The emphasis is, at once, on a list of ideas about the universe, human life, purpose and what, if anything, is beyond the universe.

Once I have such a list, I can then tick the ones I also accept and a cross off those I consider weird, wrong or simply crazy.

Interestingly, this is the same way we approach various philosophies, political systems or any number of off-the-shelf spirituality books.

The world is a marketplace of various beliefs and you can either buy the "whole package" (a whole religion with every one of its beliefs — if you can list them all); the "lite version" (what you take as the key items you can believe and then skip the bits that look silly or awkward or just too complicated); or you can have the "pick & choose" selection that you make to order.

Ticking all the boxes

Few ever question the idea that, for example, if you wish to be a Catholic, then it's key that you sign-up to "all the Catholic beliefs".

Moreover, people sometimes say "I am no longer a Catholic" or "I could not be a Catholic" because "I no longer" or "cannot believe X, Y. or Z.

This focus on beliefs - statements that demand acceptance - is not only reinforced by our culture of ideologies, but by a long history of the western Churches fighting over which is the exact beliefs and statements of beliefs that are declared orthodox.

All this fighting, and this emphasis on having the right set of beliefs, makes it even harder to distinguish between a religion and a philosophy, or between a religion and a political party.

Indeed, for many Christians today the notion of a "party line" is almost identical with "orthodoxy" and with belonging to a religion.

A good example of this would be some Catholics, including some bishops, in the United States.

This confusion is demonstrated in these Catholics and bishops conduct debates or discussions with their fellow Christians - their brothers and sisters in Christ - with the same venom, bitterness and suspicion that they conduct their party politics.

While I might condemn such animosity-driven politics that damages the public forum and the common good, I am scandalized when I find the same style being used in the name of Christianity or Catholicism.

It is another instance of what I call "the Sin of Cain": sibling rising against sibling, made worse because it is done in the name of the God who is Father of each of us.

But is there any other way to view a religion?

Where do I belong?

Religion is also a means of belonging.

It gives me a home with others so that I can share a vision, help and be helped, and affirm with others all that is part and parcel of my humanity.

I need, we all need, to belong more than we need a box of doctrines or set of beliefs.

If I do not belong, my humanity is enfeebled.

I need to exercise care for others and I need the care of others.

Cut off, I wither.

While we might find Robinson Crusoe a good read, and there is a streak of devil-take-the-hindmost individualism in our culture, it is actually a vision of horror.

We really are social animals!

During these COVID-19 lockdowns, we have started to discover this as a reality in a way that we could not have imagined a year ago.

On the one hand, people's mental health is suffering when they are cut off from others. They know just how much they need to be with others and with Zoom, Skype and Facetime as poor substitutes, people need to know that they are not forgotten.

We need to belong!

The full verse reads: "See what love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God; and so we are".

On the other hand, we have discovered the joy and energy that comes from looking out for others.

Knowing that, somehow, we all belong to one another, we are, each of us, the keeper of our sisters and brothers.

We want to be able to know that there is an "us" and that we are working together. And - working with people we might never have met before COVID-19 - that belonging to the human family is more important than divisions caused by lists of beliefs that can set us at loggerheads.

Perhaps we need now to think of religion as belonging before we think of it as believing?

Frightening consequences of truly belonging

This is, of course, a frightening prospect for many people.

They love the idea that, for example, the Catholic Church is a monolith. Unflinching it stands there - and there are clear lines indicating who is "in" and who is "out".

This attracts many who see themselves as the great champions of faith and it appeals to those who want the Catholic Church as their enemy - and an enemy that is monolith is an easy target. Both sides see a very close link between religion and social control and cohesion.

However, the Church is first and foremost a place of belonging: we are welcomed into the Church at baptism. We become a brother or a sister of both the Christ and of one another - look at how we address one another at our formal gatherings - and we become daughters and sons of the Father in heaven - look at how we pray: "Our Father..."

It is as this community, this Church, that we profess our faith: it is our common vision, hope, and commitment.

It is not a series of questions on a form such as we might get at a customs barrier where you are excluded if you do not tick the right boxes.

Once one begins to think of the Church as a place of belonging, then the fireworks begin.

It must be a community of welcoming and acceptance that works together.

It must be a community that puts forgiveness and reconciliation close to its centre.

So a sacrament of reconciliation makes sense, but not if reconciliation and healing are seen as "payback time" or a moral rectitude test. Such a community must have healing at its centre, but not if that is seen as a re-modelling to a standard issue.

And we must work together because belonging must be an awareness of all our human bonds and belongings.

Consequently...

