these different groups to work together,” he says.

Asked about potential changes to church doctrine, he says he can’t predict what the future will hold. Ten years ago, he wouldn’t have expected that any pope would approve blessings for same-sex couples, although Pope Francis has since said the blessings are not for the relationship but for the individuals in it. Still, he says, “I’m encouraged that Pope Francis continues to make space with these conversations.” So he’ll stay hopeful about what the next 10 years might bring.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

Posted on

Jesuits in US Bolster Outreach Initiative Aimed at Encouraging LGBTQ+ Catholics

— Catholic dogma continues to repudiate same-sex marriage and gender transition

In this photo provided by America Media, from left, the Rev. James Martin, Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, N.M., and Rev. Eric Andrews attend the closing Mass for the Outreach conference at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, in New York, June 18, 2023. Martin is the founder of Outreach, a unique Jesuit-run program of outreach to LGBTQ+ Catholics.

By Associated Press

Even as Catholic dogma continues to repudiate same-sex marriage and gender transition, one of the most prominent religious orders in the United States — the Jesuits — is strengthening a unique outreach program for LGBTQ+ Catholics.

The initiative — fittingly called Outreach — was founded two years ago by the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit who is one of the country’s most prominent advocates for greater LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Catholic Church.

Outreach, a ministry of the Jesuit magazine America, sponsored conferences in New York City in 2022 and 2023, and last year launched a multifaceted website with news, essays and information about Catholic LGBTQ+ resources and events.

On Tuesday, there was another milestone for Outreach — the appointment of journalist and author Michael O’Loughlin as its first executive director.

O’Loughlin, a former staff writer at online newspaper Crux, has been the national correspondent at America. He is the author of a book recounting the varied ways that Catholics in the U.S. responded to the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and ‘90s — “Hidden Mercy: AIDS, Catholics, and the Untold Stories of Compassion in the Face of Fear.”

O’Loughlin told The Associated Press he’s excited by his new job, viewing it as a chance to expand the range of Outreach’s programs and the national scope of its community.

“It’s an opportunity to highlight the ways LGBT people can be Catholic and active in parishes, ministries and charities,” he said. “There’s a lot of fear about to being too public about it. … I want them to realize they’re not alone.”

O’Loughlin says his current outlook evolved as he traveled to scores of places around the U.S. to promote his book, talking to groups of LGBTQ+ Catholics, and their families and friends, about how to make the church more welcoming to them.

Those conversations made O’Loughlin increasingly comfortable publicly identifying as a gay Catholic after years of wondering whether he should remain in the church. Its doctrine still condemns any sexual relations between gay or lesbian partners as “intrinsically disordered.”

The latest expansion of Outreach occurs amid a time of division within the global Catholic Church as it grapples with LGBTQ+ issues.

Pope Francis, a Jesuit who has met with Martin and sent letters of support to Outreach, has made clear he favors a more welcoming approach to LGBTQ+ people. At his direction, the Vatican recently gave priests greater leeway to bless same-sex couples and asserted that transgender people, in some circumstances, can be baptized.

However, there has been some resistance to the pope’s approach. Many conservative bishops in Africa, Europe and elsewhere said they would not implement the new policy regarding blessings. In the U.S., some bishops have issued directives effectively ordering diocesan personnel not to recognize transgender people’s gender identity.

Amid those conflicting developments, Martin and other Jesuit leaders are proud of Outreach’s accomplishments and optimistic about its future.

“There seems to be deep hunger for the kind of ministry that we’re doing, not only among LGBTQ Catholics, but also their families and friends,” Martin said by email from Ireland, where he was meeting last week with the the country’s Catholic bishops.

“Pope Francis has been very encouraging, allowing himself to be interviewed by Outreach and sending personal greetings to our conference last year,” Martin added. “Perhaps the most surprising support has been from several bishops who have written for our website, as well as some top-notch Catholic theologians who see the need for serious theological reflection on LGBTQ topics.”

Martin will remain engaged in Outreach’s oversight, holding the title of founder.

The Rev. Brian Paulson, president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, evoked both Jesus and the pope when asked why his order had embraced the mission of Outreach.

