Category: Hope & Change

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School flying BLM, LGBTQ flags can’t call itself Catholic, bishop says

FILE UNDER: Insulated, monolithic, callous, tone deaf church power structure

An LGBTQ pride flag and a Black Lives Matter flag fly alongside the American flag above Nativity School of Worcester in Worcester, Mass.

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The stark, dual-colored letters of the Black Lives Matter flag and the bright rainbow stripes of the Pride flag had flown above the Massachusetts Catholic school for more than a year before the local bishop registered his opposition.

The Black Lives Matter flag, Bishop Robert McManus said in April, has been “co-opted by some factions which also instill broad-brush distrust of police.” And the LGBTQ flag could be used to contrast church teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman, he added.

When Nativity School of Worcester didn’t budge, McManus issued a severe ruling. The tuition-free middle school, which serves boys facing economic hardship, can no longer identify itself as Catholic because the flags are “inconsistent with Catholic teaching,” he declared Thursday.

“The flying of these flags in front of a Catholic school sends a mixed, confusing and scandalous message to the public about the Church’s stance on these important moral and social issues,” McManus wrote. “Despite my insistence that the school administration remove these flags because of the confusion and the properly theological scandal that they do and can promote, they refuse to do so.”

That defiance, McManus said, left him no other choice but to strip the Jesuit-run school of its Catholic affiliation. The school also can no longer celebrate Mass or the sacraments or use diocesan institutions to raise funds. It was not included Thursday in the diocese’s list of Catholic schools in its region.

The decision, which comes during Pride Month, appears to be a rare instance of a Catholic organization’s affiliation with the phrase “Black Lives Matter” becoming a flash point with its diocese. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has taken a nuanced approach to the phrase, endorsing the concept of racial justice but not necessarily the organizations that attach themselves to that message. The Black Lives Matter movement describes itself as aimed at eradicating White supremacy and interrupting violence against Black communities.

Nativity School said its use of the Black Lives Matter and Pride flags was a response to a call from its students, most of whom are people of color, to make their community more inclusive. The flags symbolize that all are welcome at Nativity, the school’s president said Thursday.

“Both flags are now widely understood to celebrate the human dignity of our relatives, friends and neighbors who have faced, and continue to face hate and discrimination,” Thomas McKenney wrote. “Though any symbol or flag can be co-opted by political groups or organizations, flying our flags is not an endorsement of any organization or ideology, they fly in support of marginalized people.”

The bishop disagrees. The Pride flag represents support for same-sex marriage and “a LGBTQ+ lifestyle,” he said. And while the church teaches that all lives are sacred, McManus said the Black Lives Matter movement has used that phrase to contradict Catholic teaching on the importance of the nuclear family. (Black Lives Matter previously said on its website that it aims to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families.” The page was later taken offline.)

Bishop McManus

Nativity said it will appeal the bishop’s decision — but it has no plans to remove the flags, which it said show its commitment to solidarity with its students and families. McKenney said the administrators’ decision was informed by the Gospel, Catholic social teaching and the school’s Jesuit heritage.

The outcome follows months of dialogue between the school and the Diocese of Worcester. Around the same time that McManus took issue with the flags in March, a person tore down both flags, the school said. Two months later, the bishop warned the school that it would lose its Catholic label if it did not remove the displays.

Nativity School isn’t the only educational institution to be stripped of its “Catholic” label. In 2019, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis told Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School that it could no longer identify itself as Catholic after it refused to fire a teacher who was in a same-sex marriage. The Midwest Province of Jesuits said it would appeal the decision through a church process.

To Guillermo Creamer Jr., an openly gay alumnus of Nativity School, the flags symbolize that Nativity is inclusive of Black lives — a message he said is crucial at a school with primarily Black and Latino students.

“For these young men who are witnessing what’s happening around the country and seeing the Black Lives Matter flag fly, it’s a very big deal,” he said.

Creamer, 27, said he expects the bishop’s decision to prompt other Catholic schools that align themselves with Black Lives Matter or pro-LGBTQ messages in some way to question whether that’s acceptable. But he said that may not be entirely bad if it encourages Catholics to talk honestly about whether and how these causes fit into their faith.