• Will this be a "home" where every race will be made to feel valued? Will Black Lives Matter in this place - along with people of every other colour? We might glibly say "yes" but we are less than 200 years since we Catholics defended slavery as acceptable within the divine plan!
• Will this be a place where we accept people as they are? "Yes" comes the resounding answer. But will the gay couple see their love as valued in this community as that of the straight couple?
• What about the couple; each divorced from their former partner and is willing to join up with us so that we have a common pilgrimage of faith?
• Will they have a place at our table where they can share the loaf and cup of the Lord with us as siblings? We all know too many clergy and groups who have used the Lord's Supper as if it were a reward for rule-keeping rather than food to help us travel on together.
• And, will we work together for humanity and the health of the planet? Again, "it goes without saying" is our response! But what about our being willing to change lifestyles and helping one another in putting pressure on governments for this?

The people of the covenant

Belonging sounds so sweet: it rapidly becomes the challenge to faith that is far more demanding than any ticking of credal boxes.

Faith can sound so much like an ideology that we can pervert to communities that make suffering humanity welcome into stifling agenda-driven parties.

Our history - back to the time of Abraham - is not that of God revealing secrets to us but of his making a covenant with us.

Jesus is not a guru. He never wrote a book to convey his ideas. Nor did he have a party-line.

Jesus is the one whom we look back to as making us a new people: children of the Father.

So in Christianity, as in Judaism, belonging is what is fundamental.

• Thomas O'Loughlin is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton, emeritus professor of historical theology at the University of Nottingham (UK) and director of the Centre of Applied Theology, UK.
• His latest award-winning book is Eating Together, Becoming One: Taking Up Pope Francis's Call to Theologians (Liturgical Press, 2019).
• Image: Flashes of Insight

The decree, which notes God "cannot bless sin," reiterates traditional Catholic teaching on sexuality. But the outpouring of painful reactions demonstrates the limits of Pope Francis' welcoming gestures toward LGBTQ people and is a stark reminder that my church continues to deny people their full humanity.

Straight Catholics who love our church and LGBTQ friends and family in equal measure are finding it increasingly difficult to square the church's often contradictory messages.

The Catholic catechism insists gay people should be treated with dignity and "every sign of unjust discrimination" should be avoided.

This is the same church that, in a 2003 Vatican statement, said allowing children to be adopted by same-sex couples "would actually mean doing violence to these children."

The same church that has promised to welcome and accompany gay Catholics is now opposing the Equality Act in Congress, which would ban discrimination against people based on sexual orientation and gender identity. And in a U.S. Supreme Court case that will be decided this summer, Catholic Social Services in Philadelphia wants to continue operating as a government contractor and receive city funding while refusing to place foster children with same-sex couples.

It's a strange and un-Christian form of love that tells people they are equal in God's eyes but then acts in ways that deem their committed relationships and parenting as inferior.

The Vatican's latest statement is likely to cause spiritual and psychological damage to young LGBTQ people who already experience higher rates of suicide, and push more people away from the institutional church.

This statement stings even more coming after what has felt like, for many LGBTQ Catholics, a shift with Pope Francis toward more welcoming and inclusive language.

"Not since the anger over sex abuse in 2002 and 2018 have I seen so many people so demoralized, and ready to leave the church," tweeted the Rev. James Martin, a prominent Jesuit priest and advocate for LGBTQ Catholics who has met with Pope Francis and serves as a Vatican adviser.

"And not simply LGBT people, but their families and friends, a large part of the church."

Perhaps a necessary reckoning over how the church thinks about LGBTQ people and human sexuality is arriving.

Belgian Bishop Johan Bonny of Antwerp said the Vatican statement left him with "intellectual and moral incomprehension."

In a commentary published in several Belgian and international newspapers, the bishop apologized for those who found the decree "painful and incomprehensible."

The bishop noted that he knows same-sex couples "who are legally married, have children, form a warm and stable family and actively participate in parish life. I'm immensely appreciative of their contributions."

Archbishop Mark Coleridge, president of the Australian Bishops' Conference, told The Tablet, a weekly Catholic journal, the statement "isn't by any means the end of the conversation. I think it should give greater impetus to another kind of conversation about inclusion."

Even the Vatican statement, which in part came as a response to German bishops involved with ongoing discussions about blessing same-sex couples, cites the "positive elements" of gay relationships and acknowledges they should be "valued and appreciated."

Several U.S. Catholic bishops in recent years have made efforts to show greater welcome toward LGBTQ people.

After the 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage, Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich called for "real, not rhetorical" respect for gays and lesbians.

Newark Cardinal Joe Tobin welcomed a pilgrimage of LGBTQ Catholics to the city's cathedral in 2017.

San Diego Bishop Robert McElroy has said the church's description of gay sexual intimacy as "intrinsically disordered" is "very destructive language that I think we should not use pastorally."

LGBTQ Catholics and allies will continue to remind our church that until there is real discernment about how a disordered theology that excludes and wounds is never holy, welcoming rhetoric rings hollow.

Catholic leaders can begin by showing more humility.

The hierarchy does not have a monopoly on truth when it comes to the complexities of gender and human sexuality.

