One of the questions BCF likes to open with dioceses and Catholic institutions is, “What other ministries do you think LGBT/SSA+ ministry is like?”

Some dioceses class gay ministry with ministries for people with family difficulties, or people in need of healing. And this understanding of gay ministry meets some people’s deep needs. It can promote solidarity across different kinds of suffering.

Other Catholic institutions treat LGBT+ ministry as a kind of cultural ministry, similar to ministries for Black Catholics. Like Black Catholics, gay Catholics have often felt marginalized in the Church, but that marginalization has not defined their experience of faith or the gifts they bring as members of the Body of Christ.

In a recent essay for the Pillar, Eve looked at another possible model—one that may be unexpected. In African bishops’ approach to Catholics and catechumens living in polygamous families, she discovered wisdom that is relevant to gay people as well. Here are some quotes:

• "[The bishops show] a consistent desire to praise the good, true, and beautiful in the aspirations of polygamous families, even while condemning the sin (and injustice) that attends these relationships."
  
  
• "Cardinal Philippe Ouedraogo of Ouagadougou calls for inculturation: 'a "transforming conversion"' in which the 'deficiencies' of a culture are purified and the culture’s underlying beauty revealed."
  
  
• "As Sister Esther Lucas Jose Maria, DC, said at SECAM's meeting this August, “'W]e have bishops and even cardinals who are products of polygamous families.' In a similar way, many Catholic leaders have gay loved ones, and open acknowledgment of those family members’ experiences and aspirations can only help to shape practical and inspiring pastoral guidance."
  
  

Eve ends by comparing gay ministry to youth ministry: both ministries of “pathfinding,” of helping people discover role models, explore new possibilities, and envision a Catholic future for themselves.