New York, April 20, 2008
by: Brendan Fay

pic 1: George Plagianos of Axios, Brendan Fay, Stanley Rygor :: pic 2: Barbara Mohr, Brendan Fay , banner and piper John Maynard pass Ground Zero on Church St. :: pic 3
photo credit: Gary Rissman

I joined other New Yorkers for a “Vigil of Hope” at Ground Zero on April 19 the eve of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the site. Our vigil honored Franciscan Fire Chaplain Mychal Judge, who died during the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

John Maynard played slow airs on the bagpipes outside St Paul’s Chapel at Ground Zero on the corner of Broadway and Fulton, as Raymond Lefebre, Nicholas Cimato and myself reverently unfurled a seven foot painting by Brooklyn artist Ian Hart. The banner depicts scenes from the Fr. Mychal Judge's ministry, including: caring for Golden Venture Chinese immigrants, as a Fire Chaplain, at Long Kesh prison in Northern Ireland,walking with his St. Francis AIDS Ministry in a gay pride parade and embracing Henry a homeless man outside St Francis of Assisi Church.

“Mychal Judge had a heart as big as New York. There was room for all. To all he met from the streets of New York to the White House he was a man of tender compassion,” I said “From Flight 800 to the AIDS crisis Mychal was a source of hope and healing in the midst of personal and national pain and tragedy.

“He was a witness for peace in Belfast and in Jerusalem. To his fellow firefighters he was father, priest and friend. He was a familiar face in metro AA meetings and counseled many like himself struggling with addictions. For the Catholic gay community he was family as well as our priest. We called on him during the darkness of AIDS crisis. When exiled and excluded by the institutional Church he provided the sacraments in our living rooms and community centers”.

Other shared stories and prayers. Jamie Manson offered a personal reflection as a lesbian Catholic excluded from ministry. She shared a prayer from St Theresa of Avila (God has no body but yours!) and challenged all of us present to work for change and become the church we want to see in world."

Barbara Mohr former nun of 18 years and parishioner of St Nicholas of Tolentine in Queens, who worked with Mychal in his AIDS ministry, read from Corinthians 13. Between stories and prayers they sang a Taize chant: Ubi Caritas et Amor – Deus ibi est! (Where charity and love are, there is God). Many of those passing by paused and others touched the image. Tom McLoughlin of Dignity NY gave out postcards of the image with Mychal’s prayer on the back.

Led by piper John Maynard the small vigil solemnly processed to the corner of Church and Vesey, where the Rev. Mychal Judge's body was placed on 9/11 and where firefighters and police officer Jose Rodriguez prayed the last rites.

After a moment of silence Sr. Ceilia recalled her days as part of Judge’s outreach to homeless persons with AIDS. Stanley Rygor, 83, choir member and traditional Irish musician traveled from Astoria to join the tribute to the Franciscan and in support of the gay community . He gave thanks for the service of priests like Judge, who helped Rygor’s family accept his gay son Robert before his death from AIDS in January 1994. Irish transgender woman Samantha Kavanagh also joined the gathering.

Quietly or together there were prayers for all who died on 9/11, for families in Iraq who have lost loved ones, for families of deceased service members, for the wounded and brokenhearted. We prayed for a change of heart, for an end to prejudice against gay persons, for understanding, for peace and reconciliation.

The humble and heartfelt Vigil concluded with an exchange of peace beneath the steel cross from ground Zero at St Peters Church on Barclay Street.

Pope Benedict visited and prayed at Ground Zero on Sunday morning. Dymphna Jessich sister of Mychal Judge was among the representative of 9/11 families personally greeted by the Pope.

Vigil organizer Brendan Fay is finishing an edited collection of stories, letters and photographs about Mychal Judge. You can reach him if you have one to share (718-721-2780 or brendan@stpatsforall.com)

Gay Catholics Demonstrate During Pope’s U.S. Visit, April 2008

Click here for more pics

Read media coverage:
ABC News, "Pope Benedict XVI Prepares for Trip to U.S."

"Many in the Catholic gay community feel they've also been demonized by the church. 'The doors to the Vatican are really quite closed to any authentic dialogue with our community and that's very sad, because Benedict should be our pastor and shepherd as he is to the rest of the Church,' said Marianne Duddy-Burke, Executive Director of Dignity USA."

New York CW11, "Catholics Abandoning Their Faith"

As some Catholics leave the Church in search of a more personal spirituality, others like Jamie Manson call for a reform of Rome's "overly pelvic" orientation. How likely are changes in the Catholic Church's approach to sexuality and church leadership in the near future?

