The complicated history of AIDS and the Catholic Church. Ep. 121

The story of Catholics and the AIDS epidemic in the United States
is often told as one of “gays versus the church.” But the reality
was much more complicated than that. So complicated that our
colleague, Michael O’Loughlin, has spent years talking to people
who lived through that harrowing period to paint a fuller picture
of how Catholic patients and activists, religious sisters and
bishops, hospital administrators and volunteers responded to the
crisis. And now you can hear their stories in a new podcast from
America Media, “Plague: Untold Stories of AIDS and the Catholic
Church.” We ask Michael how the church was a source of both healing
and hurt, whether the relationship between the church and the
L.G.B.T. community has changed since the height of the epidemic and
what the deep faith of gay Catholics who lived through this period
can teach us today. In Signs of the Times, a Jesuit priest wants to
create a less toxic gaming environment and Pope Francis wants you
to set up a nativity scene. Plus, a groundbreaking new survey of
Catholic employees and a Catholic school faces a lawsuit over what
critics consider a racially discriminatory hair policy. Tell us
what you think about the episode on our Facebook page, follow us on
Twitter and help other listeners find Jesuitical by leaving us a
review on Apple Podcasts. Please consider supporting the show by
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Links from the show A Catholic Priest is Creating a Non-Toxic
Minecraft Server Questions Of Faith: Exclusive Survey of Catholic
Church Employees NYC Catholic schools hold fast on boys’ braid bans
despite laws banning hair discrimination Pope Francis, at site of
first nativity scene, issues letter on the importance of the crèche
What’s on tap?St. Germain hot toddy Nursing students treat a
patient in the AIDS ward of Saint Vincent's Hospital in the 1980s.
(Courtesy: Archives, Sisters of Charity of New York) Learn more
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