Detroit Archdiocese expels support group for families of LGBT Catholics

[JimGinPA]

https://www.ncronline.org/news/parish/detroit-archdiocese-expels-support-group-families-lgbt-catholics?fbclid=IwAR2gfsJYKZRPwvgQ7iZjPh-LkU6v2a3XpetOza969pz8nUBdodQVBzNAGc0


A cake is seen during a party following an annual "Pre-Pride Festive Mass" at St. Francis of Assisi Church in New York City June 29, 2019. The liturgy, hosted by the parish's LGBT outreach ministry, is traditionally celebrated on the eve of the city's Pride March

It began with a question during a Sunday sermon after a Gospel reading about a Jesus healing. "Who are the lepers today?" asked Fr. Victor Clore, pastor of Christ the King Church in Detroit.

That was more than two decades ago, and Clore, still pastor at Christ the King, answered his own question with a reference to LGBT Catholics. The question generated a response: Soon a regular meeting began at the church for Catholic families wrestlingwith the issues involved, a few dozen people from throughout the metro area coming together to push for more inclusion and understanding for gays and lesbians in church life. They eventually aligned themselves with a national group called Fortunate Families.

That church support ended in March, as, in the midst of the pandemic, Clore received a letter from Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Gerard Battersby that Fortunate Families could no longer be welcomed at Christ the King or, for that matter, any facility affiliated with the archdiocese.

Battersby, in his letter, said that Fortunate Families offered "a competing vision" of church teaching "detrimental to the very membership the organization seeks to serve." Quoting a pastoral letter from Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron, he offered hope that LGBT people "will find support for growing as a human person in the virtue of Christ-like chastity."

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