The Enemy Within
Catholics in good standing? You bet
Forget about the sideshow freaks like "Womynpriests" and the "American Catholic Church". I'm posting those who are "in good standing". Here are some of the headliners at the upcoming national conference for "Dignity USA" queerarama being held this year in ... wait for it... San Francisco.
You know, five separate times in the Gospels, we are instructed to cut down any tree that doesn't produce good fruit. And of those five separate passages, three of them further go on to say that the cut-down trees should be burned.
For whatever reason unknown to me, more than a few "Catholic" institutions insist on building with rotten timbers.Presenters’ Bios – Convention 2009
Thomas P. Bonacci, C.P.
Tom is a Passionist priest from Pittsburgh, PA. He is a graduate of St. John’s University, New York City. After serving as religious superior and retreat director in Pittsburgh and New York; he served as chaplain at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC and Carlow University in Pittsburgh. During the late 1980’s, Tom established an interfaith outreach program to persons coping with HIV/AIDS at the Passionist Retreat Center in Riverdale, NY. He established the Interfaith Center at Carlow University where he also taught Sacred Scripture. Tom now directs the Interfaith Peace project of Pittsburgh, CA, a home-based educational outreach providing introduction to the world religions.
Kevin Buckley
Kevin is a member of the part-time faculty of the DePaul University’s School for New Learning. His courses have included: Work and the Modern Self and Catholic Social Ethics. He has also conducted adult education programs at Newberry Library in Chicago and Loyola University’s Institute of Pastoral Studies. On a volunteer basis, he was a member of the training team for resource counselors of the Lesbian and Gay Hotline, Chicago (1988-2001) and the State of Illinois AIDS Hotline (1988-1993). He has been a member of Dignity Chicago since 1986 and has served 3 terms on its Board of Directors.
Daniel Helminiak
Daniel is a Catholic priest, pastoral counselor, author, and lecturer and he holds PhD’s in theology and psychology and is Professor at the University of West Georgia. He is best known for What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality (1994, 2000). His specialization, however, is the psychology of spirituality, the basis of this workshop, and is applied in his Meditation without Myth (2005), Sex and the Sacred (2006), The Transcended Christian (2007), and Spirituality for our Global Community (2008).
Ann Marie Szpakowska
A member of Dignity since the early 1980’s, Ann Marie has served as Buffalo’s Chapter treasurer and president, as well as Northeast Regional Director. She has been a member of predominantly African American parishes since 1970. A former music director, she has been active in local Gospel Choirs for 38 years. She has participated in numerous national conferences – NOBC, Rejoice, GMWA, as well as local workshops on African American Music in Catholic Worship. Ann Marie has been on panels at Newman Center Conferences on Being Gay and Catholic, as well as speaking on The Integration of Spirituality and Sexual Orientation” at Gay Pride. She has also done workshops on The Spirituals. She can be heard on 2 Gospel recordings: St. Martin de Porres RC Church’s It’s Time and New Beginning Choral Ensemble’s I Just Want to Praise You. She and Jean will be celebrating their 27th anniversary this August.
Casey and Mary Ellen Lopata
Casey and Mary Ellen are co-founders of Fortunate Families, a ministry with Catholic parents of LGBT daughters and sons. Casey has a Master of Divinity and Mary Ellen has a Master of Art in Liberal Studies focusing on homosexuality and the family. Both are charter members of the Catholic Association of Lesbian and Gay Ministry and former co-directors of Catholic Gay and Lesbian Family Ministry in the Diocese of Rochester, NY. They served as consultants to the drafters of Always Our Children, the US Bishops Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children. They facilitate days of reflection for parents, and have presented in a number of states and Canada, including at Call to Action, Dignity USA, CALGM, National Association of Family Life Ministers, and New Ways Ministry conferences. Together they authored Fortunate Families: Catholic Parents with Lesbian Daughters and Gay Sons. Casey edited Seeds of Hope and More Seeds, resource manuals for compassionate ministry with LGBT persons. Casey and Mary Ellen have been married for 45 years and are the parents of four adult children (one a gay son), grandparents of eleven, and godparents of two delightful sons of a loving gay couple.
