Marianne Duddy-Burke, who has been a leader of DignityUSA for more than forty years and the organization’s Executive Director since 2007, announced today in a letter to the Dignity community that she will step down after a successor has been chosen, and will assist with the transition.

Duddy-Burke has held numerous key roles within the world’s oldest organization for LGBTQIA+ Catholics, which was founded in 1972. She was the first woman elected president of DignityUSA (1993-1997). Prior to that, she served as vice-president, a member of the Board of Directors, Director of the New England Region, President of Dignity Boston, and on the national Coordinating Team for the Committee for Women’s Concerns.

Under Marianne’s guidance, DignityUSA has marked momentous milestones in the last forty-plus years.  As the public face of DignityUSA, she has, among many other accomplishments:

- Responded in a timely and effective way to virtually every significant development related to LGBTQIA+ Catholics in the U.S. and the world
- Given hundreds of interviews in local, national, and international media
- Spoken at innumerable Dignity chapter anniversaries and other events
- Brought DignityUSA to national and international Catholic gatherings, including the World Meeting of Families and World Youth Day
- Signed on to Amicus Briefs at the U.S. Supreme Court
- Represented DignityUSA at Catholic Organization for Renewal (COR)
- Served as co-chair of the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics (GNRC)
- Was a Keynote Speaker at the 2023 Outreach Conference
- Acted as a special advisor to the U.S. State Department
- Was featured in Wonderfully Made, a recent film about LGBTQIA+ Catholics
- Represented DignityUSA in Rome for Synodal gatherings, the first LGBTQIA+ pilgrimage, and the election of Pope Leo XIV
- Had a personal encounter with Pope Francis

In announcing her retirement, Duddy-Burke thanked all who had supported her and DignityUSA throughout her tenure.  She expressed particular appreciation to people who spoke honestly about the reality of being a Queer Catholic or family member. She said: “I have been inspired every day by your stories and have done my best to lift them up. It is your lives, your faith, your struggles, your hopes that I have strived to reflect in my work, and doing this has been a great honor.”

In her announcement, Duddy-Burke spoke of DignityUSA as “the Catholic Stonewall.”  She noted that Dignity is the group that sparked a global movement of Queer Catholics and supporters who refused to accept second-class status in their church and in society, and committed to working for justice, equality and full inclusion in both. She also cited the many ways DignityUSA has evolved to meet the extraordinary challenges that have arisen during her tenure, including the AIDS/HIV pandemic, the expulsion of Dignity chapters from Catholic churches, the struggle for marriage equality, the clergy sexual abuse crisis, the Covid pandemic, the growth of virtual and digital services and outreach, and most recently the increasing attacks on transgender people. She said Dignity had laid the groundwork for the tremendous growth of LGBT+-friendly parishes and college ministries across the nation.  She described her 2023 meeting with Pope Francis as a sign of hope, which would have been inconceivable only a few years ago.

Meli Barber, president of DignityUSA, stated: “It is almost impossible to sum up the scope and depth of Marianne’s achievements and contributions to DignityUSA over her more than four decades of service. Under her wisdom and leadership, DignityUSA has only grown in stature as an advocate for LGBTQIA+ Catholics and as a visionary thought leader for LGBTQIA+ ministry and spirituality. Marianne has been more than an extremely able Executive Director. Her care for and ministry to chapters, her deep personal relationships with countless Dignity members, her connections to LGBTQIA+ Catholics around the world, the relationships she has built with other progressive Catholic organizations, her skill as a public representative, the respect with which she is universally regarded, and her tireless devotion to service all leave an indelible mark. It is not an exaggeration to say that she has shaped not only Dignity but a generation of LGBTQIA+ Catholics.”

Barber noted that the DignityUSA Board has been preparing for this transition for some time and will soon begin a search for a new Executive Director.  Details of the search process will  be forthcoming.

“For now,” Barber concluded, “we just want to express our enormous gratitude to Marianne, and wish her great joy and satisfaction in the future.”