Seemingly in response to critics, like Rhode Island Senator Donna Nesselbush, who took issue with the recent firing of Michael Templeton, the Music Director at the Church of St. Mary in Providence due to his same-sex marriage, Bishop Thomas Tobin of the Providence Diocese has written a short defense of sorts. In his piece, Tobin disputes the idea that Pope Francis is somehow softening the church’s approach to non-heterosexuality.

Tobin doesn’t defend the church’s position of intolerance to homosexuality but instead seeks to demonstrate that Pope Francis can not be differentiated from the church’s anti-gay agenda.

“When Church leaders have to respond to situations involving persons living an openly ‘gay lifestyle’ these days, we’re often scolded and told that we should be ‘more like Pope Francis,’ presumably the ‘Who-am-I-to judge’ Pope Francis,” writes Tobin, before listing four examples of the Pope actively not “gently advancing” the cause of gay rights and gay marriage:

• “Perhaps those critics should also remember the Pope Francis who said that same-sex marriage is destructive of families and is the work of the devil.
• “And the Pope Francis who has now supported the Mexican Bishops’ campaign to oppose gay marriage in their country.
• “And the Pope Francis who rejected the nomination of the Ambassador from France because the Ambassador is openly gay.
• “And the Pope Francis whose administration immediately fired and disciplined a priest who was working in the Vatican upon learning that the priest was gay and involved in a relationship.

“It seems to me, then,” concludes Tobin, “that when we uphold the faith and teachings of the Church about homosexuality, we are indeed a lot like Pope Francis.”

Rhode Island State Senator Donna Nesselbush released a statement in response to the recent firing of Michael Templeton, the Music Director at the Church of St. Mary in Providence due to his same-sex marriage. Nesselbush was instrumental in getting marriage equality passed in the Senate.

“Sponsoring the marriage equality legislation in the Senate will always be my most cherished accomplishment in the Rhode Island Senate. I grew up staunchly Catholic, attending eight years of Catholic school at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. My father did not go to church every Sunday; he went every single day. Although Catholicism is in my bones and I will always be a Catholic at heart, I stopped going to church years ago after I realized I was gay. I never wanted to cause a problem, embarrass my family or the church and religion I love,” said Senator Nesselbush.

“The time, however, has come for me to speak out about the Catholic Church’s flawed view of gay marriage. The Church persists in placing ‘form over substance.’ I always say, we Christians should worry more about the quality of our love, rather than the gender of the person we love. I hear Pope Francis gently advancing this cause when he repeats the words of Jesus: ‘Who am I (the Pope) to judge,’ paraphrasing the well-known…’judge not lest we be judged.’ Interestingly, the parishioners at Saint Mary’s seem also to be upset, crying out for justice for their beloved music director, as I suspect most Catholics are. If the church stays true to the real teachings of Jesus, the answers are right there. Love is love, and love is all we need, not the Church’s rules and regulations that actually, ironically, belie Christianity,” added Senator Nesselbush.

In an excellent break-down of the story, Bob Shine of New Ways Ministry wrote, “The Diocese of Providence took over the administration of the parish from the Franciscan Friars two years ago. The administrative shift means the parish is now overseen more directly by Bishop Thomas Tobin, who has a very LGBT-negative record.”

This story will be updated if Tobin responds to a request for comment.

In a press release late last month Fossil Free Rhode Island cited as reasons for filing a motion for intervention with the Board:

The construction of the proposed power plant —part of the energy policy of team Raimondo— would slow down the transition to renewable energy.

As a recent report of the PERI Institute of UMass in Amherst states: “New investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy will generate more jobs for a given amount of spending than maintaining or expanding each country’s existing fossil fuel sectors.”

“Natural” gas has a larger greenhouse gas footprint than coal and oil. Clearly, team Raimondo is wrong on all counts: physics, economics and morality.

In response to Invenergy’s objections to their Motions for Intervention Sister Mary Pendergast, Occupy Providence and Fossil Free Rhode Island argue that the company misconstrues the rules according to which the Board operates.

The activists also take Invenergy to task on its claim that they lack sufficient interest to justify intervention.  They remind the company of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling Massachusetts v. EPA (2007), which declared that greenhouse gases are pollutants under the Clean Air Act.  They also remind Invenergy of the Endangerment Finding of 2009 of the Environmental Protection Agency that determined that greenhouse gas emissions endanger the public health and welfare of current and future generations.

