The new issue of The Corner is out.
This time we called it Bearing Good Fruits, borrowing the image from Matthew: “Every good tree bears good fruit.”
It seemed appropriate for an issue that is mostly about small things being done, often quietly, in very different parts of the Church.
There is GNRC’s letter of support to Pope Leo XIV, and the private letters sent to bishops and cardinals after the Consistory. There are the Prayer Vigils against homophobia, transphobia and biphobia, which this year involved more than sixty Christian communities, and Called By Name, where priests and religious sisters meet people online to talk about faith, belonging and pastoral accompaniment.
We also introduce new GNRC Board members Maritza Fuenzalidid and Wanjiru Kariyki, hear about the work of the Contemplative and Spiritual Formation Committee, and report on Mexican Bishop Raúl Vera López, who has spoken publicly about the inclusion of LGBT people in the Catholic Church.
A large part of this issue comes from Africa.
Olamide, a 22-year-old Nigerian asylum seeker in South Africa, writes about xenophobia, HIV, precarious work, fear and the very practical difference made by people willing to help.
In Nairobi, Collins Otieno talks about LIMI, the home and psychosocial centre he runs with and for vulnerable young men, and about chosen family, football, rice, Rina Sawayama and Pope Francis.
And Wanjiru Kariyki writes from the much harder place where Catholic faith, queer identity and African politics meet: the silence of the pews, the language of bishops, discriminatory laws, and the stubborn decision to remain part of a Church that does not always know what to do with you.
So this issue is not really built around one big statement. It is made of letters, testimonies, prayer, disagreement, ordinary work and people trying to remain present to one another.
That is probably what we mean by good fruit.
The Corner No. 16 is available now.
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