Reform and renewal first begin by listening — and acknowledging you have something to learn.

• John Gehring is Catholic program director at Faith in Public Life. He is a contributing editor at Commonweal magazine, and an adjunct professor of journalism at American University. Gehring is a graduate of Mount Saint Mary's University in Maryland, and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in New York City.
• The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.
• First published in RNS, republished with permission.

On Monday (March 15), the Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith, the chief doctrinal office in the Vatican, responded to queries about this possibility with a firm no.

"It is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage," said the congregation.

To sum up, the Vatican is calling on the church to welcome gays "with respect and sensitivity" while at the same time telling priests not to bless their unions.

This fine distinction will make no sense to many American Catholics, especially those who are gay and believe that respecting a person includes accepting their choice of a life partner.

In Germany, it will put a chill on efforts by the country's Catholic bishops to consult the faithful on a number of topics, including gays, though a multiyear synodal process.

Granted how much Pope Francis talks about the synodal character of the church, it is disappointing to see attempts to short-circuit this process in Germany.

This preemptive strike, however, will not succeed.

The discussion will go on, explained Bishop Georg Bätzing, president of the German bishops' conference, even as "points of view put forward today by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith must and will naturally find their way into these discussions."

The congregation made clear that Francis "was informed and gave his consent" to the publication of the document.

My guess is that he was given the document right before he left for Iraq and deferred to the congregation rather than subject the document to a close personal review. '

The document lacks the pastoral sensitivity that has marked his papacy.

Too bad he did not set it aside for more thought and consultation.

The congregation sees pastoral and theological problems with blessing gay unions, although it has no problem with blessing gay individuals.

Pastorally, the Vatican feels that most people will not see a distinction between blessing a gay union or sacramentalising it.

If you reserve a church for a ceremony, have music and flowers, dress up and walk down the aisle and are blessed in the sanctuary by a fully vested priest, most of the people in the congregation will not recognize any difference between this and the sacrament of marriage.

Theologically, blessing same-sex couples "would constitute a certain imitation or analogue of the nuptial blessing," which can only be given to married couples, said the congregation, which believes that such a blessing would "approve and encourage a choice and a way of life that cannot be recognized as objectively ordered to the revealed plans of God."

In short, "God cannot bless sin."

This will go down as one of the most pastorally insensitive statements coming from the Francis papacy.

What can be blessed must "be objectively and positively ordered to receive and express grace, according to the designs of God inscribed in creation, and fully revealed by Christ the Lord," states the congregation.

We can be grateful that the document does not refer to homosexuality as "intrinsically disordered," as have earlier church documents.

Although for the church the phrase has always been a theological judgment, meaning not "objectively ordered to the revealed plans of God," it has incorrectly been interpreted as a psychological diagnosis, causing great pain and confusion among gay people and their friends. Hopefully, "intrinsically disordered" has been consigned to the dustbin of theology.

It must be emphasized that the congregation's document deals with marriage and blessings in the church, not civil marriage.

Francis has recognized the need for legal recognition of gay unions, although he would prefer that such arrangements be called civil unions rather than marriage.

Most American Catholics, like most Americans, support the legalization of gay marriage, but this is not necessarily true elsewhere in the world. According to the Pew Research Center, 61% of American Catholics support legalizing gay marriage.

Support is even higher in Western Europe (except Italy and Portugal), but in other parts of the world, most Catholics and their countrymen oppose legalizing gay marriage.

While to Americans the pope appears to be behind the times, he is revolutionary in many other parts of the world, especially in the 71 countries where gays are still criminalized.

In these countries, church support for decriminalizing gay sex and legalising gay unions would be great progress.

• Thomas Reese SJ is a senior analyst at Religion News Service, and a former columnist at National Catholic Reporter, and a former editor-in-chief of the weekly Catholic magazine America. First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

And each year, the USPS shares some of the letters it has received in an effort to promote the program and inspire folks to adopt letters.

This year, one letter in particular has people in tears as it shines a light on the challenges many LGBTQ+ kids face. In it, a young gay boy asked Santa if God loved him.

On its Operation Santa website, the USPS has shared a letter from a child identified only as "Will."

In a child-like handwriting that leans and tilts across the page, it reads:

"Dear Santa,

Do you support the LGBTQ community and if you can speak to god can you tell Him I love him, and if He loves me for being gay. Thank you. Love, Will."

As Operation Santa does not traditionally publicly share personal information about the children who send letters to Santa through the program, the USPS has not provided any additional information about Will or his letter, such as which state it was mailed from.

So although Will's letter doesn't tell us much in the way of facts or personal details, it speaks volumes in regards to the struggle so many LGBTQ+ children go through every day.

Because while many children turn to Santa with requests for toys and games, Will wanted only to know if he was loved by God.

Unfortunately, Will's desire for love and acceptance is something many LGBTQ+ youth have experienced.