“Pope Francis has repeatedly called leaders in the Catholic church to emulate the way Jesus spent his ministry on the peripheries, accompanying those who had experienced exclusion,” Paulson said email. “I think the work of Outreach is a response to this invitation.”

Paulson also said he was impressed by Martin’s “grace and patience” in responding to the often harsh criticism directed at him by some conservative Catholics.

There was ample evidence of Outreach’s stature at its conference last June at a branch of Fordham University in New York City. The event was preceded by a handwritten letter of support sent to Martin by Pope Francis, extending “prayers and good wishes” to the participants.

“It’s a special grace for LGBTQ Catholics to know that the pope is praying for them,” Martin said.

Another welcoming letter came from Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York.

“It is the sacred duty of the Church and Her ministers to reach out to those on the periphery,” he wrote to the conference attendees.

The keynote speakers included Fordham’s president, Tania Tetlow, and the closing Mass was celebrated by Archbishop John Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

Posted on

‘Deliver Us From Evil’

— Rape, Reproductive Coercion and the Catholic Church

Anti-abortion marchers and parishioners walk from the Old St. Patrick’s Church to a Planned Parenthood clinic where they pray as a protest against abortions, on April 1, 2023 in New York City.

For decades, the Catholic Church has shown a disregard for clergy sexual abuse and reproductive health. Why are priests and bishops considered to have any moral authority on issues of sexuality?

By

Sexual assault and reproductive coercion share similar dynamics: Both are forms of violence that intimately violate another person’s body. The Catholic Church’s clergy sexual abuse scandals, combined with its efforts to control women’s reproductive choices by banning abortion and attacking contraception, expose a troubling pattern of sexual sociopathology. This conduct fundamentally undermines the Church’s claims to moral authority on issues of sexuality.

By now, the stories are familiar and well documented.

  • The 2006 documentary Deliver Us From Evil chillingly reveals how Catholic bishops repeatedly relocated a priest named Oliver O’Grady from parish to parish in an attempt to cover up his rape of dozens of children.
  • The 2015 Academy Award-winning film, Spotlight, dramatizes the true story of the Boston Globe investigative reporting team that exposed widespread sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests in the 1970s and the cover up by the Boston archdiocese.
  • In 2018, a Pennsylvania grand jury published a 1,356-page report documenting decades of sexual abuse by more than 300 Catholic priests who victimized thousands of children in six dioceses. The report found a “systemic coverup by senior church officials in Pennsylvania and at the Vatican.”

But incidents of sexual abuse by priests are not confined to the past. On Dec. 14, a federal court sentenced 68-year-old Providence-based Catholic priest James W. Jackson to six years in a federal prison for downloading and storing thousands of files containing child pornography on his computer in the church rectory. Authorities found 12,000 images and 1,300 videos of child pornography, including videos of prepubescent females portrayed in acts of bestiality and sadomasochism.

The Catholic Church also keeps sexually abusive clergy in positions of authority. A Massachusetts newspaper recently reported on a case where a priest had sex with a parishioner in the 1990s after leading her to believe he could cure her lesbianism by having sex with her. He remains in active ministry at a university, working with vulnerable young people.

In a recent case in New Orleans, an archbishop worked to free a Catholic priest convicted of raping an altar boy by attempting to get the victim to support the release. According to The Guardian, “representatives of the church that he had been raised to believe in approached him at his home, at his job and at a relative’s funeral to ask him to lend his support to efforts to secure an early release for his rapist.”

To avoid accountability, the Catholic Church opposes laws designed to help survivors of sexual abuse. Between 2011 and 2019, the Catholic Church spent $10.6 million in eight Northeastern states to lobby against such laws.

In Massachusetts, for example, the Catholic Church spent $537,551 in this period. Massachusetts law limits liability of nonprofit charities to $20,000, a figure so minimal it often deters attorneys from suing the Catholic Church. State lawmakers are now working to eliminate this immunity in cases of child sex abuse. They are also working to remove time limits for civil liability for child sex abuse, which the Boston Archdiocese has opposed.

Another strategy the Catholic Church uses to avoid accountability is to file for bankruptcy so they do not have to pay court-ordered penalties to compensate the victims of clergy sex abuse, as they recently did in California and Baltimore.