In his letter to the community, McKenney reminded parents that Nativity School is funded by individuals and groups — not by the diocese — and that it would continue to operate as usual.

Outside the school building, he noted, the flags still fly.

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Pope says traditionalist Catholics “gag” church reforms

Pope Francis delivers his blessing as he recites the Regina Coeli noon prayer from the window of his studio overlooking St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Sunday June 12, 2022.

By Associated Press

Pope Francis has complained that traditionalist Catholics, particularly in the United States, are “gagging” the church’s modernizing reforms and insisted that there was no turning back.

Francis told a gathering of Jesuit editors in comments published Tuesday that he was convinced that some Catholics simply have never accepted the Second Vatican Council, the meetings of the 1960s that led to Mass being celebrated in the vernacular rather than Latin and revolutionized the church’s relations with people of other faiths, among other things.

“The number of groups of ‘restorers’ – for example, in the United States there are many – is significant,” Francis told the editors, according to excerpts published by the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica.

“Restorationism has come to gag the council,” he said, adding that he knew some priests for whom the 16th century Council of Trent was more memorable than the 20th century Vatican II.

Traditionalists have become some of Francis’ fiercest critics, accusing him of heresy for his opening to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, outreach to gay Catholics and other reforms. Francis has taken an increasingly hard line against them, re-imposing restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Mass and taking specific action in dioceses and religious orders where traditionalists have resisted his reforms.

Just last week, in a meeting with Sicilian clergy, Francis told the priests that it wasn’t always appropriate to use “grandma’s lace” in their vestments and to update their liturgical garb to be in touch with current times and follow in the spirit of Vatican II.

“It is also true that it takes a century for a council to take root. We still have forty years to make it take root, then!” he told the editors.

Speaking about the church in Germany, Francis also warned that he still had an offer of resignation in hand for the archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, who faced strong criticism for his handling of the church’s sexual abuse scandal.

Francis gave Woelki a “time out” of several months last September, but still hasn’t definitively ruled on his future. That has kept the situation in Cologne uncertain and frustrated the head of the German bishops’ conference, who has pressed for a decision one way or the other.

“When the situation was very turbulent, I asked the archbishop to go away for six months, so that things would calm down and I could see clearly,” Francis said. “When he came back, I asked him to write a resignation letter. He did and gave it to me. And he wrote an apology letter to the diocese. I left him in his place to see what would happen, but I have his resignation in hand.”

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What did San Diegan Aaron Bianco, once chased out of his church for his LGBTQ ministry, tell Pope Francis?

‘I work with LGBT Catholics in the United States, and I want to thank you for speaking up that all people should feel welcome in the church,’ he tells the pontiff

Aaron Bianco, a professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego, meets Pope Francis at the Vatican while attending an international conference exploring Pope Francis’ 2016 treatise on marriage and family, “Amoris Laetitia.”

By sandi dolbee

As he approached Pope Francis, who was seated in a wheelchair because of a painful knee and clothed in his familiar white cassock and cap, Aaron Bianco already had been coached on what not to do. Don’t bow or genuflect; he doesn’t like that. Don’t kiss his ring; it makes him angry. But do take off your mask; he wants to see your face.

Bending over to get closer to him, Bianco gave him a handwritten letter, which staff members promptly snatched. Then Francis reached up and clasped Bianco’s hands as his visitor began to speak.

“Your holiness, my name is Aaron Bianco. I’m a professor at the University of San Diego.” At the mention of San Diego, the pontiff noticeably brightened and they spent a couple moments sharing their mutual admiration for Robert McElroy, local bishop of this diocese who would be named a cardinal two weeks later.

Bianco pressed on. “I work with LGBT Catholics in the United States, and I want to thank you for speaking up that all people should feel welcome in the church.”

Francis squeezed Bianco’s hand. “He said, ‘You need to continue that work because they need to feel welcome in the church, and we need more people like you.’ ”

As Bianco walked back to his seat, tears filled his eyes.

What a difference four years can make.

In October 2018, Bianco’s tears were of another kind. He was stepping down from his lay ministry to gays and lesbians at St. John the Evangelist Church in Hillcrest, chased out by a vitriolic campaign mounted by anti-gay factions who published invasive diatribes on websites, vandalized his car, scrawled a homophobic slur on a church wall and even threatened his life.

It was, in short, a living hell.

But there he was last month at the Vatican as an invited guest, communing with the leader of 1.3 billion Catholics — the largest Christian church on the planet. And that leader had just told him to keep up the good work.

It was a long way from hell.

“Ineffable” is how he describes the experience — one of those precious moments that is beyond words.

Bianco, who teaches in USD’s theology and religious studies department, was in Rome to deliver a paper on the plight of LGBT Catholics at an international conference exploring Pope Francis’ 2016 treatise on marriage and family, “Amoris Laetitia.” The document, which called for better integration of divorced, remarried and LGBT Catholics, had gained widespread attention when it was released and the pope now wanted the church to explore the ideas more deeply. Held May 11 to 14, the conference drew more than 150 participants.

Pope Francis with attendees of an international conference exploring his 2016 treatise on marriage and family, “Amoris Laetitia.”

Sharing their stories

He began his presentation by introducing himself as a gay man living in a committed relationship for 17 years, but then segued into a slide show that told four stories of other gay Catholics and their feelings of exclusion and condemnation as they struggle to live authentic lives. Among them: An older gay man who, with his partner of 35 years, raised a niece who is now a nun, and a lesbian couple who watched Mass on TV for years rather than risk the pain of being denied the Eucharist because of who they are.

“I didn’t want the talk to be about me,” Bianco says. “I really do this for other people. I think I’m at a place where I understand the church and I know how the church works and I don’t get too flustered when I hear things that I don’t like. I know what it means to be a Catholic. But what’s sad to me is people who aren’t at that place and they leave because they’re unhappy.”

He was nervous when he stood to deliver his address, which was held in a breakout session. But as soon as he began to show the slides and tell their stories, he saw by the concentration on people’s faces that it was working. “There was one sister who teaches at a university in Nairobi. I do believe I saw tears starting to come down her eyes.”

Emily Reimer-Barry, an associate professor of Christian ethics at USD, sat in on Bianco’s talk. Most of the seats in the room were taken — and there was a line of people waiting afterward to speak to him.

The stories resonated with the audience, says Reimer-Barry, who delivered a paper on women in the church at the conference. “People see the humanity. Even I as a cisgender, heterosexual female can hear those stories and be moved. It’s not because I share their sexual orientation. It’s because I see their humanity. I see their struggle. He was able to bring those stories to light and that’s just such a gift.”

It was Reimer-Barry who urged Bianco to submit a proposal to speak at the conference. “I really thought that Aaron’s expertise and voice would contribute significantly to the conversation in Rome. I was not surprised when it did.”

While Bianco’s talk praised the pontiff for taking steps toward inclusion, he also pointed out where his treatise fell short. He especially took umbrage at Francis referring to gay relationships as “irregular.”

He also criticized priests and bishops who deny the Eucharist to LGBT Catholics. “Eucharist is the pinnacle of God’s love and dwelling within us,” he told the conference. “Should we not find ways to bring all those in ‘irregular’ situations back to the Lord?”

The letter Bianco wrote to the pope included two of the stories.

Wait — and see

What impact this conference might have remains uncertain. While Pope Francis himself seems open to change, his words have had little impact on official church policy, which continues to teach that “under no circumstances” are homosexual acts condoned.

Bianco acknowledges the challenge of balancing centuries of teaching with an evolving awareness of sexuality. And he is walking proof of the deeply held resistance on the part of many conservatives and traditionalists who are convinced this is a sin too great to overcome.

And this isn’t the only issue before the church. What about the debate over women priests and married priests?

