November 28th, 2018

LETTER TO POPE FRANCIS

English / Spanish / Portugues

Dear Holy Father,

We, the undersigned social entities and Christian groups, all want to express our concern about the harsh words cast to the Church, to your person and to other bishops, pastors and priests that strive for an open and welcoming Church for all mankind, and especially for those who live in the “periphery”, the word that prophetically your Holiness has used to refer to them. Particularly, we refer to us – the LGTBQI people (lesbians, gays, transgender people, bisexuals, queer and intersex people) – who have suffered from discrimination, contempt and ostracization for ages within the communities of faith. We have been judged indiscriminately as sinners and undeserving, consequently leading to much suffering, hardship and distress that has often pushed a great number of us away from their faith.

We want to express our support to the inclusive initiatives towards LGTBQI people that are being currently carried out within the Catholic Church and with the consent of the Holy See. We want also to plead with Your Holiness not to give in to the violent words and unfair and malicious accusations from some people and groups that only want to have a Church closed to renewal, keeping unfair doctrines, attitudes and structures that make people fall away from the faith.

The undersigned Christian and social groups all fervently pray to God to guide you in all your decisions and to help you carry out a full renewal of the Church following the rules of the Gospel, that is, love for everyone and especially to those who are poorer and in the periphery. We who strive for human rights for all appreciate your efforts and your support for those initiatives that contribute to erase in all aspects of life any discrimination and exclusion, specially towards LGTBQI Catholics.

We firmly believe that most of the believers and people of goodwill worldwide feel joy and hope seeing that Your Holiness is bringing a new direction to the Catholic Church today.

Yours faithfully.