The all-male Catholic leadership’s long history of perpetuating sexual assault and reproductive coercion grows out of a toxic masculinity that devalues women’s lives, rights and dignity.

rape-abortion-catholic-church-sexual-child-abuse-priests
Members of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), a global organization of prominent survivors and activists, display photos of Barbara Blaine, the late founder and president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), during a protest during the papal summit on Feb. 23, 2019, in Rome.

To fight back, survivors formed an organization in 1989 called the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP), which has documented widespread sexual abuse by priests, and the repeated attempts by bishops and other church leaders to cover up and excuse this abuse. Today, SNAP has over 25,000 members with support groups in over 60 cities across the U.S. and the world.

Another group working to hold the Catholic Church accountable for clergy sexual abuse is the BishopsAccountability.org, which maintains a database of the accused, searchable by religious order, as well as a timeline of key events of the abuse crisis in the U.S. and the world, information on accused bishops, an archive of lawsuits and related documents, and an abuse tracker with daily news stories on clergy sexual abuse.

The Catholic Church positions itself as a moral authority on sexual matters, yet it has been responsible for the widespread sexual abuse of numerous children and vulnerable adults in its care while refusing to take responsibility for the resulting harm. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has led the charge to overturn Roe v. Wade and bankrolled the movement to ban abortion nationwide, endangering the lives of millions of women and pregnant people. They are also fighting to grant zygotes, embryos, and fetuses full constitutional rights that women no longer have.

In the many hospitals they control, the Catholic Church blocks access to reproductive healthcare, including emergency contraception for rape victims, medically necessary sterilization, and abortion care. Due in part to hospital consolidations, the Catholic Church now controls one in every six acute care hospital beds in the United States. The first woman to die because she was not offered a life-saving abortion due to a Catholic-backed abortion ban enacted in 2021 was Yeniifer Alvarez-Estrada Glick. She died in July 2022 in Luling, Texas.

Catholic priests and bishops perpetrate and tolerate astounding levels of sexual violence, and then deny their victims the right to prevent or end life-threatening pregnancies.

The all-male Catholic leadership’s long history of perpetuating sexual assault and reproductive coercion grows out of a toxic masculinity that devalues women’s lives, rights and dignity. Both are forms of intimate assault that deny the bodily autonomy of women in particular.

Given the Catholic Church’s history of clergy sexual abuse, and their callous disregard for the reproductive health and safety of women, why are priests and bishops considered to have any moral authority on issues of sexuality?

How is it that supposedly-celibate men, who know nothing about women’s bodies and who tolerate, cover up and excuse widespread sexual abuse in the church, have the right to speak about anything related to women’s sexuality? Is the unnatural suppression of their own sexuality perhaps fueling their frantic attempts to suppress the sexuality of others? Are their actions, at some level, due to a jealous rage that others are experiencing the natural sexual pleasure they deny themselves?

The essence of rape is taking control of another person’s body against their will. In the same way, compelling another person to carry a pregnancy to term is taking control of another person’s body against their will. Rape and reproductive coercion are two sides of one coin: misogynist violence. The emperor has no clothes. Why can’t people recognize this?

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

Posted on

Women Need Not Apply

Catholic women with parasols expressing the call for women’s ordination in the church at the Vatican, Aug. 29, 2022.

By Greg Holmes

When I was a young boy, a priest explained to our catechism class how people became priests. He told us that we would know if we were supposed to become a priest because we would be “called” by God. I was afraid God would call me; there was no way I wanted to be a priest. Fortunately, God never rang me up.

Contrast this with the experience of women like Soline Humbert, who felt a deep calling to be a priest in the Catholic Church when she was 17. There was only one problem, however, one that she knew would be insurmountable: She was a woman, and the church did not allow women to become priests.

Ms. Humbert is just one of many women who have felt called to become priests and are prohibited from doing so. Why? Basically, the church doctrine states that a priest must have a physical resemblance to Jesus, because when a priest administers sacraments it is actually God and Christ who are acting through the priest. It is difficult to believe that this transmission is restricted to men only and cannot happen through a woman.

A second reason that the Catholic Church forbids women from becoming priests is that Jesus selected only men to be his apostles. The reason Jesus selected men is a matter of debate among theological historians. Was Jesus’ decision to select his apostles a reflection of the time and the culture during which he made his choices, or did he actually view women as incapable?