In a landmark environmental case (Payne & Buttler v. Providence Gas Co., 1910) the Rhode Island Supreme Court ruled that citizens can sue corporations for damages caused by “deleterious and poisonous substances.”

If these facts, rulings and liabilities do not constitute a direct interest, nothing will.

Occupy Providence, in its rebuttal,  said:

Invenergy cannot credibly argue that Occupy Providence lacks sufficient interests to justify intervention in spite of the fact that “the proposed plant will produce greenhouse gases highly injurious to the 99% for the purpose of producing profits which will go almost entirely and certainly disproportionately to the 1%.”

Sister Mary Pendergast echoed the same sentiment and quoted from Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’:

26. Many of those who possess more resources and economic or political power seem mostly to be concerned with masking the problems or concealing their symptoms, simply making efforts to reduce some of the negative impacts of climate change. However, many of these symptoms indicate that such effects will continue to worsen if we continue with current models of production and consumption. There is an urgent need to develop policies so that, in the next few years, the emission of carbon dioxide and other highly polluting gases can be drastically reduced, for example, substituting for fossil fuels and developing sources of renewable energy. Worldwide there is minimal access to clean and renewable energy.”

Two members of the Board serve at the pleasure of Governor Raimondo.  That does not bode well for the impartiality of the Board.  This is very troubling when it is clear that the Raimondo administration fails to understand the moral imperative to act on climate change.

Is there any ethical system under the Sun that holds that near-term profit is the ultimate standard?  It is certainly not what is meant by the Affirmation of Humanism that proclaims:

We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other species.

Nor is it consistent with, as the Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change puts it:

Re-focus their concerns from unethical profit from the environment, to that of preserving it and elevating the condition of the world’s poor.

Citizens of Rhode Island understand that intervention is fully justified and, in spite of Invenergys’ claim to the contrary, that the public interest is not adequately represented by a state government and its corporate allies who willfully act in violation of Article 1, Section 17 of the Rhode Island Constitution, the supreme law of the State which establishes the duty to provide for the conservation of the State’s air, water and land.

Note added after original post: Also the RI Democrats of America (RIPDA) have filed a reply to Invenergy’s objection to their motion for intervention.  In their conclusion they write:

Invenergy’s desire to block RIPDA’s involvement should concern both the Board and the general public, as it suggests that Invenergy wishes to limit the discourse on this topic and stack the deck in its favor.

The Rhode Island Energy Facilities Siting Board (RI EFSB) has scheduled a preliminary hearing to consider Invenergy’s application for January 12 at 9:30am. Public commentary will not be heard at this hearing, only those parties and participants granted intervenor status by the Siting Board will have a voice in the proceedings.

In their court filing, Invenergy objected to the following groups and individuals’ motion for intervenor status: property owners Dennis and Kathy Sherman and Paul and Mary Boldue; activist and political groups Occupy Providence, Fossil Free RI, the Progressive Democrats of Rhode Island (RIPDA), Fighting Against Natural Gas (FANG) and  Burrillville Against Spectra Expansion (BASE); and Sister Mary Pendergast, as an individual.

Invenergy does not have “specific objections” to the intervention requests of the Town of Burrillville, the State of RI Office of Energy Resources, National Grid, the Burrillville Land Trust or the Conservation Law Foundation.

Invenergy contends that intervention should only be granted to “Parties that have either statutory rights to intervene, directly affected interests that will not be adequately represented by other parties, or special public interests that compel intervention as a Party.”

Invenergy also objects to a separate motion “to extend the intervention period and to postpone the Preliminary Hearing” submitted by FANG and BASE.

In their motion requesting a 45 day extension of the deadline to intervene, FANG and BASE argued that, “At the December 9th Burrillville Town Council Meeting, several residents voiced their confusion with the intervenor process and expressed frustration with the lack of information provided about the process. Residents posed questions to the Town Council that the Council was not equipped to answer.” Note that the Town of Burrillville, though ill-equipped to answer rudimentary questions about the process at the Town Council meeting, is one of the groups that Invenergy says will “adequately” and “capably” represent the public interest.

The requested extension, maintains FANG and BASE, would allow “interested individuals and parties… more time to learn more about the intervention process, seek legal counsel and draft motions to intervene.”

