For over half a century, since the pioneering work of Canon Sherwen Derrek Bailey, bible scholars have been reassessing what was one a commonly accepted view that the bible strongly and obviously condemned homosexuality. By the twenty first century, what…

The Irish bishops initially declined to publish any findings for the Irish responses to the global consultation on marriage and family, but have now reversed that decision. The summary of results that they have now released mirrors those from elsewhere…

One of the standard conservative arguments against gay marriage, is that it is somehow harmful to children. In Michigan, a court is being asked to evaluating this claim - and the conservatives are having a rough time of it. They…

Robert George, Sherif Girgis, and Ryan T. Anderson. “What is Marriage?” Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy vol. 34 (Winter, 2010): 245-287. Reply to George: I. Introduction Over the next few weeks I’ll publish a series of posts analyzing Robert George’s…

A few years ago, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn hit the headlines, saying that at a time when so many people are not bothering to get married,  the Church should reconsider its approach to divorced people who do want to remarry. At…

In the submission by the LGBT Catholics Westminster Pastoral Council to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales (December 2013) as their response to the global consultation on marriage and family, the first point made was: 1. In the vast…

At Religion Dispatches, Mary E Hunt has written about Pope Francis that there are “Three Things That Worry Me“. She’s not alone. Amid the general euphoria and adulation that Pope Francis has received and in the secular press, there’ve been…

St Aelred, whose feast we celebrate today, is recognised in all sources as an important English saint, who lived in the north of England in the 12 C. As a young man, he joined the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx, later…

The Roman soldiers, lovers and martyrs Sergius and Bacchus are well known examples of early queer saints. Polyeuct and Nearchos are not as familiar- but should be.  John Boswell (“Same Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe“) names the two as one…

According to the LGBT Catholic Handbook, this week sees the feast day of St.  Apollinaria /Dorotheos of Egypt (5th, 6th January). She is said to have been one of a group of transvestite saints - women who took on men’s clothing …