#LoveWins Today

It’s not a good day to be a Catholic. I definitely don’t mean that in the way most would believe I do. I’m a huge supporter of the LGBT+ Community and I’ve been waiting a long time for marriage equality to become the law of the land. I’m very very proud of the Supreme Court for finally making the right decision and allowing everyone to marry the person they love legally in this country and putting the kibosh on anyone telling the LGBT+ community that they should be denied that right. However…I’m very disappointed in the statement issued by the Archbishop of Philadelphia, the diocese of which I was a member for over 15 years of my life. I’m incredibly proud of the comment my mother made in standing up for the many people in our lives that belong to the LGBT+ community and continuing to publicly offer them our love and support. I’m not proud to say the diocese I’m from today. When it comes to education and as evidently presented today on their policy of including everyone under the umbrella of God’s love, they failed. Obviously, the Archbishop Chaput does not speak for every member of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, in fact, the amount of people who agreed with my mother’s statement grows by the minute. My heavy concern is in the blind opposition from people who clearly believe that they can defend their exclusion with Biblical proof texting and hate. It’s a lot of blind ignorance and that’s really disappointing. I’m proud to be a member of the Catholic church and have been loving the inclusive message of the current Pope, Pope Francis. He spreads a message of love while the Archbishop of Philadelphia spreads a message of fear and exclusion. My mom made an excellent point when she said that the newly universal law of marriage equality in America has no affect on the way she raises her children (which she did quite well) or the marriage of anyone else. If you believe that the marriage of someone else or the gender of the person they marry has any effect on the way your marriage turns out or the way your children are raised, maybe you should check yourself. Mind your own business and let people love who they want and marry who they want. A life of love is always more Godly than a life of exclusion, hate and fear. If you don’t want to explain homosexuality to your children, that’s too bad…but someone else will likely gladly step up to the plate and do it for you. I’m including a link to the statement made by the Archbishop today and feel free to peruse the comments. I’m proud of the forward thinking of most of the Catholics I know when it comes to marriage equality. I can only hope that someday the rest of the community comes to accept a life of love or at least stops persecuting the community that has done nothing to them or their straight marriages. I’ll get off my soapbox now but it’s not an issue I will ever stop speaking in favor of. I’m proud to be a Catholic who accept everyone and I suspect that God does too. As my brother so eloquently said when my mother said that one of the commenters believed that 11 states had the rights taken away today “oh and I guess all 50 states had their rights taken away when the court ruled on civil rights in the 60s.” I’ll leave that for you all to think on. This is an important day in American History. I hope that some day the next generation studies it and wonders why it took so long.

https://www.facebook.com/ArchbishopChaput?fref=nf