Tag: Homophobia

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In rare move, Vatican official chastised Texas Bishop Strickland at conference

Bishop Joseph E. Strickland

by Religion News Service

If Texas Bishop Joseph E. Strickland is known outside of his diocese for anything, it’s for controversy.

The conservative firebrand, who oversees the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, has sparked backlash from critics for everything from voicing support for priests who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to offering a prayer at a “Jericho March” event in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. More recently, Strickland challenged Pope Francis, announcing on his Twitter feed that he believes the pontiff is “undermining the Deposit of Faith.” His efforts have inspired some detractors to call for Strickland’s resignation, while others have urged Vatican intervention.

But according to multiple sources, Strickland has already been on the receiving end of the Vatican’s ire for more than a year: He was chastised by a representative of the Holy See in 2021, they say — a move that simultaneously signals the potential for formal Vatican disciplinary action and exemplifies the difficulty of reining in a controversial cleric.

“(Strickland) doesn’t really care,” Barber said of the alleged encounter. “It’s the truth that sets us free. If he goes down because he’s speaking the truth, oh well.”

A separate source who is familiar with the meeting but who chose to remain anonymous, as they have not been given permission to discuss the matter publicly, told Religion News Service the incident took place in November 2021 at the annual USCCB meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. The source said the nuncio specifically confronted Strickland about his Twitter feed, which had garnered controversy at the time for, among other things, posts that opposed the three major COVID-19 vaccines distributed in the U.S. at the time.

Asked about the encounter via email this week, Strickland said he would “prefer not to comment.”

The nuncio’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

For his part, Barber told RNS he did not wish to speak further about the incident and would not name the source of his information. Instead, he criticized Pope Francis, accusing him of being ambiguous about important moral questions and calling the pontiff a “disaster for the Catholic Church.”

Strickland would hardly be the first cleric in U.S. history to be reprimanded by the Holy See. In the 1980s, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — headed by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who went on to become Pope Benedict XVI — launched an investigation into Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen, an outspoken liberal cleric and critic of nuclear power, who oversaw the Archdiocese of Seattle at the time. The Holy See ultimately appointed an auxiliary bishop to the region who shared authority with Hunthausen.

But it’s highly unusual for the public to learn about less formal admonishments doled out to bishops by Vatican officials behind closed doors. What’s more, Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University and an expert on U.S. Catholicism, said a nuncio privately dressing-down a U.S. bishop at a conference is particularly rare, and showcases the delicate situation facing modern popes when it comes to cowing outspoken, media-savvy clerics who buck the party line.

Strickland has become a popular figure in right-wing Catholic circles for his criticism of President Joe Biden and oppositional stance against COVID-19 vaccines, which includes expressing support for priests who have challenged their own bishops by refusing to get vaccinated. (Strickland’s position contrasts sharply with that of Pope Francis, who has advocated repeatedly for the use of vaccines, even calling them an “act of love.”) In addition to the Terry and Jesse Show, Strickland has appeared on a number of conservative and far-right Catholic websites, ranging from EWTN to Church Militant.

Church Militant also organized a protest outside the same November 2021 USCCB meeting where the nuncio is alleged to have confronted Strickland. Speakers at the event, where some participants waved anti-Biden “Let’s go Brandon” flags, praised Strickland from the stage. He also posed for photographs with staffers from Church Militant, an outlet that has railed against other bishops using language critics have decried as homophobic and racist.

Church officials wishing to curtail Strickland’s influence could take dramatic steps like they did with Hunthausen, Faggioli said, but “there’s no measure that can deprive him of the access to these various blogs or influencers” the bishop often utilizes to amplify his message.

“I believe that the fear is that, if he’s removed, his visibility will be amplified,” Faggioli said.

What’s more, if the alleged scolding was meant to cow Strickland, Faggioli said, it doesn’t appear to have had much of an effect. Since the 2021 meeting, the Texas bishop has been embroiled in multiple controversies over challenging the authority or rhetoric of church officials — be it his fellow bishops or the pope. And while Strickland’s much-maligned tweet about Pope Francis earlier this month was an attempt to distance himself from a podcaster who questioned whether Francis is, in fact, the pope, his effort still resulted in controversy.

“I don’t know how much that dressing down worked,” Faggioli said.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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‘You cover up abuse’

— Right-wing Catholic group slammed over anti-LGBTQ tweet

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CatholicVote, a right-wing non-profit that labels itself as the “top Catholic advocacy organization” in the United States, received a drubbing on social media this weekend over a comment that it posted about a CNN article.

