NEWS NOTES: TEDx Talk, British MP, Gay Latinx, and More

Here are some items that you might find of interest:

1) Vin Testa, the president of Dignity/Washington, a ministry by and for LGBT Catholics, gave a TEDx talk at Salve Regina University, Rhode Island, his alma mater. The talk, entitled “Allowance vs. Acceptance,” focuses on the LGBT Catholic experience.  You can watch the talk by clicking here.

2) Jacob Rees-Mogg, a British Parliament Member who is a Catholic, has received strong criticism from his colleagues for voicing opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, using his religious beliefs as the basis for his remarks, reports Crux. Rees-Mogg has been identified as a possible successor to Prime Minister Theresa May as head of the Tory Party.

3) Krzysztof Charamsa, a former official at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith who came out publicly as gay, was interviewed this summer by CBC-Radio Canada’s Megan Williams.  As part of his comments, Charamsa claimed that a great deal of homophobia in the Catholic Church is caused by priests he described as “self-loathing, homophobic and homosexual.”

4) A prominent San Diego hotelier has publicly regretted his $125,000 contribution to California’s Proposition 8 campaign, which, for a time, outlawed marriage equality in the state, reports the San Diego Union-Tribune. Doug Manchester explained the religious basis for his contribution:  “I was asked by the Catholic bishop of San Diego, and I am Catholic, to contribute and I did. And my family was opposed to it. And I want to clarify the issue: that was a huge mistake and I have more than done everything to rectify that mistake.”

5) Xorje Olivares, a Latinx media personality, gave an interview to Cassius about growing up as a gay Catholic Mexican-American.  The interview also ventures into his spirituality and why he continues to remain a part of the Catholic Church.

—Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, September 23, 2017