"Cardinal Gregory offers rambling 'apology' to 'our LGBTQ brothers and sisters'"

"In what one prominent LGBT activist called a 'watershed moment' for baptized 'lesbian, gay, transgender, and queer' professed Catholics, Cardinal Wilton Gregory, Archbishop of Washington, D.C., held a prayer service for the pro-LGBT Catholic organization Dignity Washington.

While Gregory spent most of his 1,600-word discussing the challenges believers face in maintaining their faith in a fractured Christian world – especially as scandals have rocked Catholicism – he reserved his comments aimed specifically at 'LGBTQ Catholics' until the end.

'There is no room for religious bigotry that is largely fueled by lack of knowledge and ignorance on the part of peoples who may call themselves religious but whose behavior violates the basic tenets of most of the great faith traditions of the world,' Gregory read from his prepared remarks at the prayer service...

'I apologize for my own failure to emulate Christ’s compassion,' Gregory said. 'The way that we have treated our (so-called) LGBTQ brothers and sisters has brought them tears and too many of us disgrace.'

'I apologize from the heart for the hurt that has resulted in the loss of so many of our family members who belong to God no less than I do,' Gregory said.

'I apologize not only for those whose past actions have scandalized and wounded these men and women,' said Gregory, concluding, 'I apologize for my own lack of courage to bring healing and hope, and I ask forgiveness.'

Sister Jeannine Gramick, co-founder of New Ways Ministry (NWM), a dissident pro-LGBT group presenting itself as a Catholic organization, told the LGBT-oriented Washington Blade, 'I think Cardinal Gregory’s remarks are a watershed moment in the relationship between the Archdiocese of Washington and the (so-called) LGBTQ+ community.'"