In Indiana, and across the world in India, two statements from groups of Catholic bishops offer hope that Pope Francis’ pronounced shift in tone on responses to gay issues, is getting through to lower levels of the hierarchy. In Indiana,…
Monthly Archives: December 2013
Pope Francis: Person of the Year, Channelling Jesus
It’s no surprise that Pope Francis has been chosen as Time magazine’s “Person of the Year”. I for one, have rather assumed for the past month that this was a foregone conclusion - there’s just no competition. In just 9…
St Venantius Fortunatus, Italian Bishop and Homoerotic Poet
c.530-c.603 Venantius Fortunatus was a poet, born c. 530 in Treviso, near Ravenna in Italy. He spent his time as court poet to the Merovingians. After visiting the tomb of St. Martin of Tours at St. Hilary at Poitiers, he…
St John of the Cross: 14th December
John of the Cross was born in Fontiveros, in Spain, in about 1542. He spent some time as a Carmelite friar before, in 1568, Saint Teresa of Ávila persuaded him to pioneer the reform of the Carmelite order. This was a…
US Catholics Overwhelmingly Support Pope Francis
It’s been obvious for months that Pope Francis has captured the imagination of Catholics (and others), worldwide. For the US at least, we now have conclusive evidence that his overwhelming popular support is not some kind of mirage, invented by…
James Stoll, Unitarian Pioneer of LGBT Inclusion in Church
Rev. James Lewis Stoll, who died on December 8th 1994, was a Unitarian Universalist minister who became the first ordained minister of any religion in the United States or Canada to come out as gay. He did so at the…
“What’s Morally Wrong With Homosexuality?” (VIDEO - John Corvino)
Dr. John Corvino is Chair of the Philosophy Department at Wayne State University in Detroit, specialising in ethics and the philosophy of religionMichigan. He is the co-author (with Maggie Gallagher) of Debating Same-Sex Marriage and the author of What’s Wrong with Homosexuality? …
Nelson Mandela - Queer Icon for a Rainbow Nation
I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. ‘The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity -…
Nelson Mandela - Queer Icon for a Rainbow Nation (2)
The Transition Endorses Lesbian and Gay Equality (This is page 2 of an extended post. For page 1, see here) Up to this point, Mandela remained imprisoned, and so not directly involved. However, from the moment of the unbanning of…
Nelson Mandela - Queer Icon for a Rainbow Nation (3)
South African Churches and LGBT Equality (This is page 3 of an extended post. For page 1, see here, and for page 2, see here). During the apartheid years, many Church leaders from a range of denominations were prominent activists in…
