parish group in Columbus Circle, on a recent Sunday after 5 p.m. Interviews with more than two dozen gay Catholics in New York revealed a powerful desire to reconcile their sexual identity with their faith in both God and an institution that has often approached them with hostility.Ĭhristopher Browner, 26, sat with a group of gay men from Out at St. audiences, “God loves you, and the church is learning to love you.” In his speeches, which have ballooned in number thanks to pandemic-era Zoom events, Father Martin often tells L.G.B.T.Q. “They can go to these parishes and feel at home.” “They are places, as the saying goes, for people who are on their way into the church or who may be tempted to go on their way out of the church,” he said. Catholics, said liberal parishes like these had long played an important role as “safety valves” for the church by providing a space for Catholics who might chafe at its prevailing dogmas. Differences between the archdiocese and the orders rarely emerge, but when they do - as with the Vatican statement and the parishes’ response - the two partners coexist without public controversy.įather James Martin, a Jesuit writer and well-known proponent of outreach to L.G.B.T.Q. The archdiocese allows these parishes to operate in its jurisdiction, many under the day-to-day management of independent religious orders with a more liberal attitude. It is also the seat of the powerful Archdiocese of New York, which is led by the conservative Cardinal Timothy M. The city’s most outwardly gay-friendly parishes are concentrated in Manhattan, a center of both gay culture and efforts to build a gay-friendly Catholicism. brothers and sisters, that the Holy Spirit will confirm them in the knowledge that their life partnerships are a blessing not only for them but for the community.”
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Francis Xavier asked the congregation to pray “for our L.G.B.T.Q.
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The weekend after the statement was released, a deacon at St. When the Vatican issued a statement in March that said priests could not bless same-sex unions, which it derided as a form of sin, these parishes and a handful of others in Manhattan issued statements of dismay or used homilies during Mass as an opportunity to comfort L.G.B.T.Q.