Welcome to Fortunate Families

(Latino/a Información)                                                      

We are Catholic parents with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender children supporting others like us to affirm, celebrate and seek equality for our families.  Our faith journey calls us to strive for justice for all our children.

(Click here to see  Our Stories)

Parents just learning that they have a gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender daughter or son will find resources—including the Fortunate Families Newsletter—and support to help them understand, accept, and affirm their child who is a child of God. Catholic parents will find information regarding Church teaching and pastoral responses to the gay or lesbian child. Parents of lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender daughters and gay sons who yearn for a more welcoming church and society will find strategies for making their faith communities and their world safer and more just for their children.

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WORDS TO PONDER

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Some persons find themselves through no fault of their own to have a homosexual orientation…. They have a right to respect, friendship and justice. They should have an active role in the Christian community.
U.S. Bishops, To Live In Christ Jesus, 1976

You [parent of a homosexual person] may still insist: “You are always my child; nothing can ever change that. You are also a child of God, gifted and called for a purpose in God’s design.”
Always Our Children (USCC, 1997/98), p.4

God does not love someone any less simply because he or she is homosexual. God’s love is always and everywhere offered to those who are open to receiving it. St. Paul’s words offer great hope: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:38-39)
Always Our Children (USCC, 1997/98) p.7

When we die, and as a moral theologian I don’t say this lightly, the only thing that will matter is how we treated each other.
Bishop Kenneth Untener, 1992 New Ways Ministry Symposium

A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his [or her] conscience. If he [or she] were deliberately to act against it, he [or she] would condemn him[/her]self.
Catholic Catechism #1790

Love between two persons, whether of the same sex or of a different sex, is to be treasured and respected. “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” we read (Jn 11:5). When two persons love, they experience in a limited manner in this world what will be their unending delight when one with God in the next. To love another is in fact to reach out to God, who shares his lovableness with the one we love. To be loved is to receive a sign or share of God’s unconditional love. To love another, whether of the same sex or of a different sex, is to have entered the area of the richest human experience.
Cardinal George Basil Hume, Note on Church Teaching Concerning Homosexual People 1995

Whether one is facing specific moral decisions or broader vocational questions, the Catholic tradition speaks of discernment as that process by which a person uses one’s own reasoning ability, the sources of divine revelation (Scripture and tradition), the Church’s teaching and guidance, the wise counsel of others, and one’s own individual and communal experiences of grace in a sincere effort to choose wisely and well…. Ultimately, each person…must discern his or her own moral decisions…. With all the input and support possible, both from individuals and communities, one must still face the future based on decisions made before God in the recesses of one’s own heart.
Human Sexuality, USCC, 1991, p.22,26

All in all, it is essential to recall one basic truth. God loves every person as a unique individual. Sexual identity helps to define the unique persons we are, and one component of our sexual identity is sexual orientation. Thus, our total personhood is more encompassing than sexual orientation. “Human beings see the appearances, but the Lord looks into the heart.” [1 Sam 16:7]
Always Our Children (USCC, 1997/1998), p.7

Though at times you [our homosexual brothers and sisters] may feel discouraged, hurt, or angry, do not walk away from your families, from the Christian community, from all those who love you. In you God’s love is revealed. You are always our children. “There is no fear in love…perfect love drives out fear.” (1 Jn 4:18).
Always Our Children (USCC, 1997/98) p.13

In accord with the knowledge, competence and preeminence which they possess, they [the Christian faithful] have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church, and they have a right to make their opinion known to the other Christian faithful, with due regard for the integrity of faith and morals and reverence toward their pastors, and with consideration for the common good and the dignity of persons.
Canon Law 212.3

 

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