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DignityUSA
PO Box 376
Medford, MA
02155
tel: 800.877.8797
202.861.0017
fax: 781.397.0584
email:
info@dignityusa.org
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DignityUSA DATELINE
Volume
10, No. 2
February 2001
DIGNITY IN THE NEWS
VATICAN
CITY (CNS) — Carrying Christmas stockings and presents, including
teddy bears and a Barbie doll, a group of gay activists from the United
States held a small demonstration in front of St. Peter's Square. The
18 members of Soulforce, a Christian gay rights group, and Dignity-USA,
a group for gay Catholics and their families, wore sweatshirts proclaiming,
"God's gay children bring gifts. ... Bless them.'' The group remained
in Rome, just outside the Vatican, Jan. 3, holding the presents they were
going to deliver later to an orphanage and softly singing a verse of "We
Shall Overcome.''
Press Statement from ML in Rome
|
Thanks are in order to all of the members, chapters and regions who contributed so generously to help fund the Vatican event attended by our President and our Executive Director. Your contributions have made a difference and for that your National Board of directors is most grateful. |
My name is Mary Louise Cervone, and I am the president of DignityUSA, the oldest and largest organization in the United States, of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics, our families and friends.
I am here today representing thousands of Catholics in America, gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics. I am here to bear witness to the truth of our lives as Roman Catholics. I am here to celebrate the truth of our love of God, self and others. I am here because the door to my heart, the door to my deep and profound faith, is wide open.
Today is the day for our Church, the Roman Catholic Church, to truly open wide the doors to gay and lesbian Catholics. For over thirty years, DignityUSA has offered sanctuary to those whom our church leaders have called "objectively disordered", to those whom our church leaders have exiled from our own Catholic churches. Our doors have always been open wide to those whom our church leaders will not name for our wholeness as gay and lesbian people and for our holiness as people of faith.
Today
is the day for our Church, the Roman Catholic Church, to celebrate our
lives as gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics. For too long,
our church leaders, here in the Vatican and at home in America, have dared
to fly in the face of the gospel values of justice and love. For too long,
gay and lesbian Catholics have been excluded from the sacramental life
of the church.
Today is the day to bring healing to our Church. Today is the day that gay and lesbian people celebrate fullness of life as Roman Catholics. We celebrate the gift of our sexuality as a gift from God. We bear witness to that gift as sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, as parents and friends, as partners in loving and committed relationships.
Today is the day that gay and lesbian Catholics in America and in the world, challenge our Church, the Roman Catholic Church, to speak of us, not with words of vilification but with words of love. No longer will we accept language rooted in fear and prejudice. No longer will we tolerate attitudes that label us as "disordered" or "sinful." No longer will the truth of our lives be ignored, shamed or disgraced.
We
challenge our church leaders to speak to us and not about us. As we have
for over thirty years, DignityUSA again invites Vatican and American
church leaders to dialogue. Today is the day we are all held accountable
for our words and our actions and our witness.
Today is the day we dare to speak the truth. We are called by name — gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender. We are called by name — Roman Catholic.
DignityUSA is the nation's oldest and largest organization of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender Catholics, our families and friends. It is an independent nonprofit organization founded in 1969, and has chapters and members across the United States. www.dignityusa.org 800.877.8797
Vatican images courtesy www.soulforce.org
National Couples Registry
Have
you and your partner had a Holy Union Ceremony through your local Dignity
Chapter? If so, congratulations! DignityUSA wants to record your ceremony
in the National Couples Registry!
The National Couples Task Force introduced the Registry, as well as the Couples Ministry Resource Guide at the House of Delegates at the 1995 Boston Convention. The Registry was established "to support and validate committed relationships" and "is documentation that we, as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, do have and desire long-term monogamous relationships that are consonant with Christ’s teaching, Christian values, and are loving, life-giving, and life-affirming." —Couples Ministry Resource Guide
There are five basic guidelines set forth in the Resource Guide that are required for a couple to register, which we ask a chapter officer/representative to verify with a signature. This keeps our registry accountable.
The five guidelines are:
- Both members of the couple shall be at least the legal age of consent for marriage in the state in which the ceremony is to be per formed.
- Neither member may be bound by a prior marriage or unresolved commitment.
- At least one member of the couple must be an active member of a Dignity Chapter.
- The couple must inform the chapter leadership of their intentions and work with the individuals designated by the chapter for preparation for their Holy Union.
- They must have completed the program of preparation adopted by the local chapter for Holy Unions.
If you and your partner have had a Holy Union but it did not satisfy the guidelines, we suggest and encourage you to use the occasion of an anniversary to have a recommitment ceremony that satisfies the guidelines, thereby qualifying you to register.
If you would like to register your Holy Union with DignityUSA, please complete the form found in your Chapter’s copy of the Couples Ministry Resource Guide and mail or fax it to the national office. For more information on the National Couples Registry and the Couple Ministry Resource Guide please our website at www.DignityUSA.org or call DignityUSA at 800-877-8797.
Dignity News Service a Huge Success !
The Dignity News Service has now expanded to over 600 subscribers and growing daily since its creation in Oct. 2000. This service is fast becoming the major link to our membership, friends, and supporters for providing timely information that affects all who are committed to Dignity. If you have not already signed up for this service you can do so via the DignityUSA website.
 |
20 Years and CountingThis month marks the 20th Anniversary of our office location in Washington, DC. If you have been wondering what the building looks like where DignityUSA has maintained the national office since February 1980, wonder no more. |
Convention 2001 Countdown
You will be receiving Convention Registration information in the mail soon. This is an exciting and challenging time for Dignity and you will not want to miss the excitement and fellowship generated at our biennial family reunion. Chicago is looking forward to hosting us this year. July 5-8 are the dates to remember. Complete Convention information will be available on the website soon.
Web Site Update
In addition to frequent news updates on the site we will be adding more pictures in the future. There have been lots of enhancements and additions made to the website in recent weeks with more to follow. Make it a habit to visit frequently. Your website has become a major resource for all of our members. Don't forget to visit the DignityUSA calendar when making your vacation, local and regional Dignity plans. This calendar is for all of us.
2001 Dignity Mountain-Plains Regional Gathering
Corpus Christi, Texas, February 15-18, 2001
Come and join members of Dignity from Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and throughout the country as we gather on the beach in Corpus Christi, Texas on Presidents Day weekend, February 15-18 at the Holiday Inn Sunspree Resort! We have men ’s and women’s retreats, wonderful speakers and a dinner cruise on Corpus Christi Bay planned!
We will have the opportunity to hear from speakers who have been leaders in positive lay activism within the church, such as Louise Haggett from the organization Celibacy is the Issue (CITI) and Sr. Peg Bishop, from the Parish Renovation Project in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who will speak to us on "Remaking a Servant Parish from the Ground Up."
For all the details and registration visit: http://gaycatholics.20m.com
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
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Vermont |
7 |
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Austin |
22 |
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Richmond |
25 |
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Dallas |
26 |
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Milwaukee |
26 |
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San Francisco |
28 |
People of Dignity! Speak up...and take personal responsibility!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
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