News Archives

CPCSM's Year in Review
2005 - 2006

 

In July 2005, CPCSM president Mary Lynn Murphy coordinated the gathering of members and friends of CPCSM who were also parents of GLBT persons, so as to form Catholic Rainbow Parents. The launching of this new group was accompanied by the release of the Catholic Rainbow Parents' Declaration - a pastoral statement of wisdom, love, and support for GLBT persons and their families. In 2006, the group released a second statement entitled Catholic Rainbow Parents for Constitutional Integrity.

On October 12, 2005, Catholic Rainbow Parents held a "Ritual of Affirmation and Sending Forth" on the steps of the St. Paul Cathedral. The event culminated in the sending of copies of the Catholic Rainbow Parents' Declaration to both the Vatican and the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In October 2005, CPCSM and Catholic Rainbow Parents initiated efforts to protest the Pastors' Summit - an event aimed at encouraging religious leaders to support the proposed Minnesota marriage amendment banning same-gender marriage and all legal equivalents. We formed a coalition entitled People of Faith for Equal Civil Marriage Rights and organized a rally on November 10 outside the summit's venue, Grace Church in Eden Prairie. Our organizing efforts involved collaborating with an ecumenically diverse group of individuals and faith communities dedicated to defeating the proposed amendment. From this proactive and ecumenical dialogue and action emerged the Faith Family Fairness Alliance, of which CPCSM and Catholic Rainbow Parents are members. The TogetherMinnesota! campaign also cites the CPCSM-lead response to the Pastors' Summit as its official starting point.

Bill Kummer with "Skipper" March 23, 1950 - January 29, 2006

Many were saddened by the passing of CPCSM co-founder Bill Kummer on January 29. Bill was a compassionate and prophetic figure within the Catholic community and beyond. He was also a source of strength and inspiration for many. Bill always maintained that he would continue his work on the other side of this life. And many of us indeed believe this to be true. His spirit lives on among us.

Gary Schoener, internationally renowned expert on clergy sexual abuse delivered an insightful presentation February 10, 2006, in which he emphasized seldom reported facts concerning the Catholic Church's sex abuse scandal --including the range of victims, the different types of abusers, and the impact of the abuse on the victims and their families. Gary also explored the scape-goating of gay priests and the implications of the sex abuse scandal for the future of the institutional church.

Timed to coincide with the World Marriage Day celebration, on February 12, 2006, close to 300 people (above) -- including former CPCSM treasurer Roger Urbanski (right) -- gathered on the steps of the St. Paul Cathedral to call upon Archbishop Flynn to withdraw his support of the Minnesota marriage amendment. (See below for more details about this rally.)

On February 17-18, feminist theologian Mary Hunt shared her insights on a range of issues within the Catholic Church via two CPCSM-sponsored presentations at St. Joan of Arc Church. One of these had the relevant title of "Catholic Is As Catholic Does: Strategies for Being Church in Challenging Times." Pictured with Mary are Linda Taylor, CSJ, and Darlene White.

Our March 20, 2006 event at St. Thomas the Apostle Church, entitled "Putting a Human Face to the Marriage Amendment Issue," drew a record crowd for a CPCSM educational event. Pictured from left: Bill Nolan (St. Thomas the Apostle); John Watkins and his partner Andrew Elfenben and their son, Dmitri; Carol Anderson and her partner Kathy Itzin; Michael Bayly (CPCSM executive coordinator); and Susan Lee (St. Thomas the Apostle).

The inaugural Bill Kummer Forum on April 28-29, 2006 featured renowned theologian and author Daniel Helminiak, who offered a two-part presentation entitled "Gay Body, Gay Soul: A Catholic LGBTI Perspective on Sexuality, Spirituality and Marriage." Pictured from left: Rev. Paul Tucker (All God's Children Metropolitan Community Church), Daniel Helminiak, Paul Fleege (CPCSM treasurer), David McCaffrey (CPCSM co-founder), and Michael Bayly (CPCSM executive coordinator)

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CPCSM Annual Community Meeting
A Great Success

Photo: David J. McCaffrey

Linda Taylor, CSJ, (left) and Jacob Reitan display the awards they received at this year's CPCSM Annual Community Meeting. Linda and Fr. Mike Tegeder (who was not able to be present), were the recipients of this year's Father Henry F. LeMay Award, while Jacob and Paula Ruddy (also unable to attend) received the 2006 Bishop Gumbleton Peace and Justice Award. See the following link to see copies of this years Gumbleton and LeMay Awards.

On May 8th, with about 50 people in attendance -- including a group of about 10 young adults who have GLBT siblings, this year's CPCSM Annual Community Meeting was a great success. The evening's high point was a very impassioned keynote presentation, given by Jacob Reitan, founder and co-director of the Soulforce Equality Ride. Jacob spoke of the history of the Ride and many of
its highlights, Reminiscent of the Freedom Rides of the 1960s, the Equality Ride was an inspiring event which earlier this year had taken 32 young adults (including Jake) on a seven-week bus tour from New York to Los Angeles to confront nineteen religious schools and military academies that
ban the enrollment of GLBT students.

