Dear Revealer readers, 

In December I was contacted by a reporter for CBS News to do an interview about the pope’s “comments about blessing same-sex couples.” When the reporter emailed, I was on the island of Saint Martin celebrating my 10^th wedding anniversary, my own same-sex union. My husband and I had agreed not to check our work email or read the news while away so we could enjoy some island tranquility. I missed the journalist’s request, and when we returned to New York City I learned that the world briefly thought Pope Francis had given his approval for priests to officiate Catholic same-sex wedding ceremonies, only to learn a couple of days later that he never sanctioned such rituals. Within a matter of days, LGBTQ Catholics experienced dramatic hope followed by great disappointment.

Revealer Editor, Brett Krutzsch

For me, this saga epitomizes Pope Francis’s relationship with queer Catholics: small tokens of quasi-inclusion followed by no change to the church’s official practices. But even that reflection paints the pontiff in a possibly more affirming LGBTQ position than many believe he deserves. He has, after all, doubled down as recently as late last year on his claim that “gender theory” is as dangerous to the planet as nuclear weapons. But many people around the world continue to celebrate his insistence that Catholics should welcome LGBTQ people into their churches, and others hold out hope that he is slowly moving Roman Catholicism closer to accepting LGBTQ people as equals.

This cycle of one step forward, two steps back seems especially apt in our current milieu where, for instance, women in numerous states can no longer access abortion and reproductive healthcare. But what is true in both of these cases – that of queer Catholics and abortion access in the United States – is that large groups of activists have not let the male-dominated people in power have the final say. They continue to fight for their vision of a just and equitable world.

The April issue of The Revealer looks at multiple forms of activism and how people are trying to create better worlds than what they inherited. The issue opens with the newest installment of Gillian Frank’s “More than Missionary” column with “Abortion On Demand,” where Frank explores the surprising history of that term to help us make sense of the rhetoric in today’s abortion debates. Then, in “On the Frontiers of Psychedelic-Assisted Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care,” Ken Chitwood investigates chaplains and other religious leaders who are working to bring psychedelics like psilocybin into the people’s spiritual practices to help them heal from trauma and to connect with the divine. From there, Neil Young explores more conservative activism in “Reaching the Heartland: Gay Republicans’ Message to Religious Americans,” and recounts how gay Republicans tried to counter the rise of the religious right within the GOP and convince church-going Christians that it is okay to be gay. Following that, in “The Evolution of Pope Francis’s Stance on LGBTQ Rights,” Jamie Valentino charts the pope’s shifting positions on LGBTQ people and how queer Catholics have responded to him. And finally, in “The Fire to Create the World Anew,” Kali Handelman interviews Laura McTighe and Deon Haywood about their new book Fire Dreams: Making Black Feminist Liberation in the South and explores how the organization at the center of the book, Women With A Vision, has worked for decades to improve the lives of Black Americans in New Orleans and elsewhere.

The April issue also includes the newest episode of the Revealer podcast: “LGBTQ Republicans.” Neil Young joins us to discuss LGBTQ conservatives and their reasons for aligning themselves with Republican Party. We discuss their feelings about Trump, how they are responding to the current barrage of anti-trans legislation, and what they want for America as we head into the 2024 election. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

When the world briefly believed Pope Francis gave his approval for priests to bless same-sex marriages, many thought something truly monumental had occurred. But, as one of our articles highlights, the pontiff simply meant that priests could offer a prayer for gay couples, which is something priests are already permitted to do for people’s pets. So, while a Catholic priest offering a prayer for a queer couple is novel, countless Catholics believe much more work must be done beyond that. And many of them, like the activists fighting for abortion access and racial equality across the United States, continue the fight—knowing the struggle will likely not end in their lifetimes, but persisting on just the same so this world can be better, bit by bit.

Yours,
Brett Krutzsch, Ph.D.