queerchicago2

queerchicago3

A Catholic parish in the Archdiocese of Chicago is promoting a “workshop” in “queer” theory organized by activists who vehemently disagree with the Church’s teachings on homosexuality; in addition, they advocate for the ordination of women, and blame the suicide of LGBT teens on “The Catechism of the Catholic Church.”

On the Old St. Patrick’s Church website is an advertisement for an event taking place at The 8th Day Center for Justice; the topic of the discussion: LGBTQ+ Justice in Faith- Based Communities: Understanding the Evolving Story of Gender. In the Old St. Patrick’s Church description for the event, it states that the various speakers “were all raised Catholic and will discuss how their LGBTQ+ identities relate to their faith lives.”

The 8th Day Center is a far-left advocacy group that, according to their Mission Statement, comprises “a coalition founded by Catholic religious congregations, acts as a critical alternative voice to oppressive systems and works to change those systems.”

They have openly supported the ordination of women through their signing of a statement: “A Church For Our Daughters.” Other signatories include such dissident groups as: Call To Action, DignityUSA, and the Women’s Ordination Conference.

The 8th Day Center also publicly disagrees with the Church’s teachings on homosexuality:

“The 8th Day Center for Justice does not believe the official teachings on homosexuality reflect the Catholic values and beliefs that call each of us “to promote justice, equality and human dignity among all people regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, abilities, gender, sexual orientation, or socio-economic class.” Each person’s sexuality is a gift. Any structure that allows contrary opinion to exist let alone impact the physical or emotional safety of any person needs transformation.”

In addition, the 8th Day Center blames the suicide of LGBT teens on the Catholic Church:

“We believe the teachings of the Church and the behavior of some members of the Church hierarchy have added to [the] atmosphere of bullying and intimidation.”

As examples, they cite “The Catechism of the Catholic Church,” and the bishops of Minnesota for mailing out DVDs to Catholics throughout the state “in order to prevent the redefinition of civil marriage to include same-sex partnerships.” In conclusion, The 8th Day Center believes that:

“…these examples of discrimination clearly show that people of differing sexual orientations are not welcome in the Church. Moreover, such discrimination contributes to an atmosphere in society which promotes bigotry and violence toward the LGBT community.”

The contact person for the Gay+ outreach at Old St. Patrick’s is Kevin Funk.