Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision 2024

Paintings by Douglas Blanchard

A contemporary Jesus arrives as a young gay man in a modern city with “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision” by Douglas Blanchard. The 24 paintings present a liberating new vision of Jesus’ final days, including Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, and the arrest, trial, crucifixion and resurrection.

“Christ is one of us in my pictures,” says Blanchard. “In His sufferings, I want to show Him as someone who experiences and understands fully what it is like to be an unwelcome outsider.” Blanchard, an art professor and self-proclaimed “very agnostic believer,” used the series to grapple with his own faith struggles as a New Yorker who witnessed the 9/11 terrorist attacks.












High-quality reproductions of Doug Blanchard’s 24 gay Passion paintings are available at: http://douglas-blanchard.fineartamerica.com/ Giclee prints come in many sizes and formats. Greeting cards can be purchased too. Some originals are also available.

Visit Douglas Blanchard’s site HERE!

How Queer and Trans Artists Reshape Divinity in Their Own Image

— For contemporary artists like Río Edén, Mx. Zeloszelos Marchandt, and Elliot Barnhill, making religious art is a revolutionary act

Río Edén, “Created in Divine image” (2020)

By Emma Cieslik

Surrounded by tulips and lilacs, a Black person with top surgery scars and a chest tattoo reading “Resurrected 01-26-2012” raises their face up to the sky. Titled “Created in Divine image” (2020), a phrase repeated in pink text against a background of gray clouds, that person’s hollow face is pierced by rays of pink, white, and blue light — the colors of the trans pride flag. In the Instagram caption accompanying his work, trans artist Río Edén wrote, “Blessed be those who live outside the binary, bless be those who challenge the binary, bless be those who are trans.”

Edén, also known as The Brooklyn Bruja, is part of a growing artistic movement visualizing the divinity of queer bodies and the queerness of religious figures. This movement gained steam in the last three years, right as scholars are rediscovering how Jesus and the saints may have been queer according to personal writings and hagiographies and have been depicted as queer for centuries by LGBTQ+ artists and others grappling with how divinity supersedes gender binaries. I myself have written about genderqueer-ness in Medieval theologians’ interpretations of Christ. At the same time, artists like Edén are depicting saints and religious figures as visually queer through the inclusion of top surgery scars, breast augmentation, body hair, and other attributes, while also celebrating the divinity and queer sainthood of LGBTQ+ folx today.

Edén is a trans autistic person of color, with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and anxiety. He grew up in a Baptist family that later converted to Pentecostalism — an extremely homophobic religious sect. He was outed by his mom at 15 and entered conversion therapy at 17.  He was thus forced back into the closet, only officially coming out at 21. He began to medically transition almost three years ago, first starting hormone replacement therapy in June 2021.

Río Edén, collage featuring Daniel Davis Aston with freshly healed top surgery scars, surrounded by a pink and gold halo, candles, and flowers. This collage was created and shared on social media just two days after Aston’s murder in the Club Q shooting

“Created in Divine image” is made in Edén’s typical style of ethereal collages overlapping faceless figures, natural backgrounds, halos, and shimmering color gradients. Its religious imagery is strikingly similar to another collage featuring Daniel Davis Aston. In that work, Edén memorializes Aston, who was killed in the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs in November of 2022, as a queer saint martyred in the fight for trans existence.

For those who know Edén’s backstory, it may seem anathema for him to reclaim the religious words and symbols that made him feel shame. But Edén disagrees. He views his art as a form of divine protest. “I was taught that man and woman were created in the image of God,” he explained to Hyperallergic, “but then when they talk about trans and queer people, that message starts to fade off, and I don’t like to have queer people feel the way that I did where they feel excluded from having that divineness too.” For Edén, creating religious art is in of itself a revolutionary act: The White, straight, Christians who surrounded him growing up have controlled what Jesus and God look like for too long.

If they can depict Jesus as a cishet, monogamous White man, Edén argued, then he too can show that Jesus was made in his own image, as a trans person of color.

 Mx. Zeloszelos Marchandt, “Ecce Homo” (2023)

Edén’s practice is not just about dismantling heteronormativity in religious art, but also about depicting LGBTQ+ individuals of color as divine, in a similar vein to trans performance and visual artist Mx. Zeloszelos Marchandt. In “Ecce Homo” (2023), for instance, Marchandt depicts himself as a Black, Indigenous, and trans Jesus. Both Edén and Marchandt encounter Him through their own bodies, and thus visualize Jesus — mouthpiece for God on Earth — as a spokesperson for communities facing oppression today.

As Edén argues, no one really knows how Jesus presented or identified. The same is true of many saints, but in Alicia Spencer-Hall and Blake Gutt’s 2021 book Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography, Medieval scholars argue that illuminators visualized Jesus and God as transcending the human concept of gender. Many saints were queer and because of their proximity to God were depicted as visually queer by Medieval artists.

Elliott Barnhill  “Heavenly Body 1” (2023)

Queer depictions of saints date back centuries, and queer creators today are reclaiming and reviving this artistic tradition. Elliott Barnhill, a disabled transmasc queer Catholic and seminary graduate, reimagines saints who have canonically been depicted as straight, hyperfeminine, or hypermasculine. His own coming out was predicated upon “becoming aware that the things we now call queerness can be found in the lives of saints,” he told me. His mission to spread that awareness extends beyond visual depictions: He founded the Instagram account Queer Catholic Icons and the podcast Blessed are the Binary Breakers.

With seraphs bearing top surgery scars, Barnhill creates distinctly modern queer Catholic icons in bold defiance of the Church’s queerphobic stance. Similarly, queer femme artist Dani explores butchfemme identity in her portraits of Catholic saints through her Instagram account AndHerSaints. With intimate portraits of St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Joan of Arc, their works center on dignity: acknowledging that queer lives and experiences are sacred and holy.

All of these artists, along with others like text-based artist Girl of Sword and whole zines dedicated to trans+ Christian art such as The Transient Theology Project, are part of a queer artistic Renaissance that affirms the dignity and divinity of queer people centuries ago and today. In doing so, they not only challenge the dichotomy of queerness and religion, but disrupt queerphobic religious teachings that seek to harm queer folx. As these artists and scholars argue, their queerness just brings them that much closer to God.

Dani, “St. Thérèse & St. Joan of Arc” (2023)
Río Edén, “Our transness is omnipresent” ( 2023)

Complete Article HERE!

What is the Sexuality of G-d According to The Bible?

— In the previous article, we established that G-d is androgynous in gender. If G-d is androgynous, then what is the sexuality of G-d?

by Rebecca Wallace Keene

What is the Sexuality of G-d in the Torah?

Bisexual

While some people may think of discussing G-d’s sexuality as blasphemy, the authors of  The Bible did not believe so. The Bible has a lot to say on the topic.

In the Torah, we see G-d as married to all of Israel, both male and female. Indeed, the Song of Songs has G-d speak of taking their lover, Israel, into their bed

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth—
for your love is more delightful than wine.
3 Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes;
your name is like perfume poured out.
No wonder the young women love you!
4 Take me away with you—let us hurry!
Let the king bring me into his chambers.”

In this example, G-d is bisexual as Israel contains both men and women.

Pansexual

However, to definitively answer the question of what is the sexuality of G-d, we need to look at other examples of G-d’s sexuality in The Bible. G-d describes themself as having birthed Israel from their womb.

“Listen to Me, O House of Jacob,
All that are left of the House of Israel,
Who have been carried since birth,
Supported since leaving the womb:
Till you grow old, I will still be the same;
When you turn gray, it is I who will carry;
I was the Maker, and I will be the Bearer;”

That implies G-d was at some point pregnant. So, who is the father? G-d often refers to themself as Israel’s father as well. Deuteronomy 1:31 says, “31 and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.” If G-d was pregnant, birthed a child, and was both mother and father, this is an example of asexual reproduction in The Bible. In this example, we see that G-d’s sexuality is fluid. G-d can and does play both the male and female roles in sexual relations.  G-d is not bound to sexual relations with only one gender, as G-d is androgynous in gender. In this sense, we might say that G-d is pansexual, able to have sexual relations with all genders.

Heteropoly

Further proof of G-d’s sexuality is that in addition to his metaphorical marriage to Israel, archaeology suggests that G-d had a goddess as a wife. William G. Dever, in his book Did God Have A Wife? Archaeology And Folk Religion In Ancient Israel, explains that we have found inscriptions of people worshipping “Yahweh and his Asherah” in ancient Israel. Of course, The Torah we have today prohibits the worship of anyone, but G-d. However, scholars believe this is because Asherah was purposely written out by a patriarchal society. Whatever the reason, if G-d did or does have a wife and also proclaims to be married to Israel, G-d is a polygamist. That shouldn’t be shocking as most men in The Torah had multiple wives. Further, this does show G-d in a traditional heterosexual relationship with one other being, which is in contrast to the examples we have examined thus far.

What is the Sexuality of G-d in The New Testament?

Lesbian

Finally, The New Testament tells a story of the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary and impregnating her.  As we established in Do Spirits Have Genders According to The Bible? The Holy Spirit is feminine. The word Ruach is feminine in Hebrew and The Spirit functions as a messenger between G-d and a prophet. She is seen to have creative and sanctifying power. These powers are considered feminine. So, that means that when The Spirit comes upon Mary the union is that of two females. In this example, G-d’s sexuality would then be Lesbian.

Clearly, G-d has a wide range of sexuality in The Bible. Therefore, in today’s language, we would say that G-d is pansexual and poly. G-d doesn’t choose who they love based on their gender. Rather, G-d loves all their creation.   Do not judge those who love freely without boundaries, for they are acting in the nature of our G-d, who is love.

This is the last article in a series of four. Please, click here and read the previous three articles, if you have not already done so. Please, also read my book for more information about sexuality in The Bible.

Complete Article HERE!

What is the Gender of G-d According to the Bible?

— In our previous post, we established that spirits do have genders. Thus, if we believe G-d to be a spiritual being, she/he must have a gender. The question then becomes, what is the gender of G-d?

 

The Bible tends to use the pronoun he for G-d. For this reason, throughout history, G-d has been seen as only a man. However, this ignores the fact The Holy Spirit is feminine in Hebrew, as we established in our post Do Spirits Have Genders?”. It also ignores the many references in the Bible to G-d as a mother.

Aspects of G-d

Therefore, in order to determine G-d’s gender we need to explore the aspects and actions of G-d. We also need to examine the Biblical text for references to G-d’s gender.

What is the Gender of G-d if G-d is Creator

Perhaps G-d’s most important aspect is Creator. Genesis tells us G-d created the world. She/He also created humans in their own image. Which gender creates life in their own image? Only females. Only females have the ability to create new life on this planet. While reproduction does require both males and females, without the female’s ability to sustain that life within herself no new souls would be born into our world. Therefore, creation is a feminine aspect.

Warrior

However, G-d has masculine features too. She/he plays the role of a warrior. When the Pharoh refuses to let The Israelites go G-d sends 10 plagues the last of which is the death of every firstborn Egyptian child.  G-d also goes before the Israelites into war. Typically, we think of warfare as a masculine quality. Therefore, we can not say that G-d is only feminine.

Comforter

Yet, another feminine aspect of G-d is that of a comforter. Both Psalms and Isaiah assure us that G-d is our comforter. Isaiah 51:12 tells us: “I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass,”.   Psalm 23:4 states, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” Mothers and females are usually thought of as the comforters. Thus, we see that G-d has another feminine aspect.

Disciplinarian

Still, G-d also functions as a strict disciplinarian. Proverbs 3:11-12 teaches us:

“My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline

or be weary of his reproof,

12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves,

as a father the son in whom he delights.

As Deuteronomy 8:5 reminds us discipline is often thought to come from a masculine aspect, such as a father.  “5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.” Thus, if G-d is both a comforter and a disciplinarian, G-d has aspects of both the feminine mother and the masculine father. This androgynous gender of G-d  continues to be seen as we look at G-d through the study of Kabbalah.

What Gender is G-d in Kabbalah?

The study of Kabbalah teaches us the following aspects of G-d: Crown, Understanding, Wisdom, Justice/Judgement,  Love/Mercy, Splendor/Majesty, Victory, Beauty/Compassion, Foundation, and Kingdom. These aspects make up The Kabbalah Tree of Life. The Tree of Life is balanced with a feminine trait on one side and its masculine counterpart on the other. For example, love/mercy are across from Justice/judgment. Love and mercy are considered feminine while justice/judgment are considered masculine.

Therefore, G-d clearly has aspects that are male and aspects that are feminine. It is important to note that the only aspect of G-d on the tree which is connected to all the others is Beauty/Compassion which is at the center or heart of the tree. Beauty and compassion are feminine aspects of G-d and they are the center or heart of all the other aspects. They are where all the aspects of God connect. Shekhinah in Kabbalah studies is a purely feminine aspect of G-d and is seen as a mother or sister. It represents nurturing and compassion. This is the lowest aspect of the Kabbalah tree of life and is therefore responsible for linking the lower physical world to the higher realm.  Shekhinah is the Jewish Divine Feminine and is mentioned in the Zohar, Midrash, and Talmud, as stated by Shekhinah: The Divine Feminine.

What is the Gender of G-d in Torah Verses?

Mother

In the Torah we see G-d spoken of in terms of a mother. Isaiah 46:3-4 has G-d declare that she/he has carried Isreal in their womb, born them, and will carry them.

“Listen to Me, O House of Jacob,
All that are left of the House of Israel,
Who have been carried since birth,
Supported since leaving the womb:

Till you grow old, I will still be the same;
When you turn gray, it is I who will carry;
I was the Maker, and I will be the Bearer;

“And I will carry and rescue [you].

Clearly, this is an image of G-d as a female, for we know that only a female has the ability to carry and give birth to children.

Father

However, we also see G-d as a father. Deuteronomy 1:31 has Moses tell the people, “31 and in the wilderness. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.” Thus, G-d is both mother and father according to the Torah.

What is the Gender of G-d if G-d is Wisdom

Yet, G-d also appears as lady wisdom. As we saw in The Kabbalah Tree Of Life, Wisodm is an aspect of G-d. As Feminine Images of God pointed out, G-d is portrayed as the feminine lady Wisdom in Proverbs. Proverbs 8:1 clearly states that Wisdom is a” her.” “Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?” Lady Wisdom tells us in Proverbs 8:30 that she was present at the time of creation. This should be of no surprise as we know that creation is a feminine aspect of G-d.

So, G-d is Androgynous. G-d has aspects of both the male and the female. She/he is both mother and father.  G-d is the original they/them. Be very careful when you judge Gender Fluid or Trangender people, for they are truly made in the image of our creator. Do not tell women that they are inferior or not able to teach. For G-d in the feminine creator aspect of Lady Wisdom created the world. Women are the embodiment of wisdom.

If G-d’s gender is androgynous, what is the sexuality of G-d? Stay tuned for the last article in this series to find out. You can click here, and enter your email address to be notified of all future articles.  To learn more about gender and sexuality in The Bible please read my book.

Complete Article HERE!

Do Spirits Have Genders According to The Bible?

— Do spirits have genders? This question is important for our understanding of G-d. While it may seem a hard question to answer, The Torah has a lot to say on the subject.

by Rebecca Wallace Keene

Do Spirits Have Genders in Grammar

First, we know that grammatically the word for spirit is feminine in Hebrew.  The Hebrew word Ruach means spirit or breath and it is grammatically feminine.  This alone doesn’t automatically mean that a spirit is female as the grammatical gender of a word in Hebrew doesn’t necessarily refer to physical gender.  Yet, the term Ruach in Hebrew thought is the messenger between G-d and the prophet. Therefore she is seen as having creative and sanctifying feminine power, as The Holy Spirit: The Feminine Aspect Of the Godhead stated. This suggests that Ruach is feminine in more than just grammar. That would mean, Spirits do have genders.

Do Spirits Have Genders In Torah Verses

Genesis

For further proof, we must look to specific verses in the Torah.  If we believe that each of us was created with a spirit or with the breath of G-d, then the creation stories in the book of Genesis have a lot to say about the gender of spirits. Genesis tells us that G-d created us in her/his image, male and female she/he created us. This would suggest that spirits do have gender and can be either gender. Still, some may argue that the gender referred to in Genesis applies only to our physical form and not to our spirit.

Angels

Therefore, we must look to other examples. Angels in the Torah are always referred to as men. This clearly means that angels do have genders.  In fact, this is how homosexuality has come to be associated with the story of Sodom in modern culture. The angels in the story, who the men wanted to rape, were male.  Genesis and the noncanonical book of Enoch record a story of angels lusting after and mating with human women. If angels have lustful feelings and sexuality it seems likely there must be female angels. Otherwise, why would angels be created with sexual desire for females? So, this again leads us to the conclusion that spirits have genders and can be either gender.

What Does It Mean If Spirits Have Genders

So, do spirits have genders? It seems clear that The Torah supports the idea that spirits do have genders. This is significant when we try to understand G-d and the heavenly host. Clearly, if they are spiritual beings, they must have genders.  What genders should we apply to them? For too long G-d has been referred to as only male. Is this a fair and accurate description, especially since the Hebrew word for spirit is feminine?

These are topics I plan to discuss in upcoming blogs and my upcoming book The Gender and Sexuality of G-d. So, please come back and read the next few blogs.  You can subscribe and be updated about all future posts by clicking here and entering your email address.

Complete Article HERE!

Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision 2023

Paintings by Douglas Blanchard

A contemporary Jesus arrives as a young gay man in a modern city with “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision” by Douglas Blanchard. The 24 paintings present a liberating new vision of Jesus’ final days, including Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, and the arrest, trial, crucifixion and resurrection.

“Christ is one of us in my pictures,” says Blanchard. “In His sufferings, I want to show Him as someone who experiences and understands fully what it is like to be an unwelcome outsider.” Blanchard, an art professor and self-proclaimed “very agnostic believer,” used the series to grapple with his own faith struggles as a New Yorker who witnessed the 9/11 terrorist attacks.












High-quality reproductions of Doug Blanchard’s 24 gay Passion paintings are available at: http://douglas-blanchard.fineartamerica.com/ Giclee prints come in many sizes and formats. Greeting cards can be purchased too. Some originals are also available.

Visit Douglas Blanchard’s site HERE!

Gay Catholic bishop explains why he refuses to give up on religion and love

— ‘I saw the plan of God’

Luca Rodrigues Cavallaro is a happily married gay Catholic bishop.

Gian Luca Rodrigues Cavallaro has a unique claim to fame: he’s a gay Catholic bishop who’s happily married – and he’s got a powerful message of love and inclusivity for the world.

by Patrick Kelleher

It should go without saying that Gian isn’t a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church – homosexuality is strictly frowned upon by the church, and gay sex is still viewed as a sin.

Instead, he’s a bishop in the Inclusive Portuguese Catholic Church, where he preaches his message that love is for all.

Gian was just eight years old when he felt the calling to become a priest, he tells PinkNews. Before long, he started to realise that he was also gay – and spent his next few years tormented.

“On the one hand I wanted to become a priest, but on the other, I didn’t want to give up on the idea of a relationship,” he says.

“My dream was to become a priest and marry at the same time with my future boyfriend, but I thought this was not possible.”

After he finished school, Gian went to a Roman Catholic seminary to train as a priest.

“I was willing to even renounce my emotional sphere,” he says. But after six months, he left the seminary due to what he describes as “the hypocrisy of some superiors”.

It was shortly after he left the seminary that he met a female priest from another church (Roman Catholicism doesn’t allow women to become priests). That chance encounter made him see another way was possible.

“That meeting, as if by magic, opened me up to a completely new world,” he says.

“Finally, I saw the plan of God, that was already written. My path was to be a priest without renouncing my emotional sphere.”

At first, Gian became a priest with the Reformed Old Catholic Church in Italy. In 2019, he moved to Portugal, but he struggled to find others there who wanted to be part of an inclusive Catholic Church.

“It was difficult and, in the beginning, I was a bit demoralised because without structure and without resources, it was difficult to reach people,” he says.

“But, with the grace of God, I was able to meet some people that were willing to share this path with me.”

Gian Luca Rodrigues Cavallaro pictured with members of the Inclusive Portuguese Catholic Church.
Gian Luca Rodrigues Cavallaro pictured with members of the Inclusive Portuguese Catholic Church.

It wasn’t until 2022 that Gian and others who believed in his mission decided to set up the Inclusive Portuguese Catholic Church. Shortly afterwards, members chose him to serve as a bishop within the group.

Gay Catholic bishop believes he and his husband were ‘predestined’ to be together

It was also in Portugal that Gian met Robson, the man who would go on to become his husband.

“He is Brazilian and I am Italian so it is curious that two people born in far-off countries could meet, but God chose us before the foundation of the world,” he says, referencing a passage in the New Testament.

“I am convinced that we were predestined to be together.”

Gian’s husband hasn’t always shared his love for religion and God – when they first met, he was “apathetic” about it, although he always supported Gian’s calling.

I had the joy to baptise him. No one forced him, it was his choice and he asked me.

However, before long, Robson embarked on a “personal path”, which led to him forming his own faith.

“This year, I had the joy to baptise him. No one forced him, it was his choice and he asked me,” Gian says.

Gian Luca Rodrigues Cavallaro with his husband Robson.
Gian’s husband Robson was “apathetic” about religion when they first got together, but he eventually found his faith.

While Gian has found fulfilment in his own church, he understands why so many LGBTQ+ people still see organised religion as an alienating and harmful concept.

His message to the Catholic Church is a simple one – he hopes it will come to see LGBTQ+ people as human beings who deserve love.

“I have the impression that sometimes they forget about the primacy of personal conscience, and they excommunicate priests and religious people just because they preach the gospel,” he says.

Pope Francis has a ‘strange attitude’ towards LGBTQ+ community

He doesn’t have much time for Pope Francis – the pontiff has won praise in some quarters from people who argue that he’s taken a more understanding, compassionate approach to LGBTQ+ people than his predecessors.

Others have pointed out that he’s not actually all that liberal – under his rule the Vatican has remained resolutely opposed to any progress on LGBTQ+ inclusion.

Gian says the pope has “a strange attitude”.

Even if ecumenically he works quite well, I have not a general good impression, especially in his approach with the LGBTQ+ community.

“In public, he says something that generates positive impressions – maybe in an attempt not to lose the faithful – but then in private he signs documents that contradict his declarations,” he says.

Gian Luca Rodrigues Cavallaro kissing his husband Robson on their wedding day.
The happy couple on their wedding day.

“Even if ecumenically he works quite well, I have not a general good impression, especially in his approach with the LGBTQ+ community.”

That’s why Gian is determined to amplify the voices of LGBTQ+ Catholics and create a space for them to share their faith with others.

“Some people think that I give interviews to have visibility, but that’s absolutely wrong,” he says.

“If I wanted visibility, I would be an actor, but I am a priest and so that’s not my purpose.

“I give interviews because I know that these interviews help people.”

Complete Article HERE!

Gay priest who stood up to US church at height of Aids crisis ‘so proud’ of Ireland’s progress

Bernárd Lynch with Elton John

By Catherine Healy

When the Aids epidemic hit New York in the early 1980s, Bernárd Lynch did all he could to care for the sick and dying. The Ennis-born priest founded the first ministry for people with Aids in the city, supporting countless gay men who had been shunned by their families. He saw many of his friends succumb to the condition. Nobody knew the cause back then, and there was no such thing as treatment.

Lynch will never forget the terror of those early crisis years. “We used to go to patients in hospital and find their food had been left outside the door for days because staff were so afraid of contracting Aids. When you visited people, you dressed up like you were going on a moonwalk — covered from head to toe. You wouldn’t drink from the same cup or use the same toilet seat as anyone who had it.”

The ministry’s work was often more practical than spiritual. “I spent more time shopping, changing diapers and cleaning up urine than giving the last rites or praying with the sick,” says Lynch.

He had appealed for volunteers at St Francis Xavier Church in Greenwich Village after becoming overwhelmed with requests for help. The ministry grew to more than 1,000 members, but about half of them had died within a few years. Many were abandoned by their families when it was discovered they had Aids, while fellow priests who became ill were excluded by their diocese and religious communities.

Yet there were also moments of great tenderness. “I picked up one Irish mother at JFK whose son was in hospital. ‘How’s Michael?’ she asked, and I had to tell her he was quite ill. ‘He has the Rock Hudson disease,’ she said, referring to the actor who died of the condition in 1985, and I said, ‘Yes, he does’.”

“She found out he was gay about two weeks before he died, but she was formidable. I took the funeral and asked her if she’d like to say a few words. She went up to the altar in front of around 200 people — a woman who had never spoken in public before — and said: ‘Thank you. You were his real family.’ It was inspirational to see at a time when so many others had rejected their sons on their deathbeds.”

He is talking to the Independent after donating his personal papers to the National Library of Ireland. The Fr Bernárd Lynch Archive includes records of smear campaigns against him, personal letters to his family while he was coming out as a gay man, and letters from people struggling to reconcile their sexuality with church teaching.

What impact did his time in New York have on him? “Well, I was radicalised. I was devastated, but I had no time to cry — and no time to recover. Day after day, you were in and out of funeral homes and hospitals visiting the sick. And, of course, we all thought we had it. I went home in 1982 to tell my family about what was happening and to make a will for the first time in my life, because I genuinely thought my number was up.”

Lynch has struggled with his faith in the years since, but he stops short of describing himself as a non-believer. “Maybe I’m a coward, but I couldn’t have kept going if I didn’t hold on to something. Even today, it’s a hope more than a belief.”

There were no such doubts growing up in 1950s Ireland. Mass at Ennis Cathedral was, he says, like Broadway. “It was our theatre, to put it in secular terms. With the pre-Vatican II church, everything was in Latin and everything felt very dramatic. Men and boys went around in the fanciest of clothes, and I just found it extraordinary.”

But he also came to appreciate the spiritual aspects of religion. “I had an interest in things that were unexplainable, and things other than what we perceive. You know, the beauty of creation and all that.”

Coming home

After seminary training and a stint in Zambia, Lynch was sent to New York in 1975 to pursue graduate studies. It was here that he finally came to terms with his sexuality.

He contacted Dignity, a Catholic LGBT group, but was nervous about getting involved. “When I first joined, I didn’t tell anyone I was a priest or even give my second name,” he says. He only became more disillusioned with Catholic authorities when the Aids crisis took hold. Church leaders expressed little sympathy with the dying, and a Vatican spokesman went as far as to suggest Aids was a punishment for immoral behaviour.

At the height of the epidemic, the Archdiocese of New York opposed the passing of legislation banning discrimination against gay people in employment and housing.

“People with Aids were being fired and thrown out of their homes,” Lynch recalls. “Cardinal John O’Connor of New York did everything in his power to stop that legislation and was succeeding. Council members were told they wouldn’t get the Catholic vote if they voted for the bill. People said to me that if I testified in favour, as a priest, a lot of these Catholic members would take courage. I went to City Hall and testified, and it did finally pass — although not for that reason alone.”

The Archdiocese of New York refused to renew his licence to minister as a priest. He approached other bishops but was shut out. It was, he says, the end of his career in America.

In 1992, Lynch left for London, where he started working with an Aids counselling group. Treatment has improved since then, but he is conscious that stigma endures. He knows people in Ireland who still hide the cause of their loved one’s death. “There are families I can’t visit even today because it might draw attention,” he says. “The fear is that I’ll be recognised in their locality, and then the secret will be out.’”

It was in London that Lynch met his now husband, fellow Irishman Billy Desmond. In 2006, he became — it’s believed — the first Catholic priest to enter a civil partnership. The couple held their wedding in Co Clare in 2017, two years after the passing of the marriage equality referendum.

“To be able to come back and marry in my own home county was such a gift,” he says. “You know, we left home because we couldn’t stay, but there are people who stayed and have now given us a country to come home to. I really am so proud of Ireland.”

Lynch has remained a prominent activist, meeting such figures as President Mary Robinson and Elton John.

Bernárd Lynch with Mary Robinson

He remains deeply troubled by the church’s position on LGBT issues. As founder of a support group for gay clergy in London, he has met countless priests torn between their jobs and sexuality. “Things might be a bit softer under Pope Francis, but the teaching is still that we’re disordered in our nature and evil in our love. It’s a toxic teaching that does such damage to people. The church still won’t come out and say loud and clear that that teaching is wrong and that gay people are as much loved by God and accepted as straight people.”

Katherine McSharry, acting director of the National Library, describes the donation of Lynch’s archive as an important addition to its collections. Lynch’s papers provide insights into “important questions in our national life, including the nature of faith and organised religion, the taboos around sexuality and individual expression, and the impact the Aids crisis had on the LGBTI+ community”, she says.

There will be an event on Monday to mark the acquisition of the archive, after which it will be available for public consultation. Libraries in the US and UK had also expressed interest, but Lynch is pleased his papers have ended up in Dublin. “What this is doing, as I understand it, is bringing the diaspora home,” he says. “There were so many who left and then couldn’t come back when they were ill; who never saw their families again. All those nameless Irish people in the archive, who can’t be named even today, are in a sense now coming home. It’s about them, not me.”

Complete Article HERE!

Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision 2022

Paintings by Douglas Blanchard

A contemporary Jesus arrives as a young gay man in a modern city with “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision” by Douglas Blanchard. The 24 paintings present a liberating new vision of Jesus’ final days, including Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, and the arrest, trial, crucifixion and resurrection.

“Christ is one of us in my pictures,” says Blanchard. “In His sufferings, I want to show Him as someone who experiences and understands fully what it is like to be an unwelcome outsider.” Blanchard, an art professor and self-proclaimed “very agnostic believer,” used the series to grapple with his own faith struggles as a New Yorker who witnessed the 9/11 terrorist attacks.












High-quality reproductions of Doug Blanchard’s 24 gay Passion paintings are available at: http://douglas-blanchard.fineartamerica.com/ Giclee prints come in many sizes and formats. Greeting cards can be purchased too. Some originals are also available.

Visit Douglas Blanchard’s site HERE!

LGBTQ Catholic priest who rescues homeless youth rebukes Bishop

I wanted to keep him out of trouble with the Church, but he shows no evidence of wishing the same in this impassioned plea for love & justice

St. Peter Cathedral of Marquette, the Catholic Diocese of Marquette, Michigan

By James Finn

Fr. Andy Herman is a Roman Catholic priest who corresponds with me about LGBTQ issues. I have sometimes observed that Catholic priests are reluctant to publicly criticise Church teachings and practices.

Andy is a remarkable, refreshing exception. He offered to be interviewed. I asked him to write up a first-person story. This is it, after I edited and polished it. I wanted to keep him out of trouble with the Church, but he shows no evidence of wishing the same, which you’ll see in this impassioned, earthy plea for love and justice.

If this story inspires you, ask him for more, especially accounts of his youth rescue work in Los Angeles, which is hair-raising love in action.

Hi! My name’s Andy!

(“Hi Andy!” )

I’m bisexual!

(“Welcome, Andy!” [Applause.])

And I have been “intrinsically disordered” for… 74 years!

([Applause picks up, whoops & shouts of encouragement and congratulations.])

I know that’s tweaked a bit, because to be honest I’m not personally familiar with 12-step meetings. But the real problem is, it’s ass backwards.

My real name IS Andy. Andy Herman. Father Andy Herman. I’m a Roman Catholic priest.

I retired myself from public ministry with the institutional Catholic Church, because many years ago I vowed to make sure my mom and dad would never have to go into a nursing home as they declined in age. Which vow I was able to keep.

I was also canonically bounced out of my religious community, because I decided not to return to them while I was taking care of my parents. It was all very friendly. Honestly. I have the documentation to prove it.

But I’m not here to talk about me.

I am here to talk about the ass backwards garbage coming out of the Catholic Diocese of Marquette, Michigan.

I’m sure those of you who keep up with Catholic news know what I’m talking about. Members of the LGBTQIA+ community in that diocese have, in essence, been told to go eff themselves.

LGBTQ Catholics are not wanted in Upper Michigan in any way, shape, or form. They will not be permitted to take part in most (or any) of the sacramental and communal life of the Church.

What I do now is try to help homeless people on the street, most especially homeless kids, and really most especially, LGBTQ kids.

The Marquette Diocese is led by a Bishop whose name I will not utter, in the manner of news organizations not repeating the name of a perpetrator of a particularly terrible crime. That’s what’s going on in Upper Michigan — crimes against LGBTQIA+ people, especially Roman Catholics.

Let’s call him Bishop ID, Intrinsically Disordered, because that’s what the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls US. Or better yet, let me refer to him as Bishop AB. Sure you get that one right off.

I ranted about this situation in a letter to the Prism & Pen editors, when it was first reported here. I was told maybe I could pen something, but just shave off some of the rougher ranting edges. So, I think I’ve un-ranted pretty much, and also don’t want to go into some analysis that’s already been done.

I just want to present a couple of points to the people of Upper Michigan, especially those of you who may be LGBTQ+ Catholics, and, I guess, particularly to those of you who may want to remain in the Church.

Or not.

I’ll also presume that latter description is one that many of you have already answered. Like so many of us, you’ve already left a place where you’re not wanted.

Let me just briefly tell you what these points are, and, if you think they’re worth something, please share them if it’s at all appropriate, especially with young people who are on the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.

I grew up in Chicago and have been out here in Los Angeles for many years. What I do now is try to help homeless people on the street, most especially homeless kids, and really most especially, LGBTQ kids.

So I am sick and tired — to put it mildly — to have to, for the 3 millionth time in my life, explain THIS to kids who are of our community:

  • There is not a damn thing wrong with you.
  • God does love you, and Jesus never said an effing thing against you.

Period. But let me not rant further.

Let me, as a trained Roman Catholic priest, make the following points:

1.) Apparently, the Bishop of Marquette, and so many others like him, have spent not one moment praying, meditating, contemplating, experiencing, talking about, or studying anything of any consequence regarding the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

What the Bishop is perpetrating is utterly opposite to that Gospel. I’m wrong about a lot of things in life, but I damn well know what I just said is accurate. The only persons who are “intrinsically disordered” here are Bishop AB and his cohorts.

To my fellow LGBTQ people, I say continue to be safe, protect yourselves, and THRIVE in all the practical ways you can, especially you who are our children. Never be the victims of this garbage, inside or outside yourselves.

2.) Pope Francis has called for a two-year process of synodality, and especially asked that people whose voices are opposite to, or never heard in the context of the Catholic Church, be given a seat at the table to discuss where the hell the Church should be going in years to come.

So, if you have the inkling to, speak up and tell Bishop AB that the Pope has personally invited you to sit at the table and give, even if that giving is seen as opposing the traditional, death-encrusted way talking about our faith that our Catholic leaders have indulged in for far too long.

