Here are some news items that you might find of interest:
1. Seton Hall University’s Derrick Gordon will become the first openly gay college basketball player to participate in March Madness, the NCAA’s Division I tournament, reported The Huffington Post. Gordon’s decision to transfer to Seton Hall as an openly gay athlete made news last year, happening at the same time that the University fired chaplain Fr. Warren Hall for his support of the “NOH8” campaign.
2. Italian bishops sharply criticized the film “Weekend,” a gay romantic drama from director Andrew Haigh, which premiered in early March. The church owns a sizable number of theaters in Italy, meaning the episcopal condemnation cut down the number of screens the film could appear on and hurt sales initially, reported Variety.
3. Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, OP, the former head of the Dominicans, said Catholics should be less concerned with what others are “doing in bed” and focus on being a help, not a hindrance to people finding God according to their own path. He firmly rejected marriage equality, however, reported Rappler. Radcliffe said in interview during the 51st International Eucharistic Congress, hosted by the Philippines:
” ‘If you look at what I said, I never approved of gay marriage. I always said the community must be open to gay people, as Pope Francis said, as my own cardinal archbishop in England says. We must be open to welcome anybody. But I never said I believe in gay marriage.’ “
4. An advertisement for the Marian site at Lourdes welcomed couples for Valentine’s Day, including same-gender couples, reported La Depeche. The ad, sponsored by the Diocese of Tarbes and Lourdes, said the celebration is “open to all forms of couples, married, unmarried, homosexual. . .”, though same-gender couples will not receive a church blessing and none had pre-registered according to the report.
–Bob Shine, New Ways Ministry
New Ways Ministry's Bondings 2.0 Blog 