For my project I focused my research on the progressiveness of Roman Catholicism towards the LGBTQ+ community during the modern day within the U.S
My guiding question was: “What is the impact that LGBTQ brought to Roman Catholicism in the modern day and age?”. Roman Catholicism has been widely known to be very conservative, disproving and non-accepting of homosexuality. But despite its major negative perspective there has been some increasing progressive Catholics throughout the country, who have been more open-minded and inclusive into accepting LGBTQ+ Catholics. With having progressive viewpoints it has enabled some Catholic communities to welcome Catholic LGBTQ+ individuals to be included and advocated for; people including priests, parishioners, congregants, etc.
A major organization who has been a prominent figure on working for the respect, justice, equality and acceptance of all sexual orientations within the Roman Catholic church is DignityUSA. The major goal/vision of the organization is to have Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Non-Binary, etc. Catholics to be affirmed and have dignity through both sexuality and spirituality, despite society trying to isolate the two as opposing factors. DignityUSA encourage all people to be apart of life within the Church and Society without any prejudice, hate and exclusion.
To depict my research I created short comics with mini storylines to depict the progressiveness of Catholics and struggles the LGBTQ+ community face to be accepted within the Roman Catholic community in the U.S. As well as some efforts that DignityUSA has enacted to allow LGBTQ+ to be heard and have church reforms
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1gBpeTgadLa3DKJ5a0_1ybCQIkhPUCpKjUHK1ICDtVjE/edit?usp=sharing
Agnes, I really enjoyed all the facets of your project! As someone who has grown up around different conservative Catholics in her life, it’s really encouraging to see all the changes progressive Catholics are working towards within the church. I have never heard of DignityUSA so I also appreciate your drawing attention to this organization. Their work is incredibly important and I love being exposed to people who are actively trying to make a change for queer people in the church community, especially one I grew up close to. I also really enjoyed your mini-comics! That was a cool way to incorporate an artistic part of your research/made it really engaging.
I really like how you address the ways that DignityUSA has been able to make progress within Catholicism. I think it can be really easy to feel despair when faced with the challenge of changing institutions as strong as the Catholic Church, so I really appreciate how you focused your project on some of their efforts while also depicting the struggles of the LGBTQ+ community. I also like that you chose to make mini-comics, it’s such an engaging and creative way to engage with this issue.
Your project was incredible with such good research and I love the way you organized it using both comics and research with good explanations of what was going on in the comics as well. I’ve loved seeing how so many people were able to incorporate creative aspects into their projects and I think the comics were especially good at being informative and an easy way for us to see how the Catholic church’s beliefs affect LGBTQ people in real life. For example, when you used the quote from a real mass about being accepting and loving everyone I think this really helped me see how there are some steps being made in the church. I like that you talked about how there are some people in the church who want it to be more accepting and recognize that it’ll help the younger generation feel more welcomed and want to attend church and have it be a community and place of acceptance rather than making people feel like they have to choose between their sexuality and faith like you pointed out that many LGBTQ youth believe.
I really enjoyed this project and presentation. I think the comics were a really nice way to present your topic and helped communicate specific examples that correspond well with your discussion. This is the first I have heard
Accidentally hit post before I was finished, and I can’t figure out how to delete this old post.
I really enjoyed this project and presentation. I think the comics were a really nice way to present your topic and helped communicate specific examples that correspond well with your discussion. This is the first I have heard of any progressive movements in the Catholic church, and as someone who was raised Catholic this really makes me hopeful for the future. I do think these progressive movements are not getting their information out very well, though maybe that is because not many are looking for it.
I thought this project was so creative and comprehensive!! The cartoons were so well made and I thought it was really great how some of them incorporated real life stories and/ or implications of actual Catholic responses to LGBTQ+ events. The research you did that followed each cartoon was also so in-depth and well articulated in your presentation! I loved how your research on Dignity USA demonstrated how some things are getting better in terms of more acceptance and continuous work towards more justice and respect for the LGBTQ+ community.
Agnes, I love the medium of your presentation! The comics are super cute and very creative! I really enjoyed your explanation of the hate that the Catholic church has had towards LGBTQ+ people and their marriage. I knew that the Catholic church didn’t allow same-sex marriage but I wasn’t aware of some of the things you mentioned. I love that you took the time to mention some of the positive experiences of LGBT folks with the church. The comic version of the true story of the girl coming out in the Catholic school Archidiose of St. Paul and Minneapolis was really impactful. It was very heartwarming to see that some churches do accept LGBT people regardless of the larger Catholic views. I especially loved the comics because I think it’s so important to see media that shows same-sex people in a positive light. Great job!
I really loved this project, growing up catholic I related to a lot of what you were saying. One thing that really stuck with me was when you mentioned that in the catholic church to be married you have to be married in the catholic church. My mom made my siblings and I go through religion classes from 1st grade to 10th grade and get confirmed so we could get confirmed. This is kind of funny now since none of us our practicing Catholics and only two of us could get married in the church. But from my experience, the catholic church felt very isolating and shaming not only around sexuality but also about going to church. I think the changes in some areas of the church that you mentioned are so important because if I had had something like that I feel like I would have had a very different faith journey and I might still be practicing.
I really liked how much research you did and how you conveyed some of it through comics! I think this would be a great way to introduce people of all ages to LGBTQ issues, even though some of the topics are not always fun and lighthearted. I hadn’t previously heard of the true stories you based some of your comics off of, so the comics were both cute and informative! Great job 🙂
Agnes, I really enjoyed your project! Your research combined with the comics created such an in depth analysis of your topic. The comics were such a unique way to express experiences within Catholicism and I believe they could be so applicable in a teaching setting outside of this class. I was unaware of Dignity USA and loved that you focused on this during your presentation.
Agnes, your project was very well done! I found the cartoons you made to be an effective medium for generating conversation about the Catholic LGBT experience, as they distilled heavy ideas into an easily understandable format. The quotations and references you gave in their explanations show that you really did your research and understand the topic in-depth. Your project left me feeling both hopeful and saddened, and I really hope that the Catholic church continues to make progress in their acceptance of the LGBT community.
The comic strip was such a brilliant idea! You are really talented! I love how you included not only the negatives of being openly LGBTQ+ in the Catholic church, but also the positive messages of solidarity in your drawings. I feel like some of the positive messages of solidarity you included in your drawings (especially the last drawing) could be put into children’s books. I think seeing messages of solidarity would really help create a more accepting environment for the younger generations.
This project felt hopeful for the LGBT community within Catholicism despite the sad history and reality. The visuals were beautiful and spoke loud for the matters. You were able to extensively provide a bigger picture as the project flowed very well and informed well on a variety of points. I also appreciate that you included a response on how the community is trying to be more inclusive through educating teachers on pronouns. I was in a very open-minded boarding school and we still struggled with educating some teachers on the importance of pronouns but I do think it is definitely a necessary first step. Thank you for your project!