Put Out into the Deep
April 8 2025
In this edition, we explore how BCF’s work relates to the “Day of Silence” students organize this month in some Catholic schools, and respond to a question that educators frequently ask us.
Breaking the Silence
At least two LGBT+ advocacy organizations have used the idea of a “Day of Silence,” where students refuse to speak during the school day. These days are intended to support LGBT+ students and combat bullying. They usually include an element of breaking the silence: a “Night of Noise,” or “Day of No Silence,” where students speak out.
BCF has heard from several Catholic schools where students have organized these events. They ask us:
"What can we speak into this resounding silence?"
Silence can be a space of contemplation and communion. But what is there to contemplate if those who teach you the Faith have never imagined the future of someone like you? And how can you seek communion with a God who seems to have no lovers like you?
Catholic schools seek a way to respond to students’ needs. Catholic young people seek out those who speak hopefully about their future.
BCF trusts that Catholic schools will find ways to share the richness of our tradition’s forms of silence: through encouraging Eucharistic Adoration, for example, perhaps with a short exhortation to reflect on God’s love or to allow the Holy Spirit to comfort and guide us.
But we know schools and students also need storytelling. They need hopeful, diverse stories—including stories where experiencing same-sex desire is no barrier to wholehearted, devout embrace of Catholic faith. BCF is telling these stories for Catholic high schools. They’re not stories young people will hear anywhere else.
Two of BCF’s five Building Blocks are about speaking: “Start the Conversation” and “Tell Good Stories.” This is the preparation that makes prayerful silence fruitful.
Your Prayers and Ours
Please pray for the intention of a friend of BCF.
Pray for everyone participating in the various Days of Silence/No Silence.
And, as always, pray for BCF, that we may follow Christ and His Church in all things, breaking silence by spreading the Good News!
Eve & Keith