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RETURN TO > 1997 > DATELINE
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DignityUSA DATELINE
December 1997
Dignity/NY Celebrates 25th with $2,500 gift
At its 25th Anniversary Dinner on October 26, Dignity/New York marked the occasion with a $2,500 contribution to DignityUSA’s Pax Nidorf Fund. The Pax Nidorf Fund was established earlier this year in honor of Pax Nidorf, one of Dignity’s founders. The fund is an endowment for Dignity to help to ensure the future growth of the organization. The Fund is also currently the beneficiary of a challenge grant from Dignity/Los Angeles member John Nangle. DignityUSA is very grateful for this generous support of the Pax Nidorf Fund.
-- Charles Cox
Aids Project Awarded $10,000 Prevention/Education Grant
DignityUSA’s National AIDS Project recently received a $10,000 grant from the Center for Disease Control through our membership in AIDS National Interfaith Network. The grant will be used to develop an education and prevention resource kit for our chapters. The creation these kits will further educate our membership and give the chapters tools to develop local education and prevention programs.
Fr. Tom, National AID Project Chair, sought the grant in an effort to keep our chapters informed of current trends in the pandemic and to provide resources for education and prevention.
Tom says, "We must remain committed in the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS. Our chapters are our prime agents in providing up to date information and reliable pastoral care." This follows on the ‘97 HOD recommendation that the H.O.D. recommit itself to the motion approved in 1983 addressing AIDS issues…especially information dissemination. Plans now call for an advisory group of Dignity members and experts to form and meet within the month to select the materials the kit. The kit’s release is expected sometime in the Fall of 1998.
Bi-Coastal Women’s Retreats
East Coast- On Friday evening, November 7th, the members of Dignity/Boston's Committee for Women’s Concerns (CWC) hosted a weekend retreat for 19 women in Chepachet, Rhode Island. The "Spirit-filled, loving" weekend was filled with the "creative energy of lesbian women celebrating the movement of Sophia Wisdom in our lives" noted one participant.
Diana Neu, the cofounder and co-director of WATER, served as the weekend’s facilitator. Time was spent reflecting and exploring how we continue to grow with the sacred—in ourselves, in our friendships, in our community, in our world. Attendees resolved to keep this an annual event.
-- by Janet O’Day with Rosemary Ananis
West Coast - The second annual Dignity Women’s Retreat, "Women Ministering to Women" was held in San Diego, from November 8th to 9th. Twenty one of the 24 women registered attended.
Judith Spendelow, LCSW, PsyD, a spiritual director from Denver, Colorado, was the retreat leader. "She gave an inspiring, fulfilling, and enlightening retreat," noted one attendee. The weekend’s five themes were: Feminine Images of God/Goddess; Healing Mother-Daughter Wounding; Nurturing Ourselves—Claiming Our Authentic Selves; and Nurturing/Ministering to Other Women, An Opportunity for Spiritual Companionship.
Kim Delahanty the Pacific Region’s CWC Chair hosted the event along with Dignity San Diego. Nicki Valdez, the National CWC Chair attended with her partner, Mountain Plains National Director Deb Myers. Representatives came from San Francisco, Seattle and Long Beach.
In retrospect, Kim commented, "I hope this is one of many retreats to come. The bonding and gift of friendship was abundant throughout the retreat. The attendance was 100% increase from the Mountain Plains retreat held in Phoenix in February 1997. We estimate a $100 profit as well, which will go to the CWC fund for future events. Let’s keep up the great work and embrace the increasing number of women in Dignity USA. With cohesiveness, our organization becomes more empowering and creates an avenue for change with its increasing strength…."
-- by Kim Delahanty, CWC Pacific Region Chair
DignityUSA’s Letter to the Bishops
Dear Bishop,
The pastoral letter, Always Our Children: A Pastoral Message to the Parents of Homosexual Children and Suggestions for Pastoral Ministries, issued by the NCCB Committee on Marriage and Family, has been received with considerable interest and support.
While we gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people find parts of the letter disappointing, Always Our Children is a significant statement of love, inclusion and guidance. Since the release of the letter, DignityUSA has received many reports from parents and friends who find the letter’s pastoral guidance enlightening and reassuring.
In spite of the positive reaction from many people, both inside and outside of the Catholic Church, there are individuals and groups who publicly and privately urge members of the hierarchy to ignore, withdraw or substantially modify the letter. We ask you, please resist these efforts. Let the pastoral message of Always Our Children remain intact and be implemented.
As the letter itself states, Always Our Children does not break any new ground theologically. However, it does help gay and lesbian Catholics, their families and friends to more clearly understand the inclusive love of Jesus Christ for all people. The letter empowers ministers to create and implement programs that will help educate the entire worshipping community, and minister to the needs of the Catholic Church’s lesbian and gay children.
The important consideration today is that the bishops, pastors and ministers of our Church take to heart the recommendations contained in Always Our Children. We are concerned that these recommendations not fall on deaf ears but rather that they are implemented in the dioceses and parishes across our country. In this regard, DignityUSA, its chapters and members stand ready to offer our assistance and our participation. Our hand too, is "outstretched" to share the lived experience of our lives.
We expect to be present during the upcoming meeting of the NCCB in Washington and would welcome the opportunity to speak with you about the need to keep the pastoral message of Always Our Children intact and to focus energies on its implementation.
Yours truly,
Robert F. Miailovich. President
and Charles L. Cox, Executive Director