The Siting Board, according to the motion filed by FANG and BASE, sent out “the first announcement for the public hearing… on November 17th to only sixteen parties, most of whom were local or state government agencies or elected officials. November 17th was one week before the Thanksgiving holiday. The deadline for filing as an intervenor was set as December 22rd, leaving two days before Christmas and one day before Eid Milad ul­Nabi (the observance and celebration of the Prophet Muhammad’s life). Also happening during the intervention period was the Hanukkah holiday from December 7th-­14th.”

Residents affected by the proposed power plant’s siting were informed of the process with little time to seek counsel or determine if their interests were to be covered by approved intervenors. At the December 9 Burrillville Town Council meeting, Town Manager Michael Wood told Kathy Sherman that the town council’s job is to represent Burrillville, but that doesn’t mean that the town council will be representing every concern of every resident.

Yet in their court filing objecting to intervenor status being granted to Dennis and Kathy Sherman and Paul and Mary Boldue, Invenergy claims that their interests will be adequately protected by the Town of Burrillville as a Party.

Invenergy objected to Occupy Providence, Fossil Free RI  and RIPDA being granted intervenor status because none of the groups is represented by a lawyer. The groups maintain that the rule cited by Invenergy is applicable to Parties, as legally defined, and not to participants. Further, Invenergy claims that the groups will not “be ‘directly affected’ by the project in a manner that will not be represented by other parties.”

Hilariously, one of the Parties that Invenergy claims will represent the interests of Occupy Providence, Fossil Free RI  and RIPDA is National Grid, a company with a history of disregarding the concerns of Rhode Islanders and the environment in its endless craving for corporate profits.

Invenergy further claims that “interests related to carbon emissions and the state’s overall energy policy will be more than adequately represented by other Parties” including the Governor’s Office of Energy Resources. Governor Gina Raimondo has very publicly supported the proposed energy plant, so it is highly doubtful that the interests of Occupy Providence, Fossil Free RI and RIPDA will be represented by Parties advocating for her interests.

FANG and BASE were represented by a lawyer in their motion to intervene, but Invenergy says that these “grassroots organizations” will be “cabably represented” by the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), the Town of Burrillville, the DPUC and the RI Department of Environmental Management.

This is another strange statement, because when I emailed Josh Block, the press secretary for the Conservation Law Foundation, he wrote back saying, “By intervening in the pending Energy Facility Siting Board (EFSB) docket, CLF will present multiple arguments as to why Invenergy should be denied a permit to build an expensive, long-lived, carbon-emitting fossil-fuel power plant. A proposal such as this which makes little economic or environmental sense has unsurprisingly garnered opposition from a large number of stakeholders, each with unique interests and perspectives. Thus, any assertion that CLF’s participation in the docket is a reason for excluding other intervenors in the process is as misguided as the proposal itself.” (Italics mine)

Sister Mary Pendergast, explaining her reasons for being arrested during a protest organized by FANG and BASE, said, “Pope Francis has called us all to an ecological conversion and he said it is essential and not an option.” Her motion to intervene has also been opposed by Invenergy, apparently, because her philosophical and theological concerns will be “adequately” and “capably” represented by the corporate and governmental interests of approved Parties, which is errant nonsense.

The fact is that the interests of the people will not be adequately represented in these proceedings if these motions for intervention are denied. The interests of the public are routinely and bureaucratically sidelined by relegating our voices to public commentary hearings with no real power or weight. Invenergy, though, depends on these public hearings to provide the appearance of public input where there is none, saying, “There will be ample opportunity… to provide comments, views, oppositions and data, in the form of public comment, in writing or in public testimony, at the appropriate time…”

This is how the voices of the public are silenced. We are relegated to separate, lesser forums, scheduled after the real decisions have been made. We are allowed to speak only when our objections have been rendered moot. It is only after our rights have been sacrificed to appease corporate power and after our world is destroyed that our voices will be heard, and that will be too late.

The motions for intervention should be granted.

In a statement, Sister Mary Pendergast wrote, “A culture of care is part of my spirituality: care of Earth, and care of people who are poor. Pope Francis has called us all to an ecological conversion and he said it is essential and not an option. He asks for a revolution of Mercy as well as a bold, cultural revolution. The Paris agreement is calling for an end to the fossil fuel era NOW! Yet the Burrillville plant will lock RI into fracked gas for the next 30 years. It is beyond time for the people to rise up, sure as the tulips we planted on Spectra.”