The Ride's journey was unique, as never before have young activists banded together to challenge homophobia at many of the major educational institutions responsible for much of today's GLBT discrimination - places where intolerance toward GLBT persons is taught to and nurtured among future generations of church and society's leaders.of which he was the founder and co-director.

Jacob and two other members of the Ride who were in attendance, including the other co-director, Haven Harrin, also spoke of the group's future hopes and responded to many questions from a very interested and inquistive audience.

Also known locally for his Faith In Action column in the Lavender magazine, Jake Reitan is an organizer with Soulforce, a nationwide non-profit organization dedicated to liberating LGBT people from religious and political oppression through the practice of relentless nonviolent resistance as taught by Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Photo: David J. McCaffrey

Pictured with awardees Linda Taylor, CSJ, and Jacob Reitan are the following: (Back row, l to r): Michael Bayly, CPCSM Executive Coordinator; Jarrett Lucas, Equality Rider; Bill Hunt, past CPCSM president; Haven Harrin, Equality Ride Co-Director; (In front, l to r): Mary Lynn Murphy, CPCSM Board President, and Lisa Nilles, CPCSM member.

Photo: David J. McCaffrey

The 50 members and supporters who attended CPCSM's Annual Community Meeting on May 8, 2006, listen intently and with great interest as keynoter Jacob Reitan, at the podium, describes the highlights of the historic Soulforce Equality Ride, of which he was the founder and co-director.

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175 Protesters Rally on Steps of Cathedral
to Demand Archbishop Cease
Support of Marriage Amendment

On World Marriage Day (WMD), following the Noon Mass on Sunday, February 12th, almost 200 Catholics who oppose the proposed "Marriage Amendment," expected to be considered at the upcoming session of the Minnesota State Legislature, braved near-0 degree-wind-chill temperatures to gather on the front steps of the St. Paul Cathedral to express their outrage to Archbishop Flynn and the other Minnesota bishops. The group's message to the bishops -- expressed in public statements, songs, and chants -- was clear: stop actively supporting the amendment and stop politicizing Minnesota's Hierarchy and violating the Constitution's guaranteed separation of church and state protections by urging parishioners to mail postcards, distributed in church, that urge their legislators to vote for the amendment. (See statement below.)       [Photo Gallery]

The rally was organized and sponsored by Catholics for Equality, a newly formed group that is an ad hoc blending of a core group of concerned progressive Catholic lay persons active in a number of local parishes, with CPCSM, Catholic Rainbow Parents, and Dignity/Twin Cities, that was formed to express its outrage with the position and actions taken by the Minnesotal Catholic Bishops in actively endorsing and advocating the "Marriage Amendment" and to work against the amendment.

During the annual WMD liturgy that preceded the rally, another protest -- quieter and more subdued, which had been begun and reprised by Brian McNeill and his partner and some other Dignity/Twin City members over the past four years on WMD -- took place inside the Cathedral.

For this year's protest, pairs of same-sex relationship partners, who wore rainbow arm bands, also stood up when the Archbishop asked groups of opposite-sex married couples to stand up as he listed 5-year intervals of marriage (i.e., 0-5, 6-10 years,etc.), up to the longest married couples in attendance. Also, when the Archbishop asked the married opposite-sex couples to face each other and repeat their marriage vows aloud, the same-sex couples did the same.

The message of the liturgical protest -- that the Church must also make room at its table for Catholics in same-sex couples in committed relationships, if it is to be true to the Gospel -- was once again clearly sent at the Archbishop's annual Mass for married Catholics.

Some other protest moments took place during the distribution of Holy Communion when some of the ministers refused the Eucharist to anyone, GLBT or hetero supporters, wearing the rainbow arm bands while other ministers, including the Archbishop, did not refuse the Eucharist to the arm band wearers. A few harsh words were heard from one of the Eucharistic ministers to the protesters attempting to receive communion at the rear of the church.

An angry, middle-aged male parishioners, who used a disrepectful sexual epithet to address one of the mothers of a gay man who was wearing a rainbow arm band, was scolded by a lay member of the Cathedral staff, who apologized to the protester and asked her to call her at the church office to discuss the matter further if she felt the need.

Outside, prior to the Mass, a few parishioners entering the cathedral asked why the protesters were bringing politics into the Mass, to which protesters quickly replied that they were only there at the Mass in reaction to the Archbishop who first politicized his office and the local Archdiocese. This politicization began when Archbishop Flynn, along with the other bishops in the Minnesota Catholic Conference issued their statement on December 22, 2005, in support of the Marriage Amendment. In their statement, the Minnesota bishops also first announced the postcard campaign in which each parish would be encouraged to participate.

The Archbishop then followed up on the bishops' statement in his first column of the year in the Catholic Spirit, which began by displaying a copy of a postcard to be mailed to legislators. In addition, the official web site of the Archdiocese has numerous other pro-marriage-amendment resources for learning about the amendment and for taking actions in supporting it.