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Twenty-seven Catholic organizations from around the globe issue statement denouncing the oppression of women and the inadequate response to child sex crimes

Yesterday, the Vatican issued a clarification of its canonical procedures for how dioceses should handle priests who sexually abuse children. As part of the statement, they have added that the "attempted ordination of a woman" has now been added to the list of "delicta graviora," or most serious crimes in church law, alongside the sexual abuse of minors.

By Marianne Duddy-Burke, Executive Director, DignityUSA

Just as LGBTQ Pride activities were ramping up in Boston during June 2010, our archdiocesan newspaper, The Boston Pilot, printed one of the most egregious articles I’ve seen in many a year. Written by one of the paper’s regular columnists, the piece began by stating the author’s belief that same-sex couples could not actually be “real” parents; they may have children in their custody, but the lack of biological connection with at least one parent was seen as an insurmountable obstacle to parenthood. The author then offered three reasons that children of same-sex parents posed a danger to Catholic schools. First, having children observe teachers and other school officials being polite and respectful to a lesbian or gay couple would give “scandal.” Second, the writer questioned the gay/lesbian parents’ motivation for involvement in classroom and extracurricular activities. Finally, it was stated that children living with gay couples would likely bring obscene or pornographic material to class.