QUOTE TO NOTE: What Jesus Said About Condemning Gays

In the context of the Supreme Court’s recent hearing of oral arguments in the two marriage equality cases, James Salt, executive director of Catholics United, a political organization, had this to say:

“Christ did indeed say many things, but let’s face it: not one of them was about condemning gay people. It’s troubling that so many people who claim to follow his word have such difficulty understanding his real message. Christ’s message was to bring good news to the poor, not to ostracize gays, inflame phobias or create division.”

You can read the full article in which this excerpt was quoted in The Vindicator, a newspaper from Liberty County, Texas.

–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry

Petition Asks Knights of Columbus to End Work Against Marriage Equality

Catholics United, a religious political organization, delivered a petition with 7,500 signatures to the headquarters of the Knights of Columbus, asking the fraternal organization to stop funding activities to oppose marriage equality.

According to the New Haven Register, two members of Catholics United delivered the signed petition to the  Knights’ New Haven offices just two days before Thanksgiving, noting that the Knights are out of step with mainstream Catholicism:

“The Knights of Columbus has done a lot of wonderful things over the years, but many Catholics across the country believe the Knights of Columbus has just become a wing of the Republican Party,” said Patrick Carolan, 58, of Stratford [Connecticut]. . . .

” ‘While they’re spending money to defeat gay marriage, well, that’s money that could be helping people around the world,’ Carolan said.”

The article contains a video interview with Mr. Carolan and Traugott Lawler of Hamden, a 75-year-old retired English professor from Yale University, as they delivered the petition.

The news article cited the report released earlier this year by Equally Blessed which detailed the Knights’ massive spending on marriage equality opposition over the past several years:

“The Knights have contributed at least $6.25 million to anti-gay marriage initiatives since 2005, federal income tax and campaign documents show. According to a report by the group Equally Blessed, the Knights gave $600,000 during the 2012 election cycle.”

Equally Blessed is a coalition of four Catholic organizations–Call To Action, DignityUSA, Fortunate Families, New Ways Ministry–which work for justice and equality for LGBT people in church and society.

An Associated Press story noted a statement by the head of Catholics United, the organization which collected the signatures on the petition:

” ‘As a young Catholic, I want my church to focus on serving the marginalized, not fighting for far-right political issues,’ said James Salt, executive director of Catholics United.”

–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry

Catholic Campaigns for Marriage Equality in Maine and Maryland Intensify

Seventeen days remain until voters in four states will cast ballots regarding marriage equality’s future in their respective states. In Maine and Maryland, Catholic leaders on each side of the ballot questions are intensifying their efforts to turn Catholics out.  New Ways Ministry had public roles in the campaigns in both states this week.

In Maine, where a third of the population are Catholic, former Governor John Baldacci hosted a spaghetti dinner fundraiser in conjunction with Catholics for Marriage Equality to urge Mainers to vote Yes on Question One.

Governor John Baldacci (center) with New Ways Ministry’s Francis DeBernardo and Sister Jeannine Gramick.

Catholics for Marriage Equality, the Religious Coalition Against Discrimination, and Catholics United invited New Ways Ministry co-founder, Sr. Jeannine Gramick, and Executive Director, Francis DeBernardo, to speak at the dinner. The dinner also fundraised for a local homeless shelter defunded by the US bishops’ Catholic Campaign for Human Development after the shelter came out in support for equality in 2009.

Sr. Gramick told those gathered:

“It is not just a vote for lesbian and gay couples and their right, because they do have the right to get married. It is a vote to support families. You can be a good Catholic and vote with your conscience and vote for marriage equality.”

You can watch a news video of the event, including interviews with Governor Baldacci and Sister Gramick by clicking here.

One priest in Maine has recently noted how hard it is for Catholics to speak together about marriage equality.  Fr. Seamus Griesbach of Bangor referenced the emotional damage caused by a 2009 Catholic bishops’ campaign against gay marriage that saw significant financial and staff investments. Fr. Griesbach told National Public Radio:

” ‘We have both perspectives in the church, and they’re very inclined to really get pretty nasty,’ says Griesbach. ‘So I think the church said, wait a minute, we cannot allow the Gospel to be limited to some kind of slogan.’ “

Sister Jeannine speaks at the Maryland press conference.

Meanwhile, Maryland Catholics joined with other faith communities in encouraging residents to vote for Question 6 and uphold a pre-existing marriage equality law. Religious leaders,  including Sr. Jeannine Gramick, gathered on Thursday, October 18th at an interfaith press conference to express their support for Question 6.

Sister Jeannine spoke at the conference and was quoted in the Washington Blade :

“As we grow in the moral right, we sometimes have to make conscience decisions that are at odds with the leaders of our religious denomination…I do respect the position of the Catholic bishops on this question, but I disagree with them and I disagree with them because my conscience tells me so. My conscience tells me that social justice teaching in my church… supports equality and dignity for every individual. And so I can apply that social justice teaching of my church to the question of civil marriage for lesbian and gay people. This is not a question of church doctrine. It’s a question of public policy. And in this area of public policy I respectfully disagree with the bishops of my church.’”

–Bob Shine, New Ways Ministry

The Laity’s Pocketbook Expresses Solidarity with LGBT and Immigrant Rights

The power of the laity’s pocketbook to respond positively when the hierarchy reacts negatively was front and center this week in Colorado.