“I think (Pope Francis) often thinks to himself, ‘If I move too fast, what’s going to happen?’ So how do we move at a rate that is not going to cause some kind of schism inside the church?”

Bianco remains convinced that he can do more good working for change within the church than leaving and going somewhere else.

“For me, I truly believe that at my baptism it became my home,” says Bianco, a cradle Catholic from New York.

He praises the pope’s decision to elevate Bishop McElroy, who is considered a progressive, to the College of Cardinals, leapfrogging over higher-ranking, but more conservative, archbishops.

“There are parts of the church that I disagree with. I make no bones about that,” Bianco tells me. “But I also in the church have found some of the most kind, loving, gospel-oriented people that I have ever met who love me just the way I am.”

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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Dioceses find ‘urgent desire’ for greater role for women

College students, other young adults and ministry leaders during a synodal listening session.

by Sarah Mac Donald

Synod synthesis reports from dioceses in Ireland have expressed a strong desire for “urgent change” and a fear that once the synodal process has finished, the decline in priest numbers and young people will continue, and there will be no change in the role of women in the Church.

A total of 173 parishes hosted gatherings for 10,500 participants in the Archdiocese of Dublin. The synthesis of those consultations revealed that more than half of parishes believe change has to happen or “the children of tomorrow will never experience Church”.

Hope was expressed that women will have a meaningful role in the life and governance of the Church and that priests would have the option to marry and enjoy family life.

Concern was expressed over the current workload of priests and the age profile of both priests and people. “Many priests are over-stretched and the current model of parish is no longer sustainable. There is an urgent need to develop new ministries,” the report states.

A key concern for young adults is the lack of “relational warmth” in many Church settings. Young participants in the synod consultations stated: “The church is a cold place for young people.”

The effort to renew the Church must be marked by urgency and an openness to the new. This will include much more significant roles for laity, recognition of the role of women and expanding the criteria for who can be ordained.

“The continued treatment of women as less than co-equal with men is a source of anger as well as of sadness in the majority of the parishes. Across the vast majority of the parishes, there is great hope that women will have a meaningful role in governance and ministries, including becoming deacons and priests.”

The declining numbers of clergy can be viewed positively as an opportunity to develop new ministries, parishes suggested and urged the Church to facilitate and promote lay leadership at a local level immediately.

However, concern was expressed that lay people who respond to the call to serve in the near future would not have the support or formation they need.

In relation to marginalised groups, the report noted the call to develop Church teaching and to find ways of welcoming and becoming more inclusive. There was a strong plea that the Church should become genuinely inclusive not only in word but also in deed, by reaching out to unmarried couples, divorced, remarried and LGBTQI+.

It also underlined that a clear strategy is needed to support young people and young parents, with a particular focus on catechetical accompaniment in the parish.

In the Diocese of Limerick, one of the strongest points raised in the responses from parishes is that the Church is often not as inclusive and relevant as it should be.

The acid test of parishes, parishes said is “how they connect with people on the margins. Broken people need to be included, not judged. The Church needs to become more accepting of difference.”

An issue of concern highlighted by parishes was how to give lay people a voice and how to empower them. “Our present structures are seen as too hierarchical and since we are all called by virtue of our baptism… we are co-responsible and this needs to be enabled,” the report stated.

According to the report, the issue raised repeatedly by parishes was that the voices of women are not heard in the Church’s present structures. “There is a sense that little thought has been given to the role of women in the Church. Church leadership is overtly patriarchal, and the hierarchy do not adequately value, appreciate or meaningfully listen to the voice of its female members (either lay or religious).”

Referring to the Diocesan Synod held in Limerick in 2016, the main focus of hurt named then was clerical abuse cases in the Church. However, the synthesis report noted that the hurts named in this consultation were more focused on exclusion and the sense of being silenced, stifled and alienated, particularly amongst women and the LGBT community.

In an open letter to his diocese last weekend, Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick said the Church needs to listen to those it “does not normally hear” and involve those who feel excluded or marginalised from the faith.

