Last night, the film For the Bible Tells Me So, was scheduled to be
screened at the St. Augustine Parish on Sterling Place and Sixth
Avenue. At the last minute the screening had to be moved to the home of
a church member. Michele Madigan Somerville, an active member of the
church’s Gay Ministry explains why.

The movie, For the Bible Tells Me So, which several members of the Gay MInsitry had seen, me included, has nothing in it that in any way goes against church teaching.

There has been a flier outside the church advertising the event for about a month. Some guy — we think (I don’t know for sure) NOT a member of St. Augustine Parish, called the Brooklyn Queens Diocese office and spoke with one of the priests in the Bishop DeMarzio’s office.

That priest contacted our pastor, who is in the middle of moving (to another parish and out of his quarters in the parish house — this for reasons having only to do with his (normal) 12 years at one parish being up — so he was not able to stop to look at the movie in the interest of addressing the concerns.

    The homophobic complainant threatened to call the Nuncio.

    The members of the Gay ministry decided to hold the screening in a home.

    This decision was made for our protection, I think, and in order to preserve the peace. We’ve got a new head priest coming next week at ST. A, and though we have no reason to imagine he will not support this ministry, we want the transition to be as painless and peaceful as possible. That thinking affected decision-making.

    The group met at one of the member’s homes. We imagine that people from the community trying to attend the screening may have been discouraged –which I feel bad about,

    Some people at the screening — which turned into a soiree-meeting — were angry. Some were not.

    Three Brooklyn RC parishes and one from Manhattan — St, Francis Xavier in Manhattan — where they have a 15 year old Roman Catholic Gay Ministry, so it is clear that the homophobe complainant shall not be successful in stopping this particular train to glory!

    I’ll be writing about this later on on www.whydogod.com.