✅ From the Editor
In October, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report that for the first time details the experiences of gender-diverse young persons as captured by the Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
In 2023, 3.3% of U.S. high school students identified as transgender, and 2.2% identified as questioning. Transgender and questioning students experienced a higher prevalence of violence, poor mental health, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and unstable housing, and a lower prevalence of school connectedness than their cisgender peers. Compared with 8.5% of cisgender male students, 25.3% of transgender students and 26.4% of questioning students skipped school because they felt unsafe. An estimated 40% of transgender and questioning students were bullied at school, and 69% of questioning students and 72% of transgender students experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, a marker for experiencing depressive symptoms. Approximately 26% of transgender and questioning students attempted suicide in the past year compared with 5% of cisgender male and 11% of cisgender female students.
The report concludes, "Tools exist to improve the safety and supportiveness of schools, and research demonstrates that when schools make steps to implement inclusive policies and practices, the mental health of all students improves."
For those of us who work in schools, we have a tremendous opportunity to make a difference by creating environments that increase connectedness for all students. The Body of Christ demands as much. As Mother Teresa wrote, "Don't worry about why problems exist in the world, just respond to people's needs."
✅ Fr. William Hart McNichols (Albuquerque, NM)
Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress;
my eye is wasted with grief, my soul and body also.
Strong as I am, I stumble because of my inequality, and my bones waste away.
I am the scorn of my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors ...
I have passed out of mind like one who is dead;
I have come to be like something lost.
Yes, I hear many whispering - terror on every side -
as they scheme together against me, to take my life.
(A rereading of part of Psalm 31)
As June ends this year, Pride Month too, I am deeply aware of all those, like this Anonymous Priest who came before us, we all “stand on the shoulders of these giants.” They do not deserve to be “like something lost,” as the King David cries in Psalm 31, but to be remembered.
And now the story of this icon, from the book The Men With The Pink Triangle, by Heinz Heger:
“Toward the end of February, 1940, a priest arrived in our block, a man some 60 years of age, tall and with distinguished features. We after discovered that he came from Sudetenland, from an aristocratic German family. He found the torment of the arrival procedure trying, particularly the long wait naked and barefoot outside the block. When his tonsure was discovered after the shower, the SS corporal in charge took up a razor and said, ‘I’ll go to work on this one myself, and extend his tonsure a bit.’ And he shaved the priest’s head with the razor, taking little trouble to avoid cutting his scalp, quite the contrary.
The priest returned to the day-room of our block with his head cut open and blood streaming down. His face was ashen and his eyes stared uncomprehendingly into the distance. He sat down on a bench, folded his hands in his lap and said softly, more to himself than to anyone else: ‘And yet man is good, he is a creature of God!’ I was sitting beside him and said softly but firmly: ‘Not all men; there are also beasts in human form, whom the devil must have made.’
The priest paid no attention to my words, he just prayed silently, merely moving his lips. I was deeply moved, even though I was by then already numbed by the suffering I had seen and indeed experienced myself. But I had always had a great respect for priests, so that his silent prayer, this mute appeal to God, whom he had called upon for help and strength in his bodily pain and mental torment, went straight to my heart.
Our block Capo, however, a repulsive and brutal ‘green,’ must have reported the priest’s praying to the SS, for our block sergeant suddenly burst into the day-room accompanied by a second NCO, seizing the terrified priest from the bench and punching and insulting him. The priest bore the beating and abuse without complaint, and just stared at the two SS men with wide astonished eyes. This must simply have made them angrier, for they now took one of the benches and tied the priest to it. They started to beat him indiscriminately with their sticks, on his stomach and his sexual organs. They seemed to get more and more ecstatic, and gloated: ‘We’ll drive the praying out of you! You bum ...!’ The priest collapsed into unconsciousness, was shaken awake and then fell unconscious again. Finally the two sadists ceased their blows and left the day-room, though not without scornfully calling back to the man they had destroyed: ‘Ok, you randy old rat-bag, you can piss with your ... hole in the future.’ The priest just rattled and groaned. We released him and laid him on his bed. He tried to raise his hand in thanks, but he hadn’t the strength, and his voice gave out when he tried to say ‘thank you.’ He just lay without stirring, his eyes open, each movement contorting his face with pain.
I felt like I was witnessing the Crucifixion of Christ in modern guise. Instead of Roman soldiers, Hitler’s SS thugs, and a bench instead of a Cross. The torment of the Saviour, however, was scarcely greater than that inflicted on one of his representatives nineteen hundred years later here in Sachsenhausen.
The next morning, when we marched to the parade ground, we had almost to carry the priest, who seemed about to collapse again from the pain and weakness. When our block senior reported to the SS sergeant, the later came over to the priest and shouted ‘You filthy ..., you filthy swine, say what you are!’ The priest was supposed to repeat the insults, but no sound came from the lips of the broken man. The SS man angrily fell on him and was about to start beating him once again.
