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Read the defiant message from gay Catholics to the Pope and his bishops
LGBTI Catholics have told the Pope and church officials that they are blessed by the Holy Spirit despite some Christians wanting to kill them.
The group has pledged to stand united in the face of hatred as Pope Francis started his Synod on the Family by praising heterosexual relationships as ‘God’s dream’ – indicating it will change little with regards LGBTIs.
The LGBTI Catholic’s letter says: ‘We need to support each other, and others more vulnerable than ourselves, at a worldwide level, especially in countries which criminalize us, and even think they are honoring God by killing us.’
The new Global Network of Rainbow Catholics has brought together groups and individuals from 30 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America and Oceania.
In the outspoken letter to the Synod on the Family, they single out bishops and the Vatican as spreading hate and lies about LGBTI people.
They say: ‘The last years have not been an easy ride! Many in our church thought that they were serving God by hating us, and some still do, especially among the hierarchy.
‘But we can tell you with joy, that we have kept alive our confession of the Catholic faith! We have kept the faith under persecution.
‘We have found that through this life as dregs among the people of God, the Holy Spirit has given us a surprising capacity to stand up and be counted.
‘Not to be frightened of those who fear us, not to be resentful of the incapacity for approval, and the bureaucratic meanness of spirit and dishonesty to which we have regularly been subjected.’
They explain how they have been meeting in Rome over the last few days and have prayed for those at the synod during their mass.
They say their new group will bring together LGBTI Catholics, their families and friends and other Christians and people ‘of good will’.
And they say they are ‘meek’, adding: ‘We have learned that it is not what the Church can do for us, but what we can do for the Church that matters.’
They go on to explain how they plan to run their group:
‘We need to be able to share information, counter falsehood, encourage each other in our needs, and strengthen our families, especially where civil law does not yet respect them.
‘We want to set up our network in such a way that we can even be useful to you, though we know from long experience how frightened many of you are of communicating with us discreetly, even less talking to us on the record!
‘Having learned, by living with Jesus, not to be dismayed by the falsehoods and calumnies concerning us to which some of you still seem wedded, and even pass off as “teaching of the Church”, you will find us resilient, because we know that we are loved.’
The letter comes after a turbulent run-up to the synod.
In the last week it emerged the Pope met with homophobic law-breaker Kim Davis in the US, although he also met with an old gay friend. And a Catholic priest who came out was immediately fired by the Vatican.
The post Read the defiant message from gay Catholics to the Pope and his bishops appeared first on Gay Star News.
Tris Reid-Smith
www.gaystarnews.com/article/read-the-defiant-message-from-gay-catholics-to-the-pope-and-his-bishops/
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