The Rainbow Sash Movement ( LGBT Catholics ) thinks it is important to remind LGBT Catholics who work for Catholic institutions, or who are members and/or active in local Catholic parishes as choir directors, Eucharistic ministers, lectors and ushers that if they get legally married or support gay rights, publicly they run the risk of either losing their employment and/or the right to be active members of the parish, as was the case recently at Holy Family Church.
Catholic lesbians who choose to have their own children through technologies of artificial insemination risk the very real possibility of getting fired if knowledge of their status is leaked to the archdiocese's chancery office.
I realize these are difficult things for practicing LGBT Catholics to face, but if you don't exercise some common sense you may become a victim of such sacred violence. Clearly, we are entering a witch-hunt era within the Catholic Church that, in my opinion, is on the level of the Inquisition.
Already across the country, the numbers of church employees who are being fired for entering into same-sex marriage is increasing. This year, at least 17 employees have been fired. In my opinion, this can be attributed to the fact that same-sex marriage is sweeping the country, with the Supreme Court expecting to rule on it in its next session. Those termination numbers will only rise further.
I caution you not to be deceived by parishes who say they are welcoming because they are not the ones who ultimately will make the decisions, those decisions will be made and enforced by the Chicago Archdiocese.
There are many good people in Catholic parishes who support us, and truly want to welcome us into their faith community. But the reality of the current situation within our Church is they don't make the decisions on such mattersthe local Church authorities do. This was most recently highlighted in the dismissal of Colin Collette, a music minister for 17 years, who was fired from a Chicago-area parish after posting on Facebook about his engagement to longtime partner William Nifong. Collette met with Cardinal Francis George in the hopes he would be rehired, but the cardinal called his employment at a Catholic institution "impossible."
Let us not confuse our concept of the idolized Church with the reality of the present Church. Remember: The Church is not a democracyit is more akin to a monarchy.
Rainbow Sash Movement