Pope Francis.
DETROIT — Two years ago, Pope Francis called for a two-year consultation on the family. As part of that consultation, an extraordinary Synod of Bishops met last October and an ordinary Synod of Bishops will meet this fall at the Vatican. The theme of the synod, or assembly, is "The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and Contemporary World."
In advance of the synod, the Vatican sent bishops worldwide a report on the 2014 assembly along with a list of 46 questions on a range of topics that includes marriage and sexuality. The news of the synod, as well as the soliciting of opinions from the laity, was met with great encouragement from Fortunate Families Detroit, a group that calls for the inclusion of LGBT people in the Catholic church.
"I think it's fantastic," said Linda Karle-Nelson of FFD. "I think it's something that we've needed for a long time. Pope Francis has really opened up the ears of the church through the bishops to listen to people who have been marginalized for a long time. This is their time to be heard, and hopefully what they hear will help them to gradually make some changes in the way that they take care of some of these marginalized people."
Sadly, while the Vatican asked the bishops to consult clergy as well as laity, not every diocese across the country elected to make the questionnaire available to all of their parishioners. The Archdiocese of Detroit is one that did not originally solicit the opinions of the laity and when it eventually did, did not do so in an organized manner.
"They finally sent out a letter to pastors inviting them to ask their parishioners to answer the questions, but there was no structured way to respond," explained Karle-Nelson. "So the responses that were received would have mostly been from regular Catholics who go to church every week, and probably the majority of them would not think the way that marginalized people, or people who are not coming to church because they are angry or hurt, would feel."
As a result, FFD conducted their own survey. Fortunate Families is comprised primarily of Catholic parents of gay, lesbian and transgender individuals. Their survey therefore focused on issues of concern to Catholic families with LGBT members.
"The results say that LGBT Catholics generally are feeling very alienated," said Karle-Nelson. "They're feeling that they aren't understood by the church."
The survey found that a majority (55 percent) of Catholic LGBT allies said they had "seriously considered" leaving the Roman Catholic Church because of its treatment of LGBT people, while another 3 percent have left the church for that reason. Asked how the church can respond better to people who are LGBT and their families, respondents chose helping families accept their LGBT kids with love, compassion, support and respect and fully accepting out LGBT people as parishioners, teachers and lay leaders as their top two priorities.
Karle-Nelson said that while the group is encouraged that Pope Francis took this move, their expectations are tempered.
"We're hoping that he'll listen," she said, "in terms of making significant changes, certainly not in terms of same-sex marriage — we're not expecting that. But just that the Pope would instruct his bishops to listen to the stories of gay and lesbian people, the stories that they have are stories that are from their heart. And if you have an opportunity to share those stories with a pastor or a church official, it makes a big difference in the way that they perceive LGBT people. So hopefully pastors will begin to listen."
