If you have not heard of Nancy Ledins, who passed away in July at age 84, her story is very much worth reading if you are concerned with Catholic LGBT issues.
Prior to her transition, Ledins was an ordained Roman Catholic priest for ten years. A member of the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, she left the priesthood in 1969 to get married to a former woman religious. Eventually, the couple divorced around the time that Ledins transitioned in 1979.
Last month, Newark, New Jersey’s Cardinal Joseph Tobin welcomed a pilgrimage of LGBT Catholics to the archdiocese’s Cathedral of the Sacred Heart—a gesture that is being hailed as a major step forward in the pastoral care of LGBT people here in the U.S. one participant going so far as calling it “a miracle.”
One participant even called it “a miracle.”
This week is National Migration Week, an annual event convened by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to focus attention on the plight of migrants, refugees, and victims of human trafficking in our world. This year’s theme for National Migration week, drawn from Pope Francis, is “Creating a Culture of Encounter.”
And in this work of migration justice, it is past time for the Catholic Church to engage with the realities LGBT migrants, too.
Pope Francis’ latest comments on LGBT issues, in which he both called for more competent and case-by-case pastoral care for transgender people and said there was a “world war to destroy marriage,” have provoked strong reactions. You can read a report on the papal remarks by clicking
A lesbian educator is suing a Catholic high school because earlier this year the school fired her for entering a same-gender marriage.
In January, Kate Drumgoole was fired by Paramus Catholic High School, New Jersey, reported ABC 7, where she headed the guidance department and coached women’s basketball.
She was a longtime employee and graduated from the school herself.
49 people were murdered one month ago at Pulse, a LGBT nightclub in Orlando, and 53 more were wounded. These victims, constituting the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, have stirred conversations about anti-LGBT prejudice and violence and prompted many Catholics to memorialize the victims.
Catholics have begun to welcome Pope Francis’ recommendation that the church apologize to LGBT people, women, and others whom it has harmed. The pope made his remarks during an in-flight press conference on the return flight from his apostolic visit to Armenia over the weekend.
Have Catholics’ analyses of Amoris Laetitia, the recently published exhortation on family by Pope Francis, been dismissive of LGBT communities’ reaction and concerns?
College students in Australia are protesting an upcoming lecture by a of a Catholic man who claims “reparative therapy” successfully changed his sexuality, the latest dispute about LGBT issues as they relate to Catholic education in that nation.
The University of Sydney’s Catholic Society will host James Parker tonight to speak about his experiences with “reparative therapy.”