The outlet reported on Friday that actors Idina Menzel and Jonathan Van Ness had released statements strongly condemning the wave of anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation that Republicans are spearheading throughout the country.

“At least 417 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in state legislatures across the United States since the start of the year — a new record, according to American Civil Liberties Union data as of April 3. That’s more than twice the number of such bills introduced all of last year,” CNN explained.

“My son and his friends, they don’t even have to be told about being inclusive,” Menzel told CNN. “As a mother, I want my son to grow up in a world where you can love anyone. No matter who he becomes as a human being, he’ll be loved. He will have a home. He will be celebrated for who he is.”

Van Ness remarked that “child poverty is a way bigger threat to children right now. Child abuse is a way bigger threat to children right now. Gun violence is a way bigger issue for parents to be focusing on as opposed to what people are choosing to wear and how people are choosing to express themselves,” with which Menzel agreed, according to CNN.

After CNN published its interviews with Menzel and Van Ness, CatholicVote tweeted, “Protecting kids from explicit sexual content = ‘anti-LGBTQ.’ Noted.”

The blowback, which was swift and harsh, centered primarily on the Church’s extensive history of sexual abuse.

A nameless Twitter user kicked things off, writing, “We should protect kids from Catholic priests being that kids are always sexually abused in a Catholic Church.”

St. Martin’s Press publisher Jo Luehmann: “You all have entire bookshelves where you demonize non-Christians. The number of abuse survivors and victims in your churches is alarmingly massive. You cover up abuse of children in schools, churches and homes. Perhaps sit this one out.”

Harvard Law Cyberlaw Clinic instructor Alejandra Caraballo quipped that “maybe y’all should protect kids from priests, adding that “the only thing that’s sexually inappropriate around children are catholic priests.”

Wu Tang is for the Children: “Hey @CatholicVote, might want to clean up your BS first before offering up your thoughts here.”

Girl Geek: “If you really want to protect kids from sexual abuse, the best thing to do is keep them out of churches.”

Vs.: “CatholicVote boldly refuses to sit this one out.”

Victoria Brownworth: “Oh my goodness. Seriously? The pedophile priest cheering section has the unmitigated gall to show your faces here? Sit down and say 1,000 Hail Marys as penance.”

Bizzle (Alfalfa Male): “Oof. Damn. You may want to take a seat.”

drew olanoff: “You really want to involve yourselves in this conversation?”

LeftwardSwing: “You should probably stay out of this conversation. Over 150 members of the archdiocese in Baltimore alone.”

RWLatstetter #BERNIE2024: “STRANGE RELIGION YOU HAVE THERE! The average settlement in recent sexual abuse cases against the Catholic Church is around $300,000 – $400,000. To date, Catholic dioceses in the U.S. have paid over $3 billion in compensation to sexual abuse victims.”

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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LGBTQ Catholics dream of a changed church, while seeing reasons to hope

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As a child in inner-city Milwaukee, Father Bryan Massingale’s grandmother gave him a leather-bound copy of The New Webster Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language, along with a dream that he might need it someday.

“My grandmother was not delusional. She did not live in denial of reality,” said Massingale, a Jesuit priest who holds an endowed chair in ethics at Fordham University, in New York City. “Her gift was a vision, an act of hope. It was a dream, a hope, a reminder that the neighborhood, with its drugs, violence and rodent-infested corner store with overpriced goods, did not define or limit who I could be.”

That’s important to know, he declared, since he was speaking as “a Black, gay priest and theologian” at Fordham’s recent Ignatian Q Conference for LGBTQ students from Jesuit campuses. This event was a “space for our dreaming, for queer dreams” of hope for “despised and disdained and stigmatized peoples,” he added.

“I dream of a church where gay priests and lesbian sisters are acknowledged as the holy and faithful leaders they already are,” he said, in a published version of his address. “I dream of a church where LGBTQ employees and schoolteachers can teach our children, serve God’s people and have their vocations, sexuality and committed loves affirmed. …

“I dream of a church that enthusiastically celebrates same-sex loves as incarnations of God’s love among us.”

Theological visions of this kind inspire hope for some Catholics and concern for others.

Thus, the North American phase of the Vatican’s global Synod on Synodality found “strong tensions within the Church,” while participants in the virtual assemblies also “felt hope and encouragement and a desire for the synodal process to continue,” according to the 36-page report (.pdf here) released on April 12 by U.S. and Canadian Catholic leaders.

