Quote for Day: "LGBTQ Persons Do Not Need Mercy from the Church. We Need Justice"

In a powerful statement at National Catholic Reporter today, Jamie Manson notes that many Catholics would like to hope that the door of mercy they think Pope Francis is opening in the church has a "connecting corridor" to a door of justice for LGBT people. She reports that many of her well-meaning heterosexual friends encourage her to hope that Francis's appeal to mercy will some way, somehow, lead to a decision on the part of the Catholic church to treat LGBT human beings with justice, as well — though (as she also points out) the pope was utterly silent on his recent trip to Africa about draconian laws targeting LGBT people in some African nations. And as she also points out, LGBT people are still being ceaselessly fired by Catholic institutions.

Jamie Manson's response to the talk about Francis and doors of mercy: what LGBT people need from the Catholic church is not mercy; it's justice: 

LGBTQ persons do not need mercy from the church. We need justice. We need an institutional church that has the courage to admit that all people, regardless of sexual orientation, relationship status, or gender identity, have the same potential for goodness, wholeness and a sacramental life. Until that day comes, we will not achieve true dignity and full equality in our church.

And she's absolutely right about that.

(And please see this footnote to the preceding posting.)

The graphic: the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, which was opened by Pope Francis to inaugurate the Jubilee Year of Mercy. The photo is by Dnalor_01, who has made it available for sharing at Wikimedia Commons under license CC-BY-SA 3.0.