Suddenly the unimaginable happened, something that is still inexplicable to me and that I could only see as a miracle, the finger of God. From the overcast sky, a sudden ray of sunshine illuminated the priest’s face. Out of the thousands of assembled prisoners, only him, and at the very moment when he was going to be beaten again. There was a remarkable silence, and all present stared up fixedly at the sky, astonished by what had happened. The SS sergeant himself looked up at the clouds in wonder for a few seconds, then let his hand raised for beating, sink slowly to his side, and walked wordlessly away to take up his position at the end of his ranks.
The priest bowed his head and murmured with a dying voice: ‘Thank you Lord, I know that my time has come.’
He was still with us for the evening parade. But we no longer needed to carry him, we laid him down at the end of the line with the other dead of the day, so that our numbers should be complete for the roll-call, no matter living or dead.”
But I trust in you, O Lord, I say, ‘You are my God.’
Rescue me from those who persecute me!
I will rejoice and be glad for your unfailing love,
because you have cared for me in my distress
and have not abandoned me
but have set me free.
(Psalm 31)
Fr. Bill McNichols
June 2021
*NOTE: This reflection was shared by Fr. Bill and the image is used with his permission.
Carl Siciliano
Fr. Kevin O'Neil, CSsR
Dr. Ish Ruiz
- Please pay special attention to the Readings & Resources section this month. I mentioned in the October newsletter that "Pope Francis and his allies continue to listen and learn." This month there are several reflections written by people who had the opportunity to meet Pope Francis. In his October 24 encyclical, Dilexit Nos, Francis wrote, "I ask our Lord Jesus Christ to grant that his Sacred Heart may continue to pour forth the streams of living water that can heal the hurt we have caused, strengthen our ability to love and serve others, and inspire us to journey together towards a just, solidary, and fraternal world" (no. 220). [Click the picture to see this Sacred Heart icon from Monastery Icons.]
- The Association of Catholic Mental Health Ministers is sponsoring a webinar titled "Walking Together: Mental Wellness in Catholic Schools" on Monday, November 4 at 2:00 PM Eastern time. This presentation will explore ways the Catholic mental health accompaniment model can help to enhance the well-being of school-aged children, parents, and school staff. Led by Dr. Michael Boyle, Jen Housel, Mary Permoda, and Dr. Chris Miller -- educators and leaders with firsthand experience in mental health wellness programs and schools, this session will provide practical insights and potential strategies for creating a supportive Catholic School community. Click here for registration.
- Jory Mertens (ArtByJory) is a Carthage, Missouri-based artist. He works in digital fine art and illustration, often using cubist, geometric, and fauvist elements. Many of his works are based on his view of Jesus as being radically inclusive. He enjoys creating works based on his family, theology, nature, and portraits of heroes of humanity. As a special gift for our community Jory is offering a 30% discount on ALL his artwork with discount code WITHOUTEXCEPTION30. Please do not scan, copy, or otherwise reproduce Jory's artwork. He retains the copyright on all images even after purchase.
- New Ways Ministry announced in August that Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv., will receive the 2024 Bridge Building Award on November 15. Bishop John was named the Bishop of the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, by Pope Francis in 2015 and has been a consistent and strong supporter of LGBTQ+ issues in the US Catholic Church. In addition to leading and participating in numerous LGBTQ+ events, Bishop Stowe supported the Tyler Clementi Foundation statement to protect vulnerable youth and the federal Equality Act, although this act was opposed by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. He has stood alongside the LGBTQ+ Catholic community by accepting a transgender man as a hermit in his diocese. Whether it has been through his welcoming call for pastoral ministry, his support for civil protections for LGBTQ+ people, or his advocacy for more compassionate responses from the US hierarchy, Bishop John has moved the Catholic conversation on LGBTQ+ issues in a decidedly positive direction. You can read more here.
- Father William Hart McNichols is a friend to our network and is widely known as one of the world’s most gifted living religious artists and iconographers. A former Jesuit and student of the famed Franciscan iconographer Robert Lentz, Fr. Bill’s icons have been honored with exhibitions in major US cities and the subject of a full-length documentary. Recently his years of ministry to the dying during the AIDS crisis in New York City were the focus of a podcast, and later a book, by journalist Michael O’Laughlin. Through interviews with writer and theologian Chris Pramuk, Fr. Bill shares the moving story of his early loneliness and sense of being set apart for some purpose―a purpose realized in his twin vocations as priest and artist. From early childhood, his art expressed his inner life, with special attention to the beauty of the world, the vulnerability of children, and God’s compassionate solidarity with those who suffer. During his AIDS ministry, this took new focus with such works as his “AIDS Crucifixion.” Later, after apprenticeship with iconographer Robert Lentz, he began a new life, producing hundreds of icons of Christ, Mary, the saints, and many holy people of our time. More than a catalog of an artist’s work All My Eyes See is a deep journey into the heart of a great spiritual teacher.
