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Dear friends at @Church_Militant @LifeSite and Tradition Family and Property, who write articles, start online petitions and organize protests whenever I speak. Let me save you some time and effort. Because, lately, here's what usually happens when you do this. (Thread.)
1) I am invited by a Catholic organization (school, parish, retreat center) who knows full well of my ministry to LGBT people. So the organizers are already aware of this one aspect of my Jesuit life, and are, in most places, either neutral about it or openly supportive of it.
2) This is especially the case when I am invited to speak about LGBT Catholics per se. Obviously, the organizers support this LGBT ministry, and they often invite me with the support of the local bishop, as with the LGBT family retreat at the Jesuit Center in Wernersville, Pa.
3) Eventually, you all get wind of it and write articles about my supposed heresy and overall awfulness as a priest, complete with photos and memes of me. Then one of you organizes an online petition, using misleading information, slanderous words and sometimes outright lies.
4) For good measure, you label me with names like "heretic," "sodomite," "false priest," "homosexualist," homoheretic," "wolf in sheep's clothing" and "celebrity gay priest." I've lost count of how many names I've been called by you. It's like a junior high school cafeteria.
5) Soon the number of signatories to the online petition goes sky high, usually in the tens of thousands (with no proof) and you egg on your followers to contact the organizers and demand that their invitation be rescinded, and to organize protests on their own at the event.
6) The organizers field some angry phone calls (usually by a receptionist who has no clue what they are talking about) and they dutifully report them to me, apologize, and assure me that I'm more welcome than ever. Sometimes they put out statements in support of LGBT ministry.
7) Needless to say, I don't cancel (why would I?) and neither do they. Sometimes, in fact, their resolve is strengthened and it is seen as an important opportunity for them to stand more solidly with LGBT Catholics and the LGBT community at large.
8) On the day of the event, a few protesters will show up, perhaps a dozen, sometimes fewer sometimes more, including children. They hold up the same signs at every event, detailing how terrible I am ("Bridge to Hell") and pray the Rosary (against me, I'm assuming) and leave.
9) Usually only a few people see the protesters (I rarely do), and if they do, they are hurt or offended, because most people these days know LGBT people. At the Loyola New Orleans graduation last year, some LGBT graduates saw the signs and made their displeasure known.
10) Occasionally the controversy around the talk, especially if the talk is about LGBT Catholics, gets into the local media, and dramatically increases the size of the crowd, and their sympathy for LGBT ministry, as happened recently at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Ct.
11) Then I give my talk, lecture, retreat or commencement address. Afterwards, I often sign books and meet people, 99% of whom are kind, gracious and supportive. Almost every person in line will share a story from their faith journeys, which moves and consoles me.
12) From time to time, however, there is one angry person, waiting at the end of the line, arms folded, ready to conduct their inquisition of me (which they often film). They are usually disappointed when I say, as I always do, that I am not going against any church teaching.
13) But except for that one angry person, they are people who are grateful that someone is talking about LGBT Catholics in a positive way, or they are parents of LGBT children who have felt excluded from their church, or they are LGBT Catholics themselves who hug me and thank me.
14) After people share their stories, they sometimes cry in front of me, or we pray together, or they give me a little gift or they show me a photo of their LGBT child (or brother or sister). Whenever they do, my resolve to continue this ministry with others in this field grows.
15) In other words, feel free to continue to protest, but don't expect that either I or the organizing bodies will cancel anything. And please don't doubt that your protests only increase the size of the crowds, embolden organizers to be more supportive and deepen my resolve.
16) Because what usually happens is not my pulling out of the event, not the organizers cancelling the event, and not people staying away, but something like this, as at yesterday's graduation at @XavierU 
17) In short, your articles, petitions and protests don't bother me. (Truly.) Feel free to continue them, but also know that I won't be cancelling anything as a result of them, and neither, if history is a judge, will most of the organizers.
18) My brothers and sisters, I hold no grudge against you at all, do not wishing ill upon you, but have also have ceased to care about the articles, the petitions and the protests. I send you my peace. As well as my thanks for the big crowds.
