Put Out into the Deep
Oct 1 2024
Hello, it’s another edition of Put Out into the Deep, the newsletter of Building Catholic Futures! Our thanks to the many who are keeping in touch by subscribing, donating, and contacting us about how best you can help.
Below, you’ll find a report from another one of our pilot projects: a series of events in the style of a mission week.
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Evangelization in the Gay Café
from Keith’s “Talking About Gay Discipleship” presentation, given in St Louis
“When I worked in secular business I often had to travel long distances for my job, and in those days airfare was cheaper if you could book a Saturday night stay. This meant that I often found myself stuck in a place like – oh, Paris – on a Saturday afternoon waiting to be in the office on Monday morning.
Here was my habit. (Mind you, this was pre-internet days.) Walk around and look at churches. Figure out which ones seem active. (In some places, that’s no easy task!) Find the gayborhood. Get a table at a friendly café. Order a drink or three, a bit to eat, and be open to chatting people up.
‘Where should I go to mass in the morning?’ I would ask after small talk.
It was a very unexpected way of getting to know someone. After hearing my question, they always – ALWAYS – registered an opinion of some sort. ‘Haven’t been to mass in years. My mother still goes sometimes.’ ‘Can’t stomach the Church. They’re all hypocrites.’ ‘I got baptized when I was three.’ ‘I found a rosary in the bottom of my boyfriend’s underwear drawer.’
And then they ask me things. Gay. Catholic. Businessman. American. ‘Why mass?’ ‘Why are you here in the gayborhood?’ ‘What’s with you, you don’t seem the religious type?’ ‘Do you have a boyfriend; what does your priest say about that?’ ‘Is that rosary just for show?’
And sometimes, after talking for a while about their experience with the church and discerning that I was not in the business of judging them harshly, they were more open to recommending a church – and even accompanying me there. Once inside, from civic pride or inchoate faith, they show me things: architectural detail, this statue or that painting, a poster from an upcoming choir concert. And sometimes they stop and light a candle for ‘Mom who still goes sometimes.’”
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Duc in altum! Put out into the deep!
Eve and Keith