Catholics are “called to act co-responsibly in a synodal fashion, not to wait until we know how to do everything perfectly, but to walk together as imperfect people,” said one group, in its summary of the process. Another group added: “When Church structures and practices are dynamic and able to move with the Holy Spirit, everyone is able to ‘use their gifts in service of the Church and of each other.'”

Calling for “greater inclusivity and welcome” within the church, the final report said this was especially true with “women, young people, immigrants, racial or linguistic minorities, LGBTQ+ persons” and “people who are divorced and remarried without an annulment.”

But the report also warned about the “danger of false or unrealistic expectations regarding what the synodal process is meant to be and to ‘produce,’ since people living in “North American culture” tend to focus on “measurable results and … winners and losers.” Some participants, for example, questioned calls for “radical inclusion,” while asking about the “pastoral and even doctrinal implications” of that term.

The explosive nature of these debates jumped into the news weeks later when the Church of St. Paul the Apostle in New York hosted, next to a side altar, a “God is Trans” exhibit.

In his written explanation of his art, Adah Unachukwu said this display “maps the queer spiritual journey” through “Sacrifice, Identity and Communion.” There is, he added, “no devil; just past selves” and “Communion rounds out the spiritual journey, by placing God and the mortal on the same plane.”

After seeing headlines, Archdiocese of New York officials promised to investigate the exhibit at the Paulist Fathers parish. The congregation also offers, on its website, an “Out at St. Paul” ministry to the “Gay, Lesbian, Bi, Trans and Queer community.”

Media reports early this week noted that parish leaders changed the name of this art exhibit, but that it remained in place.

Massingale delivered his Fordham address before that controversy. However, he did stress that Catholics must dare to share dreams of change – even those with “an inherently subversive quality” – while seeking a “new and more just social order.”

Referring to the “wedding banquet at Cana,” when Jesus turned water into wine, the Jesuit theologian called for a changed church in which “people of all races, genders and sexualities rejoice at the presence of love” and a world in which “spiritual wounds will be healed, where faith-based violence will be no more, where fear and intolerance are relics of history.”

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence ‘outraged’ by getting boot from Dodgers on Pride Night

— The LGBTQ advocacy group defended itself a day after the Dodgers disinvited them from Pride Night, while politicians and groups condemned the team.

The Dodgers’ June 16 Pride Night is now mired in controversy.

By Jim Buzinski

A day after the Los Angeles Dodgers disinvited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence from their upcoming Pride Night after a leading anti-gay bigot and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio complained, the Sisters expressed “outrage and deep offense” at the team’s decision. At the same time, state politicians and LGBTQ organizations and supporters condemned the Dodgers’ action.

The events in the last 24 hours have become a PR headache from the Dodgers, with fans on social media expressing outrage and a Congressman urging a boycott of the June 16 Pride game, historically the largest one in sports (Disclosure: Outsports is a partner in the event). The media focus has centered on the Dodgers caving to anti-LGBTQ forces, not the kind of attention a team wants as it seeks to promote an event around inclusiveness.

In a statement posted on Twitter, the San Francisco Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence issued their first detailed comments about being disinvited from receiving the team’s Community Hero Award:

The San Francisco Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence a leading-edge Order of queer and trans nuns in San Francisco, Calif., today expressed their deep offense and outrage at the Los Angeles Dodgers’ recent decision to retract their offer of a Community Hero Award, to be presented to the Los Angeles Sisters, following criticism from religious conservatives.

The Dodgers capitulated in response to hateful and misleading information from people outside their community, who target not only the LGBTQQ++ community but also women’s autonomy over their bodies, people and communities of color, and other faiths and nationalities.

Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, condemned the Sisters as a “blatantly perverted, sexual and disgusting anti-Catholic hate-group.” This is simply not true. The Sisters began in 1979 in response to the AIDS crisis, when gay men, who their faiths and families had abandoned because of their orientation, were sick and dying. The Sisters were among the first to raise money to help care for people with AIDS and to create and distribute safer-sex information.