In 2018, a Human Rights Campaign survey of more than 12,000 LGBTQ+ youth aged 13 to 17 found only 24% of respondents felt they could "definitely" be themselves as an LGBTQ+ person at home.

What's more, 67% of all respondents said they heard their families make negative comments about LGBTQ+ people and 48% of respondents who were already out to their parents said their families made them feel bad about being LGBTQ+. Continue reading

"It makes me want to cry. It makes me feel seen, like I'm not just making shit up." That's how Anna, who underwent conversion therapy as a young adult, describes the news that Labour will ban the controversial practice if re-elected.

Conversion therapy is a pseudoscientific technique that attempts to change or suppress someone's sexual orientation or gender identity through shaming, emotional manipulation and/or physical trauma so victims associate pain and discomfort with their queer identity.

The practice is primarily used within religious communities and has been linked to severe mental health issues, including depression and suicidal ideation.

It has already been banned in Queensland, Madrid and Ontario, and specifically for minors in Germany, Ecuador and Brazil.

National leader Judith Collins also opposes conversion therapy.

"I'm a parent and I have said to my son, and I hope other parents would also say this, ‘Just be who you are!'

That's unconditional love … Not trying to convert your child to anything else," she told Gay Express.

Still, the party has no policy on conversion therapy - or any rainbow policies.

Along with Labour, the Greens, the Maori Party and The Opportunities Party have voiced support for a conversion therapy ban.

A ban would make it in an offence for people, entities, or organisations to offer, advertise or perform conversion therapy on another person.

This includes performing conversion therapy as a professional, such as health practitioner, teacher or social worker. It would also make it an offence to knowingly remove a person from New Zealand for the purposes of conversion therapy.

So what does this damaging practice look like in New Zealand? Anna, who grew up in a tight-knit church community in Hamilton, talked to The Spinoff about what the experience was like for her.

What was it like learning about your sexuality?

I always knew I was attracted to women. But I didn't think it meant anything. It was only when I was around 18 years old, that someone I had a crush on had a crush on me back! I was like "woah, I'm not straight", and it's been a fucking whirlwind since then.

What kind of experiences did you have with the church?

When I was about 16, our youth pastor sat down and had a chat with us about homosexuality.

She said, "you might feel like you've got some feelings for your friends who are the same sex as you, but it's just a phase because you're going through puberty".

I remember arguing with her: "But my cousin's gay, and she's old. So it can't be puberty".

Our pastor also always told us that her husband was never her type, but one day she looked at him, and thought "wow I'm kinda attracted to him."

So I questioned her, what's the difference?

I asked because it didn't make logical sense to me.

A lot of people were homophobic behind each others' backs in the church.

I used to live in this house of church leadership and someone who was a lesbian had found us on this Christian flatmate website and came and viewed the flat.

After she left, everyone was like "ew no, what if I want to shower and walk around in my towel?"

After that, we had a church dinner at someone's house and it just went on and on, them expressing their disgust.

At that point, I was out to myself.

That's a lot to take in. You mentioned that you came out of the closet and then went back in. What happened?

When I first came out, I had people picking me up from my house to take me to prayer circles.

It was confusing because they were telling me to go to the healers because I was hurt.

But I was hurt because I was having moral conflicts - they thought I was hurt because I had fucking demons inside of me.

I cared about these people a lot and so I'd go with them. I felt pretty coerced into it.

What else was I going to do with these people showing up at my house?

Everything felt overwhelming so I moved to a new town.

But the only way I knew how to make friends was through church. So I went back to church and I went back into the closet because I wasn't going to be able to make friends otherwise.

A lot of people, think of conversion therapy as structured camps. But for you, it was people you loved and cared about turning up at your doorstep.

Absolutely.

The second time I came out, I was still living in that church leadership house.

I had these people I thought were going to be my bridesmaids telling me to watch videos of Sy Rogers. He was someone who used to preach about being an ex-gay Christian and so they'd send me these links.

Or I'd get home and [his videos] would just be on the TV because "if you really loved us, you'd just sit down and watch it".

Sy Rogers would say: "I'm married with a wife now and kids, but I still have to be careful when looking at men so I'm not tempted."

Well you're still gay then, aren't you?

I just couldn't take it seriously.

You're still gay, you've just dragged your wife and kids into it.

I had people doing prayer, sending me bible verses every day.

People telling me they couldn't be my friend anymore, and threatening to leave the church if I didn't leave.

I have the misfortune of being friends with people who've been exposed as being paid conversion therapists.

Sometimes I still feel funny talking about conversion therapy because it doesn't look like me sitting in a therapist's office going through that. It looks like pastors taking me out for coffee. Continue reading

Like many Filipinos, I was raised in a devoutly Catholic home and went to an all-boys school run by priests most of my life.

My family, teachers, and friends never talked about homosexuality, all I knew was that I should avoid it.

In reality, I began to fear that I might be gay when I was six years old.