Andrea Doremus, also arrested and processed through court today, wrote, “I got arrested because I’m a high school U.S. history and Civics teacher, and I feel it is my educational and moral responsibility to model for my students what it means to stand up for what you believe in, and to use the tools of civil society to challenge that which is wrong and out of balance. Democracy is earned, not given – the forces of greed make sure that is true. And every generation needs to learn and earn it again.

“As Naomi Klein says, we are at a historical juncture. I believe it is our democratic responsibility to act.”

At the University of Rhode Island’s 19th annual Diversity Week, Peter Nightingale, professor of physics at URI, and climate activist, challenged students’ perspectives on climate change and offered a call to action in order to address environmental racism. The event, “Race and the Environmental Justice Movement,” was held at the Multicultural Student Services Center.

Nightingale began the event with a stark warning: in order to avoid catastrophic climate change, we must reduce greenhouse emissions globally by 7 percent. The U.S. is home to a fraction of the world’s population, it emits 25 percent of global greenhouse gasses. Even though the U.S. is greatly responsible for climate change, it will be the poor of the world, nations with less developed infrastructure, that will bear the consequences.

Nightingale referenced Robert Bullard’s work, “Dumping in Dixie”, in the presentation:

The environmental movement in the United States emerged with agendas that focused on such areas as wilderness and wildlife preservation, resource conservation, pollution abatement, and population control. It was supported primarily by middle- and upper-middle-class whites. Although concern about the environment cuts across racial and class lines, environmental activism has been most pronounced among individuals who have above-average education, greater access to economic resources, and a greater sense of personal efficacy.”

“I’m one of those people who are in a position of privilege,” said Nightingale. It was Nightingale’s privilege that allowed him to be treated politely by police when resisting fracked gas expansion. “Suppose I were half my age, and my color is a little bit darker – would they be equally polite, and nice? No – absolutely not.”

In the fight for the environment, there are the following stakeholders: the environmentalists, the social justice advocates, and the neo-liberal boosters, who, “have as their chief concerns maximizing profits, industrial expansion, economic stability, laissez-faire operation, and deregulation,” said Nightingale, quoting Bullard.

“If you follow the economic discussion in Rhode Island,” continued Nightingale, “all you hear people say is ‘all we need is more jobs, more jobs’ – but when you scrape away the rhetoric, a lot of people of color and poor minorities are being divided among themselves… the elites never mention that it’s all about their profits, about busting unions, about exploiting people – and this is one of the problems we have to deal with.”

For instance, Governor Gina Raimondo stated, “I am committed to moving ahead with cost-effective, regional energy infrastructure projects—including expansion of natural gas capacity—that will improve our business climate and create new opportunities for Ocean State workers.”

Nightingale also referred to the President’s Climate Action Plan as the “President’s Business Climate Action Plan” – stating that it is based on the interests of Wall Street, not in science. We are moving away from fossil fuels, and going towards natural gas, essentially replacing carbon dioxide with methane, a gas that is much more potent than carbon dioxide. “Let that sink in – that’s what [Senator] Sheldon Whitehouse is saying we should do and it’s a bad plan”

Not only are we “Dumping in Dixie,” but we are dumping in Providence, we are dumping in Burrillville, and we are dumping globally. From National Grid’s proposed LNG liquefaction facility to the proposed gas-fired power plant in Burrillville, the environment and the people are under assault says Nightingale.

“Who are the people that live next to I-95 in Providence… the people are about to thrown out of their houses… their skin tone is a couple of shades darker than mine.” Nightingale directed attendees to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Justice website, which shows several environmental and demographic indicators regarding pollution. In the presentation, Nightingale showcased the current indicators for the proposed LNG liquefaction facility at Fields Point location in Providence, and compared the indicators to those of East Greenwich.