March 28, 2008
For Immediate Release
Gay Catholics to Demonstrate before Pope’s Speech at U.N.

Group Will Focus on Global Impact of Benedict XVI’s Anti-Gay Campaign, Celebrate Advances Made by Gay Catholics

WHEN: Saturday, April 12
PRESS CONFERENCE: 11:30 AM, Location Details near U.N. to be announced
DEMONSTRATION: 12 Noon, Ralph J. Bunche Park, 43rd Street and First Avenue, Manhattan

New York, NY. DignityUSA – the nation’s oldest and most progressive organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Catholics and their supporters – and one of its largest local chapters, Dignity/New York, will hold a press conference and demonstration near the United Nations on Saturday, April 12, just a few days before Pope Benedict XVI’s speech there on April 18. DignityUSA and Dignity/Washington will also sponsor several events in Washington, D.C., during the Pope’s visit there from April 15-17.

Marianne Duddy-Burke, DignityUSA’s Executive Director, said, “Our events will be peaceful, prayerful, and positive. At the same time, we are called by our faith to draw attention to the great harm that the Pope’s harsh anti-gay words and actions have caused countless individuals and families throughout the world. We witness on their behalf.”

Jeff Stone, a spokesperson for Dignity/New York, said, “We will focus on Pope Benedict’s strident campaigns against civil rights and civil marriage for gay people in many nations, as well as his opposition to the use of condoms to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS. But we will also highlight growing support for gay civil rights and civil unions among Catholics in countries around the world.”

Besides Duddy-Burke and Stone, speakers will include Lourdes Rodriguez-Nogues, a Cuban immigrant and lesbian activist who also serves as DignityUSA’s Vice President; and gay Catholic activist and filmmaker Brendan Fay. Fay has recently been caught up in an international controversy involving the unauthorized use of images of his wedding to Dr. Thomas Moulton in a nationally televised speech by President Lech Kaczynski of Poland. Kaczynski views same-sex marriage as a threat to his overwhelmingly Catholic nation.

New York, Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza at 47th Street and 1st Ave, August 4, 2007
pic 1: from left to right: Brendan Fay carries image of Roger Casement, Kelebohile Nkhereanye (of Less AIDS Lesotho) carries wreath, Rev John Denaro (Episcopal Pastor, St Mark’s Church in the Bowery) holds image of Dag Hammerskold :: pic 2 :: pic 3
photo credit: GRCC

Human rights activists gathered at Dag Hammerskold Plaza NYC and led by piper John Maynard processed through the plaza and lay a wreath at the Raul Wallenberg Memorial outside the UN

"This vigil reflects a spirit of global responsibility among lgbt activists worldwide. We refuse to be silent when our families, our loves and our lives are treated as second-class across the world including Ireland. We stand together from New York to New Delhi from Baghdad to Belfast," said New York organizer and Irish gay activist Brendan Fay.

August 3rd also marked the anniversary of the execution of Irish humanitarian Roger Casement in 1916 (ensured with the release of his personal diaries). Casement, a gay man and human rights advocate, risked his life exposing colonial brutality and human rights abuses in Africa and Latin America.

Gay equality advocates concerned with the denial of basic human rights to lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender (lgbt) people held similar vigils of solidarity in cities around the world throughout the weekend- Caracas, Cologne, Mexico City, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, Stockholm, Vancouver, Warsaw and Washington. The global solidarity vigils are a response to what organizers assert are a growing increase in violence and the denial of human rights worldwide against lgbt people.

"We refuse to be silent in the face of torture, discrimination and executions in Iran, of beatings on the streets of Moscow, of Lithuanian authorities preventing the rainbow flag from being carried on the streets of Vilnius. We refuse to be silent when many LGBT and HIV positive refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants arrive on the shores of the US only to encounter discrimination and closed doors," said Fay.

Organizers called for the endorsement and implementation of the Yogykarta Principles, launched earlier this year at the UN Human Rights Council’s session in Geneva.

"These principles establish basic standards for how governments should treat people whose rights are too often denied and whose dignity is too often reviled," said Scott Long, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. The Yogyakarta Principles were a response to documented abuse because of actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

Fay and organizers are calling on Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, to ensure the rights of LGBT persons are a "priority during the upcoming session."

"On the eve of Sweden’s National Pride Festival we remembered Dag Hammarskjöld, UN Secretary General, gay man, and human rights pioneer," said organizer Gibert Baker. Baker is also creator of the Rainbow flag, international symbol of the LGBT civil rights movement.

