June has been designated as Pride Month around the parts of the world in which it has become a moral imperative to accede to the various agendas that the LGBTQ+ label represents. The month is replete with official proclamations, corporate sponsorships and marketing campaigns, festivals and galas, and increased political pressure to uncritically normalise the various lifestyles and moral claims encompassed by LGBTQ+ ideology.
Of course, Catholics cannot in good conscience join any of these celebrations when doing so would imply endorsing this agenda or its normalisation. That does not mean, however, that we should either ignore or condemn these agendas wholesale. On the contrary, this is a prime opportunity more carefully to consider our pastoral responsibility to people who fall under the various letters. Ours should not be a posture of rejection, but of welcome and reconciliation. But, of course, that posture must be qualified by Catholic moral teaching on the nature of sexuality, gender, and marriage. And it must begin by breaking up the initials.