Nightingale continued by critiquing Cap and Trade. “We are taking a serious problem [and] financializing it. We’re putting it on the stock market, and we’re allowing people to speculate.” By allowing environmental destruction to continue in impoverished communities, while Wall Street profiteers from the destruction, we thus institutionalize environmental injustice. “We can live yet another day, because we are taking the livelihood from someone else in the Southern Hemisphere.” A prime example of this is the continued deforestation of the Amazon rain forest. Nightingale drew a parallel to Pope Francis’ comments on climate change and tax credits:

The strategy of buying and selling ‘carbon credits’ can lead to a new form of speculation which would not help reduce the emission of polluting gases worldwide. This system seems to provide a quick and easy solution under the guise of a certain commitment to the environment, but in no way does it allow for the radical change which present circumstances require. Rather, it may simply become a ploy which permits maintaining the excessive consumption of some countries and sectors.”

Nightingale concluded by offering a powerful statement from Pope Francis, “The Earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.”

The eBible Fellowship had previously predicted the world would end in May, but this time, Chris McCann, the founder of the fellowship, assures us all that the world will be “Annihilated” and that today is the day.

I spoke to a woman distributing these eschatological flyers outside the Philadelphia train station. I asked her if she truly believed the world would end on October 7 or if this was a paid temp position. Sheepishly, she admitted she was getting paid, and doesn’t think the world is really going to end.

Maybe this will be something you can tell your grandchildren about, I said.

She smiled at that.

Most religious claims are unverifiable. We can’t measure souls or disprove life after death. These claims persist because no definitive proof of their falsehood will ever be presented. The best a nonbeliever can do is say, “I see no evidence to believe in Gods or souls or miracles.”

But those predicting the End of the World, a one time event with no historical precedent, are easily disproved time and time again. All you have to do is wake up the day after.

DignityUSA, based out of Boston and “the leading organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Catholics,” is disappointed by the Vatican’s confirmation that Pope Francis had met with Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis while visiting Washington DC last week.

“The news that Pope Francis met with Kim Davis while failing to respond to repeated requests for dialogue with LGBT Catholics and their families will be deeply disappointing to many Catholics, gay, trans, and straight alike,” said DignityUSA Executive Director Marianne Duddy-Burke in a statement. “It may be seen as putting the weight of the Vatican behind the US Catholic bishops’ claims of victimization, and to support those who want to make it more difficult for same-sex couples to exercise their civil right to marriage. This encounter could, in many people’s minds, transform the pope’s US trip from a largely successful pastoral visit to the endorsement of an exclusionary political agenda.

“I fear that this meeting and claims that the Pope told Ms. Davis to ‘stand strong’ will embolden the many US bishops and others who continue to try to turn back support for LGBT people. It will make even more of us feel like the Pope’s message of mercy and love was not meant for LGBT people and families. It points again to the deep divide between Catholics who affirm and support their LGBT family members and friends, and the hierarchy, which is tragically out of touch.”

I was in Philadelphia during the Pope’s visit, and I can confirm the profound sense of disappointment LGBTQ Catholics and their families were feeling at being so cavalierly ignored by Pope Francis. The Pope was in town for the “World Conference of Families” but the term “family” was narrowly defined in a conservative Catholic, anti-LGBTQ fashion. Only one gay man was officially allowed to speak at the conference, and he is celibate.

Because of the Catholic church’s exclusion, a series of LGBTQ events was held in Philadelphia but outside the conference. I reported on the Transforming Love forum that featured transgendered and intersex persons describing their lives and their deep desire to be included in the Catholic church. But the issue goes deeper than how some LGBTQ people define themselves religiously. For many people, the official stance of the Catholic Church is a matter of life and death.

“Whenever a religious leader spoke out against sexual diversity, or even against abortion, a transgendered woman is killed.“

At the Transforming Love forum Nicole Santamaria, an intersex woman from El Salvador said, “I came here to the World Meeting of Families with Pope Francis, to speak for the voices that were silenced by those who will torture them, by those who will kill them. And the voices that were silenced already by people who feel they have permission and they have the obligation to murder us, to exterminate us, to persecute us, because their religion told them that it is okay to kill a person that is different.

“Whenever a religious leader spoke out against sexual diversity, or even against abortion, a transgendered woman is killed. Every time those kind of things are heard, that means death. Whenever this is reported in the media, you can read the comments from the people, and the comments are, They deserve it, they are abominations, God doesn’t love them, it is okay.”

At another event in Philadelphia that same day, that I was blocked from getting to because of the excessive security brought to bear upon the pope’s arrival, a picnic was held for 14 Catholic LGBT families. These families were not granted official status by the World Meeting of Families conference. Instead, they secured a location off site. Equally Blessed, a coalition of four Catholic LGBT groups (of which DignityUSA is a part) sent a letter to Pope Francis inviting him to their picnic.