"Today we will honor the lives of Barbara Gittings, Letty Russell, Roger Casement, Simon Nkoli and all lgbt human rights advocates," said Fay.

"We remember our lgbt brothers and sisters who suffered torture, discrimination, imprisonment and death. Dag Hammarskjöld once said 'Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible - not to have run away...' We honor those words today and trust that the United Nations will too," said Fay.

Among the participants and speakers were:
Kelebohile Nkhereanye, Less AIDS Lesotho
Rev.John Denaro, Pastor, St Mark’s Church in the Bowery
Brendan Fay, UN vigil organizer and Irish Gay activist
Rev. Edgard Danielsen-Morales, Assistant Pastor, MCC NY
Gilbert Baker, UN vigil co-organizer and creator of the Rainbow Flag
George Plagianos, Axios NY (LGBT Eastern Orthodox Christians)
Barbara Mohr, Dignity NY

New York, June 24, 2007
pic 1 :: pic 2 :: pic 3 :: pic 4 :: pic 5
photo credit: Gary Rissman

Outside the closed St Patrick’s cathedral doors members of Dignity/NY, a gay catholic group, held a prayer and protest witness. They stood against church teaching that renounces homosexuality as an "intrinsic disorder" and opposes same sex marriage and civil unions.

"Gay catholics are here to take a stand for love and justice," said Brendan Fay, organizer of the cathedral sidewalk witness. Irish born Fay, who lives in Astoria with his spouse Tom Moulton, said “We celebrate the love of same-sex couples and we seek equality for all including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons not just in civil society but within our catholic church. We invite our bishops to open their hearts and church doors to us” said Fay.

Ironically the witness at the cathedral was a result of a lawsuit brought by the Catholic War Veterans in 1983.The gay catholic group won the legal right to be present at the cathedral in 1986. That’s when police barricades first appeared.

Refusing to be dissuaded by the church's 1987 ban of the group from holding masses or meetings on church property, Dignity NY has gathered for a "prayer witness" outside the cathedral every morning of gay pride Sunday for over 20 years.

Co-organizer Barbara Mohr from Jamiaca Queens, a 74-year old former nun wearing her customary "straight but not narrow" button said, "We are one human family. When one suffers discrimination we all suffer." Mohr said, "I am here in memory of my dearest friend Peter Heslin who died from AIDS on Valentines day 1996. I told him I would never let his light go out."

Recently church leaders lobbied against New York’s marriage equality bill. Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio of Brooklyn and Queens asked parishioners to "Voice Opposition to Same- Sex Unions" which he said was an attack on the institution of marriage. Italian Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco earlier this month compared moves to give gay couples some rights to incest and child abuse.

Brendan Fay and Tom Moulton met at a Dignity sunday Mass 11 years ago and traveled across the border to Canada to legally marry in July 2003. They were active in helping successfully secure passage in the NYS Assembly of the marriage equality bill (Bill A08590) introduced by Governor Elliot Spitzer. "The vote in the NY assembly is wind in our sails to the shore of marriage equality, “ said Fay. The co founder of the Civil Marriage Trail Project brings couples to Toronto for legal marriage said “we continue to passionately pray and work for equal immigration and marriage rights for our families”.

The permitted 23 included priests, teachers, theologians and were from Australia, Indonesia, Italy, Ireland and the US. They sang hymns, pray, lit candles, held flowers in memory of catholic gay friends, heroes and saints like Fr. Mychal Judge and unfurled a huge rainbow banner in celebration of Dignity’s 35th anniversary.

The flag was presented by Gilbert Baker who designed the Rainbow flag that has become an international symbol of pride and a celebration of the diversity of LGBT people.

Australian catholic leader Michael Kelly also joined the group celebrating his first gay pride in New York. He noted "we invite church leaders to come out from behind closed cathedral doors to join us in dialogue - to witness the joyful spirit of the committed couples in love, youth and seniors, and friends and family of LGBT catholics."

Rev. Victoria Rue who presided at the Dignity Liturgy in celebration of Gay Pride also led the group in prayer.

After 30 minutes the 23 joined other faith communities at the head of the pride parade on New York’s 5th Avenue. The parade commemorates the Stonewall Riots, the 1969 rebellion that is widely seen as having ushered the start of the modern gay civil rights movement.

New York, June 25, 2007

"We see that the opinion of ordinary Catholics is changing," he (Jeff Stone) said. "Eventually what happens at the grass roots percolates up in the church."

