Letter from My Parents to the Catholic Church

Both of my parents are quite active in the Catholic church. They brought me and my two sisters up Catholic. We went to Catholic school - one of my sisters and I for 13 years, my other sister for 9 years. They have always gone to church every Sunday, and required us to do the same until we left home at 18 or so.

Currently, my mom is an usher and my dad is a lector for their parish's weekly masses.

When they found out that the New Orleans Archbishop donated money for the recent campaign to stop civil unions in Maine, they contacted the Archbishop, whom they have known (on a first-name basis) for 30 years. (He was a priest in our local parish when we lived in another area of New Orleans.)

Here is what their letter said.

February 17, 2010

Archbishop Gregory Aymond
[his address]

Dear Greg:

The action that you took donating $5,000 to stop civil unions in Maine hurt us deeply.

We personally have two children who were raised in the Catholic Church to love God and love their fellow man without any reservations. God created them in His image and even though their sexual orientation may be different from yours or ours, they should not be marginalized or denied their civil rights because of this.

Christ's actions, when He was here on earth, were to accept everyone as equal. We have a moral responsibility to live the way Christ taught us by His example, which is to love our fellow man - even though he or she may be different from us.

We urge you, in the future, to reach out just as Christ did to those individuals who may be different from us whether in ethnicity, sexuality or in religious beliefs instead of trying to ostracize them.

We wish you much success as we all strive to live our lives in the image of Christ. Thank you so much for your time and we hope to see you soon.

Sincerely,

[my parents]


I am very proud of them for taking a stand - and for taking the time to make their feelings known!

------------


The Archbishop replied to them. I do not have a copy of the letter, but I do remember bits of it:
- "Granting civil unions to homosexuals would undermine the sanctity of marriage."
- "Though I disagree with your opinion, I respect it."
- "I was not the one who gave the $5000. It was the previous Archbishop, though I agree with his decision."

(If/When I can get a copy of the letter, I'll update this post.)

What a bunch of crap!