Pope Francis a Hope for all Catholics

first disparaging remark against the new Pope. He has just been elected Pope, and should be given at least 3 months before such judgments are hurled. Let’s see what he does as Pope before we judge him. The job may redefine the man.

The Equally Blessed coalition seemingly won the day by labeling the Pope “hateful” within hours of Cardinal Bergoglio’s ascendance. In their statement about his past they neglected to point that he supported civil unions, and attended to people living with and dying from HIV.

“If he truly desires to share the Gospel with all people, Pope Francis will come to realize that many of those created in God’s image are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. It is our fervent hope and continuing prayer that Francis will break new ground in opening a conversation with LGBT people so that he may come to know a little about their experiences of God’s grace, mercy and love.

“We are mindful some of our new pope’s past writings will be profoundly discouraging to LGBT Catholics. During an unsuccessful campaign against marriage equality legislation in Argentina, he wrote things that, frankly, could be considered hateful, calling the legislation that authorized same-sex marriage “a machination of the Father of Lies. He also said adoption by same-sex parents was a form of discrimination against children. These are not statements worthy of a pope, or, for that matter, anyone in pastoral ministry.”

We realize that our Church has a rocky and homophobic history with the LGBT Community. But to deny the potential that Pope Francis brings to the Church is be unreasonable, out of touch with Catholics in the Pew and unreasonable.

The Rainbow Sash Movement has invited Equally Blessed to enter into dialogue with us in the past, we now reissue that call. Prudence dictates that we take a wait and see attitude. LGBT Catholics have every right to be hopeful that this new Pope will bring healing and reconciliation. To promote anything else at this juncture is reckless and irresponsible.

Rainbow Sash Movement News

Your Holiness:

The purpose of this communication is to call on you to open a dialogue with the Rainbow Sash Movement (RSM) on how best to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ outside of the ancient taboos and personal biases that have been directed at the international Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) community by your predecessor. Many in our community have been made to feel unwelcome in the Church. Its public hostility towards our social justice journey have angered and alienated many.

We are a Roman Catholic Organization that supports the human rights of LGBT people within the Social Justice Tradition of the Church. Our vision is the formal acceptance of Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgender (LGBT) people into the Catholic Church.

On behalf of the Board of the Directors of the RSM please accept our fraternal love, and prayers on your election as Pope of the Universal Church.

Some might say you occupy the Chair of St. Peter at a difficult moment in history. We would prefer to understand your election as an opportunity of healing and reconciliation. Never forget we are all frail and sinful people in need of healing and reconciliation.

There has been too much misunderstanding directed at us in the Church, and it is my hope that a dialogue process would be better than public assaults on each other. It is in that spirit that I call for communication between people of goodwill to replace the present hostility.

I have met with Cardinal Francis George of the Archdiocese of Chicago, and have been in written communication with him and Cardinal Timothy Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York the current president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops on the subject of LGBT inclusion in the Church. It is my hope that we can formalize this dialogue process. We believe your encouragement for dialogue rather than hostility would have positive consequences beyond our borders and send a message of welcome and not the opposite.

I will keep you in my prayers, and ask that you keep me in yours.

Sincerely,

Joe Murray
Executive Director
Rainbow Sash Movement

While the Rainbow Sash Movement does not expect any change in doctrine we do expect the tone of the anti LGBT rhetoric to be toned down. We also expect to see a commitment to give women a larger role in the Church. Doctrine will serve the “People of God” and not the other way around.

We believe Pope Francis will be servant Pope. In that capacity it is our hope he will listen to the various voices in the Church.

He will have more of a focus on social justice, and the preferential option to the poor, and will not be shy about this. As an outsider to the Roman Curia we expect a thorough house cleaning. One of the first things the 30 Cardinal governing the curia will have to do now is submit their resignations.

While Archbishop/Cardinal of Buenos Aires he denied himself the luxuries that previous cardinals enjoyed. He came close to becoming pope last time, reportedly gaining the second-highest vote total in several rounds of voting before he bowed out.

