Dominican Priest-Theologian James Alison Receives Affirming Phone Call from Pope: When Will the Call Come for the Rest of Us?

Pope Francis’ call and respect for Alison’s path rights a major injustice inflicted by the Vatican. It should give all Catholics encouragement to follow their consciences and do the work to which God calls them, even if church leaders condemn or exclude. https://t.co/RAMkMOmZiD

— New Ways Ministry (@NewWaysMinistry) September 29, 2019

I am delighted for James Alison's sake. He's a first-rate theologian.

At the same time, I ask myself, as a lay Catholic theologian who never enjoyed the entrée of ordained Catholic theologians or Catholic theologians who belong to religious communities how this rights the wrongs done to lay Catholic theologians shoved from jobs because they're gay and partnered and refuse to apologize for who they are.

When all is said and done, is the Catholic church simply an institution in which lay people should always expect to have fewer rights, less entrée, than the ordained and religious have?

When will all of us hounded out of jobs in Catholic schools and ministries solely because we're LGBTQ and cannot, will not, apologize for accepting ourselves as God made us — when will we have justice, too?

When will our call from Pope Francis come?