In the decades since the Sisters have grown with chapters across the world. They are a 501(C)3 charitable organization that annually raises thousands of dollars to distribute to organizations supporting marginalized communities. They support other groups, including several mainstream churches, in their work. Sisters are regularly called upon to minister to the sick, the dying, and the mourning

Our ministry is real. We promulgate universal joy, expiate stigmatic guilt, and our use of religious trappings is a response to those faiths whose members would condemn us and seek to strip away the rights of marginalized communities,” said Sister Rosie Partridge, abbess of the San Francisco Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

The Sisters are not anti-Catholic, but an organization based on love, acceptance, and celebrating human diversity. To be condemned by representatives of the Catholic Church is particularly ironic, given that organization’s long history of condoning and concealing the sexual abuse of children. It’s a statistical fact that children are at less risk in the company of drag queens than clergy. Yet, the LGBTQQ++ communities are consistently targeted by the right, because it is easier to foment fear of the unfamiliar than to take a hard look at very real threats ranging from gun violence to global warming.

The San Francisco Sisters call on the LGBTQQ+ community and its allies to express their disappointment with the Dodgers by contacting them at fanfeedback@ladodgers.com or 866-DODGERS, option 9.

Do not let people who hate us all decide that some parts of our community are more tolerable than others, that some shall be seated at the table while others are locked out. We all stand on the shoulders of brave souls who endured much to get us this far and we owe it to them, and those yet to come, to condemn the voices of haters at every turn. The struggle continues, but we look forward to a better, more inclusive world where human diversity is seen as an advantage, not something to fear.

Meanwhile, state politicians and groups weighed in against the decision.

  • The Los Angeles LGBT Center, the region’s largest, pulled its participation from the event and called on the team to reverse its decision, saying:

“We call on the Dodgers to reconsider their decision, honor the Sisters, and bring the true spirit of Pride back to Dodgers Stadium. If the decision is not reversed, we strongly encourage the Dodgers to cancel Pride Night. Any organization that turns its back on LGBTQ+ people at this damning and dangerous inflection point in our nation’s history should not be hoisting a rainbow flag or hosting a ‘Pride Night.’ We want the Dodgers ally ship to be consistent with our experience partnering with them over the past many years. The people of Los Angeles County have consistently and overwhelmingly shown up for LGBTQ+ equality. If one of our most beloved institutions — the Dodgers — refuses to stand by us at this moment, we are terrified of what will come next. Los Angeles is a leader — not a follower. We call on the Dodgers to set an example.”

  • California State Sen. President pro tempore Toni Atkins tweeted: “Capitulating to demands from anti-LGBTQ officials in other states to remove the @LADragNuns from Pride Night is a shameful decision by the @Dodgers. I stand with the @LADragNuns — we will not give in to politicians who seek to silence our #LGBTQ+ community.”
  • The ACLU of Southern California pulled out from Pride Night, tweeting: “The Dodgers, which broke the color line in baseball in 1947 by signing Jackie Robinson, were champions of inclusion. Seventy-six years later, they take a giant step backward banning a long-standing drag charity. In unity with @SFSisters, we will not participate in Pride Night.”
  • U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, the openly gay former mayor of Long Beach, called for a boycott, saying, “This is shameful and you will not divide and separate our community. I hope we all boycott your ‘pride night’ and protest this cowardly decision.”
  • California State Sen. Scott Wiener from San Francisco, who is gay, got in a sports dig in his statement condemning the Dodgers: “In the past month, right wing mobs demanded that Anheuser Busch stop featuring a trans woman in an ad & that the Dodgers kick drag queens out of its Pride celebration. Both Anheuser Busch & the Dodgers caved. The danger to our community grows by the day. We expect more from our sports teams — even the Dodgers.”

My take

This whole controversy started with a letter from Sen. Marco Rubio to MLB Commissioner Rob Manford. Rubio represents Florida, literally on the opposite side of the country from Dodger Stadium, so it’s unclear why the Dodgers would give a damn about what Rubio says about anything. What pressure Manford might have put on the team is unknown.

Then longtime anti-gay bigot Bill “Gay Marriage is the Work of the Devil” Donohue of the Catholic League, an advocacy group that is not part of the church, weighed in to condemn the Sisters’ inclusion. No one who cares a whit about LGBTQ people should listen to a thing Donohue says. It’d be like someone organizing a Black History Month exhibit listen to input from the KKK.

The Dodgers’ biggest mistake was their knee-jerk reaction to the letter and caving in so quickly. Then game is not for a month, plenty of time to give the matter serious thought before reaching any decision. They then made it worse with a statement that threw the Sisters under the bus with zero acknowledgement to the heroic work they have done for 40 years, saying the decision was made because of the “strong feelings of people who have been offended.” So the standard is now anyone with “strong feelings” rule the day?

