B NDINGS Vol. 38 No. 2 A Publication of New Ways Ministry Spring 2019 Pope Francis Meets with LGBT+ Catholic Pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square By Robert Shine Anglicans, Catholics LGBTQ people, like meeting Bondings 2.0 and Methodists, in these pilgrims, have been a Www.NewWaysMinistry.org/blog the Church of defining and more positive March 12, 2019 St.Ignatius.” aspect of how he treats issues Pendergast, who of gender and sexuality. The In an historic moment for the Catholic has organized and pope previously met with a Church, members of a pilgrimage for led two previous transgender man from Spain LGBT+ Catholics and their families met LGBT+ pilgrimages who was excluded from his with Pope Francis last week and partici- to Rome, commented parish, with a former student pated in an Ash Wednesday service he to Bondings 2.0: who is gay, and with a French led. “We were taken youth injured while defending Following last Wednesday’s morning completely by sur- a gay couple from a hate audience in St. Peter’s Square, the pope prise to be told that crime. In 2015, pilgrims with was introduced to pilgrims with the we were going to New Ways Ministry received LGBT+ Catholics Westminster Pastoral have our photograph VIP seating during the Ash Council group from the Diocese of West- taken with Pope Wednesday papal audience. minster (London). A press statement Francis. Although we Pope Francis’ record is from the group explained: had asked Cardinal mixed. But with the sixth anni- “The Pilgrimage Leader, Martin Pen- Vincent Nichols’ versary of the pope’s election dergast, a member of the LGBT+ Catho- office to obtain Papal tomorrow, LGBT advocates lics Westminster Pastoral Council, intro- Audience tickets for should not lose sight of the duced the group to the smiling Pope us, we certainly had- Pope Francis with pilgrims from LGBT+ Catholics Westminster Pas- progress that has been made. It Francis, explaining that they formed part n’t requested this – toral Council was unthinkable in 2012 that a of the LGBT+ pastoral ministry outreach not even thought pope would meet with a pilgrim- of Westminster Diocese. .Each pilgrim about it!” church which commemorates modern age of LGBT Catholics and their fami- received a gift of a rosary from Pope Another pilgrim, who had attended martyrs. The group also met with Rome lies. Now we have a pope who expresses Francis who shook hands with the previous pilgrimages with the group, -based journalists, Christopher Lamb of welcome to all, even if imperfectly, and group’s members. said, “This just keeps getting better and The Tablet and Robert Mickens of La perhaps more importantly, allows for “Later, on Ash Wednesday afternoon, better!” Croix International for perspectives on groups like LGBT+ Catholics Westmin- the group was able to take part in Pope The LGBT+ Catholics Westminster Pope Francis’ Church reform strategy. ster to do the work of building an inclu- Francis’ Mass & Imposition of Ashes in pilgrimage also included Masses at sev- They also met with American moral the- sive Church. Martin Pendergast and the the Church of Santa Sabina. In the even- eral significant churches in Rome, and ologian, Professor James Keenan SJ, to English group should be applauded for ing the Group was warmly welcomed at remembered victims of homophobia and learn more about the pope’s response to their faithful efforts from which the Holy an Ecumenical Liturgy of the Word & transphobia at a morning prayer service the 2014/2015 Synods on the Family. Spirit has produced the great fruit of this Blessing of Ashes with English-speaking at St. Bartholomew-on-the-Tiber, a Francis’ personal encounters with bridge-building moment. ‘We are all children of God,’ nun writes allowing same-sex union news in alumnae mag By Joe Heim The decision, which stands in con- Facebook to discuss the issue and urge The Washington Post trast to official church teaching on the school to change its policy. May 13, 2019 same-sex marriage, was greeted In her letter, Berchmans, who gradu- with a mixture of responses by the ated from Visitation in 1948 and was its The letter landed in email inboxes school community. Some called it headmistress for many years, wrote, early in May, and since then, students, “beautiful” and “overdue.” Others “Recently, a Visitation friend invited me parents and graduates of Washington’s labeled it a “great disappointment.” to reflect upon what it means to Live prestigious Georgetown Visitation Pre- In some quarters, there was unhap- Jesus in relationship with our LGBTQ paratory School have talked of little else. piness it took so long for the school alumnae.” It has been the subject of spirited discus- to reach this point, while a smaller That conversation — as well as sions, emotional