#conservative catholic

This is your sign to donate to your local food shelf, Catholic Charities, soup kitchen etc. if you've got the money. Go buy a can of Similac (Advance, blue can) or Enfamil (yellow can) and bring it to your local Pregnancy Resource Center.

We are the Church. Do not let the shelves go bare on our watch.

“Not to enable the poor to share in our goods is to steal from them and deprive them of life. The goods we possess are not ours, but theirs.” –St. John Chrysostom

hello! I’m still on that path as well and I imagine it’s one that I will be on for a lifetime. 

I grew up in a socially liberal New England, so I was lucky enough not to deal with rampant homophobia as an adolescent. Honestly, I was fine as a bisexual in high school even came out to my parents. They seemed okay with it. I even went to an all-girl Catholic high school that, finally, created a GSA.

I’ve always kept being queer on the down-low, especially when visiting my *conservative* Catholic family in rural PA. I’d think to myself how can I be Catholic and they are Catholic and we’d both have such different views on our LGBT+ brothers and sisters? Who is right? In the end, I’ve come to realize that’s a battle I don’t want to fight out with family. I don’t care who thinks they’re on the moral high ground because it’s just a big fight between egos when all’s said and done. 

So, I usually, just ignore their unintentionally bigoted comments. My faith and my sexuality are between me and God, and it’s none of my family’s business to discount my desiring for God. I know that my Catholic high-school education prepared me with much support to acknowledge my queer identity and still be Catholic. It’s a both/and and not an either/or. 

Here’s a book that attempts to reconcile the LGBT+ community and Catholics. Building a Bridge

Here’s a book that gives my philosophical/ theological mindset for a both/and identity. Merton’s Palace of Nowhere  

And this painting by J. Kirk Richards. Jesus Said Love Everyone

It’s a long path to excepting yourself as a queer Catholic, but what isn’t a long journey when you’re religiously seeking haha?  A lot of it comes with persistent work on yourself to believe that you’re loved by God. All of you in your entirety. Once you believe that, conservative family’s comments don’t hurt as much because you know the nature of God’s love. It does not go away and leave you. ever.  

The Late Arrival of Princess Gloria The princess found herself running late for Mass. Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, a figure of both elegance and intrigue, quickly donned a long, dark coat over her luxurious silk scarf and a stunning necklace of pearls before hurrying through the ancient halls of her 500-room palace, which is part of a historic monastery. Outside, the chilly autumn night…

Paul Ryan shoves House Chaplain out the door

That’s Father Conroy on the right. Not far enough to the Right for Ryan.

❝ The chaplain of the House said on Thursday that he was blindsided when Speaker Paul D. Ryan asked him to resign two weeks ago, a request that he complied with but was never given a reason for.

The sudden resignation of the chaplain, the Rev. Patrick J. Conroy, shocked members of both parties. He had served in the role…

The only thing worse than dissident Catholics on the "left" are dissident Catholics on the "right."  

Yes, at least the "liberal" Catholics have charity on their side.  The ultra-so-called--"orthodox"--"conservative" Catholics claim to have Tradition on their side, yet they fail to recognize that in the Tradition of the Church--that is, her history,--there is this Person called the Holy Spirit Who is living, acting, and breathing within her.  They preach a Gospel of pessimism. They fail to realize that the Holy Spirit inspiring the Church at the Second Vatican Council is far more powerful than the Evil One who was also at work. 

They bring division in an already divided Church. "A house divided against itself cannot stand;" yet they divide themselves against the already faithful members of the House. Disunity is the work the the Devil. It is the result of sin. What do we see in the Garden of Eden after the Fall? Division between God and man; division between men and women; division within man himself. Now that the Spirit has called forth a Pastor, a Shepherd who is bridging the gap between the "left" and the "right" leaning Catholics, these ultra-"right" Catholics do nothing but accuse him. They are like the Pharisees criticizing Jesus for plucking grain on the Sabbath.

- Papabile of the Day: The Men Who Could Be Pope, John L. Allen