The bottom line is that the church views the restriction on the ordination of women as “divine law,” something that was enacted by God and revealed to mankind. Therefore it can never be changed by humans—period. This position was summarized by Pope John Paul II, who proclaimed that because it was divine law, the church had “no authority whatsoever” to ordain women.

In 2021, Pope Francis changed some of the rules of the game when he formally allowed women to give readings from the bible, act as altar servers, and distribute communion. He stated at that time that even though he believed women made a “precious contribution” to the church, he refused to change the doctrine forbidding them to become deacons or priests.

Francis made further clarifications of the role of women in the church in 2023 in his address to the members of the International Theological Commission. He claimed that women have a “different capacity for theological reflection” than men and called for a greater appreciation of the theology of women. If this did not happen, Pope Francis warned that we would never fully understand “what the church is.”

He went on to make the interesting claim that “one of the great sins we have had is ‘masculinizing’ the church.” At that time, he called for more female theologians and a greater role for women in the church.

One of the ways that Francis believed that women were particularly suited to serve the church was in an administrative way. He felt that women do a better job at organizing and managing things than men and that they were particularly good at evaluating male candidates for the priesthood. Even though Francis felt that women were superior in some ways to men, this did not mean that women should be considered for priesthood. The stained-glass ceiling in the church would remain intact.

Here’s the paradox: Why would God call upon women to become priests if God had already made a “divine law” that they can’t become priests? It just doesn’t add up.

Two possible explanations: Either God didn’t create a divine law in the first place, or the powerful calling that many women experience doesn’t really come from God. But then what about the calling that men receive? It seems to be legit and work out for them.

Many women have remained determined to pursue their calling to become priests. In 2002, a group of seven women from Europe and the United States were ordained as priests on the Danube River by three bishops. Although the women considered themselves to be priests after the ordination, the Vatican did not. In fact the Vatican warned the women that they would be excommunicated if they did not confess that their ordination was invalid and repent. The women refused to do so, and were summarily excommunicated, along with the rebel bishops who ordained them. They could no longer receive sacraments in the church or be buried in a Catholic cemetery.

Since that time, several hundred women have courageously pursued their calling and have been ordained as priests outside of the auspices of the church. The organization Roman Catholic Women Priests lists women priests in 34 states, including Michigan, as well as other countries.

The Catholic Church is currently holding a Synod, an ongoing conference to discuss possible changes in the church. Topics up for discussion include celibacy in the priesthood, married men as priests, and the ordination of female deacons. I would suggest that the participants ask themselves this question for guidance: What would Jesus do?

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

Posted on

Victim group demands removal of Bishop Miege leader and Lenexa priest accused of abuse

David Clohessy, volunteer Missouri director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, speaks Thursday outside The Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle in Kansas City, Kansas. Clohessy, among others, calls for the removal of leaders who have been accused of sexual abuse.

By Kendrick Calfee and Judy Thomas

After a priest accused of child molestation became the new pastor at a Lenexa church, and a man who faced a child sex abuse lawsuit was hired by a Roeland Park Catholic school, abuse victims are calling for their removal and an explanation from church leaders.

Two members of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) gathered Thursday outside The Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle in Kansas City, Kansas, demanding the men to be removed from their roles and for the leader of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas to publicly address concerns about them.

The protest followed a letter Thursday to Archbishop Joseph Naumann, asking for the church leader to hold a public meeting with the group, worried parents and parishioners.

In its letter to the archbishop, SNAP said a meeting of this nature could inspire similar meetings elsewhere which could lead to greater awareness of child sex crimes and hopefully even prevent them from happening.

“It would, we believe, deepen the respect that many of your flock have in you, and help create such respect where it is lacking,” the letter says.

Rev. John Pilcher

The letter from SNAP and calls to action from parishioners came after Naumann reinstated the Rev. John Pilcher to Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Lenexa. Pilcher had previously been accused of sexually abusing a boy in a Topeka parish. But the Shawnee County District Attorney did not file charges against him.

Parishioners were also concerned over Naumann’s decision to approve Bishop Miege High School’s hiring of Phil Baniewicz as its president. He was a defendant along with two Catholic priests in a 2005 sexual abuse lawsuit in Arizona that the Archdiocese of Phoenix settled for $100,000.

