10 Things You Can Do Today That Will Make A Difference Tomorrow

 
 

1.  Organize!  Become part of CAN's work for equality in the Catholic Church.  Join the Holy Families committee and support its work on Open and Affirming -- a  grassroots education program.  Check out our past actions. Help us reach out to Catholics throughout Saint Louis with respectful discussions on the relationship between GLBT people and the Church.  Email us if you’d like to get involved. 

 
 
 
 
2. Be visible. It's harder for people to think of GLBT people as "other" when they know GLBT people as individuals. Be an active participant in the life of your faith community - your relationship with others will help to change attitudes.  All of us have coming out stories, whether it was the realization that you are gay, or the acknowledgement of a loved one's sexual orientation. Tell your story. It helps us all.
 
     
 
3.  Join the Movement.  Join CAN’s list. Send us your email and snail mail address, and you’ll receive important event announcements over email, and our popular newsletter “The Burning Bush” quarterly.  We won’t share your information with other groups, and email announcements are never more than once a week.
 
     
 

4.  Be an Advocate.  If you hear disparaging remarks about GLBT people, say something. Let the person know that their opinions do not mesh with your own experience. Be charitable, be compassionate, but be heard.

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5. Get Educated.  Read a book. Check out our list of links or do a search on your own. Peruse CAN's research on the Catholic group Courage, an "ex-gay" group.  Rent a movie about GLBT issues. Get to know people who do not look like, spend like, or act like you - enrich your experience! There is so much information available -- wherever you are on your journey. Knowledge is power.

 
 
 
 
6. Honor GLBT relationships. Attend ceremonies. Remember anniversaries. Honor the memories of partners who have died -- just as you do for heterosexual couples.
 
 
 
 

7. Speak truth to power.  If you find yourself in the company of a bishop of the Church, take the opportunity to make your voice heard. Or, write a letter. Write five letters.  Lay women and men have a duty to speak out against official teaching and practice they know to be wrong.

 
 
 
(W)hen I say that we as Church have got something wrong, I am not begging for the space to be allowed to hold a dissident opinion. I don't want to hold a dissident opinion at all. I want to be possessed by the truth, and I think that the Church of which I am part is currently hobbled by an element of untruth, which means we are wrong, and must seek to be accountable to what is, in a way which we are currently not accountable, and this is not because we must be nice to gay people, but because I think we are failing to be Catholic by persisting in an error about what is.
 

James Alison, On Being Liked

 
 

8.  Spread the Word. Tell people about this site. Let them know about the Open and Affirming program and CAN's work for Justice in the Catholic Church and in Saint Louis. Wear a Holy Families T-Shirt!

  
 
 

 
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9.   Contribute.  Help support this important work for equality in the Catholic Church.  CAN depends on donations from people like you.   Buy a T-Shirt to support CAN.
 
 
 
 
10.  Pray. All of us need to be in prayerful communion with our GLBT sisters and brothers, their parents, their children, their friends and families. Pray for our Church, that we open our hearts to the lives and experiences of all of God's people.