Commentary: On Youth Synod Opening Door to LGBTQ Community (?!); On Latest McCarrick Revelations; On "Signs of the Times"

Some meandering thoughts and mini-rants this morning:

Liz Dodd on the Damage That Youth Synod's Game-Playing with LGBTQ Lives Does to Those Lives and to the Church Itself

Liz Dodd on the damage that the youth synod's game-playing with LGBTQ lives does to those lives and to the church itself, in "Synod's decision to drop 'LGBT' from its final document is a missed opportunity for the Church":

Bishop Gene Robinson to Matt Shepard: "Welcome Home"; Catholic Youth Synod to LGBTQ People: "You Will Not Be Named in Our Heterosexual Church" — Questions for Synod Participants and Voters

In his sermon at the interment of Matt Shepard, Bishop Gene Robinson says the following (these excerpts are from about 1:13:48 and 1:19:32 in the video above):

We / They: How Refusal to Include Queer Voices in Synodal Conversations Undercuts Claims of Church about Itself as Sacramental Sign of Redemption

“Christ made God manifest by making invisible people visible—the poor, women, all those deprived of their rights.”

~ Dorothee Sölle, "Beyond Mere Obedience: Reflections on a Christian Ethic for the Future," trans. Lawrence W. Denef (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1970), p. 163. https://t.co/0tXvupAKEc

— 𝚆𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚊𝚖 𝙳. 𝙻𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚎𝚢 (@wdlindsy) October 26, 2018

In response to a question from Deborah Rose-Milavec of Future Church about how the Youth Synod is dealing with women's and LGBTQ issues, delegate Yadira Vieyra states,

Commentary: Political Fall-Out as Catholic Bishops Face Reckoning for Covering Abuse Crimes; German Catholic Discussion of Bible and Homosexuality

More commentary today that catches my attention, and is especially interesting when read side by side: 

Patricia Miller, "Is This Finally the Reckoning for the Catholic Church on Sexual Abuse?":

Commentary: McCarrick and Supposed "Gay Clique" in Hierarchy; Homosexuality Not Cause of Catholic Abuse Crisis; When Welcome Doesn't Really Mean Welcome

Things I've read in the last day or so that I'd like to pass along to you — with themes that, in my view, fit together, so that it's helpful to read this commentary side by side:

Where Do We Go from Here, as the Future Looks More and More Bleak for LGBTQ People in the U.S.?

So where do we go from here? I ask because I quite sincerely don't know the answer to that question.

My sense is that for queer people — especially in the U.S. — and for those who care about us and stand with us, things are going to get much worse, and more quickly than many of us realize.

What do we do with that probability? Or am I wrong to sense this, do you think? (See Brynn Tannehill's sobering predictions.)

Rolando, what can those of us gathered here in this particular dialogue community do to assist you in concrete ways? Please tell us, if there's something we can be doing in addition to offering you our support and sympathy.