We have a lot of news for you this week, so let’s get into it.

First, Eve will be in Boston April 22 – 25, meeting with people in a wide range of roles—priests, educators, parents, Confident Witnesses alumni and other gay Catholic disciples, and much more! Contact [email protected] if you’d like to meet up while she’s in town.

DC Confident Witnesses Coming Soon

An alumnus of our Boston Confident Witnesses retreat is co-leading a series of Saturday workshops, beginning June 13: “Confident Witnesses I: Integrating Faith and Orientation.” These workshops will lead up to a retreat the weekend of August 21 – 22, “Confident Witnesses II: Mentorship and Mission,” led by Eve and Keith.

If you’re in the DMV (DC, MD, VA) and interested in a retreat for LGBT/SSA+ Catholics, who embrace Church teaching in full and are interested in exploring their own journeys and considering next steps, please fill out the CW interest form! Space is limited for the Saturday series—but if interest is high enough, that means we can come back and do another Confident Witnesses in the DMV.

We’re also beginning to plan Confident Witnesses—Midwest and Confident Witnesses—Bay Area. If you’re in any of these regions, consider taking a moment to fill out our interest form. Across the country, Catholics can expect gay discipleship!

Eve will be a panelist at two conferences taking place back-to-back this June. She’ll be at the Outreach conference at Georgetown University from June 19 – 21, presenting BCF’s “Four Lenses” framework.

The Four Lenses help people in pastoral ministry identify their own starting points—the ways of connecting faith and orientation that intuitively make sense to them—and add new understandings to their repertoire. We’ve seen again and again how the Four Lenses help ministry leaders get beyond polarization and frustrating clashes, and begin to envision ministry that fosters diverse paths to discipleship. We hope you’ll join us in DC to learn more!

Eve will also be presenting at the McGrath Institute for Church Leadership’s conference on “Teaching Life and Human Dignity” at Notre Dame, June 21 – 26. This is a conference for Catholic educators, exploring the needs of young people and the ways their experiences can encounter and be illuminated by Catholic wisdom.

If you’re in DC or South Bend in June, drop her a line [email protected] to connect!

Teens' Toughest Questions

Dr. Julia Sadusky’s new video course on Talking with Your Teen About Sex includes contributions from Building Catholic Futures: on what teens wish their parents knew about LGBT+ people, and about asking questions that explore the Church’s “yes” for gay people. Dr. Sadusky brings Catholic faith and up-to-date psychological research together in her presentations. She’s a warm and sure guide to some of the toughest conversations parents are having.

And finally, a huge thanks to everyone who has filled out our Encounter Project survey or passed it along. We have already received responses from fourteen countries on five continents.

We’ve heard from people who find “gay and Catholic” to be a source of gifts, burdens, hopes, fears, questions, and deep beauties—and we’ve heard about the priests and spiritual directors, parents and friends and teachers, who have accompanied LGBT/SSA+ Catholics and seekers on the Way of Jesus.

We’d love for you to share the survey in any setting where LGBT/SSA+ Catholics might see it: both practicing Catholics, and people who have been practicing Catholics in the past. Maybe you’re on a listserv, alumni email list, or online forum where it makes sense to share the survey. Maybe you know of a coffeeshop by the local Catholic university, or a parish bulletin that would include it—in that case, email [email protected] to get a sample announcement with a QR code people can scan.

These are exciting times for Building Catholic Futures. I don’t know if you noticed, but the different items in this newsletter show how BCF is reaching many different roles in the Church: parents and educators, priests and diocesan leaders, gay missionary disciples and seekers. We’re all over the iceberg!

We’ve got a lot on the boil. But we never want to forget where our work begins: in prayer. In the love that flows from the Sacred Heart of Jesus to the hearts of His queer children, and those who love them. You can find reflections on Scripture, photos of BCF subscribers' home altars, and much more on our Instagram.

Please keep us in prayer, and know that all of you are in our prayers as well.