In its synthesis report the Diocese of Elphin included feedback from an LGBT+ focus group which called for an apology to LGBT+ people from the pope, bishops and priests. It also called for a review of the Church’s teaching on homosexuality to reflect modern scientific, psychological and sociological research and the lived experience and relationships of people.

The LGBT+ focus group of ten comprised four women and six men, all of whom either live in the Diocese of Elphin or have some connection with it. They also called for access to all sacraments, including marriage, for LGBT+ people and access to the priesthood for women.

The group drew up its report at the invitation of Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin. However, in their submission the focus group strongly criticised Bishop Doran over his comments during the marriage referendum in 2015 when he encouraged parishes to vote no.

Elsewhere in the focus report, participants hit out at the “breath-taking” hypocrisy of the Catholic Church’s position on homosexuality, given it has a significant number of gay priests in its ranks.

“It is the lie at the heart of the clerical church and in plain sight. It is also a lie that sustains the architecture of homophobia in society,” the LGBT+ focus report states.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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Treatment of women in Catholic church is ‘source of anger’ in Dublin parishes

Vast majority of parishes express hope that women will have meaningful role in governance and ministries, consultation finds

Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell launched the consultation process last October

By Patsy McGarry< The continued treatment of women as less than coequal with men is a “source of anger as well as of sadness” in the majority of Dublin’s Catholic parishes.

A “vast majority of the parishes” expressed “great hope that women will have a meaningful role in governance and ministries, including becoming deacons and priests” in the future Catholic Church, while they expressed “great openness to married men becoming priests”. They also favour optional celibacy for priests.

These are among the main findings of an extensive consultation process with people in Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese as part of a synodal process being undertaken in the church worldwide in preparation for an October 2023 synod of bishops in Rome called by Pope Francis.

Catholics consulted in Dublin also made “a strong plea that the church should become genuinely inclusive not only in word but also in deed, by reaching out to unmarried couples, divorced, remarried, LGBTQI+. The church needs to explore how people can be included and stop looking for reasons to turn people away,” a synthesis of their views has also found.

The report, Synodal Pathway Synthesis: the Archdiocese of Dublin Report, has been published on the Archdiocese’s website dublindiocese.ie.

The consultation process at Ireland’s largest Catholic diocese involved 173 parishes which hosted gatherings for 10,500 participants. These were co-ordinated by 325 animators, with an average attendance at gatherings of between 35 and 40 participants. The largest gathering had 280 participants, while another 2,200 people took part, mainly through focus groups.

This process was launched by Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell last October and the outcome will be presented at a national pre-synodal meeting in Athlone on June 18th where findings from all 26 Irish Catholic dioceses, following similar consultations, will be collated before being sent to Rome next August.

Among Catholics in Dublin “there was a strong voice for urgent change. At the same time, anxiety was expressed that nothing might happen as a result or it might happen too slowly. In particular, there is a consciousness that change may face resistance to renewal from within the church and from clericalism,” the report found.

Fears were also expressed that “once the synodal process has finished, there will be a continuation in the decline that sees a drop in numbers of priests, young people in the church, and no change in the role of women in the church or the option for priests to marry and enjoy family life”.

Language

Many of those taking part also found that “the language in the liturgy is a barrier. The language needs to speak clearly to people, relate to laity and connect with people at Mass,” they said.

Older Catholics in Dublin spoke of their “sorrow, guilt and helplessness about their children not participating in the sacramental life of the church and grandchildren not being presented for baptism”.

In a homily last Friday, marking the feast of Dublin patron St Kevin, Archbishop Farrell invited “women and men who feel that they are called to ministry to come forward to train for ministry as instituted lectors or acolytes or catechists”. These, he explained, were “lay ministers, women and men who are publicly recognised by the church and appointed by the diocese to minister alongside priests and deacons in leading liturgies, supporting adult faith formation and accompanying families preparing for the sacraments”.

He also said he would appoint “pastoral leaders – deacons, religious and lay people – where necessary when parishes cannot have a resident priest, to support the priest who will have pastoral responsibility for that parish. Their voluntary service will be supported by the pastoral workers in the diocese.”

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