Fr. James Martin trumpets success of seminar at the Jesuit headquarters in Rome
If you value articles like this, sign up for our daily email newsletter and support us with a donation.
Editor's note:
Election Day is Nov. 5. Be ready for the ballot box by registering to vote.
For information on registration deadlines in your state or territory, click here.
To register to vote online, or update your registration, click here.
Cardinals, bishops, priests and lay delegates participating in Pope Francis' Synod on Synodality have attended an LGBTQ+ event hosted by Jesuit homosexualist Fr. James Martin at which "married" gay Catholics called for full inclusion in the Church.
"We're not showing the attendees since it was an off-the-record meeting," Martin posted on the social media platform X while parading prominent high-profile clergy who attended the meeting, including Cardinal Stephen Chow, bishop of Hong Kong.
On Wednesday, the celebrity Jesuit who organized the event the day before through his LGBTQ+ Outreach ministry and Jesuit news outlet America Media, thanked the Jesuit Curia, the Society of Jesus global headquarters "for offering us the grand Aula," a hall that is used for "dialogue and discernment."
Father Antoine Kerhuel, S.J., who serves as the secretary of the Jesuits, welcomed the participants to the hour-long event, titled "What is the experience of LGBTQ Catholics?"
'MARRIED' LESBIAN LEAVES ANGLICANISM FOR CATHOLICISM
Dr. Janet Obeney-Williams, a "married" lesbian from London, said that she joined the Catholic Church as an adult after leaving the Church of England because of welcoming comments from Pope Francis toward the LGBTQ+ community.
"Let us join, so that we can serve," Dr. Obeney-Williams told the assembly, reflecting on the different ways she and other LGBTQ+ Catholics are actively participating in the life of their parishes.
"Let's allow love to be expressed."
Dr. Obeney-Williams volunteers at London's Church of the Immaculate Conception, better known as Farm Street Church, where so-called LGBTQ+ Masses are celebrated at least twice a month.
"Let's allow love to be expressed," urged Christopher Vella at the meeting. Vella is head of the Malta-based LGBTQ+ Catholic group Drachma, and identifies as a bisexual Catholic married to another man.
"Get to know the real people behind the 'mask' who are trying to live a Catholic life," Vella said, expressing his hope that the hierarchy will recognize that LGBTQ+ people are already active in the life of the Church, and calling for clergy to stop the caricatures of homosexual and transgender people.
GAY CATHOLICS WON'T QUIT
Zimbabwe-born Catholic gay rights activist Dumisani Dube insisted that the Catholic Church is his "family" and he is "here to stay."
"I've learned that faith and identity are not mutually exclusive, and that God's love is wide enough to encompass every part of me," Dube, who lives in South Africa, said. "For anyone facing the same struggles, know that you are not alone, and that both your faith and your identity are sacred."
"We belong," declared Joanita Warry Ssenfuka, a Catholic lesbian from Uganda who heads the LGBTQ+ rights organization Freedom and Roam Uganda. Ssenfuka said that Jesus' message was one of love, and urged Church leaders to see LGBTQ+ Catholics as human beings rather than as the embodiment of their sins.
Addressing the gathering, Juan Carlos Cruz, a Chilean activist and member of the Vatican Child Protection Commission condemned, "the support of some church representatives for controversial laws that stigmatize LGBTQ people, especially in countries like Uganda." Cruz is a close friend of Pope Francis.
CARDINAL PRAYS FOR LGBTQ+ CATHOLICS
Cardinal Chow offered the opening prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to "send us your guiding light of truth, so that our ignorance and prejudices can melt away through this synodal encounter."
The Jesuit prelate asked God for "a new morn marked by mutual respect and empathic understanding can take shape in our church for our LGBTQ+ sisters and brothers, as well as for ourselves and our church as a whole."
"Get to know the real people behind the 'mask' who are trying to live a Catholic life."
Julia Oseka, a Polish-born student at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia and a synod delegate, offered the closing prayer. The 22-year-old feminist, who says she believes in the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ people in the Church, is one of the youngest synod delegates.
Thomas Söding, vice president and synod advisor of the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), was also present and wrote in his blog about participants' speeches.
"They all gave testimony: of their history, of their faith, of the discrimination they face, of the liberation it means for them to recognize themselves as LGBTQ people in the midst of the Church and to experience recognition in it," he said.
"For all of them, Rome is important as the Catholic center," as is "the Synod, in which they place a little hope," Söding concluded.
Dr. Jules Gomes, (BA, BD, MTh, PhD), has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.
Opmerkingen