It all started with this letter to the cardinal.
Carl Siciliano: A Call to Cardinal Dolan to Stop Endangering LGBT Youth
LGBT="lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender”
I write to you as the director of the Ali Forney Center, the nation's largest organization dedicated to homeless LGBT youth. I am writing to you on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of LGBT youths who have been driven from their homes by parents unwilling or unable to accept their own children because they are gay. And I write to you as a member of the Archdiocese of New York who is deeply ashamed by the ways that his bishop contributes to the abuse and harm suffered by these youths.
I want you to understand how you, and other religious leaders who fight against the acceptance of LGBT people, are helping to create a national tragedy
Parental rejection has become so prevalent that LGBT youths make up an astonishing 40 percent of the nation's homeless youth population.
When you use your position as a religious leader to fight the acceptance of LGBT persons as equal members of our society, you inevitably make many parents less able to accept their own LGBT children
Carl Siciliano is the founder and executive director of the Ali Forney Center, which provides housing, medical care, and vocational and educational support to LGBT youths who have been driven from their homes. Formerly he was a Benedictine monk and a member of the Catholic Worker movement.
Click on the following for more details; Carl Siciliano: A Call to Cardinal Dolan to Stop Endangering LGBT Youth
Then the Cardinal snapped back this short retort:
March 28, 2012
Dear Mr. Siciliano,Your letter of March 20, 2012, together with enclosure has been received.
For you to make the allegations and insinuations you do in your letter based on my adherence to the clear teachings of the Church is not only unfair and unjust, but inflammatory. Neither I nor anyone in the Church would ever tolerate hatred of or prejudice towards any of the Lord's children. In the future you ought to be more careful about personally attacking the character of those who espouse beliefs different than your own.
With prayerful best wishes for a blessed Lent, I am,
Faithfully in Christ,
Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan
Archbishop of New York
You can see the actual letter here.
And quite naturally Mr. Siciliano replied.
Dear Cardinal Dolan,
I thank you for your prompt reply to my letter
.
However, I am confused by your response. My letter did not address your character but your actions, and their influence on parents who reject their LGBT children.
More profoundly, I am distressed that your response does not in any way address the plight of our youths. My hope is that if you meet with our kids and see how devastated their lives have been by their parents' rejection, you might change your actions. I hope that you would recognize how unfair it is that in your diocese an LGBT teen is eight times more likely to become homeless than a straight teen. I hope you might realize how unjust it is for so many LGBT children to be deprived of their parents' love and support. I hope you might understand how truly inflammatory are the actions of religious leaders who disparage LGBT people and fight against our acceptance in society. I hope that if you opened your mind and heart to our kids and listened to their stories of being abused and abandoned for being LGBT, you might recognize how your actions contribute to their terrible ordeal. Fighting against the acceptance of LGBT people harms kids and harms families.
Your letter indicates that we have different beliefs, but we share a faith in a loving God. We share a faith in Jesus, who said that our very salvation depends on our response to those who are hungry and homeless and outcast, and who said, "Whatever you do to the very least of these, you do unto me."
I repeat my invitation for you to come to the Ali Forney Center and meet our homeless and outcast kids. Even if you refuse my invitation, I hope that you will reflect on their plight. I hope you might ask yourself why hundreds of thousands of LGBT youths are suffering homelessness on the streets of our nation. I hope you might ask yourself why religious parents are more likely to reject their LGBT children. I hope that you might reflect on how your fight against the acceptance of LGBT people bears fruit in parents who cannot accept their LGBT children.
Sincerely,
Carl Siciliano
Executive Director
Ali Forney Center
No comments:
Post a Comment