Read full article:
CNN
ABC News
Advocate

New York, June 18, 2007 – Dear Assembly Member O’Donnell,

I write today in support of marriage equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) New Yorkers. I am writing on behalf of Dignity/New York, an organization of LGBT Roman Catholics, our families and supporters. We are a chapter of the national organization DignityUSA, founded in 1969, with offices in Washington, D.C. and chapters throughout the country.

For 35 years, we have ministered to the spiritual and social needs of thousands of LGBT Catholics from throughout the New York City metropolitan region by holding a weekly Mass, working for equal rights in the Catholic Church and society, and through many other activities.

Unfortunately, the bishops of the Catholic Church have been outspoken in their opposition to same-sex marriage rights. However, many polls in New York State and elsewhere show that everyday Catholics are increasingly supportive of such rights.

Our members include men and women from every conceivable walk of life. Some have been involved in relationships with their same-sex partners for decades, and many are registered as domestic partners in New York City. Those who wished to obtain greater legal recognition of their relationships have been forced to travel to Massachusetts, Canada, Vermont, New Jersey and other jurisdictions.

Surely it is time for New York State to honor its historic role as a leader in promoting justice and equality for all citizens by enacting legislation to legalize same-sex marriage.

Yours sincerely,
Jeffrey A. Stone
Secretary, Dignity/New York

New York, June 4, 2007 – Dignity New York, a 35-year-old group of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) Catholics and their supporters, will have a Roman Catholic woman priest officiate at one of its masses for the first time. Rev. Victoria Rue will preside at the group’s annual Gay Pride Mass, which will be held at Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South in Manhattan at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, June 23, 2007.

Rev. Rue was ordained a Roman Catholic womanpriest in the St. Lawrence River in 2005 by three Roman Catholic womenbishops – an event that was widely reported in the media. She received her Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York City and her Ph.D. from Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California. She is a lecturer in Women’s Studies and Comparative Religious Studies at San Jose State University in California. Openly lesbian, Dr. Rue lives with her partner of 16 years.

Since 2002, the Roman Catholic womenpriests movement has ordained dozens of women deacons and priests in rites seen as valid because their womenbishops were duly consecrated – in secret – by canonical male Roman Catholic bishops who stand in full apostolic succession within the Catholic Church. The womenpriests movement plans to hold additional ordinations in New York City and throughout North America in the summer of 2007.

Jeff Stone, a spokesperson for Dignity New York, said, “We have always previously had ordained Roman Catholic men as our priests. This is a bold move for our community, but one to which we believe the Holy Spirit has called us. Dignity has long believed that ordination should be open to women and men equally, without regard to marital status or sexual orientation. Now, the ordination of Dr. Rue and other highly qualified womenpriests gives us the opportunity to put that belief into action.”

Stone continued, “It is very clear that there will be no movement toward the ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church under Pope Benedict XVI. Surveys have shown for many years that most Catholics in the U.S. and elsewhere want to see ordination opened to women as well as men, and to married people as well as celibate men. Historians tell us that there were many women priests and bishops in the early centuries of the Church. Most theologians agree that there is no scriptural or theological obstacle to the ordination of women, and that this is simply a matter of church tradition. After long discernment, we have decided to undertake this act of ‘prophetic obedience’ – a term that Bishop Patricia Fresen has used to refer to the womenpriests movement.”

Dignity New York is expecting between 200 and 400 people at the mass, and hopes that it will help to build bridges to other groups and individuals who are seeking reform in the Catholic Church.

Dignity New York is a chapter of DignityUSA, the nation’s oldest and largest independent organization for GLBT Catholics, their families and friends. DignityUSA has chapters throughout the United States and offices in Washington, D.C.

Further information on Dignity, women’s ordination, and Dr. Victoria Rue is available at the following websites:
www.dignityny.org
www.dignityusa.org
www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org
www.womensordination.org
www.victoriarue.com

New York, February 21, 2007 – Dear Governor Spitzer and members of the New York State Senate and Assembly,

I am writing to urge the Governor and the New York State Senate and Assembly to protect families in New York State by extending the right to marry to same-sex couples.

On February 13, 2007, the Steering Committee of Dignity/New York, an organization that has been serving the spiritual needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning Roman Catholics in New York City for thirty-five years, unanimously passed a resolution in support of same-sex couples’ right to marry in New York State.

It is an important time in our state; with the significant changes in New York State government, we have an opportunity to move our state ahead. We urge you to protect same-sex families through marriage so that we can become the vision that we all share: a stronger, fairer New York.

Sincerely,
Daniel McCarthy
Liaison to Faith-based LGBTQ Organizations
Dignity/New York Steering Committee