Another #LGBTQ person fired, this time from two positions, as a teacher and a parish music minister, and also pressured to sign a "gag order" in order to collect his severance. Here, he explains to his students and those in his parish what happened...
The targeting of LGBTQ people in the Catholic Church must stop. It destroys lives, as well as communities. No other group in the church is targeted in this way....
Usually LGBTQ employees are fired because their lives do not "fully convey or support church teaching" (as one archdiocese requires). But by this measure, Catholic institutions would have to fire all Protestants, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and agnostics...
....as well as Catholics who use birth control, use IVF, or do not attend Mass every Sunday; and then, more basically, all employees who do not care for the poor, love their neighbors or forgive. The selective focus on the sexual morality of LGBTQ people is discriminatory.

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More from @JamesMartinSJ

24 Oct
Gospel: Today Jesus heals a blind beggar in Jericho named Bartimaeus (Mk 10). Two things leap out of the story: 1) Jesus does not impose himself on the blind man, who cries out "Son of David, have pity on me." No, first Jesus asks him, "What do you want me to do for you?"...
Jesus does not decide to "get it over with" and heal him. Instead he treats Bartimaeus with infinite dignity, and and listens to his desires. God wants to know our deepest desires.

2) In a large city towards the end of his ministry, when he would have been surrounded by...
....huge crowds, Jesus stops to meet an individual. He is never too busy to help someone in need, even if he himself is surrounded by people or on his way elsewhere. (Something similar happens in the healing of the "woman with the hemorrhage," while he is on his way...
Read 4 tweets
17 Oct
An extraordinary message from @Pontifex on social justice yesterday, a "mini encyclical" as @robinrome said. Including comparing the Parable of the Good Samaritan to the protests over the death of #GeorgeFloyd. Social justice teachings are part of...
vatican.va/content/france…
...are part of the "traditional teachings of the church," said the Pope...
"Do you know what comes to mind now when, together with popular movements, I think of the Good Samaritan? Do you know what comes to mind? The protests over the death of George Floyd. It is clear that this type of reaction against social, racial or macho injustice...
Read 5 tweets
14 Oct
Dear friends: I'm sharing this letter received today, the kind of message I receive almost daily, not because it disturbs me, but to illustrate the kind of homophobia that is rampant in our church today, encouraged, consciously and unconsciously, by bishops, priests...
...and other Catholics.

Often in the course of ministering to #LGBTQ Catholics, I meet well-meaning Catholics who express skepticism when I tell them about the hatred that LGBTQ people face in various dioceses, parishes, schools or Catholic settings. The challenge is to...
...help well-meaning people see that simply because they do not see homophobia present in their own dioceses or parishes, doesn't mean it's not present elsewhere. It's there, both in the US and, often far worse, in many places overseas.

Until the church addresses this hatred...
Read 5 tweets
12 Oct
As the Synod of Bishops begins to listen, will the church listen to everyone, or only the voices we are used to listening to? Will it listen to LGBTQ people?

Pope Francis asked, "Are we good at listening? How good is the 'hearing' of our heart?"...

@Synod_va #Synod2023
"Do we allow people to express themselves, to walk in faith even though they have had difficulties in life, and to be part of the life of the community without being hindered, rejected or judged?"

Who is "hindered, rejected or judged" in the church?... vatican.va/content/france…
#LGBTQ people are among the most persecuted and endangered people in the world. In 70 countries simply being LGBTQ is a criminal offense; and harassment, beatings and violence are common in many more places.... bbc.com/news/world-438…
Read 11 tweets
10 Oct
Dear friends: Today I finished reading the most extraordinary book, which a friend had recommended a few weeks ago. For a long time, I've said to myself, "Wouldn't it be great if someone wrote a book like this?" Well, Mark Gevisser, a South African writer, has... Image
"The Pink Line" is nothing less than an overview of the experiences of LGBTQ people worldwide, and it is incredible. I learned something new on almost every page, and met people whose lives I could barely imagine....
Often LGBTQ issues are seen as the province of white people (primarily gay men) in the West, but Gevisser reveals the lives, struggles, hopes and dreams, as well as sufferings and persecutions, of people from across the globe...
Read 8 tweets
7 Oct
Gospel: Today Jesus tells us the story of a man who persists in asking for food (Lk 11). Elsewhere he tells the story of the persistent widow (Lk 18). Both are used to encourage people to persist in prayer. Some believers are embarrassed to ask for something from God. They say...
"I should be grateful for what I have." Or "Others have it worse than I do." And both are true: gratitude is important and there are surely people worse off than you.

But being honest with God about your real needs is part being in an open relationship with God. So much...
...of what Jesus teaches his disciples about prayer, as in today's Gospel, is about *asking.* The Our Father, after all, is a primarily a prayer of petition: "Give us," "Forgive us," "Lead us not," etc.

Go to God confidently in prayer and ask for what you need today...
Read 4 tweets

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