Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church hierarchy has long been an opponent to LGBT equality. Even before Pope Benedict came on the scene, the Vatican was employing the phrase “intrinsically disordered” to refer to LGBT people. In the 2012 election, Roman Catholic bishops led the opposition to marriage equality in Minnesota, Maryland, Washington, and Maine, pouring energy and money into campaigns that ultimately ended in defeat for the anti-gay coalitions. Is it likely that the cardinals will choose a pro-LGBT pope? Everything is possible, but this seems highly unlikely. The hierarchy tends to reward and promote those who have been particularly successful at opposing LGBT equality.

VATICAN CITY — Declaring that he lacks the strength to do his job, Pope Benedict XVI announced Monday he will resign Feb. 28 — becoming the first pontiff to step down in 600 years. His decision sets the stage for a mid-March conclave to elect a new leader for a Catholic Church in deep turmoil.

CINCINNATI — An assistant principal at a Catholic school in Cincinnati has been fired over a blog post he wrote in support of same-sex marriage.

WILMINGTON, Del. — As advocates prepare to push for a bill authorizing gay marriage in Delaware, the bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington is weighing in with a pastoral letter on marriage.

Activists from the Gay Liberation Network, a longtime Chicago-based direct action LGBT rights group, are calling on the local community to join them early next month in a protest against Cardinal Francis George, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Chicago, due to his vocal opposition against same-sex marriage. The rally will take place on Feb. 10 […]

LONDON — More than 1,000 Roman Catholic priests have signed a letter voicing fears that legalization of same-sex marriage in the United Kingdom could threaten religious freedom in a way last seen during “centuries of persecution” of Roman Catholics in England. The letter, published Saturday in London’s Daily Telegraph, said marriage equality for gays and […]

The Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, who also leads the Catholic Church in England and Wales, announced this week that he has ordered the Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Central London to stop holding masses that were specifically designed for LGBT Catholics.

Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George officially entered the political debate over same-sex marriage on Tuesday, issuing a pastoral letter that urges parishioners to contact state legislators and voice their opposition to a planned bill to legalize same-sex marriage in Illinois.

With Illinois state lawmakers poised to consider a marriage equality bill in the lame duck session that begins Wednesday, Catholic bishops and other advocates of “traditional” are taking a new approach: same-sex marriage simply violates natural law.

There was a time, not so long ago, when religion was a unified front against LGBT equality. However, over the years, we have seen that paradigm change, and 2012 witnessed religious people and organizations at the forefront of LGBT advancement … By the end of the year, we saw several religious leaders stepping out and speaking up, with support coming from some pretty surprising places…