July 21, 2017 http://pastoralmeanderings.blogspot.com.es/
Fr. John Dolan, a pro LGBT priest, has been appointed by the Vatican to be an auxiliary bishop in the Diocese of San Diego.
In the announcement of Dolan’s appointment, his pastoral work with the LBGT community was repeatedly mentioned. Dolan has been the diocesan vicar for clergy and pastored two churches, including the welcoming St. John the Evangelist parish in the Hillcrest neighborhood where many of San Diego’s LGBT residents live. Bishop Robert McElroy last year acknowledged the parish as a place where LGBT people have said they “feel particularly welcome” and, according to McElroy, “that’s a very good thing.”
Dolan has described his experiences with LGBT communities at St. John the Evangelist as “an eye-opening experience. . .but also a joyful experience.” These experiences led him to suggest LGBT issues were the “elephant in the room” at San Diego’s 2016 diocesan synod.
Notably, Bishop McElroy also affirmed the need to address such issues; McElroy is himself a Francis appointee. The pope’s influence on the U.S. episcopate is continuing to grow. Among the “Francis Bishops,” Bishop John Stowe of Lexington, Kentucky offered scriptural reflections at New Ways Ministry’s national Symposium, and Chicago’s Archbishop Blase Cupich has made repeated positive comments about LGBT people. There are presently eight vacant dioceses, and several dozen bishops approaching the age of mandatory retirement.
Sooooo. . . does anyone have any real doubts about the intentions of Pope Francis? It seems that he is moving to change the way the Roman Catholic Church deals with gay Roman Catholics and their families but it is not only a matter of a change in practice. Furthermore, the LBGT community is not about to be contented with images and wants concrete change -- from the regular communion of gay Roman Catholics who are married according to secular rules to the outright approval of same-sex marriages within the Church. Wait and see. . .