Sexuality and Salvation
Posted on 14. Nov, 2019, in Achievement, Celibacy/Sexuality, Christian Values, SexualityComments Off on Sexuality and Salvation
Fr Bernárd Lynch is to receive the Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad from President Michael D. Higgins on November 21 in honour of the work he did as a priest to those with AIDS/HIV. For fifteen years, he was Theological Consultant to Dignity New York – an organisation for LGBT Catholic and their friends. He worked tirelessly with the people around him, many of whom died. He talks about how during that time, he himself thought that he was going to die.
He went on further to say that the Church were totally unsupportive of priests, in particular those who caught the virus and died – many of them died lonely deaths having being largely shunned by the Catholic Church. He also talks of how the men who died were looking for connection and salvation, but who ended up being treated worse than animals.
In this first of a two part series, he speaks with Miriam Gormally after a talk he gave in Trinity, on “Vatican hypocrisy and hopes for our church” about what a humbling experience it is to receive an award on behalf of all of those whose deaths were considered so shameful.