Fortunate Families: The New Blog on the Block

Bondings 2.0 welcomes a new friend to the blogosphere: the Fortunate Families Blog! This new internet resource is a new online community for the Fortunate Families (FF) network, which brings together Catholic parents of LGBT people for mutual support and advocacy for equality.

The two editors are FF board members Deb Word and Tony Garascia.  In their first post, they describe the blog’s mission and scope:

“We hope to use this blog to keep you up to date with what’s going on at Fortunate Families and to give Catholic Parents of lgbtq kids a place to interact. Share this space with your family and friends and PLEASE comment.  We want this page to be interactive, and we hope to have a new post each week!”

The blog has gotten off to a great start.  For example, one post lists the signs of hope that Catholic parents are seeing in the area of LGBT issues.  Here’s a few from their list:

• Young people, young people, young people.  The fact that so many young adults are open and affirming of the LGBT community.
• Change happens over time, this is hopeful.  We hold the tension of being urgent and patient at the same time.  Requires a deeper spirituality to do that.
•  Many more Catholic parishes are now hosting groups for LGBT ministry.
• New, younger parents of LGBT children are getting involved.
• More people of other faiths are getting involved in LGBT issues and equality.
• Even though many of us have been singing the same song of openness and affirmation for a long time there seems to be a lot more people singing with us.

Another post offers a profile of Joan Abele, who is one of FF’s Listening Parents Network, a group of Catholic parents who have been trained to be listeners and accompaniers of parents who may just be learning they have an LGBT child or who may be experiencing a special challenge with their faith or family.

This blog looks like it will be a great addition to the already flourishing online conversations taking place for those interested in different aspects of the Catholic LGBT world.  Check out Bondings 2.0′s blogroll, in the column to the right of this post, for a variety of Catholic websites and blogs on LGBT and other church reform issues.   To learn more about Fortunate Families as an organization, you can visit their website.

Remember, too, that blogs–whether the Fortunate Families one, Bondings 2.0, or any other one–are social media.  As such, they are not just providers of information, but opportunities for discussion.  So, you are encouraged when visiting any blog site, including this one, to make your opinions and reactions known by posting in the “Comments” section provided for each post.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Fortunate Families blog!

–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry

Blog Birthday Redux

At the end of last month, we celebrated the first anniversary for the Bondings 2.0 blog, with several posts marking this milestone.

New Ways Ministry co-founder Sister Jeannine Gramick poses with Bondings 2.0′s birthday cake!

Here at New Ways Ministry, we also had some “offline” celebrations, including a birthday cake for the blog!

If you are able to support the blog into the new year, we suggest two different ways:

1) Make a contribution to the blog by clicking the “Contribute” tab above.  Please make sure to write the word “blog” in the “Comments” box of the donation form to which you will be directed.

2) Take a moment to complete our survey of Bondings 2.0 readers by clicking the “Reader Survey” tab above.  Your answers will provide us valuable information so that we can make the blog more effective, meaningful, and convenient for you and other readers.

Thanks for your continued support of this blog and of LGBT Catholic issues!

–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry

 

Happy Anniversary!

Today marks the first anniversary of Bondings 2.0!

One year ago today, I came to the New Ways Ministry office and typed the words “how to start a blog” into Google, and by the end of the day, I had a blog post. A few more days followed the same pattern of just taking a stab at writing, and before I knew it, I had not just blog posts, but an actual blog!

When I started, I didn’t know which direction the blog would go in other than that I wanted it to contain material that would interest people who follow Catholic LGBT issues.  Over the past year, we have kept to that direction with a  mixture of news stories, opinion pieces, personal reflections, and spirituality.

Our aim evolved into providing readers with important information, but also with a perspective designed to build up the Catholic Church and the growing movement of Catholics who support LGBT equality and justice.  For the past full year, we have posted something every single day, some times twice or three times a day, when the news was lively.  I mention this not as a point of pride, but as evidence to the fact of how important the relationship between the Catholic Church and LGBT issues is.  There has been something important to write every single day about this relationship, and it doesn’t look like things will be slowing down any time soon.

What does our blog contain?  In addition to daily updates of news, opinion, theological and spiritual reflections, we also have developed some occasional features:

• ALL ARE WELCOME:  a series which focuses on Catholic gay-friendly faith communities
• NEWS NOTES: an occasional feature which provides brief summaries of news articles with links to the original sources
• QUOTE TO NOTE: an occasional feature which provides witty or insightful quotations from news articles
• CATHOLIC LGBT CALENDAR: a listing of Catholic LGBT events around the U.S. and the globe
• CAMPUS CHRONICLES: a series which focuses on Catholic LGBT issues on college campuses.

Some interesting data about the blog and our readers:

• Though most readers are from the United States, people from 162 nations have read the blog
• The most popular blog post was Sister Joan Chittister & Sister Simone Campbell Respond to Vatican Action Against U.S. Nuns, which appeared on April 19, 2012, but which still gets significant number of views almost every week since.
• The same post is also the one with the most comments from readers.
• The most popular day was May 20, when the post was Cardinal Calls for Equality of Heterosexual and Homosexual Relationships.

I started out as the sole contributor to this blog, but since its beginning, we have had a few guest contributors, and we have added a new regular contributor, Bob Shine, New Ways Ministry’s Coordinator of Young Adults and Social Media.   Bob covers general news stories, as well as news about LGBT issues on Catholic college campuses.

One year ago, I started out on this venture, not really knowing what I was doing.  (Some might justly argue that I still don’t know what I’m doing!)  I started out having fun, learning a new skill, and, building on some older skills.  I thought I was helping to build a resource of information and opinions for people interested in Catholic LGBT issues.

It seems, however, thanks to the magic of social media, that what has emerged is a community of people who are eager to share ideas and perspectives, passions and reflections.  I have benefited immensely by the experience of being a part of this community, and I look forward to continuing the conversation with all of the wonderful readers and commenters.

–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry