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Twin Cities Justice and Peace Groups Honor Bishop Gumbleton with Lifetime Achievement Award

Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton Aux. Bishop of Detroit, Retired

Lifetime Achievement Award for Justice and Peace (A close-up of the text of the award can be viewed here.)

Internationally renowned advocate for peace and justice, Bishop Thomas J. Gumbleton, former auxiliary bishop of Detroit, now retired, was honored on June 29th by 100 justice and peace activists representing organizations from the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota. Convened by the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities (CPCSM)--an independent Catholic lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pastoral ministry and human rights advocacy group, the consortium included Call To Action Minnesota, Dignity Twin Cities, the Justice Commission of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and Consociates, Inclusive Catholics, Twin Cities Peace Campaign – Focus on Iraq, Pax Christi Twin Cities, and the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). Some of the groups are also affiliated with larger nationwide organizations.

Gumbleton had been invited by CPCSM for a book reading the previous evening at St. Martin’s Table, a Minneapolis bookstore, where, along with a group of writers who had contributed to the group’s newly published training manual for Catholic high school educators on creating safe environments for LGBT students, he had read his foreword to the book. Gumbleton’s visit to the Twin Cities proved also to be an opportunity for the presentation of the local peace and justice community’s award, given to him as a guest at a “Prayer Breakfast for Hope and Justice” (led by lay ministers at the Carondelet Center in St. Paul) the following morning.

Local progressive Catholics expressed the anger and sadness, shared by peace and justice activists throughout the world, over the unjust and unkind treatment Gumbleton had received in early 2006 from Vatican officials and from Cardinal Maida, the Archbishop of Detroit and his immediate superior. Although church law sets a mandatory retirement age of 75 for all bishops, exceptions are routinely made for those who are healthy enough to continue their ministries. Therefore, upon reaching his 75th birthday in 2005, Bishop Gumbleton did not submit a letter of resignation to the Vatican but instead wrote a letter asking to continue his work. Not only did the Vatican authorities refuse his request, but they demanded that he immediately retire voluntarily or face removal from his office. Additionally, Cardinal Maida announced his removal from his 23-year position as pastor of St. Leo’s, an impoverished inner-city Detroit parish, giving Gumbleton only one week's notice to bid farewell to his loyal and loving parishioners.

In the eyes of most progressive Catholics, the Vatican officials not only failed to acknowledge and express their gratitude for Gumbleton’s life-long commitment to the Church and to the Gospel, they chastened and humiliated this internationally renowned ambassador of peace and justice. Therefore, the organizers of the local award ceremony felt compelled to honor Bishop Gumbleton with a Lifelong Achievement Award for Justice and Peace. The award acknowledged Gumbleton for “his unwavering loyalty to our nonviolent God”; his “vision of a world free of poverty and hunger, war and oppression”; his “courageous recognition of the equality and human dignity of all persons, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or any other status”; and for his “life-long heroic commitment to bringing about peace by promoting justice”.

Also well known for his public support of LGBT persons’ human rights and pastoral needs in both the church and society, Gumbleton became one of the first members of the Catholic hierarchy to publicly denounce homophobia and discrimination towards LGBT persons. Despite pressure from the hierarchy, he has continued, in his writing and speaking, to call upon the hierarchy to fully embrace LGBT persons and their families and to acknowledge their giftedness. Gumbleton has acknowledged that stance on LGBT persons was the direct result of his brother Dan revealing his gayness to the family and his mother’s subsequent question about the brother’s spiritual salvation, which prompted Gumbleton to reexamine his pre-Vatican seminary training on LGBT persons.

In media reports Bishop Gumbleton has said that he believes the harsh treatment he received from the Vatican was primarily in retaliation for the lobbying he had done before the Ohio legislature in January 2006 in favor of a bill to extend the statute of limitations which would allow victims of sexual abuse to sue the church many years after they had been abused. In his testimony, Gumbleton revealed, for the first time, that he himself had been abused by a priest as a teenage seminarian and knew how hard it was to speak publicly even decades later. In spite of the Vatican's reaction to him, Gumbleton said that he does not regret his lobbying efforts "because it was the right thing to do".

One of Tom Gumbleton's first public speaking events on behalf of LGBT persons came in 1994 when CPCSM, organizing a consortium of progressive groups and parishes, invited him to the Twin Cities where he spoke at 5 different venues (College of St. Catherine, Pax Christi, St. Joan of Arc, St. Stephens of Anoka, and the Basilica). The high point of that trip was presiding at a liturgy of reconciliation at the Basilica, specifically for the local LGBT community. With a very large crowd in attendance, Bishop Gumbleton not only processed to the sanctuary wearing a "gay" miter decorated with a cross, a pink triangle, and rainbow colors (a gift to him from CPCSM in recognition of his ministry with LGBT persons), he remained for about two hours after the liturgy responding to those in attendance during an open-mike question-and-answer session.

