Pastoral with LGBT people, a monthly dossier "Il sign" of the Archdiocese of Milan
Article by Giulio Isola published in the Avvenire newspaper of 29 September 2022, pp.15
A transparent cover dossier full of ideas on pastoral care for LGBT people, the one that arrives on newsstands today with the monthly The sign of the diocese of Milan. Eight pages full of insights and interviews written by Laura Badaracchi to bring out how, in the various ecclesial communities of our country, the question is "still a source of closures and embarrassments", even if "the positive examples of welcome and of dialogue". A position summarized by the title of the dossier, "The taboo and listening".
The diocese of Milan courageously chose the second point, also thanks to the commitment of Monsignor Luca Bressan, episcopal vicar for culture, charity, mission and social action, for five years - is explained in the text - interlocutor of the Group "Il Guado", homosexual Christians.
It was Bressan himself, over a year ago, to encourage the meeting of the representatives of the "ford" with Archbishop Mario Delpini. "The intent - explains the episcopal vicar - is to take next to an accompaniment on the path of faith and in spiritual research. Ours are meetings of knowledge and friendship ». And friendship with Christ, underlines, "has no borders or fences".
On the other hand the historian Milanese group (the ford), founded 42 years ago, it represents well this dimension of new integrated pastoral care, given that its initiatives, the spokesperson Gianni Geraci tells in the dossier, are frequented by everyone, beyond sexual orientation. But wrong to think that the problem no longer arouses controversy and annoyance, given that, as the journalist Iacopo Scaramuzzi observes, on a page of the investigation volume The sex of angels (Edizioni dell'Asino), "the debate becomes a stadium cheering".
To summarize the position of the Magisterium, Badaracchi gives space to Don Aristide Fumagalli, professor of moral theology who, in the light of Amoris Laetitia, urges to "ban every Farisaic ostracism, taking note of the diversity of homosexual people".
According to the theologian, author of the essay Possible love. Homosexual and moral people Christian (Cittadella), an attitude of greater opening would also be a benefit for the Church "which would be more credibly as the community in which grace and conversion lived".
Among the other voices that enrich the dossier there is that of Father Pino Piva, Jesuit, an organizer, among other things, of a higher training course for pastoral operators with LGBT people to whom Cardinal Matteo Zuppi also intervenes for a couple of years , Archbishop of Bologna