I did not understand it yet then, but I knew I was different and that scared me. What if someone found out?

There was a long period of repression. I wanted to believe that my homosexuality was temporary, telling myself that when I found a girl to love, I would become straight.

I didn't go to gay bars nor hang out with gay people.

Then, at 35 years old and after becoming a lawyer, I entered the Jesuit Novitiate to become a priest.

I was there for over a year before I was kicked out for having sex with another man.

That was when I finally came around to accepting the truth about myself.

It's ironic that this happened as I was supposed to be preparing for a celibate religious life, but I have come to see it as a blessing.

I think the Catholic Church is misguided in its teachings on sexuality but, ultimately, I choose to stay because this is the Church I grew up in and I have found a personal connection with a loving God here.

Inside the Church, there are sacraments that make me feel God's presence more intensely.

As Catholics, we believe that God is most present in the Eucharist, so when I go to Mass, I know that God is there.

The Church gives us an experience that is lived and enfleshed in our being. It turns something spiritual into something tangible.

I often find myself bursting into tears during Mass because I would get overwhelmed by a feeling of God's personal love for me. It's a connection I still look for, especially during a pandemic that has me locked up in a room.

I have cried during online masses too, but for me, going to church is important because it underscores this sense of community.

I did not always feel this way.

After leaving the novitiate and coming out to my family and friends, I stopped going to church regularly for eight years because I no longer felt welcome there.

But I never stopped examining my beliefs.

"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field," Rumi wrote. But finally, I returned to the Church of my childhood in a proverbial field while living in Cambodia, where I worked as a refugee lawyer for 10 years.

Living in a non-Christian country freed from the pressure of tradition and judgment, I found that it was the Catholic Church that gave me a sense of home.

While living there, my nun friend helped me realise that God has been misrepresented as a taskmaster, someone with a list of Ten Commandments that one has to follow — you have to go to church, you have to dress this way, you have to behave like this, you have to avoid offending people. But the bottom line is that God is love. And a loving God would not create something evil.

I had to leave my country before I could come full circle and come back home. Continue reading

In 1990, then-Cardinal John O'Connor forced any of New York parishes hosting Dignity support groups for Catholic gays and lesbians to evict them from church property.

Late last month, with the approval of New York's current cardinal, Timothy Dolan, Fordham University released the first in a series of new videos of Catholic leaders offering messages of support to the LGBTQ community for Pride Month.

It resulted from the cancellation of an in-person LGBTQ Catholic Ministry Conference "Outreach 2020," due to COVID-19, that Fordham would have hosted.

The 40-minute video includes 21 speakers from all over the country: an archbishop, a bishop, priests, women and men in religious orders, theologians, authors, activists, parents and students — all Catholic leaders offering support to the LGBTQ community.

While most of the comments are benign and tame by secular standards, Catholic high school guidance counsellor Shelly Fitzgerald addressed the elephant in the room.

In 2018, she said, "I was fired for being a lesbian."

Scores of Catholic school personnel all over the country have been fired from institutions once they enter into a same-sex marriage. Fitzgerald is suing Roncalli High School in Indianapolis and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis for discrimination. (Newark Archbishop Joseph Cardinal Tobin was the archbishop of Indianapolis before he came to Newark, but the firing was done by his successor.)

The Supreme Court recently ruled that LGBTQ employees have job protection but did not clarify if religious institutions can claim freedom of religion, which the archdiocese used to justify her termination.

Fitzgerald said she refused to give in to fear and anger because she received encouragement and support from the Catholic community all over the country.

"Do not doubt faith and hope in God's church," she said.

And that is the thread throughout all the comments in the video: The church is there for LGBTQ people and all are welcome.

On one level, this is happening.

The catalyst is Jesuit Rev. James Martin, an editor at large for Amercia magazine whose book "Building Bridges" has become a lightning rod for those opposed to gay acceptance in the church.

It was interesting to hear and see Sister Jeanine Grammick, a co-founder 50 years ago of New Ways Ministry in Maryland, which ministers to gays and advocates for gay rights in the church. She has been threatened and badgered by the Vatican for her pioneering ministry and hasn't given up.

"All of these hopeful signs have come about because LGBT people have had the courage to come and to share their lives with others," she said. Continue reading

"No. But I have a real respect for people who have religion as a foundation in their lives, " she told Pathos in a recently published interview.

"And I respect people who don't. I'm agnostic.

"I don't spend a lot of time trying to figure it out.

"I do draw a line if people are being taken advantage of - for instance, the tithes in some churches. I feel very strongly about that."

Ardern was raised Mormon but she was in her 20s when she left the Mormon faith, mostly as a consequence of its anti-homosexual stance.

She was flatting with three gay people and still going to church from time to time.

But then she came to the conclusion that she could no longer subscribe to a religion that did not account for the gay community.