“(A meeting) would give you a chance to more thoroughly explain why you believe your actions around alleged child molesters are not reckless and callous,” the SNAP letter says.

Dee Ann Miller, a member of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, holds a sign that reads “40 years of wandering in the wilderness? Shouldn’t that be enough?” Thursday in Kansas City, Kansas.

“And it would give you an opportunity to shed much-needed light on the controversial and opaque process you follow when reports of sexual violence are made against your staff.” While the accusations against Pilcher and Baniewicz did not result in convictions for the alleged crimes, SNAP suggested in its letter to the archdiocese that having alleged abusers in roles close to children presents a risk.

Phil Baniewicz

“The big thing for us is, why take the risk,” said David Clohessy, the Missouri director of SNAP. “Why choose a man that’s been accused of and sued for abuse?” The organization is also criticizing the archdiocese for its silence after a former priest was arrested in Overland Park and convicted on child pornography charges. Allegations against Baniewicz ‘discussed openly’ during hiring Baniewicz, who was appointed last June as president of Bishop Miege High School in Roeland Park, was a defendant along with two Catholic priests in a 2005 sexual abuse lawsuit in Arizona. In the lawsuit, Baniewicz was accused of sexually abusing a teen in 1985. The other defendants were the Rev. Mark Lehman and Monsignor Dale Fushek. The three were associated with St. Timothy’s Catholic Church in Mesa, Arizona, at the time.

Baniewicz and Fushek also were co-founders of Life Teen, a Catholic youth program that was used in hundreds of parishes worldwide. The suit alleged that Life Teen participant William Cesolini was abused by Baniewicz “on more than one occasion” at St. Timothy’s and by Lehman “on several occasions.” It also alleged that Fushek, the church pastor, failed to stop or prevent the abuse, provided alcohol to Cesolini and watched Lehman sexually abuse the teen. After the case was filed, the Life Teen board placed Baniewicz on administrative leave while it investigated. He was reinstated a few months later, but resigned in May 2006.

Prior to his appointment at Bishop Miege, Baniewicz served for nearly 14 years as president of Maur Hill-Mount Academy, a college preparatory boarding school in Atchison, Kansas. Before that, Baniewicz was vice president of college relations at Benedictine College in Atchison for more than 3 1⁄2 years. The Archdiocese of KCK said Bishop Miege and church officials knew about the 2005 Arizona lawsuit when Baniewicz was hired. Benedictine College and Maur Hill-Mount Academy also knew of the allegations, and in each hiring process, “the matter was resolved to the satisfaction of the hiring entities.” “The allegations were made known not only to Bishop Miege’s board, but were discussed openly by Mr. Baniewicz during the hiring process,” it said in an email response to The Star last year. The archdiocese said Baniewicz has emphatically denied any allegations of wrongdoing throughout. Lenexa parents share concerns over new priest Outside The Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle Thursday, Clohessy said at least six parents who attend Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Lenexa have said they are concerned about Pilcher leading the church.

In his remarks, Clohessy urged the archdiocese to outline the reasons why it is comfortable with Pilcher, who was reinstated in April 2022 after an August 2021 allegation against him. When Pilcher first greeted his new parishioners, he openly discussed the allegation and denied any wrongdoing. He also discussed his sabbatical in Rome before being assigned to Holy Trinity. Despite his efforts to be transparent, some in the congregation were upset that he would be leading the church. An outcry ensued from parents who are asking the same question Clohessy and SNAP are asking. Even though charges were not pursued in Pilcher’s case, SNAP said he should have been assigned a different role by the church.

“There are many, many jobs where you could put a priest (who has been accused),” Clohessy said Thursday. “Why take the risk of putting him into a parish (with a school)?” Part of the answer, Clohessy suggested Thursday, could be an ongoing shortage of Catholic priests. The need for priests, he said, increases the incentives for bishops to reassign priests accused of abuse. Some parents told The Star earlier this month that they felt the decision to assign Pilcher to Holy Trinity was dividing the parish and that Archbishop Naumann didn’t care what they thought.

At that time, he said he did care, but had to stand up for truth, the rights of accused priests and the idea that, “we’re all innocent until proven guilty.”

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!