Holy Family’s LGBTQ+ Support Group is a fellowship where LGBTQ+ persons of faith are welcomed to explore their spirituality and share their experience, strength, and hope with one another. LGBTQ+ Support Group was established to provide a welcoming place for members of the LGBTQ+ Community at Holy Family. The Ministry has provided outreach, acceptance, encouragement and fellowship to LGBTQ+ Catholics and their families. To join our LGBTQ+ ministry join our gatherings on the second Tuesday of the month at 7:15 pm. All are welcome!
Our evening will be held in the Manning Room (Second Floor of the Pastoral Center 1527 Fremont Ave.)
If you, or someone you know would like to help us by voicing our needs, help us vision, or would like to participate in a support group, please come to these gathering.
The following links lead to resources that provide support for pastoral ministry and outreach to Catholic persons with a homosexual orientation and to their families.
Fiducia supplicans provides clarifications and reforms on the church’s treatment of “irregular relationships”, that is, those who establish a monogamous and emotional bond that lasts over time and have not contracted a Catholic marriage Notably, it allows Catholic priest and deacons to perform “spontaneous blessings” of same-sex couples, as well as opposite-sex couples who are not married, and civilly married couples at least one party of which was previously divorced but has not received an annulment.
The Catholic Ministry with Lesbian and Gay Persons, formerly called the Ministry with Lesbian and Gay Catholics, was called into existence during a sermon given in February, 1986 by Archbishop Roger Mahony, then in office only a few months, who called for lesbians and gays to join together, supporting each other on their faith journey.
Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children and Suggestions for Pastoral Ministers (1997)
Written by the Bishops’ Committee on Marriage and the Family, this message from the U.S. Bishops is directed primarily to Catholic parents of children who have come out to them as gay or lesbian. It provides practical and encouraging advice for parents on accepting both themselves and their children. It also provides recommendations for pastoral ministers working with these populations. This link provides the document in both English and Spanish versions.
Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons (1986)
This is the Vatican’s directive to Bishops about providing pastoral care to persons with a homosexual orientation.
The chapter of the Catechism on sexual morality explains Catholic teaching on the nature and role of sexuality, and presents the rules by which all Catholics are to live in terms of sexuality. Within this chapter on sexual morality, paragraphs 2357-2359 speak specifically about homosexuality.
Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics (1975)
The following links lead to resources that provide additional support for pastoral ministry and outreach to Catholic persons with a homosexual orientation and to their families. These resources include suggestions for developing parish ministries and responding to challenges ministries might encounter.
Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) Special Report
This CARA Report, “In Search of Best Practices in Ministry with Gay and Lesbian Catholics,” presents a portrait of experiences and best practices among successful ministries to gay and lesbian Catholics that other parishes and dioceses may use as a guide. (Summer 2004)
NACDLGM’s Guidelines for Implementing Always Our Children in parishes
Follow this link for practical guidelines developed by this organization under its old name (the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries) for putting Always Our Children into practice at the local level. (June 2003)
“What Does Gay Mean?” – National Mental Health Association