In 1996, Bishop Gumbleton once again inspired us in the midst of our safe staff training efforts with local Catholic schools, when he was the keynote speaker at a prayer breakfast at the retreat center at Totino-Grace High School for local Catholic education administrators, teachers, and other school staff.  In 1997, CPCSM
named an award after him -- the Bishop Gumbleton Peace and Justice Award -- which is given periodically by the Board of CPCSM to a special person or group whose work on behalf of GLBT persons and their families reflects the same commitment to the Gospel call for peace and justice as exemplified by Bishop Gumbleton.

For more information about Tom Gumbleton's biography, his work with CPCSM, and the award named after him, see our web site link at: www.cpcsm.org/AboutUs_Awards.htm.

For more information about the Vatican's recent mistreatment of Bishop Gumbleton, see our CPCSM website at:  www.cpcsm.org/news.htm#GumbletonRemoved. 

Finally, for a sense of how much his parishioners at St. Leo's loved him and how much his work among them meant to him, check out the heart-warming, but saddening, 5-minute video at the following link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0j0PSIbXp0.

CPCSM'S ANNUAL COMMUNITY MEETING FEATURES
READINGS FROM NEW PUBLICATION AND AWARDS

Theresa O’Brien, CSJ; Bishop Thomas Gumbleton; and Myrna and Ron Ohmann were among the guests at CPCSM’s 2007 Annual Community Meeting, which took place on Thursday, June 28, at St. Martin’s Table Bookstore and Restaurant in Minneapolis.

Beginning with a wine and cheese reception, this year's CPCSM annual community meeting served as the official launching and celebration for CPCSM's recent publication, Creating Safe Environments for LGBT Students: A Catholic Schools Perspective, edited by Executive Coordinator Michael Bayly. To highlight the book, individuals who had contributed testimonials and reflections to the book were invited to read their own contributions.

Among the readers was retired Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit, who shared with the forty people in attendance the foreword that he had penned for the book. Other readers included Darlene White, the mother of a lesbian, Craig Barrett, a young gay man who had been part of the group of safe staff trainers whose work the new publication highlights, Jerry Kolbinger, a retired teacher from St. Bernard's High School in St. Paul who had completed the safe staff training prior to his retirement.

A compilation of the resources used by CPCSM in its safe-staff training with most of the Catholic high schools in the Twin Cities area, the manual is the first of its kind and represents CPCSM's primary work during the late 1990s.

Part of Bishop Gumbleton’s foreword reads as follows: “Prophetic words and deeds shine through this text. And like all prophetic words they speak of justice, inclusiveness, and a vision of the world that is bigger, more encompassing than the one we may be prepared to embrace. Yet the call remains. It rings forth from these pages – offering a catalyst for transformation.”

This year’s CPCSM Father Henry LeMay Pastoral Ministry Award was given to Catholic Rainbow Parents Myrna and Ron Ohmann for their “faithful, courageous, and loving efforts in promoting the full civil and ecclesial rights of LGBT persons.” For example, Myrna and Ron played a crucial role in the recent establishment of a support group for Catholic parents of LGBT persons in St. Cloud, Minnesota.

Unfortunately, the 2007 recipient of CPCSM’s Bishop Gumbleton Peace and Justice Award was not able to be present at our Annual Community Meeting to receive his award. His identity will remain secret, as we hope to “surprise” him with his award at some point in the near future! Let’s hope it won’t take over a year to present him with his award – as was the case with Mike and Paula! (See fourth photo and commentary above.)

Another highpoint of the annual meeting was the presentation by CPCSM Board President Mary Lynn Murphy of the findings from the survey that she designed and distributed to members of the Catholic Rainbow Parents group who then passed the survey on to their LGBT children for completion.