The letter went unanswered, and of course Pope Francis declined to visit with these families.

But he did make time to visit with Kim Davis in Washington.

“We still believe that for the Pope to hear the stories of LGBT Catholics and our families would be a key step in reversing the official Church teachings that damage so many people,” said Duddy-Burke in her statement, “In fact, his meeting with Ms. Davis makes this even more urgent. We have people in Rome right now, on the eve of the Synod of the Family reconvening, who would be happy to talk with the Pope if he’s willing to take a small step towards righting this injustice.”

It is telling that Pope Francis is more interested in secret meetings with people like Kim Davis, who would subvert the very meaning of freedom of conscience, than he is in openly meeting with LGBTQ Catholics and their families who have decided to follow theirs.

Pope Francis wants to be the new face of a better brighter Catholicism, but underneath his benign mask is the leader of a bigoted, morally bankrupt institution responsible for far more harm than good in this world.

Thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington DC to hear Pope Francis speak to Congress on Thursday. Just outside the security perimeter there was a complementary event held, a Rally for Moral Action on Climate Change, headlined by dozens of environmental activists, interfaith religious leaders and musical guests such as Moby. The rally was structured so that a break could take place between speakers and guests to livecast the Pope’s remarks.

As much as the Pope’s comments resonated with the crowd, the highlight of the rally were comments by Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, one of the architects of the Moral Mondays protests in North Carolina. Barber delivered a demand for radical, systemic change on a host of related issues, making connections between economic inequality, structural racism and the environment, saying, “Destroying the Earth is just wrong. Hurting the poor is wrong. Treating corporations like people and people like things is just wrong.”

Below the video are Barbers full remarks, shortened during the rally for time constraints. After the comments, check out the videos of the Hip Hop Caucus and Moby, and the dozens of pictures taken at the event.

“We gather here today as one human family to raise our moral voices and to welcome Pope Francis and his message that true faith is not a disengagement from the challenges of the world but an embrace of those very challenges,” began Barber.

“Truth is, there is no gospel that is not social; no gospel that relieves us of our call to love our neighbors as ourselves; no gospel that lives outside God’s admonition to serve the least of these. Pope Francis has made this clear, and for that we thank him.

“In this history of the United States, a moral critique has been always been at the center of any challenge to the structural sins of society—slavery, the denial of women’s rights, the denial of labor rights, the denial of equal protection under the law, the denial of voting rights, and the promulgation of unchecked militarism. We have never overcome any of these evils without a moral critique that challenged their grip on the heart and imagination of our society.

“A moral critique is still needed today.

“We hear Pope Francis’s cry that we cannot love our earthly neighbors and yet sit quietly while the Earth herself is made unfit for human habitation. We cannot love humanity and yet give way to forces that derail the very climate that gives us life. As His Holiness has said, we must acknowledge the ‘very consistent scientific consensus that we are in the presence of an alarming warming of the climactic system.’ We cannot be silent a world ‘devastated by man’s predatory relation with nature.’ The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein.

“We must make a moral demand, shifting the energy supply strategy from coal, oil, natural gas and other fossil fuels to solar, wind, geothermal, and other clean renewable energy sources.

“We must establish policies and programs to modernize the national infrastructure for the 21st century, transitioning toward full-employment with millions of new green jobs to help build a sustainable economy. We must provide educational and job training programs, transitional financial assistance and job opportunities for the industry workers displaced due to the transition to a renewable energy-based economy.

“We must choose community and care of the earth over chaos and greed.

“Not only must we push to protect the Earth’s delicate climate balance; we must also challenge the social climate in which the poor live.

“The Pope was right when he said in 2013: ‘The times talk to us of so much poverty in the world and this is a scandal. Poverty in the world is a scandal. In a world where there is so much wealth, so many resources to feed everyone, it is unfathomable that there are so many hungry children, that there are so many children without an education, so many poor persons. Poverty today is a cry.’

“Four to five percent of U.S. deaths have been found to be attributable to poverty. That is nearly 120,000 people, each of them created in the image of God. Each of their precious lives matters. Their death is the scandal the Pope is exposing.

