Picks from February 2008
Creating Safe Environments for LGBT Students – A Catholic Schools Perspective by Michael J. Bayly
About the author:
Michael J. Bayly, MA, was born and raised in rural Australia but now lives in the U.S. He serves as the executive coordinator of the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities and as the editor of the Progressive Catholic Voice. Bayly has worked in Catholic elementary schools and as an adjunct faculty member at the College of St. Catherine in Minneapolis, Minnesota.http://thewildreed.blogspot.com
http://progressivecatholicvoice.com
http://cpcsm.org
Notes on the book:
Creating safe environments for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth is a challenging task for any school, but particularly so for Catholic schools where homosexuality has long been religiously stigmatized as sinful.Michael Bayly addresses this challenge head-on in his book designed to lead facilitators through the steps of facilitating Safe Staff training sessions for Catholic high school educators. The book addresses not only the challenges of meeting the spiritual, psychological, and emotional needs of LGBT youth, but also the challenges of meeting the needs of Catholic school faculty and staff who must reconcile their desire to be helpful to LGBT youth with the teachings of the Catholic Church. Creating Safe Environments offers a pastoral perspective that balances Catholic doctrine and explains the theological rationale for creating safe environments for LGBT Catholic youth.
Are There Closets in Heaven? A Catholic Father and Lesbian Daughter Share Their Story by Bob and Carol Curoe
Notes on the authors:
Carol Curoe is a business consultant in Minneapolis, where she lives with her life partner of twenty years, Susan Langlee, their two sons, Patrick, 12, Jonathan, 10, and the family dog, Max. Bob Curoe, her father, is a retired farmer. About the book:
When Carol Curoe came out to her parents in 1990 their response was one of shock. They were from a small, conservative Irish Catholic farming community in
eastern Iowa, and were totally unprepared to deal with their daughter’s “coming out” as a lesbian.But Carol and her father, Bog were determined to keep the lines of communication open. “Are There Closets in Heaven?” is a revealing first-person dialogue between a lesbian daughter, who had always dutifully tried to please her parents, and her Catholic father, an 81-year-old farmer from Iowa.
Passionate Holiness: Marginalized Christian Devotions for Distinctive Peoples by Dennis O’Neill
About the author:
Dennis O’Neill was ordained a priest in 1973. Since ordination he has served in four parishes in Chicago and is currently pastor of St. Martha Parish in Morton Grove, Illinois. Fr. O’Neill has written the introductions or texts for several books published by British Celtic artist, Courtney Davis, including Celtic Beasts, 101 Celtic Crosses and St. Patrick: A Visual Celebration http://saintmarthachurch.orgNotes on the book:
The purpose of Passionate Holiness is to help reconnect lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered Christians with their roots by highlighting kindred spirits and compatible devotions from early Christian history. Gay lovers Sts. Brigid and Darlughdach, Perpetua and Felicity, Sergius and Bacchus, Polyeuct and Nearchus and many others are venerated in Catholic history as martyrs, monastic leaders and sacred heroes.