Michael Bayly, CPCSM's Executive Coordinator, was the emcee for the evening, and walked the audience through CPCSM's new publication, introducing each person who did a reading from the book. (Ron Ohmann is also shown seated in the background.)	Mary Lynn Murphy, CPCSM President and mother of a gay son, who summarized findings from a survey that she had developed for young LGBT adults whose parents are members of the Catholic Rainbow Parents group; she alos read excerpts from the most articulate of the survey's respondents.
Darlene White and Paul Fleege, CPCSM's Treasurer, talk as they enjoy the evenings snacks and refreshments	Michael Bayly, the book's editor, autographs a copy for the Catholic woman priest Rev. Regina Nicolosi

Those Who Read Selections from CPCSM's Safe-Staff Training Manual

Craig Barrett , a former student of Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul who is gay and who was part of CPCSM's safe-staff training team.	Darlene White, the mother of a lesbian who attended Benilde-St. Margaret's in St. Louis Park, who along with husband Tom has been a very active member of CPCSM and many other progressive Catholic organizations and causes. The Whites have been excellent role models of grandparents of the children of LGBT persons, frequently babysitting their lesbian daughter's two children.
Jeanne Cornish, a staunch supporter of LGBT persons and a member of the leadership of Dignity Twin Cities	Jerry Kolbinger, a retired teacher from St. Bernard's High School in St. Paul, who received CPCSM's safe-staff training on his own time when the school's president refused to allow the training at St. Bernard's. Jerry read the letter, included in the manual, that he and another teacher at St. Bernard's wrote to their colleagues at the school, pointing out the need for the school to develop a safe-staff program and a safe environment for its LGBT students

CPCSM treasurer Paul Fleege (left) stands with CPCSM members Michael Douglas and Rick Notch at CPCSM’s Annual Community Meeting

The audience of CPCSM members and supporters, including Jeanne Cornish of Dignity Twin Cities in the foreground, at the annual meeting listen to the reading of selections from Creating Safe Environments for LGBT Students: A Catholic Schools Perspective.

More About the Book Including Reviews

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                                                                                   About St. Martin's Table
St. Martin's Table is an outreach ministry of the Community of St.Martin. It is a bookstore and restaurant open to the general public. St. Martin's Table strives to be a center for peacemaking and justice seeking. This focus springs from the Community's faith, centered in the life and teachings of Jesus, and so we seek to provide hospitality to all people in their journeys toward peace, justice and wholeness. To describe the Table, we use words Books, Food and Conversation.

The resources in the bookstore are chosen to reflect the values of the Community and staff -- values such as inclusiveness, nonviolence, justice and intentional care of creation.The food served is a celebration of God's gifts to us. To that end, St. Martin's Table serves vegetarian meals with an emphasis on locally grown and organic food. Volunteer servers not only contribute their time, but also contribute their tips to programs that alleviate hunger in the global community.Conversation takes place not only around the table at noon, but also during evening programs centered on peacemaking, justice issues and community-building through the arts. St. Martin's Table is also available for study, worship, fellowship and special events for the wider community.

Hours: Bookstore & bakery counter: Monday-Saturday, 10am-4pm.
Lunch Served: Monday-Saturday 11:00am-2:30 pm.

Thank you, St. Martin's Table for offering our Twin Cities community such radical hospitality and for being an inspiring and faithful example of what it really means to be a follower of the man from Galilee... .

SAINT MARTIN'S TABLE
2001 Riverside Avenue,
Minneapolis, MN 55454
612-339-3920

www.communityofstmartin.org/index.htm

CPCSM Coordinating Group for Inaugural
Prayer Breakfast for Hope and Justice

The inaugural Prayer Breakfast for Hope and Justice – Friday, June 29, 2007, at the Carondelet Center.

Moved by a growing concern about the protracted and ill-conceived war in Iraq and about the anticipated negative environment that incoming Archbishop John Nienstedt is likely to create for LGBT persons and other progressive Catholics in the archdiocese, CPCSM led a coalition of Twin Cities Catholic justice and peace groups – also including Call to Action Minnesota and Pax Christi Twin Cities – in organizing the first Prayer Breakfast for Hope and Justice on June 29th. The event brought together over 100 people in the Carondelet Center in St. Paul for a Eucharistic liturgy followed by a continental breakfast and a round-table discussion--the focus of which was on ways of finding and sustaining hope in the context of both the contemporary Catholic Church and wider society. Representatives from several Catholic parishes and organizations attended the Prayer Breakfast – an event which organizers hope in the future to offer three or four times a year to the Catholic community of St. Paul/Minneapolis.

One of those in attendance at the inaugural Prayer Breakfast for Hope and Justice was retired Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit, who is pictured above offering his thoughts and insights during the round table discussion time of the event.

At one point during the morning’s proceedings, Bishop Gumbleton was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Justice and Peace (see article above) by a coalition of groups, including CPCSM, Call To Action Minnesota, Dignity/Twin Cities, Justice Commission of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and Consociates, Inclusive Catholics, Twin Cities Peace Campaign: Focus on Iraq, Pax Christi Twin Cities, and the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP).

Members of St. Stephen’s Catholic Church and with Bishop Tom Gumbleton (center, in black jacket) at the conclusion of the June 29 Prayer Breakfast for Hope and Justice.

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