“It is a moral disgrace that there are 14.7 million poor children and 6.5 million extremely poor children in the United States of America – the world’s largest economy.

“We know that nearly half of the world’s population — more than three billion people — live in poverty on less than $2.50 a day. One billion children worldwide are living in poverty. According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. 805 million people worldwide do not have enough food to eat.

“This is the scandal a moral critique must expose: the poor are destroyed, society is destabilized, and our shared humanity is terribly diminished.

“We can and we must do better.

“If we focus more on ending poverty than cutting the social safety nets that help the poor, we can do better. If we move beyond the politics of lust for power to the politics of love for people, we can unify around a moral agenda. And we can do better. If we secure pro-labor, anti-poverty policies that insure economic sustainability by fighting for living wages, strong safety nets for the poor, fair policies for immigrants, infrastructure development, and an end to extreme militarism that puts more resources in bombs, missiles and weaponry than food jobs and shelter, we can do better.

“God is using Pope Francis to prod or consciousness and push us toward action. By daring to preach the gospel of truth and justice, challenging the sins of economic exploitation, poverty, and climate destruction, he is showing the way to revival, repentance and redemption.

“To our ears, the Pope’s message resonates with the ancient Jewish text that says, ‘Woe to those who legislate evil and rob the poor of their rights.’ This Pope sounds a lot like Jesus, who said in the Gospel of Matthew that love, mercy, and justice ate the weightier matters of the law.

“There are some Americans who applaud the Pope for his theological orthodoxy when he calls on us to love one another but decry his message as “political” when he points toward inequality and injustice. These are the same voices that grow hoarse touting “morality” with respect to abortion and homosexuality but cannot hear any suggestion that poverty is a moral issue.

“This deafness to the Pontiff’s purpose suggests that Jesus himself would not be welcomed by them in America. Their complaints reveal the serious moral crisis we find ourselves in.

“Somebody must stand and say, “It doesn’t matter what party is in power or who has a political super-majority. There are some things that transcend political majorities, partisan politics, and the narrow categories of liberal versus conservative. There are some things that must be challenged because they are wrong, extreme, and immoral.

“Destroying the Earth is just wrong. Hurting the poor is wrong. Treating corporations like people and people like things is just wrong.

“And so, to those who complain that the Pontiff is engaging in politics, we say, prophetic voices must rise up and challenge immorality in every age. It’s our time now. So let us join the Holy Father not in the politics of Democrat and Republican but in God’s politics of love and justice.

“Let our prayer be like the Franciscans:

“‘May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may live from deep within our hearts. May God bless us with righteous moral anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of God’s creation, so that we may work for justice, freedom, and peace.’

“Let us fill the whole earth with the song of hope and redemption in this hour and sign with our lives that old hymn which says, ‘Revive us again / fill each heart with thy love / let each soul be rekindled / with a fire from above.’

“‘Lord, rekindle in us a fire for justice, a fire for truth, a fire for hope.

“’Hallelujah, thine the glory! Hallelujah, Amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory!

“Revive us again!”

Four people spoke on trans and intersex gender identities from a Catholic perspective at the Transforming Love forum held at the Arch Street United Methodist Church across the street from the World Conference of Families in Philadelphia on Saturday morning. The event was originally scheduled to take place at the St. John the Evangelist parish, but according to organizers was, “evicted from the space by Archbishop Charles Chaput of the Philadephia Archdiocese.”

Pope Francis is in Philadelphia today and will be attending events around Philadelphia in concert with the World Conference of Families. It is unknown if the pope has any knowledge of the LGBTQI counter programming. He was invited to a picnic made up of 14 families grappling with LGBTQI acceptance, but due to the blocked roads I was unable to attend that event.

New Ways Ministry, Dignity USA, Fortunate Families, and Call to Action organized the gender identity counter programming and are all groups working to gain “reconciliation” for LGBTQI Catholics “within the larger Catholic and civil communities.” The groups are trying to add depth to the official conversation about LGBTQI issues at the World Conference, which includes only “one presentation on homosexuality, led by a celibate gay man, among a long list of panels” on other subjects.

When the Catholic Church refused to host, the groups quickly lined up a space at the Methodist church. This church has a large rainbow flag on the outside, clearly visible from the convention center. On the day of the event the streets around the church and convention center were blocked off in a maze of security fences ahead of the pope’s arrival. That made navigation virtually impossible even while walking, Attendees were not deterred, however. I was pleasantly surprised to see forty people eager to engage with the speakers.