Donal Godfrey
Donal was born in Liverpool, England in 1959. Educated at Stonyhurst College and University College, Cork, he was then called to the Irish Bar. He is a Catholic priest and a member of the Irish province of the Society of Jesus. He also has degrees in philosophy from the Milltown Institute in Dublin, theology from Regis College at the University of Toronto, a licentiate in sacred theology from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, and a Doctorate in Ministry from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley. Father Godfrey has worked at Clongowes Wood College, Ireland; the Jesuit Centre for Spirituality in Belfast; Loyola University in Chicago; and is presently Executive Director of University Ministry at the University of San Francisco. Father Godfrey is the author of the book: Gays and Grays: the Story of the Gay Community at the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church. He is a regular international speaker on LGBTQ related issues at workshops and retreats.
Jeannine Gramick
Jeannine has been involved in a pastoral outreach to lesbian/gay Catholics since 1971. She was a co-founder of the Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC
Chapters of Dignity. In 1977 she was assigned to lesbian/gay ministry by the School Sisters of Notre Dame and co-founded New Ways of Ministry. Two of her books were the subject of a Vatican investigation and were judged to be dangerous and erroneous. In a 1999 decree signed by Pope John Paul II, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prohibited her from pastoral work with lesbian and gay persons. She continues to follow her call to a ministry of education and advocacy on behalf of GLBT persons as a Sister of Loretto. She is the subject of the award winning documentary, In Good Conscience: Sister Jeannine Gramick’s Journey of Faith. Should I even mention the dynamic duo of - 
Bob Butts and Dick Young Bob and Dick... Young Butts. Too easy.
Catholics in good standing? You bet
Forget about the sideshow freaks like "Womynpriests" and the "American Catholic Church". I'm posting those who are "in good standing". Here are some of the headliners at the upcoming national conference for "Dignity USA" queerarama being held this year in ... wait for it... San Francisco.
You know, five separate times in the Gospels, we are instructed to cut down any tree that doesn't produce good fruit. And of those five separate passages, three of them further go on to say that the cut-down trees should be burned.
For whatever reason unknown to me, more than a few "Catholic" institutions insist on building with rotten timbers.
Thomas P. Bonacci, C.P.
Tom is a Passionist priest from Pittsburgh, PA. He is a graduate of St. John’s University, New York City. After serving as religious superior and retreat director in Pittsburgh and New York; he served as chaplain at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC and Carlow University in Pittsburgh. During the late 1980’s, Tom established an interfaith outreach program to persons coping with HIV/AIDS at the Passionist Retreat Center in Riverdale, NY. He established the Interfaith Center at Carlow University where he also taught Sacred Scripture. Tom now directs the Interfaith Peace project of Pittsburgh, CA, a home-based educational outreach providing introduction to the world religions.
Kevin Buckley
Kevin is a member of the part-time faculty of the DePaul University’s School for New Learning. His courses have included: Work and the Modern Self and Catholic Social Ethics. He has also conducted adult education programs at Newberry Library in Chicago and Loyola University’s Institute of Pastoral Studies. On a volunteer basis, he was a member of the training team for resource counselors of the Lesbian and Gay Hotline, Chicago (1988-2001) and the State of Illinois AIDS Hotline (1988-1993). He has been a member of Dignity Chicago since 1986 and has served 3 terms on its Board of Directors.
Daniel Helminiak
Daniel is a Catholic priest, pastoral counselor, author, and lecturer and he holds PhD’s in theology and psychology and is Professor at the University of West Georgia. He is best known for What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality (1994, 2000). His specialization, however, is the psychology of spirituality, the basis of this workshop, and is applied in his Meditation without Myth (2005), Sex and the Sacred (2006), The Transcended Christian (2007), and Spirituality for our Global Community (2008).