exchanges, fervent Fa- number expressed anger that the “much prayerful consideration and cebook posts. school was veering from Catholic thoughtful dialogue” — led the school to Sister Mary Berchmans, the school’s doctrine. its new policy, she wrote. president emerita, wrote the letter that The school’s decision followed a In previous years, Visitation’s prac- has provoked so many reactions. push last month by several hundred tice was to deny requests by graduates to In her carefully worded missive that graduates who learned of an alumna have their same-sex unions announced in emphasized following “the Gospel com- who was told a few years ago that the magazine. Occasionally, those an- mandment of love,” Berchmans said the she could not have her marriage nouncements made it into the “Class 220-year-old Catholic girls academy will announced in the publication be- Notes” section of the magazine without publish announcements of same-sex un- Sister Mary Berchmans cause it was a same-sex union. The drawing attention, but officially they ions in its alumnae magazine. graduates formed a chat group on (Continued on page 8) LGBT Catholics Are a Reality: Theology Must Acknowledge Gender Science By Craig A. Ford term was used in the gathering’s prepara- the name that most now use for them- point driven home by Cardinal Ratzinger Commonweal tory documents. selves is part of the ‘respect’ called for in 1986: homosexuality is not an identity. December 19, 2018 Of course, when it comes to the by the Catechism…. Refusing to call a Rather, it is an adverse psychological Catholic Church’s conversation about group by the name that most in the group condition. And on this logic—the same A pair of developments in the fall of queer persons, there’s nothing new about prefer borders on disrespect. L.G.B.T. logic, by the way, that rightly grounds 2018 helped illustrate once more the a conflict over something so small as youth, who are often harassed, bullied the conclusion that we should, for exam- need for an understanding of gender and how to refer to people who clearly al- and ‘called names’ are especially atten- ple, prefer the term “person living with sexual identity adequate to what we ready have shown a preference for how tive to disre- depression” to know about human sexuality. The first they would like to be named. But it has spectful lan- “depressed was the Trump administration’s proposed made it more clear than ever that the guage.” person”—we modification of Title IX to define “sex” current theology of sex and gender has Two things should not as either “male or female, unchangeable, run its course. are worth point- refer to per- and determined by the genitals that a Just consider how this theology typi- ing out here. The sons in ways person is born with,” leaving all cally, and predictably, is debated today. first is that both that may im- “disputed cases” to be resolved through On the one side, we have comments like of these state- ply that they genetic testing. This binary classification these from Archbishop Charles Chaput ments reflect a are essentially of sexual identity would impact nearly of Philadelphia, writing against the use recurring dynam- defined by 1.4 million Americans who do not identi- of the term “LGBT” in church docu- ic in the Catholic something that fy with the gender indicated on their ments: understanding of they are, in birth certificates, prompting transgender “There is no such thing as an sexuality: the fact, manag- and gender-queer persons (and those who ‘LGBTQ Catholic,’ or a ‘transgender driving of a ing. stand with them) to characterize the pro- Catholic,’ or a ‘heterosexual Catholic,’as wedge between But this is posal as transphobic and anti-LGBTQ+. if our sexual appetites defined who we the “doctrinal” a nonstarter The second was the decision by are; as if these designations described approach to for queer per- bishops at the 2018 Synod on Young discrete communities of differing but queer persons, sons— People not to include terms like “gay” or equal integrity within the real ecclesial and the “pastor- something “LGBT” in the synod’s final document community, the body of Jesus Christ.” al” approach to Martin realiz- when discussing theologies relevant to On the other, we have the words of queer persons. es. Even if the persons who identify somewhere along Fr. James Martin, S.J., writing in favor of Chaput himself teaching states the LGBTQ+ spectrum, or simply as the use of “LGBT” in church documents: emphasizes the Craig A. Ford that homosex- “queer”—even though the former “Referring to L.G.B.T. people with doctrinal (Continued on page 5) Page 2 BONDINGS Vol. 38, No. 2 B NDINGS German Bishop: The Catholic Church Spring 2019 Vol. 38, No. 2 Needs to Change Its View of Homosexuality.