What happens next?

Damn if I know, but my guess is that more groups pull out as the word spreads. As for ticket sales, the Dodgers have the best attendance in baseball and the June 16 is against the hated San Francisco Giants so Dodger Stadium will be packed, though whether the team will match the 18,000 in specific Pride Night tickets from a year ago is unknown.

This whole thing is sad and infuriating because the Dodgers have been a pioneer for sports teams in addressing LGBTQ inclusion and that should be applauded. Yet they threw a lot of good will away when catering to the most extreme elements in society, people trying to reverse decades of progress at a time when LGBTQ people need all the allies we can get.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!

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Why Uganda’s LGBTQ Community is Under Renewed Fire

by David Malingha

Uganda is already a tough place to be LGBTQ, but lawmakers want to make it even harder. The east African nation’s parliament has approved a draconian “Anti-Homosexuality Bill” that would extend colonial-era sodomy laws and see violators sentenced to lengthy prison terms or even death. Civil rights groups have condemned the measure amid warnings that it may deter foreign aid and investment in one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies if it is signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni.

1. What’s the backdrop?

Homosexuality is banned in more than half of the 54 African nations and frowned upon in many others. That includes Uganda, which inherited its original anti-gay laws from Britain, the former ruling power. Ugandan lawmakers and religious leaders — often encouraged by US evangelical groups — have said LGBTQ practices are contrary to their culture and have no place in Uganda. In February, the archbishop of the Church of Uganda, Stephen Kaziimba, condemned a decision by the Church of England to allow clergy to preside over a blessing for same-sex unions — an issue that has split the Anglican Communion, of which both are part. (Uganda was among those boycotting last year’s conference of the global grouping of Anglican churches.) Museveni signed a previous version of the law that was later struck down by the courts on a technicality. At a public appearance in April, the president described homosexuality as “degeneration” and a threat to procreation, and he subsequently indicated that he’ll sign the new bill.

2. What does the new bill propose?

It states that the nation’s capacity to deal with “emerging internal and external threats to the traditional, heterosexual family” must be enhanced and that Ugandans need protection against activists who “promote” homosexuality. These are some of its main provisions:
• The death sentence may be imposed on those who are found guilty of so-called “aggravated homosexuality.” That categorization includes same-sex intercourse involving someone who is HIV positive or under the age of 18.
• Individuals can be sentenced to life imprisonment if they are convicted of engaging in acts of homosexuality.
• Persons under the age of 18 who are found guilty of homosexuality can be jailed for as long as three years.
• Legal entities that are convicted of “promoting homosexuality” can be fined 1 billion shillings ($267,000).

An earlier version of the bill approved by lawmakers in March sought to punish people for merely identifying as LGBTQ, but that provision was removed on May 2 after Museveni requested changes. The president has 30 days from when the latest draft is submitted to him to sign it into law or ask parliament to make additional amendments.

3. Is this constitutional?

The Constitutional Court struck down similar anti-gay legislation in 2014 that Museveni had signed. But that was on the grounds that lawmakers approved the law without the required quorum, and no determination was made on its constitutionality. Some legal experts have argued that discriminating against people based on their sexual identity or practices could constitute a violation of the constitutional right to freedom of expression, association and liberty. Sexual Minorities Uganda, a coalition that fights for LGBTQ rights, and other organizations have indicated that they will challenge the new law in court if the president approves it.

4. How has the bill been received internationally?

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk described the bill as devastating and discriminatory — “probably among the worst of its kind in the world” — and called on the president not to approve it. The World Health Organization cautioned that the legislation risks stunting progress made in reducing the spread of HIV in Uganda. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other civil rights groups warn that homophobic attacks could increase. The US and other Western governments have condemned the measure, while the African Union has refrained from commenting.

5. What’s the potential economic fallout?

The International Monetary Fund has said it expects Uganda’s economy to expand by an average of more than 6% annually over the next five years. However, the new law could make operating in the country awkward and place billions of dollars of investments at risk at a time when companies such as TotalEnergies SE are looking to start producing oil in Uganda. The World Bank and other lenders that have helped to shore up Uganda’s finances may also face pressure from shareholders and rights groups to review their relationship with the country. Almost a fifth of the country’s latest budget was funded using external financing. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Museveni’s son, tweeted that Uganda could do without foreign investors.

Complete Article ↪HERE↩!