Louisa Grech, coordinator of Drachma Parents Bondings 2.0 recently reported on the correspondence between a group of Catholic parents with LGBTQ+ children and Pope Francis, correspondence which concerned the parents’ disappointment with the negative treatment of transgender issues in Dignitas Infinita, the Vatican’s declaration on human dignity released in April.  The organization, Drachma Parents, is a national group in Malta. Bondings 2.0 asked the group’s leaders to describe their details and opinions about Dignitas Infiinita in more detail. The following is from Louisa Grech, coordi ..read more

Kent Hickey For teachers, nearing the end of the school year brings a host of traditions and milestones, but, for those working in Catholic schools, it also typically means the time for renewing “ministerial covenants” in employment contracts. Attorney and experienced head-of-school Kent Hickey writes in the National Catholic Reporter that these contracts need re-examination and broader communal input in both their creation and execution, particularly around issues of sexuality, marriage, and relationships. Hickey, who is presently leadership formation director at the Institute for Lead ..read more

Craig A. Ford, Jr. Today’s post is from guest contributor Craig A. Ford (he/him), an Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin. He also serves on the faculty of the Institute of Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University of Louisiana, the nation’s only Catholic Historically Black College or University (HBCU). He writes on topics at the intersection of gender, race, sexuality, and the Catholic moral tradition. Craig recently spoke as part of New Ways Ministry’s panel, “What Dignitas Infinita Ignored: Perspectives on LGBTQ+ Dignit ..read more

Here are some items that may be of interest: 1. The Boy Scouts of America’s rebranding will not impact Catholic scouting, according the National Catholic Committee on Scouting’s executive director, John Anthony. This week, the Boy Scouts announced that from February 2025 onward, the organization would be known as Scouting America in an acknowledgement that its membership has expanded to include multiple genders. The Boy Scouts’ decision in 2019 to admit female members was controversial among some church leaders, extending the decades-long controversy in Catholic scouting about gay members and ..read more

Representatives from an LGBTQ+ group and the Archdiocese of Vancouver recently held a collaborative community event to discuss the intersections of faith and sexuality, demonstrating the strength of a relationship grown from a discrimination lawsuit that once put the groups at odds five years ago. The event, titled “What is Love? An Open Conversation about Faith and Sexuality,” was held in late April as a collaboration between the White Rock Pride Society (WRPS) and church leaders from Catholic, United, and Baptist denominations. The goal was to discuss how love is “informed by faith and sexua ..read more

Today’s reflections is from Bondings 2.0 contributor Mark Guevarra. The liturgical readings for the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord can be found here. A high point of the Easter season is the Ascension of Jesus, which the church celebrates today. Forgive me, but the first thing that comes to mind for me when I think of the Ascension of Jesus is a white man in a white robe with eyes skyward floating up into heaven, as this event has been depicted in countless paintings. But in today’s gospel reading, the act of ascending accounts for only one short sentence while Mark uses six long sente ..read more

In February 2024, a representative from Drachma presented Pope Francis with new book from the group. With what he called an “open heart,” Pope Francis has replied to group of Catholic parents with LGBTQ+ children, which had written to the pontiff about Dignitas Infinita, the Vatican’s transgender-negative declaration on human dignity published last month. The Maltese group Drachma Parents sent Pope Francis a three-page letter that was hand-delivered to him, according to The Times of Malta. The parents’ began their letter by praising Francis for his previously support of LGBTQ+ individua ..read more

Emma Cieslik Today’s post is from guest contributor Emma Cieslik (she/her), who is a queer museum professional and religious scholar researching the intersections between gender, sexuality, material culture, and religion. In six of the poems in Gay Girl Prayers, a poetry collection by Canadian writer Emily Austin, there are ten girls in Heaven who take up their lamps every night. The poems take their titles from Matthew 25:1-8, the Parable of the Ten Virgins. In the Biblical story, ten women take up lamps to prepare for the arrival of their bridegroom, five foolish and five wise. The wise w ..read more

Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit Today’s post is from Bondings 2.0 contributor Lisa Fullam, D.V.M., Th.D. A recent pastoral letter by Detroit’s Archbishop Allen Vigneron, titled “The Good News About God’s Plan: A Pastoral Letter on the Challenges of Gender Identity,” starts with an affirmation of the goodness of humanity and reiterates a key aspect of a Catholic understanding of the human person: we are “an integrated union of body and soul.” In a Catholic understanding, we are not spirit imposed on unruly (or evil) matter, nor are we merely matter somehow come to self-awa ..read more

Fr. Martin Lintner The Vatican has reversed its decision that once barred an LGBTQ-supportive theologian from becoming a university dean. The Vatican will now, a year later, allow him to accept the office. In November 2022, the faculty of the Philosophical-Theological University of Brixen/Bressanone, Italy, elected Fr. Martin M. Lintner to be dean of the school. His two-year term was supposed to start the following year, but the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education intervened and vetoed Lintner’s appointment. This decision was not communicated to Lintner until he and Bishop Ivo Muse ..read more