We entrust a real champion of peace to the Risen Lord during this Octave of Easter. Bishop Gumbleton took the gospel to heart and lived it day in and day out. He preferred to speak the truth and to be on the side of the marginalized than to to[e] any party line and climb the ecclesiastical ladder. When it came to speaking the prophetic word he was unafraid and lived with the consequences. I pray for more shepherds like Tom Gumbleton who lived the spirituality of nonviolence in all contexts. It is kind of fitting that he shares the anniversary of death of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr.
Most of the obituaries and articles I’ve read in response to yesterday’s death of Bishop
Thomas Gumbleton (1930-2024) have focused on his admirable peace work. What’s not being as much emphasized is his work with and for LGBTQ+ Catholics and their families. It was work that grew from his relationship with his brother, Dan, who was gay.
Just how significant was Bishop Gumbleton’s work with LGBTQ+ Catholics and their families? Here’s how
Francis DeBernardo of New Ways Ministry
puts it:
Bishop Gumbleton paved the way for Pope Francis. Decades before this pope’s openness, when a Catholic leader’s support for LGBTQ+ people could negatively affect one’s stature in the church, Bishop Gumbleton spoke fearlessly with compassion and certainty that were rooted in a deep commitment to the Gospel of Jesus.
He was not concerned about his own reputation or person. He was concerned that justice be done, that people be accepted, and that the institutional Catholic Church have the courage to live up to its own best ideals.
In the 34 years that he had been public about his support for LGBTQ+ issues, Bishop Gumbleton did more than any other member of the hierarchy to move church members, theologians, and pastoral ministers to extend a friendly and welcoming hand to LGBTQ people. For him, LGBTQ+ issues were not a question of sex, but of justice.
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton was, in short, a “prophet pioneer of Catholic LGBTQ+ equality.”
I had the honor of meeting and working with Bishop Gumbleton in the mid 1990s and early 2000s when I was involved with the
Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities (CPCSM). In fact, he wrote the foreward to my 2007 book,
Creating Safe Environments for LGBT Students: A Catholic Schools Perspective.
One of the first photos ever taken of me after my
relocation from Australia to the U.S. was the one
above. In it, I’m pictured standing with Bishop Gumblton and fellow members of the planning team for his October 1994 visit to the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Pictured (from left) are CPCSM board member Mary Burns, CPCSM co-founder
David McCaffrey, me, Bishop Gumbleton, CPCSM co-founder
Bill Kummer,
Darlene White, Dale Korogi (who at that time was at the Basilica of St. Mary, one of the venues at which Bishop Gumbleton spoke and celebrated mass), and Joan Bednarczyk (from the Church of St. Stephen in Anoka, where Bishop Gumbleton’s talk was entitled “From Fear to Faith: A Catholic Bishop's Personal Journey with His Gay Brother”).
As I document
here, it was through
Dignity Twin Cities that I first became involved with the CPCSM. Years later I would serve as the organization's executive coordinator.
Throughout the spring and summer of 1994, CPCSM worked to bring Bishop Gumbleton to the Twin Cities for a series of talks in October. I organized a speaking engagement for the bishop at the College of St. Catherine, and gave it the title, “Bridging the Gap: Reconciling the Church and Its Sexual Minority Members.” I used a picture of the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the promotional material.
Above: Bishop Gumbleton at the inaugural Prayer Breakfast for Hope and Justice in St. Paul, MN – Friday, June 29, 2007.
Organized by a coalition of Twin Cities Catholic justice and peace groups – including Call to Action MN, CPCSM, and Pax Christi Twin Cities – the 2007 Prayer Breakfast for Hope and Justice saw over 100 people gather in St. Paul for a Eucharistic liturgy followed by a continental breakfast and a round table discussion – the focus of which was on ways of finding and sustaining hope in the context of both the contemporary Catholic Church and wider society.
That first prayer breakfast in 2007 was followed by two others in the local church of St. Paul-Minneapolis. The
2008 Prayer Breakfast for Hope and Justice featured award-winning Catholic author and historian Robert McClory, while the
2009 Prayer Breakfast launched the Catholic Coalition for Church Reform and featured Janet Hauter of the American Catholic Council as keynote speaker.
Above: At the inaugural Prayer Breakfast for Hope and Justice in 2007, Bishop Thomas Gumbleton was presented with a “Lifetime Achievement Award for Justice and Peace.”
Above: Theresa O’Brien, CSJ; Bishop Gumbleton; and Myrna and Ron Ohmann were among the guests at CPCSM’s 2007 Annual Community Meeting, which took place on Thursday, June 28, at St. Martin’s Table Bookstore and Restaurant in Minneapolis.
The event served as a celebration of the then-recently published
Creating Safe Environments for LGBT Students: A Catholic Schools Perspective, the book I edited as CPCSM executive coordinator.
Our celebration began with a wine and cheese reception followed by a selection of readings from
Creating Safe Environments for LGBT Students: A Catholic Schools Perspective. In a number of cases, those who contributed testimonials and reflections to the book read their own contributions. One of these contributors was Bishop Gumbleton (then the retired Auxiliary Bishop of Detroit), who shared with the fifty people in attendance the foreword that he had penned for the book.
Part of Bishop Gumbleton’s foreword reads as follows: “Prophetic words and deeds shine through this text. And like all prophetic words they speak of justice, inclusiveness, and a vision of the world that is bigger, more encompassing than the one we may be prepared to embrace. Yet the call remains. It rings forth from these pages – offering a catalyst for transformation.”
Thank you, Bishop Gumbleton, for these words . . . and for allowing the transforming power of God to flow through ALL your words and actions. Your willingness to be a living vessel of God’s grace and thus a prophetic witness to God’s call for justice and peace, brought hope, consolation and empowerment to many.
May you rest in power and peace.
Related Off-site Links:
Thomas Gumbleton, Detroit Catholic Bishop Who Opposed War and Promoted Social Justice, Dies at 94 – Ed White and Jakkar Aimery (Associated Press and Detroit News, April 4, 2024).
Bishop Gumbleton, Longtime Soul of the U.S. Catholic Peace Movement, Dies – Peter Feuerherd and Joshua J. McElwee (National Catholic Reporter, April 4, 2024).
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, a Promoter of Solidarity With Those in Need, Dies at 94 – Detroit Catholic (April 4, 2024).
LGBTQ Catholic Group Mourns the Passing of Bishop Thomas Gumbleton – DignityUSA (April 5, 2024).
Bishop Gumbleton: Remembering a Prophet Pioneer of Catholic LGBTQ+ Equality – Francis DeBernardo (New Ways Ministry, April 5, 2024).
UPDATES: Pope Francis Praised Bishop Gumbleton as “a Good Shepherd” in a Letter Before His Death – Christopher White (National Catholic Reporter, April 10, 2024).
Bishop Gumbleton Memorial Video – Jasmine Rivera (via Vimeo, April 12, 2024).
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Bishop Gumbleton: It Isn’t the Church You’re Being Asked to Say Yes To . . . It’s Jesus
• Bishop Gumbleton: A Priesthood Set Apart and Above Others is Not the Way of Jesus
• Stamping Out the Light