Like Pope John XXIII who was also elected as a compromise Pope we have hope that this Pope will bring unity back, and actively listen to the many sincere voices in the Church.
Rainbow Sash Movement News

While many would like to see this conclave focus on Justice and Pastoral issues the focus seems to be on the Vatican’s current culture of dishonesty when it comes to who runs the Church, the curia or the Pope. The former only gets a sniff of disdain from Traditionalists.

The buffoonish grandstanding by some of the Cardinals only highlights what you should not be doing if you a serious papal candidate. Such candidates don’t understand in order to bring about reform you don’t have to get in the cage with the monkey’s all you have to do shake the cage. Such self-serving grandstanding does not reflect humility.

While Pope emeritus Benedict XVI took an historical step in resigning, the next Pope’s decision to come out of the closet will reflect a seismic shift in thinking. The issue of reform could than begin in earnest.

Bill Smart
Rainbow Sash Movement

The view from the LGBT Community is that Catholics need to step up to plate when it comes to public opposition to the war on LGBT Community directed by the Vatican. Or we need to leave the Church, and stop supporting such an organization that does harm to our community. Our opinion is that Integrity and gospel values call us to address these issues.

Dismissing these concerns out of hand will only call into question our leadership in both the Catholic Community and LGBT Community.

The RSM understands these to be difficult and complex issues from a spiritual perspective, but one we believe none the less needs to be addressed in an open, forthright and transparent manner. Our community deserves no less clearness and leadership from LGBT Catholic organizations, not more liturgical theater, incense, and bells.

Board of Directors
Rainbow Sash Movement

The Roman Catholic Church is entering a dangerous period in its history not because of its frailties, rather because of the modernizing forces of the Internet age. These forces are removing from the Pope and his bishop’s the ability to control the conversation about those frailties in the public square.

It is now time for the Vatican to sincerely begin dealing with the present realities that face the world wide Church. The time of hiding behind the theater of liturgy, incense, bells and music rather than the justice that should flow from that Liturgy needs to come to an end.

Accommodating rather than challenging the various scandals that face the Church today has put the very purpose of the Church in question.

Under Pope Benedict XVI the cancer of scandal has been allowed to remove its focus from helping the poor in the name of greed, and power.

The next pope must be creative, communicative, collaborative, creation-centered, and a change agent. Community, collegiality, and compassion must be the guiding principles of his papacy.

He must focus on the unity of the Church.

Like Pope John XXIII the next Pope must be an active listener, and a servant Pope who stands against all forms of injustice directed at human dignity.

RSM Board of Directors

Benedicts XVI papacy will end at 8PM, Thursday, February 28th. What affect if any will this have for LGBT Catholics is yet to be answered. Already we are witnessing attempts to lay all the Church’s troubles at the feet of LGBT Catholics, rather than the abuse of power within the inner circles of the Vatican around the clergy sexual abuse scandal.

We are not naïve enough to disregard the fact that College of Cardinals has been stacked with conservative/homophobic Cardinals by both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. They have embodied the massive cover up and denial when it comes to Cardinal’s partaking in the Conclave that will elect the new pope.

There is a danger for the Cardinals who enter this conclave each one brings their own baggage when it comes to the clergy sexual abuse scandal and their response to it such as Cardinal Mahony’s public disgrace, and Cardinal Dolan’s behavior while Archbishop of Milwaukee and his alleged approval of the transfer funds from the Archdiocese to the Archdiocese’s cemetery account in order to put these funds out of reach of the victims of sexual abuse.

The same manipulation of funds has happened in the Archdiocese of Chicago who is also on the verge of bankruptcy. These attempts to juggle funds to remove them from the reach of priestly sexual abuse victims is scandalous and very possibly illegal. Yet Cardinal Francis George supporters are claiming he will play a pivotal role in the conclave.