Ann Marie Szpakowska
A member of Dignity since the early 1980’s, Ann Marie has served as Buffalo’s Chapter treasurer and president, as well as Northeast Regional Director. She has been a member of predominantly African American parishes since 1970. A former music director, she has been active in local Gospel Choirs for 38 years. She has participated in numerous national conferences – NOBC, Rejoice, GMWA, as well as local workshops on African American Music in Catholic Worship. Ann Marie has been on panels at Newman Center Conferences on Being Gay and Catholic, as well as speaking on The Integration of Spirituality and Sexual Orientation” at Gay Pride. She has also done workshops on The Spirituals. She can be heard on 2 Gospel recordings: St. Martin de Porres RC Church’s It’s Time and New Beginning Choral Ensemble’s I Just Want to Praise You. She and Jean will be celebrating their 27th anniversary this August.
Casey and Mary Ellen Lopata
Casey and Mary Ellen are co-founders of Fortunate Families, a ministry with Catholic parents of LGBT daughters and sons. Casey has a Master of Divinity and Mary Ellen has a Master of Art in Liberal Studies focusing on homosexuality and the family. Both are charter members of the Catholic Association of Lesbian and Gay Ministry and former co-directors of Catholic Gay and Lesbian Family Ministry in the Diocese of Rochester, NY. They served as consultants to the drafters of Always Our Children, the US Bishops Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children. They facilitate days of reflection for parents, and have presented in a number of states and Canada, including at Call to Action, Dignity USA, CALGM, National Association of Family Life Ministers, and New Ways Ministry conferences. Together they authored Fortunate Families: Catholic Parents with Lesbian Daughters and Gay Sons. Casey edited Seeds of Hope and More Seeds, resource manuals for compassionate ministry with LGBT persons. Casey and Mary Ellen have been married for 45 years and are the parents of four adult children (one a gay son), grandparents of eleven, and godparents of two delightful sons of a loving gay couple.
Donal Godfrey
Donal was born in Liverpool, England in 1959. Educated at Stonyhurst College and University College, Cork, he was then called to the Irish Bar. He is a Catholic priest and a member of the Irish province of the Society of Jesus. He also has degrees in philosophy from the Milltown Institute in Dublin, theology from Regis College at the University of Toronto, a licentiate in sacred theology from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, and a Doctorate in Ministry from the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley. Father Godfrey has worked at Clongowes Wood College, Ireland; the Jesuit Centre for Spirituality in Belfast; Loyola University in Chicago; and is presently Executive Director of University Ministry at the University of San Francisco. Father Godfrey is the author of the book: Gays and Grays: the Story of the Gay Community at the Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church. He is a regular international speaker on LGBTQ related issues at workshops and retreats.
Jeannine Gramick
Jeannine has been involved in a pastoral outreach to lesbian/gay Catholics since 1971. She was a co-founder of the Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, DC
Chapters of Dignity. In 1977 she was assigned to lesbian/gay ministry by the School Sisters of Notre Dame and co-founded New Ways of Ministry. Two of her books were the subject of a Vatican investigation and were judged to be dangerous and erroneous. In a 1999 decree signed by Pope John Paul II, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prohibited her from pastoral work with lesbian and gay persons. She continues to follow her call to a ministry of education and advocacy on behalf of GLBT persons as a Sister of Loretto. She is the subject of the award winning documentary, In Good Conscience: Sister Jeannine Gramick’s Journey of Faith.
posted by Kevin Whiteman at
12:00 AM
6 Comments:
May they be anathema.
On Donal Godfrey: "he was then called to the Irish Bar."
Do these people have no sense of irony?
St. Athanasius summed it best: "The floor of Hell is carpeted with the skulls of priests"... and nuns.
Those are some of the strangest looking smiles.
I think it is: ". . . skulls of bishops." But close enough for gov't work.
I guess these folks are not sympathetic to Courage's mission and teaching.
This is another situation that comes down to Catholic Episcopal leadership, or the lack thereof.
If my name was Dick I would refuse to even be the same room with a person named Butts. It's just too easy.
Notice how none of these "Catholics" are members of Courage, the REAL Catholic organization that caters to people with same-sex attraction according to the REAL teachings of the Church. Nope. They all hang with Dignity, the group that says you can boof your boyfriend and then go to communion.
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