DETROIT -- For more than 45 years, Dignity Detroit has been a haven for LGBTQ Catholics looking to practice their faith in a space for those with different sexual orientations.
The group held Masses with the help of several Catholic priests, including some bishops who would preside over their services, first held at Most Holy Trinity Church in Detroit and later at Scared Heart Chapel at Marygrove College.
But this year, the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit kicked them out, saying they are now forbidden from gathering at churches and having priests perform Mass for them.
The archdiocese has also kicked out another LGBTQ Catholic group, Fortunate Families Detroit. Both groups and clergy received letters earlier this year from Auxiliary Bishop Gerard Battersby warning them they are no longer welcome in the archdiocese, because they advocate policies that clash with church doctrine on sexuality.
"A Mass for Dignity Detroit members -- one which rejects Church teaching on human sexuality -- is not possible in any parish church, chapel, or diocesan facility, and is indeed forbidden everywhere in the Archdiocese of Detroit," Bishop Battersby wrote in a March 9 letter to all priests. "Refrain from offering Mass anywhere in the Archdiocese of Detroit for Dignity Detroit, lest we confuse the faithful by seeming to endorse an alternative and contradictory path to sanctity."
And in June, the archdiocese fired a music teacher who is a lesbian after she married another woman.
Conservative Catholics have been pushing for years for the archdiocese to distance itself from LGBTQ organizations. In August 2019, Archbishop Allen Vigneron, who leads the archdiocese, released a note titled "Imitating Christ's Charity and Chastity" that urged those with same-sex attractions to live a chaste life.
'NOT GOING ANYWHERE'
Leaders of the two groups say they are going to continue with their mission.
Dignity Detroit last month held its first in-person Mass since the coronavirus pandemic at the chapel at what used to be Marygrove College. And Fortunate Families is holding online meetings while it plans a future outside the archdiocese.
"Dignity is still around, and we're not going anywhere," Frank D'Amore, president of Dignity Detroit, told the Detroit Free Press last week. "We just celebrated our 46th anniversary in May. We never went out of our way to embarrass the church hierarchy. We're on our fourth archbishop in 39 years, three cardinals. Now, all of a sudden, it's an issue? I don't get it."
Since 2014, Fortunate Families Detroit, which supports LGBTQ families, has been gathering at Christ the King Catholic Church, led by the Rev. Victor Clore, for meetings and Mass. But on March 14, Bishop Battersby sent the group a letter telling it to stop its services.
"Fortunate Families Detroit provides a misleading and harmful message," Battersby wrote. "Having such an organization, with its competing vision for the sanctification of her members, operating within the boundaries of the Archdiocese is both confusing to the faithful and detrimental to the very membership the organization seeks to serve."
"As delegate of Archbishop Allen Vigneron, I ask that you immediately suspend meeting and disband your organization as a group claiming to be Catholic operating in the Archdiocese of Detroit. Fortunate Families Detroit is forbidden from meeting in any parish church, chapel, or institution of the Archdiocese of Detroit," Battersby said."
The leaders of Fortunate Families, who have LGBT children, said they were surprised by the letter.
"We had no inkling" they were going to remove our group, said Linda Karle-Nelson, who's co-president along with her husband, Tom Nelson. "It was surprising, shocking, it was hurtful. It means we lost our parish, our home base for many years. The pastor there is not allowed to associate with us. We're no longer a group with a parish home. We're not allowed in any Catholic parish. ... That's pretty harsh."
CHURCH HAS ITS OWN GROUPS
The archdiocese maintains that it is not opposed to anyone, but is encouraging people who may identify as LGBTQ to get involved with Catholic groups called Courage and EnCourage, which encourage gay people to not be sexually active.
"In recent years, the Archdiocese of Detroit has been committed to renewing and strengthening its ministry for members of the faithful who experience same-sex attraction and their families," Holly Fournier, a spokesperson for the archdiocese, told the Free Press in a statement.
"This resolve grew out of our Archdiocesan Synod in 2016, during which participants affirmed the importance of ensuring all such ministries appropriately accompany the faithful along the path provided to us by Christ. To that end, the Archbishop has appointed three priest chaplains for our local chapters of the Courage and EnCourage apostolates to minister to those who experience same-sex attraction and their friends and families."
She said the archdiocese is encouraging members of the expelled groups to join Courage and EnCourage.
At Christ the King Catholic Church, the Rev. Clore has been supporting LGBTQ Catholics and their advocates for more than 20 years. About seven years ago, they coalesced into Fortunate Families Detroit, which is part of a national group supporting LGBTQ Catholic family members.
Clore told the Free Press he's "very disappointed" with the archdiocese expelling the group, but says he will abide it since the archbishop has the final say in church operations.
"Fortunate Families does not promote anything sinful," Clore said. "They are really a support group for family and friends.
Clore said people with anti-gay views have a distorted view of sexuality.
"Human nature is above and beyond just propagating the human species," Clore said. "Sexuality is about loving. It's about relationships between two people who care about each other in a loving embrace. ... There are sterile couples who don't have children, but they are still allowed to marry and make love through sexual expression."