<p><img alt= src=/sites/default/files/pictures/picture-8.jpg style=width: 85px; height: 85px; float: right; margin: 5px; />By Marianne Duddy-Burke DignityUSA Executive Director</p> <p>Happy 2013! May this be a year of blessings love and good health for all of our readers.</p> <p>In 2013 DignityUSA will be focused on seeing &ldquo;Justice Roll Like a River&rdquo; in our programming and as we prepare to gather in Minneapolis July 4-7 for our biennial convention. Whether we are working to ensure that LGBT people and our families find welcome and affirmation in parishes across the country offering sacraments to our community in our chapters or talking with Catholics in Delaware Hawaii Illinois or Rhode Island about why marriage equality is consistent with our faith our goal is always to bring greater justice into our world and our Church. All of these efforts spring from our vision of the day when all LGBT Catholics know full inclusion in all aspects of the Church and society.</p> <!--break--> <p>Beyond the efforts to achieve justice for our own community we are very proud of the many many ways in which Dignity members chapters and caucuses participate in efforts to bring justice to other communities as well. Through feeding programs immigrant support outreach to homeless youth visiting elders with no local family caring for children living in poverty anti-violence and anti-racism work and so much more members of Dignity work to demolish the structures that privilege some above others. There will be much to do in this year and we welcome your rededication to participating in whatever ways you are called.</p> <p>If you are invested in this work and it&rsquo;s hard to imagine you aren&rsquo;t you will find encouragement and practical tools at our Minneapolis convention. We will be exploring Catholic social justice teaching how LGBT justice connects with other justice movements and how we do our own work in a way that reflects the ideals to which we aspire. We will offer best practices and honor some people who have taken great risks in support of communities at the margins. And we&rsquo;ll have a lot of fun! This convention will help fuel our spirits and our minds for our work in the years ahead. Registration materials will be available very soon. Please plan to attend!</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>