Last year, in an interview in World Religion News, Ardern said that she could not see herself associating with an organised religion such as Mormonism again.

Source

• patheos.com
• worldreligionnews.com
• Image: newshub.co.nz

Yet lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people continue to face high levels of violence and discrimination across the world.

72 countries criminalise male homosexuality, with 45 also criminalising female homosexuality.

In the Commonwealth, 36 of its 53 countries maintain laws that make same-sex intimacy between men a crime and, in 16 of them, it is also punishable offence between women.

In the majority of criminalising countries, homophobic laws are a legacy of British colonisation.

Although the number of countries that criminalise LGBT+ people is slowly decreasing, with Belize and the Seychelles decriminalising in the last couple of years, deep stigmatisation persists.

A new series of photographs captures the faces of the LGBT+ rights movement in the Commonwealth.
The photos, taken by photographer Eivind Hansen, were commissioned by UK-based LGBT+ rights charity Kaleidoscope Trust.

I've always wanted my work to represent a positive change in the world. Photographing people within the LGBT+ spectrum has become something that's very important to me", East London-based photographer Hansen said.

"I hope the photos can create more visibility around LGBT+ people and their struggle for equality in the countries they come from.Queer Commonwealth: Faces of the LGBT+ Movement captures 33 members of the Commonwealth Equality Network (TCEN), which in 2017 became the first LGBT+ network to receive Commonwealth accreditation", said Paul Dillane, executive director of Kaleidoscope Trust.

As a founding member and Secretariat of The Commonwealth Equality Network, Kaleidoscope Trust strongly believes in joint advocacy.

With 36 out of 53 Commonwealth nations criminalising homosexuality, the fight for global LGBT+ rights continues.

These photos celebrate the vibrancy, positivity and diversity of LGBT+ activists from across the Commonwealth.

Making its debut in central London this week to coincide with the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), the exhibition features subjects from Belize and Tonga, Namibia and Sri Lanka, Cyprus and Malaysia and beyond.

At CHOGM, leaders of Commonwealth governments, including Theresa May, Cyril Ramaphosa and Justin Trudeau, will meet in London to decide collective policies and agree joint work.

The advocates featured in these images stand ready to ensure the concerns and the rights of the Commonwealth's LGBT+ people are heard and represented.

Donnya Piggott is an LGBT+ activist from Barbados, where homosexuality carries a potential penalty of life imprisonment.

Donnya founded Barbados Gays and Lesbians Against Discrimination (B-GLAD) in 2012. B-GLAD focuses on public education and advocacy, working on behalf of the community to increase public understanding of the needs of LGBT+ Barbadians.

"In order to create real change we have to work with the public at large. Whether it's going to churches and having those difficult conversations with people of different faiths, or reaching out to people who engage in behaviours that harm the queer community", she said.

Qasim Iqbal is an LGBT+ and HIV activist based in Pakistan.

In Pakistan homosexuality is illegal, though the sodomy ban is rarely enforced. In 2011, Qasim launched Naz Male Health Alliance (NMHA), the first and only LGBT+ community-based organisation in Pakistan, which provides support for improving the sexual health, welfare and human rights of LGBT+ people.

Seven years later, he remains the only openly gay and HIV positive activist in Pakistan.

"As a young boy I was bullied. I learned to be strong, but to this day I see many of my childhood friends who struggle with maintaining a stable self esteem because of the bullying they faced.

Seeing their struggle made me realise that I had to stand up for justice and for humanity in a country where even the government is a bully", said Iqbal. Continue reading

• Images: Indy100 by Eivind Hansen

In an interview on Irish-channel Clare FM's Morning Focus, Fr Lynch said the message of God is to love and to love one another.

He said the Catholic Church "does terrible damage and it is part of the destruction of gay people's lives and how that can be Godly?

"How can that be Christ's message? Who would choose to be gay? It is God given and our choice is to embrace it." Read more

Now, some gay Catholics and supporters who hoped for rapid acceptance find themselves hampered by many bishops and pastors. Read more

The Pope's comments on gender were made during a private meeting last week with bishops from Poland.

During the meeting Francis lamented children are being taught at school that gender can be a choice.

"Today, in schools they are teaching this [gender choosing] to children - to children! - that everyone can choose their gender."

"We are living a moment of annihilation of man as image of God," the Pope concluded.

The Vatican, Tuesday, released the transcript of the closed-door remarks.

Gender, transsexual issues and sexual reassignment surgery are receiving a great deal of attention and support in the media, schools, government and in health professionals today.

"The idea that one's sex is fluid and a matter open to choice runs unquestioned through our culture and is reflected everywhere in the media, the theater, the classroom, and in many medical clinics," writes Dr. Paul McHugh, former Chairperson of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

"It has taken on cult-like features: its own special lingo, internet chat rooms providing slick answers to new recruits, and clubs for easy access to dresses and styles supporting the sex change.

