The Gay and Lesbian's Catholics Challenges Anti Gay Bigotry of Catholic Bishops

    CHICAGO, Nov. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- In their typical fashion the Catholic
 Bishops of the United States meeting in Baltimore for their annual fall
 meeting, have missed the mark in their recently adopted statement,
 "Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination." The Rainbow Sash
 Movement (RSM) believes the Bishops statement was so contorted and flawed
 that it would alienate the people it was trying to reach.
     The RSM continues to call on all Catholics to create respectful tension
 around the issue of Gay Marriage and call the Bishops to enter into
 dialogue process that will both benefit the Church and GLBT Community.
 However the Bishops do not have the last word on this matter.
     Clearly the statement on Ministry to the Homosexual person is very
 hurtful to innocent people. To say Gay people can merely exist in the
 shadows, and not in the light of day is an attack on the dignity of their
 personhood. To say faithful GLBT lovers cannot get married harkens back to
 days of the Inquisition. The Bishops are trying to promote in stealth
 fashion the idea that Jesus Christ supports discrimination against GLBT
 people. There is no biblical basis for such an idea, and the fact that they
 will not publicly address this is another example of how out of touch that
 have become with their own statements on Justice. Gay Marriage is a human
 right and to deny it to loving couples who are same sex is clearly
 discriminatory, and in our opinion unconstitutional.
     Promoting discrimination against the GLBT Community flies in the face
 of Catholic Social Justice, and only further bankrupts the moral authority
 of the Bishops. Perhaps the only silver lining to this dark cloud of faith
 is that the ministry to Gay and Lesbian Catholics will continue, and that
 includes GLBT Catholic couples. What the Vatican and Arch/diocese says
 about bedroom issues is usually never listened to by either heterosexual or
 homosexual Catholic couples.
     Perhaps it is time for GLBT Catholics to rethink their passive roll and
 find more creative ways to create positive tension between our Bishops and
 the GLBT Community. The question GLBT Catholics have to answer is will the
 clerical closet mentality win the day, or will we find more effective ways
 to challenge that mentality. To find out more about the Rainbow Sash
 Movement please visit our web site at http://www.rainbowsashmovement.com.
 
 

SOURCE Rainbow Sash Movement