Sister Jeannine Grammick lead the group in prayer, then introduced Julie Chovanes, a transexual woman and patent lawyer who lives in Philadelphia. Chovanes is still married to the woman she has had four children with, her youngest child is fifteen years old. She transitioned while maintaining her legal career and her family.

Chovannes was raised in the Byzantine Catholic tradition, a very conservative tradition. Coming out and transitioning has been a challenge, but she feels she has “been accepted in the city, I feel that Philadelphia is the best city in the world for [trans persons].”

“I don’t consider myself a man or a girl,” said Chovanes, “I am a trans. My brain and my soul are a woman’s, but my body is a man’s… My life is a testament to God’s glory.”

delfine bautista identifies as trans*, specifically as two-spirit or gender queer. delfine prefers the pronoun “they” to “he” or “she.” They has a graduate degree in divinity and social work and serves as the director of Ohio University’s LGBT Center.

“I am a Catholic,” says delfine. “I was assigned the gender, male, at birth, but at the age of three I knew i was different.”

Growing up in a conservative, Latino household made gender questioning impossible. “Being different is not an option.” In secret, “I wore dresses and played princess. I prayed every night to wake up in a new body, but was greeted with silence.”

“When I came out I came out as gay,” said delfine, “because that’s all I knew, but even then I knew it didn’t fit me… My mom wanted to help me and sent me to therapy to be cured. I don’t hate my mother, she was trying to help me.” delfine’s mother was in the audience.

delfine’s divinity work came to the fore when he put out the following ideas, “In Genesis God made man and woman in his own image. Is God trans, intersex, queer? [What about] persons like Joan of Arc.?Her actions were gender bending, and she’s a saint… I am more than one thing. I am more than one identity. Sometimes [my identities] clash, but I am a hot mess, and I embrace the mess.”

Vilma Santamaria is a Salvadoran teacher, sociologist and the mother of Nicole Santamaria, an intersex woman and human rights activist. “I realized that when my daughter was really little, she was different. She said she didn’t like girls.” [Note that Santamaria’s daughter was assigned a male gender at birth.]

When her daughter came out to her, “I told her I would love you, whoever you are… My husband was the main problem.”

Nicole Santamaria elaborated. “When I was three, I realized I was a girl.” Her father hated her feminine qualities. “[I was told,] don’t talk like that, don’t move your hands like that! Oh my God, don’t breathe like that!

“When I started puberty my breasts started to grow, I never grew hairy, my voice never changed.” Her father reacted brutally. “My father mentally and physically tortured me. He’d heat up coins and burn my nipples.”

Eventually Nicole Santamaria ran away, and started to live her life as a woman. She went to a doctor and told her some of what she was going through. The doctor offered to put her on testosterone so she could develop into a man. She was horrified. She wanted to be a woman.

The doctor had misunderstood. After testing the doctor determined that Nicole Santamaria was intersex. Her breasts had been virtually destroyed by her father’s brutality. After breast reconstruction surgery she found herself able to finally live her life as the woman she had always been.

Nicole Santamaria speaks out as an activist because trans persons are being tortured and murdered in El Salvador.

“I came here to the World Meeting of Families with Pope Francis, to speak for the voices that were silenced by those who will torture them, by those who will kill them. And the voices that were silenced already by people who feel they have permission and they have the obligation to murder us, to exterminate us, to persecute us, because their religion told them that it is okay to kill a person that is different. When every religious leader spoke out against sexual diversity, or even against abortion, a transgender woman is killed. Every time those kind of things are heard, that means death. Whenever this is reported in the media, you can read the comments from the people, and the comments are, They deserve it, they are abominations, God doesn’t love them, it is okay.

“So as an activist, I really believe that my faith has given me the strength to continue. People tell me, stop! you can live your life with all the privilege of a female, don’t say anything…” and no one would know.

“Let me tell you something, I won’t do that.”

I don’t know if Pope Francis will hear the message of Nicole Santamaria and her mother, or the message of Julie Chevanes and delfine bautista, Certainly the Roman Catholic Church did everything it could to silence and marginalize these people. What we know is that people are suffering and dying, and it is well within the power of the Church to alleviate that evil.