A senior Vatican official re-linked a video by a Catholic LGBTQ group to the Synod of Bishops website, and apologized for causing “pain to the entire LGBTQ community as they go. ‘is again felt excluded’.
Thierry Bonaventura, the communications manager of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops, said in a newsletter on Sunday that he had “personally taken the initiative to unpublish an article promoted by [New Way Ministry] for internal procedural reasons ‖ and for that he wanted to apologize.
New Way Ministry is a United States-based organization that advocates for justice and equality for LGBTQ Catholics by seeking to “identify and combat personal and structural homophobia and transphobia, work for attitude change and to promote the acceptance of LGBTQ people as full and equal members of church and society, â€according to its website.
Last week, a link to a video made by the group – titled “From the Margins to the Center: A Webinar on LGBTQ Catholics and Synodality†– was removed from synodresources.org, a resource site for the Synod of Bishops, before a big meeting in Rome in 2023, concluding a two-year process of listening and dialogue within the Roman Catholic Church.
The video is a 75 minute Zoom presentation moderated by Robert Choinière, professor of divinity at Fordham University and director of adult education at St. Francis Xavier Church in New York.
The webinar, first broadcast on October 24, examined how members of the Catholic Church, especially LGBTQ people and their allies, can “ensure that every voice is heard and recorded†at the 2023 synod. .
After removing the video for undisclosed “internal procedural reasons”, Bonaventura re-linked the website and apologized in a post titled “Children of a Lesser God? “
“I feel like I have to apologize to all LGBTQ people and members of New Ways Ministry for the pain caused,†Bonaventura wrote.
In addition to apologizing to the group and reposting the link to the video, Bonaventura also provided an email through which “LGBTQ groups and groups who feel they live on the ‘fringes’ of the Church can direct their contributions, their resources, or whatever they want to share with all of God’s people.
On Monday, New Ways Ministry executive director Francis DeBernardo released a statement saying the organization had “warmly” accepted the apology.
“We appreciate that apologies are never easy to make. New Ways Ministry hadn’t asked for one, which makes this gesture all the more authentic, â€DeBernardo wrote.
“Vatican officials rarely apologize, and they almost certainly never apologized to LGBTQ people or to a Catholic LGBTQ ministry. This action signals that Vatican officials are realizing the impact of their decisions on the lives of LGBTQ people. It also reveals a desire to repair the damage they may have caused “, he added, calling the moment” historic “.