3.) What Bishop AB has done is absolutely and utterly in contradiction to the morality of the Gospel, and certainly to the best pastoral practice of Catholic Church teaching. More than anything, he stands in utter defiance of Pope Francis’ attitude, which puts caring about people in front of stagnant, dormant, full-of-crap definitions of dogma and Catholic practice.

Bishop AB has declared dangerous nonsense against our community in the Diocese of Marquette, and if you want to get involved, please, you should immediately contact the Office of the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, Archbishop Christophe Pierre. Ask that a canonical investigation of Bishop AB be initiated, and ask that — if the findings are as accurate as they are publicly presented now, and he is in egregious violation of the teachings of Jesus Christ — that he be removed from office immediately.

With a sigh, I would also suggest that you might recommend an investigation to determine if Bishop AB is something like a “Bishop Roy Cohn,” a name I would give him if he, sadly, is a self-hating member of our community, just like the notorious lawyer on the national scene years ago.

Here is the Nuncio’s contact information:

Apostolic Nunciature

Office: 202-333-7121Fax: 202-337-4036 Working Days and Hours: Monday through Friday, from 9:00 am until 4:30 pm

With…www.nuntiususa.org

4.) No matter what you want to do, please always realize you don’t have to celebrate sacraments to get into heaven, if that’s the way you think about things, especially if the people who are supposed to guard the integrity of your “immortal soul” refuse you access to those very sacraments.

You can really get in contact with Jesus with the same surety as they supposedly offer, by simply sitting and praying — or gathering together with priests who have the cojones to offer Mass and celebrate the other sacraments, with and for you.

And if none of those “guys” up there in Michigan’s UP will do this, do it yourselves. Baptize one another. Confirm your kids reaching adulthood into belief that Jesus loves them. Forgive one another.

And most of all, consecrate bread and wine under the aegis that if two or three are gathered together in Jesus name, he is absolutely and uncontestedly present with and to you.

This is not BS passing for shallow theology. It is based in the Gospels.

5.) My last point is an old one from a most moldy and oldie traditional pastoral theology of the Sacrament of Penance, but it bears looking at. If a penitent is not able in some ways to recognize that he or she has sinned, or there are other confusions and concerns about whether or not the sins can be forgiven, a confessor can take upon himself the sins of the penitent, in order that the penitent be freed and given absolution.

So all of you LGBTQ people out there who make love, get married, and have great and loving sex, all of which are considered grievous sins by the Catholic Church, send the damn things over to me, because I sure as hell WILL accept them without any fear of ending up in hell myself. (If you even talk in language like that, because I don’t.)

Even if you don’t go to confession anymore, that’s my offer as a priest. Just sit down, get yourself into a state where you can think about these things, and send them over to me.

I will absorb them, and you are free to go about your normal, regular daily life. But please only do this if it really bothers you and you think that way. Otherwise, who cares?

Do you really think Jesus is sitting at the prosecutors’ table or even behind the bench as the judge, and wants to forgive you for stuff that, even to a nitpicker, isn’t worth being denied 10 nanoseconds of eternity without being completely wrapped up with God?

Remember who’s intrinsically disordered.

You may be an ass, you may be a jerk, you may be evil as hell, you may be lots of things, but you are not an evil person just because you are LGBTQ. You/We are exactly the opposite: we are the sons and daughters of a loving God, brothers and sisters of Jesus of Nazareth, the Anointed One.

If that’s how you want to phrase it.

The only kind of sex that is ever evil or sinful is coercive sex, otherwise known as assault and/or rape. That includes trafficking, but cannot include sex workers themselves, per se.

If someone is forced to do that to stay alive, or doing it for some negative psychological or emotional reason, the situation is evil, not the people forced into it. Gay, straight, or anywhere on the spectrum.

Let’s not get confused about this. Jesus never said anything about this.

Back when the early church sought to make itself more credible, it adopted certain forms of Greek philosophy, including this idea known as the “Natural Law.” Saint Thomas Aquinas adopted and pushed these ideas. He was apparently not a bad guy, but he cannot possibly stand in as a substitute for Jesus.

All that extra-Biblical natural law business, mixed up with the rather primitive prescriptions against any kind of same-sex anything, especially in the Jewish scriptures — well, that leads to the wondrously inhumane, tragically harmful attitudes and behaviors we see too often in the Church today.

Stay away from this thinking, these attitudes and actions.

Read the Gospel. Talk to people who don’t like being cruel and hateful to others, especially to kids. Band together with them. I think you’ll find that the brief analysis I’ve given here on these points is accurate.

Stay away from those who are the opposite, like Bishop AB and his followers. If you feel like telling them to go to hell, I don’t think it’s going to really matter because they may be on their way anyway.< But everyone, even the most horrible sinners, can be forgiven. So I say, “Look in the mirror, Bishop AB.” In the words of Pope Francis, “Who am I to judge?” I don’t know who any of you are in person, but I send you my love and my support and my prayer and I ask you, please — for me and most especially for the homeless LGBTQ youth I work with — to throw it all back at me. In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God, Son of Man, or whoever you really think he is: Love one another, unconditionally, as he loves us. Thanks for reading. Fr. Andy Herman
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Complete Article HERE!