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Resources Index
Conditions of use
Dignity/USA
Other chapters
Institutional Church
Recommended reading
Welcoming communities
Things in Spanish
Cosas en Español
More Dignity/USA

Introduction

This is the Resources Page of this website. What it contains is not so much resources (as such) as links (or other references) to additional information. Some links (like the one to Dignity/USA's website) are so good (and relevant to the purposes of this website) that individual links or items of information to be found there are also repeated individually here in some instances, in order to help to ensure that readers do not overlook them and to help to ease the process of locating them. Good hunting; but please be aware that we can not be responsible for the content of the websites of others. However, please feel free to suggest to webmaster the inclusion of added links or other references on this page (and please include the word "Dignity" in the subject line in any e-mails that are sent to the webmaster about this website). The first section below contains the conditions of use that apply to this website. To the left is an index to this Resources page; and at the end of each section of this Resources page, there is a link that will take you back to that index, if you click on the link. As is the case throughout this website, everything that is underlined is a link to something or somewhere else; just click on it to go there; and if you click on the left arrow of your browser (upper left corner of your screen), you will be returned to where you clicked from.


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Conditions of use

This entire website is copyrighted by Dignity/Los Angeles and JCN Web Design, in 2005/06. Neither has any responsibility for the availability or accuracy of any information placed on or linked into this website. Use of this website by Dignity, Inc. (also known as Dignity/USA) or any chapter duly affiliated with Dignity/USA is not prohibited, with credit to be given to the copyright holders; and use of this website by individuals for purely personal usages contemplated by the nature of this website is not prohibited by copyright holders. All users are responsible for verifying the continuing usability and accuracy of any and all information on this website. While the last date changes of substance were made to any part of this website (other than the monthly posting of revised This Month and Next Month calendars and News page (and the archives from it, reachable from the introduction to the News page)) will generally be shown on this website, that does not mean that the entire website was updated (or reviewed for possible updating) at that time. Any use of this website constitutes your agreement to accept, and to comply with, these conditions of use.

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Dignity/USA

Dignity/USA has its own website, with its Home page at http://www.dignityusa.org, with both an extensive site map and numerous internal links to help you navigate about its website, starting with a page that contains a general explanation of Dignity itself. In addition, its website has many resources easy to reach on (or from) its website; and some of the most notable are listed in a section of this Resources page of this website (in a section called More Dignity/USA to be found at the very end of this Resources page).

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other Dignity chapters

There are four Dignity chapters located in southern California. In addition to Dignity/Los Angeles itself, they are (from south to north) as follows: There is also a complete list of all the Dignity chapters in the country, listed on a State-by-State basis, including a list of all the chapters located in California.

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the institutional (Roman) Catholic Church

The Bishop of Rome (sometimes called the Pope) has his (or her) seat of power and authority in Rome, Italy; and it is also known as the "Holy See" or the "Vatican" (and note that the word "See" is really just another word for "Seat (of power or authority)"). Believe it or not, the Vatican has an extensive website; just click on Vatican to visit it.

The National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and the U.S. Catholic Conference (USCC) are the principal organizations of the American hierarchy of the Church.

There are now three dioceses which are located (in whole or in part) in the greater Los Angeles area, including the Archdiocese of Los Angeles headed by an archbishop (who currently is also a cardinal) who is the metropolitan of the province of which all three of these dioceses are a part. The three dioceses are:
  • the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, headquartered in Los Angeles, California (and it also has a Spanish language website),
  • the Diocese of San Bernardino, headquartered in San Bernardino, California and
  • the Diocese of Orange, headquartered in Orange, California.
Apparently none of these dioceses currently has a diocese-wide program specifically geared to addressing GLBTs as such. However, please consult the Welcoming Faith Communities section of this Resources page for more information on this subject.

The New American Bible is the version of the Bible authorized by the (Roman) Catholic Bishops for use during Masses. It is available on-line in full text; however, it is not in the public domain for copyright purposes, nor can it be electronically searched in web-based word searches. However, the American Revised Standard Version of the Bible is available on-line in full text, and it can be used in doing web-based word searches; but it is copyrighted and is not in the public domain for copyright purposes. With the permission of the copyright holder, it has even been used/cited in official documents of the American hierarchy of the Church in quoting Scripture, indicating that it is highly thought of by the American hierarchy of the Church.

The current official Catechism of the (Roman) Catholic Church is available on-line in full text. To read some of the parts of it most pertinent to GLBT concerns, click here.