The conclave itself is developing into to grab for power by many of the more contentious factions.
Even among such papal contenders such as Cardinal Peter Turkson who has publicly suggested that gay priests are in part are to blame for the child sexual abuse scandals within the Catholic Church that have broken and rippled worldwide.

Joe Murray, Executive Director of the Rainbow Sash Movement said “I would not be surprised if this Conclave goes longer than expected because of greed and a unapologetic grab for power. The culture of homophobia in the Church will be the center piece of this conclave”.

According to an AP Press Release “The pope is regarded as a teacher, an international diplomat and an administrator, but he is also the Vicar of Christ — a leader with a divine mission. Benedict’s retirement raised fears that the pontificate could be viewed as less holy. Some questions have even focused on the much misunderstood Catholic teaching on papal infallibility: With two popes, one emeritus and one in power, who will have the final say? In fact, infallibility applies to the office, not the person, and only when a pope invokes apostolic authority to define doctrine or morals for the entire church.”

“A lot of what it will mean has to do with what subsequent popes do. Does this become a precedent for future popes to follow or not?” said Phillip Thompson, executive director of the Aquinas Center of Theology at Emory University.

His resignation will only raise more concerns than it will solve. Joseph Bottum, writing in The Weekly Standard, a conservative U.S. publication, called Benedict “a terrible executive of the Vatican.” “There’s the relationship part — he’s your father — and your father is always your father. Then there’s the functional part — whether he’s up to the job,” said Chicago Cardinal Francis George in a phone interview. “The functional concerns, those have come to the fore now. We’ll see what, if any, impact that has as we go forward.”

According to The Guardian a UK newspaper “A potentially explosive report has linked the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI to the discovery of a network of gay prelates in the Vatican, some of whom – the report said – were being blackmailed by outsiders.

La Repubblica said the cardinals’ report identified a series of meeting places in and around Rome. They included a villa outside the Italian capital, a sauna in a Rome suburb, a beauty parlour in the centre, and a former university residence that was in use by a provincial Italian archbishop.

The pope’s spokesman declined to confirm or deny the report, which was carried by the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica”. The newspaper said the cardinals described a number of factions, including one whose members were “united by sexual orientation”.

Cardinal George Pell of Australia has asked the Vatican to immediately investigate the allegations that were raised in this report. Cardinal Pell like Cardinal Francis George of Chicago has condemned the Rainbow Sash Movement for their actions in confronting the culture of homophobia that exists not only in the Papacy, Roman Curia, but also within the College of Cardinals. If the alleged network does exist, like the Popes resignation it would not surprise us.

We are a people of faith and look for unexpected surprises to come out this conclave. LGBT Catholic’s must now focus on prayer that the next pope will begin to heal the deep division within our Church, and that we can face our public scandals honestly, and hold those responsible for these publicly accountable.

Rainbow Sash Movement News

Pope Benedict XVI is 85, and came from liberal roots who morphed into a archconservative, made the battle against secularism a central part of his papacy and called gay marriage a threat to “human dignity and the future of humanity itself”.

In December, the pope welcomed Ugandan parliament speaker Rebecca Kadaga one of the Architects of a bill that called for the death penalty for gays. An example of how dangerous this teaching can be in the Church to promote extreme forms of homophobia.

All 117 Cardinals entering the conclave were either appointed by John Paul II, or Benedict XVI. The deck is clearly stacked. We have no illusions of the next Pope being supportive of our civil rights. The Rainbow Sash Movement position will continue to be to publically challenge homophobia in the Church.

Any Cardinal who has played a part in the cover-up of the clergy sexual abuse scandal should be refused admittance to the conclave. Allowing them to take part in the selection of the next pope will be viewed as further evidence of how out of touch these men have become concerning its reality in the Church, and their willingness to deal with it. It will also be a further example of how morally bankrupt the Magisterum has become.

Dan Anderson
Rainbow Sash Movement