Wearing Purple For Spirit Day




Fr.James Martin S.J. writes  here in America magazine about why Catholics can wear purple this coming Friday to endorse the Spirit Day in the USA.
 
 Spirit Day was started in 2010 by teenager, Brittany McMillan, as a response to the teens who had taken their own lives because of bullying by their peers, and is an invitation to stand against bullying and violence targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth (LGBT) in American schools.

Fr.Martin concludes by saying

"Some may object to some of the organizations who are sponsoring the day, which may take positions at odds with official Catholic teaching.  (There are a lot of groups supporting the venture, and I'm sure that there are some with whose positions I disagree--even strongly.)  But that doesn't mean that Spirit Day, or standing up against bullying and discrimination, is any less worthwhile. 

 If you wait to work for a cause until you're working with people who agree with you on everything, you'll wait forever, and the injustice will continue. 

Many gay and lesbian Catholics have told me (in person, in emails, in notes and letters and in Facebook messages) how alienated they have felt from the church lately.  

Perhaps as a result of some of the rhetoric that has been used recently, an increasing number of gay and lesbian Catholics, and gay and lesbian youth in particular, feel marginalized from the church in which they were baptized.  Such alienation is a source of great spiritual pain for them.

"Purple is a penitential color, the color of remorse, and so it is particularly appropriate as a sign of remorse over any LBGT hate speech.  Why do something small to show your love of neighbor?  For you shall love your LGBT neighbor as yourself."

  
 You can add your name to the Catholic statement of support here."

The thorny issue of how to deal with the issue of alienation when a youth becomes an adult theologian is taken up in this excellent article from Women in Theology, titled " What Does Dialogue Take ?". which I found both cogent and poignant

Walter Bruegemann's question from his book "The Prophetic Imagination " echoes in my mind:

How can we have enough freedom to imagine and articulate a real historical newness in our situation?

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