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THE GLOBAL NETWORK of Rainbow Catholics (GNRC) says it is “deeply dismayed and disappointed” after receiving no response in its requests to be part of the World Meeting of Families.
Pope Francis is travelling to Ireland for two days next month to be part of the event.
Earlier this week We Are Church Ireland, a group which campaigns for the equal inclusion of women and LGBT people in the Catholic church, also described how it was being ‘ignored and discriminated against’ in its application to be part of the event.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin have previously said that same-sex issues would be discussed during a pastoral congress in Dublin’s RDS held as part of the event but two LGBT groups have now complained about a lack of response.
The GNRC, which represents 32 LGBTI Catholic groups from around the world, says it applied for an exhibit booth on 17 April and that despite repeated requests for a decision, and information that booth spaces are still available, it has still received no response.
We Are Church Ireland said it applied back in February to have a stand in the RDS, and even paid a deposit, but did not receive a written response.
Responding to the criticism from We Are Church, a spokesperson for the World Meeting of Families told TheJournal.ie, “We Are Church are one of a number of organisations who are on a holding list in respect of exhibition space …. many of these groups are on hold because they do not meet our stated criteria which was provided to them at the time of their application.
Priority was given in allocating exhibition spaces to those who immediately met the criteria. Had there been more space available we may have been able to allocate spaces to those on hold on the list. At this point it seems very unlikely that there will be any spaces left to allocate to those who fell outside the criteria.
‘Feel ignored’
Co chair of GNRC who submitted the application for a booth for the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics (GNRC) Ruby Almeida said:
Attempts to get a response about our exhibit booth from World Meeting of Families officials have been very frustrating. We feel completely ignored.
“It was our hope that we could provide support to our fellow Catholics who have LGBTI family members. Many families have questions about how to best support gay and transgender family members, what the Church really teaches about us, and how and why we choose to remain Catholics.”
Almeida added that, “Due to the delay and the repeated refusal of those in charge to give us an approval, it is no longer practical for us to do this outreach.
People needed to schedule time off from work and to arrange travel. The foot-dragging means that we will not be able to provide support to our fellow Catholics through an outreach booth at World Meeting of Families.
TheJournal.ie has asked the organisers of the World Meeting of Families for a response to the allegations made by the Global Network of Rainbow Catholics.
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I’m reading this on my Iphone…. says it all really
Congratulations.
@ Pierce2020, all it says really is you follow the crowd and were suckerd into buying a way over priced gadget.
It says *what* all exactly?
How do you know if someone has an iphone?? Dont worry theyll tell you.
What……Iphones have Internet now?????? WOW!!!
Ipgone is 2nd in the market and 2nd richest company. Iphone had to take down adverts as misleading saying full internet when its basic internet. Also bringing everyone to court. Nobody can eat an apple anymore for fear of being sued
Could be the beginning or end for blackberry. Think they need to stick to the business aspect and not the social. They will not compete with Apple and Samsung on that front.
here ye mike.i refuse to buy any apple product out of pure spite
I’ve never had a Blackberry, though friends and family have and they loved them. Blackberry had the business market primarily. Lack of innovation has left them languishing behind the competition, by all accounts the phone is meant to be a good device. Perhaps they should focus on capturing this business market share again, and build from there. Remember Obama famously had a Blackberry in his first presidential run. Has he switched?
Blackberry are deservedly legendary in there device security and build quality.
Having has Iphones and Samsung, I have every intention of going back to bby IF they get some decent apps.
I personally see iPhones fading into the background….i’m sure the fanboys will poop with rage for such blasphemy, but look at Nokia now!
Apple wont be able to design anything without getting sued….and its there own fault.
Android is great but the constant ads and ‘security’ worries are just too much. I don’t trust them!
Blackberry got lazy, and they paid dearly for their complacency. But if your privacy is of any value…..you have 2 option.
1) Blackberry
2) Nokia 6210
On second iPhone since last June! Wifi went on first, now internal speaker is going on this one. Had blackberry for 3 years and if I charged it up I know it’d still be good…bring on the new BB!!!
Obama Famously had a blackberry…are you high man??
Blackberry’s eco system died in 2007 . Its the only smartphone that requires a proprietary application (blackberry enterprise server) to deliver email and management to corporate phones, and the licence for BES is damn expensive too . The phones arent that easy to use, arent that well designed and the software up till now was terrible.
Best of luck to them but im going to say rim will be gone by 2016
Stephen, your loyalty to apple is well documented. Good for you, but iOS didn’t support exchange in the beginning either.
Also, the reason for bes is that its completely secure.
2 points for you.
1) BES is free for small business
2) BB10 WILL support ms exchange
It goes on sale Jan 31st. Early releases look good. There is probably room for a little competition in the two horse smartphone race. BB are banking everything on these new devices guaranteeing app developers $10000 revenues for new apps which proved so popular they had to extend the submission deadline. As for the fruit flavored smartphone; they’ve pretty much reached saturation point esp in European markets. There is only so many time you can sell the same device with minor incremental improvement for an upwards only pricing policy (which Asian markets aren’t taking kindly to) b4 consumers decide to try an alternative for their next device.
Molome is an app for Blackberry that is just like instagram.. and it is free. Can’t wait to see this later today!
Instagram is free.
Apps that are free are rarely truly free. With instagram you’re paying with your private data. If you’re not paying for it, you’re the product!
I love how people hate iPhone users because they can’t afford 1 them selves !
Most socialists don’t like mutinationals. Go figure
pic above looks like a cross between an S3 and an iphone. looks like there could be more copyright battles ahead!
The first photos of the Blackberry 10, showing the above form, were leaked last January (2012) , five, or so months before the launch of the S3 and a good nine or ten months before the launch of the iPhone 5.
Every time apple sue someone, they get patents revoked! I think they’ll keep their heads low for a while.
Rumour has it their going to make a watch and a TV!
Watch out Rolex……..
Shockingly stubborn system , my pets doghouse has Netflix but BlackBerry tablet has not and never will , a Nokia 3210 has more apps , company reminds me of the aul lad in the pub pining for the good aul days .
Does any one at the Journal ever edit these releases or do you just cut and paste?
“have gotten”…. heaven help us.
have your say