Regular readers of this blog may remember that back in April, Bondings 2.0 reported that Compañeros, an immigrant social service agency in Durango, Colorado, was denied $30,000 of funding from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development by the Diocese of Pueblo because they participate in a social justice coalition which includes a gay-rights advocacy group.

In response, lay people and foundations have raised more than $60,000–more than double the original amount–to support Compañeros.  The Denver Post reports:

” ‘A lady from Florida sent us $3. A man in England donated $1,000, and we’ve had everything in between,” [Compañeros' Executive Director Nicole] Mosher said. ‘It was totally unexpected and amazing.’

‘The Gill Foundation, one of the largest funders of civil-rights activism for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, told Compañeros it would provide a matching grant of $30,000 if it could raise the first $30,000. Both have occurred.”

Equally significant is that money was raised by WithCharityforAll.org, a fund established with the help of the social justice group Catholics United.  (Bondings 2.0 encouraged readers to support WithChairtyforAll.org’s campaign).  The Denver Post reports:

“This morning, in front of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, a group called With Charity For All gave Mosher $7,000 collected from Catholics across the country to help sustain Compañeros’ work.

“More than 2,000 people signed have signed a petition asking Pueblo Bishop Fernando Isern to fully restore Compañeros’ church funding.

” ‘Many Catholics love the charitable mission of the Catholic Church but are increasingly alienated by the conservative politics of the Catholic bishops,’ George Burns, Portland, Maine-based founder of With Charity For All, said in a statement released today.”

The Diocese of Pueblo has not responded to this news, and a Catholics United spokesperson had strong criticism of the hierarchy’s actions:

James Salt, executive director of Catholics United Education Fund, one of the key groups affiliated WithCharityForAll.org, delivered the $7,000 check to Mosher this morning before traveling to Pueblo to deliver the petition to the diocese.

Salt said he was told the bishop won’t meet with his group.

” ‘It’s bad enough that the bishops are pushing an extreme political agenda that is driving a wedge between them and the Catholic faithful,’ Salt said, ‘but this decision (on Compañeros’ funding) is particularly disturbing because they’re showing that they’ll even throw immigrants under the bus as part of that agenda.’ “

Clearly, the faithful are expressing their support both for immigrant rights and LGBT rights by this immense outpouring of support.  This story shows the power not only of organization, but of the pocketbook, to express the sensus fidelium–”the sense of the faithful”–on controversial matters.  It shows that lay people are willing to use their financial contributions to let the hierarchy know what they think the church’s priorities should be.

–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry

WithCharityForAll.org

The Catholic hierarchy’s opposition to anything remotely positive concerning LGBT issues is starting to affect charities which depend on funding from church sources.

A recent New York Times article examines the case of a Colorado non-profit, Compañeros, which helps immigrants receive social services and adjust to American life.   The article explains:

“. . .[I]n February, the group was informed by a representative from the Diocese of Pueblo that its financing from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development [CCHD], an arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops devoted to ending poverty, was in danger.

“The problem, the diocesan liaison explained, was Compañeros’s membership in an immigrant rights coalition that had joined forces with a statewide gay and lesbian advocacy group, recounted Nicole Mosher, Compañeros’s executive director.

“The Catholic Campaign, which doles out $8 million annually to about 250 groups nationwide, has been under increasing pressure from conservative Catholic groups to ensure that it is not unwittingly aiding organizations that run afoul of church positions on issues like birth control and marriage.”

Ralph McCloud, CCHD director, explains the rationale for denying funds:

“We can’t in any way have groups who are collaborating with other groups whose main focus is objectionable or contrary to Catholic teachings. . . .We’re upfront with that.”

I can’t help but wonder two things: 1) Will the CCHD de-fund programs with ties to groups that support right-wing causes or who flaunt church teaching in regard to war, the death penalty, and greed;  2) Doesn’t the CCHD’s rationale sound remarkably similar to Jesus’ critics in the gospel who denigrated him for unseemly associations with certain groups and people?

The Times article, which is worth a full read, offers hope in that one national Catholic group is working to raise money for an alternative fund to the increasigly conservative-controlled CCHD:

“Catholics United, a social justice group based in Washington, has vowed to counter the pressure from conservative Catholics. James Salt, the group’s executive director, said it planned fund-raising efforts this year so groups would not have to lean so heavily on money controlled by bishops.

“ ‘What is apparent is that these conservative groups are succeeding in subverting the mission of C.C.H.D., which is probably the most important antipoverty foundation in America,’ he said.”

Catholics United’s website has an announcement of the new fund, WithCharityForAll.org, which it describes as

“an alternative donation website that allows lay Catholics and people of faith to donate to worthy charities threatened with defunding by right-wing pressure groups within the Catholic Church. . . “

In an excellent and insightful National Catholic Reporter column, Jamie Manson puts the CCHD funding controversy in the broader context of the U.S. bishops’ increasingly politicized approach to the marriage equality debate.   She points out the heart of the matter on this issue:

“The hierarchy is letting the ideology of extreme social conservatives, not the teachings of the Gospel, determine where and how the poor will receive aid.

“How many social evils will the Catholic hierarchy ignore? How many injustices will they overlook in order to fulfill its zealous mission against equality for members of the LGBT community?

“Apparently, quite a few.”

The bishops have yet to recognize what everyone else already knows:  Catholics support LGBT justice issues, including marriage equality.  Catholics United’s WithCharityForAll.org alternative shows that Catholic lay people will find a way to fund programs and projects that express their faith commitment  to equality and justice for all.

–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry