Recognizing and accepting our LGBT brothers and sisters is a VICTORY for humanity. Thank god for priests like Fr. Tony Flannery and his observation that “doctrinaire Catholicism is over in this country. The people are no longer willing to listen to speeches and sermons on morality from the church.” The people in the pews, not the bishops, are the church. Our challenge today is to bear witness to the Gospels not in the golden, stained glass splendor of cathedrals but in the struggle to live in inner cities, to raise families with a sense of the spiritual when all is awash in consumerism, and to care for each other as people who are all equally deserving of respect
Reactions to Ireland’s historic referendum vote to establish same-gender marriage in that nation have brought responses from around the globe. The latest reaction came from the Vatican Secretary of State who said it was “Not a defeat for Christian principles, it was a defeat for humanity.”
Cardinal Pietro Parolin
Religion News Service noted that Cardinal Pietro Parolin made this comment while speaking on Vatican Radio, and that he also noted “The Church must take account of this reality, but in the sense of reinforcing its commitment to evangelization.”
This reaction from a high Vatican official differed from those of someone closer to Ireland, Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, who had stated that he thought the Church needed to consider the views of young people on this and other issues:
“I think really the church needs to do a reality check right across the board, to look at the areas in which…
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Dawn Morais 
I totally agree that the church is the people and not the Bishops. Amen.