The website of Dignity/USA contains a page that gathers citations (usually also equipped with links) to a number of official Church pronouncements on doctrine of concern to GLBTs. On this website itself, there is a sexuality page that discusses and critiques such doctrine at some length, with citations to Scripture and other Church pronouncements, including "Always Our Children", a pastoral letter from the American Bishops, which ends with a manual bibliography of the Church pronouncements that the authors of that pastoral letter considered to be of relevance.

There is also a section of this Resources page that lists suggestions for additional reading on the subject of GLBT sexuality (and other topics involving Church reform), including histories of Church pronoucements on sexuality of interest to GLBTs. The Dignity/USA website also contains a list of organizations involved in Church reform of various kinds, sometimes with the participation or support of Dignity/USA itself.

There is a (searchable) list of (supposedly, i.e. hoped to be eventually) all the (Roman) Catholic dioceses and bishops (and of the religious orders to which they belong (or belonged), if any).
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recommended readings and such

Some may consider it to be presumptuous (or even impossible) to prepare an adequate list of recommended readings, since the topic is so broad and the available material so extensive (not to mention widely dispersed). However, we do have some ideas, and we offer them in the hope that recommendations will be useful to at least some in identifying (and finding) readings that they might otherwise overlook or have difficulty finding.
  • As a Jesuit priest and psychotherapist, John J. McNeill was the first to gain a wide audience with his books on homosexuality and Catholicism, beginning with his seminal The Church and the Homosexual, published by Beacon Books in Boston, first in 1976 (with Church approval, that was announced by Father McNeill at a Dignity liturgy in New York in 1976). It convincingly shows that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality.
  • As a Yale University history professor, John Boswell produced many scholarly works; but the most famous in the GLBT community are two books of particular interest and importance to GLBTs. They are:
    • Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality, Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the 14th Century, published in 1980 by the University of Chicago Press, in Chicago, and
    • Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe, published in 1994 by Villard Books (a Division of Random House Books), in New York.
  • Rome Has Spoken (edited by Maureen Fiedler and Linda Rabben under the auspices of Quixote Center (in Brentwood, Maryland) and published in 1998 by Crossroads Publishing Company in New York) is a priceless collection of pronoucements by Popes and other high Church officials on a variety of selected subjects of current interest, to GLBTs and others. The book focuses on the differences among the pronouncements on the same subject over time, to show that to deny that Church teachings change over time would be pure folly.
  • In 1998, Dignity/USA joined approximately 140 other Church-reform groups to address the subject of just what would make a good Pope. The full text of A Pope For the Time To Come, including both the report and the cover letters to then Pope John Paul II and all of the then members of the college of Cardinals appear on the website of Dignity/USA; and they are a wonderful read.
  • Not all are interested in serious analysis of modern theological thought and method; but if you think that you want to expose yourself to a basic primer on the subject, an excellent book with which to do so is Dynamics of Theology by Jesuit priest Roger Haight, a professor of historical and systematic theology at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and published in 1990 by Paulist Press. He has also, more recently (in 1999), published an eye-opening Jesus Symbol of God, Orbis Press, Maryknoll, New York; and still more recently, he has published a two-volume work on Church history (and Church governance throughout its history): Christian Community In History: Comparative Ecclesiology (volume 1; October 2004); and Christian Community In History: Historical Ecclesiology (volume 2; February 2005). His works are readily available on-line from Amazon.com, by using "Roger Haight" (in quotes) as a search term on its site.
  • Finally, Dignity/USA has on its website a page devoted to some further recommended reading, primarily on GLBT subjects.
Happy reading; and be sure to share with others, in Dignity and otherwise, what you learn and come to believe as you read!
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welcoming faith communities

Some faith communities (even some (Roman) Catholic parishes) do seem to go out of their way (more than others) to welcome GLBTs. Such communities have come to enjoy the quite appropriately descriptive honor of being called welcoming faith communities. Some are (or appear to be) predominantly GLBT in their leadership and/or membership, while others appear to be just more Christian in their reaction to GLBTs who seek to associate themselves with that faith community. Click here for a list of a few of the faith communities that have come to be known to be welcoming faith communities (in the greater Los Angeles area); but we do not undertake to indicate just why they appear on the list while others do not appear (and note that some communities on the list are (Roman) Catholic parishes; see the first section of the list).
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Cosas en Español/Things in Spanish

Esta seccíon hace una lista de cosas en español, que son en este website o que se pueda obtener por click. This section lists things in Spanish that are on this website or that one can obtain by clicking on a link on this website.
  • Introducíon a Dignitad: Qué querrá decir Dignitad? (an Introduction to Dignity).
  • Declaración de la Posición y Propósito (Dignity's Declaration of Position and Purpose (SP&P)).
  • Catolicismo, Homosexualidad, & Dignidad: Pregustas Y Respuestas Sobre Ser Lesbiana, Gay, Bisexual, o Transgendered, y También Católico.
  • Siempre Serán Nuestros Hijos (Always Our Children, a pastoral message from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (1997)).
Tambien, hay una página para El Ministerio Hispanico, sobre el tema de La Familia Guadalupana; click aquí para ir esa página. Also, there is a page on the chapter's Hispanic Ministry, called the Familia Guadalupana; click here to go there.

