New Ways Ministry is pleased to announce its latest publication, Cornerstones: Sacred Stories of LGBTQ+ Employees in Catholic Institutions.
Cornerstones is an anthology of 12 stories of faith, sacrifice, joy, and pain by LGBTQ+ people who have been employed by Catholic parishes and schools. The anthology’s stories are grouped in three categories: LGBTQ+ people fired from Catholic schools, LGBTQ+ people fired from Catholic parishes, and LGBTQ+ people who continue their employment in Catholic institutions with support from their employers.
The collection was edited by Ish Ruiz and Mark Guevarra, two gay Catholic men who themselves have been church employees.
Ruiz explains the timeliness and importance of these testimonies in the anthology’s Introduction: “Over 100 employees in the U.S. alone have been fired or were forced to resign from Catholic institutions since 2007 for reasons pertaining to their LGBTQ+ identity or for supporting someone who identifies as LGBTQ+. . . . We know, anecdotally, that many more have been fired but, for a variety of reasons—including fear of harm—they have kept their stories private.”
In addition to telling the practical experiences these employees have faced, the anthology’s stories strike at some important issues for how the Catholic Church operates. In his concluding remarks, Guevarra notes: “As we strive to become a synodal church, that is, a church that listens to the Holy Spirit speaking among all people and allows itself to be guided by her, we hope this collection of sacred stories informs communal discernment in dioceses, parishes, and school communities, and leads to pastoral conversion.”
The book’s main title, Cornerstones, is an allusion to Psalm 118:22-23: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes.”
Bishop John Stowe, OFM, Conv., of Lexington, Kentucky, endorsed the book, saying it contained “powerful stories of those who have experienced rejection and trials for their LGBTQ identity while working for the Church that has handed on the faith they are rooted in and profess.”
Cristina Traina, a leading theologian at Fordham University, said that the book’s stories show that “we all lose out when LGBTQ+ employees’ fearful silence and secrecy keeps them from showing up fully at work. . . . . Pulling out a cornerstone really can cause the house to collapse!”
To order your copy of Cornerstones, click here
Cornerstones is a companion volume to New Ways Ministry 2022 anthology: Love Tenderly: Sacred Stories of Lesbian and Queer Religious. This earlier volume presents 23 stories of vowed Catholic nuns who have embraced their LGBTQ+ identities.
For information on all of New Ways Ministry’s publications, click here.
—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, July 23, 2024
