Full page ad in NY Times calls for Pope to end harm to LGBT youth

[Marius]

A Palm Sunday letter to Pope Francis. http://www.faithinamerica.org/nyt-ad/

Roman Catholic Executive Director of NYC’s Ali Forney Center Invites Pope Francis to See Real Impact of Teachings and Meet Homeless LGBT Youth

New York, NY, April 13, 2014 – Faith in America, an organization that educates the public about the immense harm caused by religion-based stigma and hostility, and Carl Siciliano, the Executive Director of the Ali Forney Center, an organization serving homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) youth in New York City, today delivered a letter to Pope Francis and published the content of the letter in a full page ad in The New York Times.

The letter asks Pope Francis to stop church teaching labeling being gay as “intrinsically disordered” and categorizing “homosexual conduct” as a sin, citing statistics and numerous stories about LGBT young people who have faced violence, parental rejection, homelessness and other devastating losses because of the teachings. The letter, published on Palm Sunday, comes before Pope Francis holds a global meeting of bishops in October 2014 to focus on “Pastoral challenges to the family in the context of evangelization.”

The full letter is available here: http://www.faithinamerica.org/2010-2/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/PROOF4_NYTimes_FP_lettertothepope_4-13-14.pdf

[dude]

Thank you Marius, for contributing this. If one person in this world can begin to turn the tide on discrimination and rejection, it would be Pope Francis.

Mike

[Chris James]

I guess the Pope hasn't heard that the major psychiatric organizations around the world no longer label homosexuality as a disorder, intrinsically and otherwise. Quite honestly, sex is not something that the Catholic Church should address because celibacy would seem to prevent them from having any first hand knowledge of the subject, at least in a rational form. And we are speaking about being rational, at least I am.

[DesDownunder]

first hand knowledge of the subject,

I thought 'first hand knowledge' would have been their specialty

I know, I know, I've earned this