Para obtener mas ayuda en español, por favor mándenos un mensaje por e-mail, por click aquí; o llámenos por teléfonico: (323) 344-8064 (y, por favor, anote un mensaje en el contestador automático (si no obtiene respuesta) o llámenos por teléfonico otra vez). El tiempo mejor para llamarnos es acera de las cinco de la tarde los Domingos.
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More Dignity/USA

As has already been noted above, Dignity/USA has its own website, with its Home page at http://www.dignityusa.org, with both an extensive site map and numerous internal links to help you navigate its website, starting with a page containing a general explanation of Dignity. In addition, its website has many resources easy to reach on (or from) its website; and the most notable are listed below in this section called More Dignity/USA, notably including the following:
  • an opportunity to read the most recent/important press releases issued by Dignity/USA and other news (and to read a copy of the most recent issue of Dignity/USA's monthly newsletter (called The Dateline), click on "Details" in the box headed by the current month on that page or the Home page of the Dignity/USA website), and
  • an opportunity to sign up, free of charge, to have Dignity/USA send to you, by e-mail from time to time, its News Service in order to keep you up to date on Dignity news,
  • an opportunity to sign up for a variety of on-line discussion groups on GLBT topics, and
  • an introduction to the leadership team of Dignity/USA, as well as the wide variety of projects underway under their leadership, and
  • numerous items of historic importance (and of particular interest to GLBTs) on a variety of topics, including:
    • a study of sexual ethics prepared and issued by Dignity/USA itself; and see also:
      • the Statement of Position And Purpose (SP&P) of Dignity (that can also be reached by clicking on the SP&P link just below the banner at the top of each page of this website), and
      • the topic of sexuality itself by clicking here (or by clicking on the Sexuality link in the banner at the top of each page of this website), and
      • its Guidelines on the pastoral care of GLBT persons, issued at the time of its biennial convention in Austin, Texas, in July 2007, and
      • the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page of this website (that can also be reached by clicking on the FAQs link just below the banner at the top of each page of this website),
    • documents on Church doctrine,
    • the highlights of the history of Dignity,
    • a chronological listing of those who have held various leadership positions in Dignity since its inception, and
    • a chronological archive of historic Dignity documents, as such,
  • extensive liturgy/worship materials, including
  • resource materials regarding particular groups within Dignity, including
    • those who are bisexual persons,
    • those who are transgender persons (and including materials addressed to promoting a better understanding of transgender persons by others),
    • those who are in the GLBT leather community,
    • those who are living with HIV/AIDS (or who are close to or assisting those who are living with HIV/AIDS), and
  • resource materials for family issues involving GLBT persons, from many different angles, including:
    • help for youth themselves who may be GBLT as they go through the difficult process of trying to discern and accept their own sexuality,
    • help for the parents (or other family) of GLBT persons from an organization of other Parents, Family, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and even (to a more-limited extent) the institutional Church in the form of a pastoral letter from American bishops that is entitled "Always Our Children."
    • help for non-GLBT persons as they are being come out to, that may even provide helpful hints for the GLBT person who is trying to do that coming out,
    • help for those who have GLBT parents themselves,
    • and do not forget the materials on Couples previously cited above.
  • a version in Spanish of many Dignity documents and prayers (and see also the Hispanic Ministry page of this website itself and Things in Spanish section above on this Resources page itself, including assistance in Spanish), and
  • information on opportunities to volunteer your services to assist Dignity, over and above chapter activities as such, and
  • an extensive list of other organizations (and in that list, the name of an organization is a link that will take you directly to its website, even though the name is not underlined in that list) that will be of interest to reform-minded people, such as Dignity members and other GLBT persons in general, and includes:
  • assistance in locating a Dignity chapters in any part of the country (whether you live there or wish to attend a chapter event while visiting that part of the country),
  • a copy of the By-Laws of Dignity/USA itself, and
  • finally, but certainly not the least important, it has information (and procedures) for joining, renewing, donating to, and/or updating information on file with Dignity/USA; click here to go there. There are no minimum dues to become a member; but by clicking here, you can read an appeal for making a donation and doing so at a generous level, as well as an explanation of why you should consider doing just that, if you have the financial means to enable you to do so.
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