"It is doing much damage to families, adolescents, and children and should be confronted as an opinion without biological foundation wherever it emerges."

Opposition to Dr McHugh's stance is strong, with Transadvocate commentators saying he appears to selectively reading the literature to support his own agenda.

Source

• The Washington Post
• The Wall Street Journal
• Transadvocate
• Childhealing.com
• Image: Pixabay

Msgr Krzysztof Charamsa lost his job at the CDF after he made a public statement about his situation and he also criticised the Church for its approach to homosexuality.

His bishop in Pelpin diocese in Poland called on him to return to proper priestly behaviour.

But since there has been no sign of this, Msgr Charamsa has been suspended indefinitely.

The diocese said in a statement that the suspension can be reversed if Msgr Charamsa returns to the "true teaching of the Church and Christ's priesthood".

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In January, President Francois Hollande named Laurent Stefani as ambassador to the Holy See.

The Vatican did not accept his credentials, but did not explicitly reject him.

Mr Stefani, who is President Hollande's chief of protocol, had been France's second-in-command at its Vatican embassy between 2001 and 2005.

Mr Stefani's appointment as ambassador to the Vatican was reportedly supported by the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois.

Now sources at the Élysée Palace have told French daily Libération that President Hollande had given up his efforts over the Stefanini appointment.

"It's dead," a source was quoted as saying.

Officially, Élysée Palace and Vatican officials declined to comment on the reports.

According to Libération, President Hollande is not expected to put forward another candidate for the Vatican post before the next French presidential election in 2017.

A report in the French Le Canard Enchainé in April claimed that Pope Francis had a "very discreet" meeting with Mr Stefanini.

At this meeting, the Pontiff reportedly said his objection to the appointment was not personal, but an indication of the Vatican's disapproval of France's 2013 gay marriage law.

Philippe Levillain, a papal specialist and French historian, told media the Vatican did not want to be seen as homophobic.

"There's a flagrant contradiction between the openness Pope Francis is showing towards homosexuals and the refusal to accept Laurent Stefanini's nomination. It's not a very charitable attitude," Mr Levillain said.

Sources

• The Guardian
• Image: Italian Insider

He had been diagnosed with cancer at the end of last year.

Birch, a former priest, was a resident of Mt Victoria for more than 20 years, and an active member of St Joseph's Parish.

In the 1980s, while still in priestly ministry, he worked as a teacher and theology lecturer.

After a long struggle with his sexual identity, he made the decision to come out as gay and left the priesthood in 1990.

Birch returned to Wellington where he had been a student, and built a new life.

Soon after arriving, he met his future partner, Musu Aiono.

Birch never gave up on the ideal of serving others.

He once commented that although he did not have a public role as a priest any more, he thought of himself as "working undercover".

He was a man who remained very committed to prayer, and to helping the vulnerable and disadvantaged.

Birch was born in Christchurch and educated at St Bede's College.

After school, he spent a year as an American Field Scholar in Omaha, Nebraska, and then entered Mount St Mary's Seminary in Greenmeadows, Napier, in 1972, to train as a priest in the Society of Mary.

Source

• The DomPost
• Image: Facebook

Cardinal Dolan, who is archbishop of New York, is also the grand marshal for the parade on March 17.

The parade committee chose OUT@NBCUniversal -a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender resource group - to march up Manhattan's Fifth Avenue.

NBC, the long time broadcast home of the parade, was prepared to drop its coverage unless a compromise could be reached that resulted in the inclusion of a gay group.

Sponsors had threatened to pull out and politicians had refused to participate because of the ongoing exclusion of gay groups marching with their own banner.

The committee said its "change of tone and expanded inclusiveness is a gesture of goodwill to the LGBT community in our continuing effort to keep the parade above politics".

The committee's statement said the parade was "remaining loyal to church teachings". The parade is not run by the Church.

A parade spokesman said other gay and lesbian groups could apply in future years.

Last March, Guinness beer dropped its parade sponsorship.

Cardinal Dolan said on September 3 that the parade committee that operates the annual event "continues to have my confidence and support".

"Neither my predecessors as archbishop of New York nor I have ever determined who would or would not march in this parade . . . but have always appreciated the cooperation of parade organisers in keeping the parade close to its Catholic heritage," he continued.

Cardinal Dolan concluded by praying "that the parade would continue to be a source of unity for all of us".

Last year, the cardinal said he supported the inclusion of gay people in the parade, but did not take a position on whether they should be allowed to march under their own sign.

The parade always pauses in front of St Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue.

In 1993, then-Cardinal John O'Connor, facing gay protesters who staged a sit-in during the parade, vowed that he "could never even be perceived as compromising Catholic teaching" by entertaining their admission as an identifiable group in the event.

But Pope Francis has made it clear he wants Church leaders to highlight Catholicism's outreach to the poor and vulnerable, rather than always fighting culture war issues on gay marriage and the like.

Some gay groups in the US were unhappy that only one such group was in the 2015 parade.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• Irish Central
• Associated Press
• Image: Irish Central

Despite help from Trinity Methodist Church in Napier for the GayOk group, backing from local schools, funding bodies and the wider community was not forthcoming.

"There is a real stigma around homosexuality in Hawke's Bay and it truly does take a toll on gay youths," GayOk co-founder Jason Gerbes said.

"We were trying to provide support for the gay community in Hawke's Bay, which personally we found a lack of."

Trinity Methodist's Reverend Tony Franklin-Ross, 46, an "out-gay minister", was keen to help GayOk.

"The parish has had a mission statement for a number of years to be inclusive across a range of aspects such as age, gender, culture and sexuality," Mr Franklin-Ross said.

"The prominent discourse in the media is that the church has a negative attitude towards sexuality, but we were happy to say 'we don't affirm that'."

If youth lacked a sense of belonging, they would go where there was a better sense of community and more support services, he said.

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But a move by a bishop in Wisconsin to route all such decisions through his office is raising questions about whether that neutral zone will now become another battleground, and whether the growing acceptance of gay parents will inevitably draw more attention to this practice and force church leaders to establish clearer rules.

The default position for most bishops — reiterated in a major Vatican document released on Thursday (June 26) — is that if the parents pledge to raise the child Catholic, then no girl or boy should be refused baptism.

They generally let parish priests make the final call and let them administer the sacrament, though it is usually done in a private ceremony with the biological parent — not the adoptive mother or father — listed on the baptismal certificate.

The new debate was prompted by the emergence of a memo — first reported by the Wisconsin State Journal — that was sent in early May to priests of the Madison Diocese by the top aide to Bishop Robert Morlino.

In the memo, the vicar general of the diocese, Monsignor James Bartylla, says there are "a plethora of difficulties, challenges, and considerations associated with these unnatural unions (including scandal) linked with the baptism of a child, and such considerations touch upon theology, canon law, pastoral approach, liturgical adaptation, and sacramental recording."

Bartylla says that pastors must now coordinate any decision on baptizing the children of gay couples with his office and that "each case must be evaluated individually." Continue reading

• Source: Religion News Service
• Image: gloria.tv

Yet that same teaching also says that gay and lesbian people must be treated with "respect, sensitivity and compassion."

As more states pass laws legalising same-sex marriage, more gay and lesbian Catholics are entering into these unions.

This leaves some Catholics feeling caught between two values: church teaching against same-sex marriage and church teaching in favour of compassion.

In Seattle a few months back, for example, many high school students protested the ouster of the vice principal, who was removed for marrying another man.

Most people who oppose same-sex marriage say they do not hate gay people, only that the traditional understanding of marriage is important and perpetually valid.

Other opponents of same-sex marriage invoke the oft-repeated mantra, "Hate the sin, love the sinner."

If that is so, then why do so many gay people say they feel hatred from members of the church?

Let me suggest a reason beyond the fact that many gays and lesbians disagree with church teaching on homosexual acts: only rarely do opponents of same-sex marriage say something positive about gays and lesbians without appending a warning against sin. Continue reading.

James Martin, SJ, is editor at large of America

Source: America Magazine

Image: Inside Loyola

"If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?"

Only God knows the secrets of each human heart. It is not for us to make judgments about others. Scripture tells us, "Judge not, lest you yourselves be judged".

There is an article in [this week's] Sunday Star Times about an American Catholic documentary on homosexuality and Catholicism called The Third Way.

The Sunday Star Times article carries the headline "Catholics tell gays to ditch sex".

It is most unfortunate that the article could give the impression, despite what Pope Francis says, that God judges every situation to be sinful, with the implied corollary that sin and Catholicism are somehow irreconcilable.

The truth is that the Church is a community of sinners of varying degrees.

We are all sinners, and our journey through life is to follow the call of Jesus towards wholeness and integrity in all of our activities and relationships.

This journey is one of many failures and successes, of stops and starts.

Jesus holds up for us the ideal of a faithful, loving relationship between a man and a woman in marriage. Sexual activity be it heterosexual or homosexual that is not within this marriage relationship falls far short of this ideal.

The great truth of Christianity is that God's love, mercy and compassion are boundless.

God gives us freedom of choice and countless opportunities to evaluate our lives when we fall short of the ideals and values presented to us in the gospel - the chance to begin all over, again and again.

Who among us is without sin?

That was the question Jesus asked when confronting a group of people who were about to stone a woman who was caught in adultery.

"Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone," he said. And one by one they departed.

God offers love, support and respect to every person without discrimination.

The Church dare not do less.

There is no such person as a second-class Catholic.

I believe the film The Third Way is thought-provoking for all of us and I suggest that those who are interested view it and make their own decision about it.

Patrick Dunn is the bishop of Auckland.

Source: Auckland Diocese

Image: wn.com