All the letters of the alphabet

Another reader sent a Newsweek story on the new LGBTQ minor at DePaul University, the largest Catholic U. in the U.S.

(For those who don't know the acronym, it's "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer, the last kind of a catch-all for anyone who doesn't fit the standard hetero mold for ideological or other reasons. Note to readers: I'm happy to be corrected on that last bit. And for you openminded straight folk out there who know not to refer to your GLBT neighbors as "queer," it's still the safer course.)

Of course, the Cardinal Newman Society, who doesn't think any Catholic university should have a speaker not specifically sanctioned by them, is apoplectic about this, but as usual they're overreacting.

We're Catholic, folks, and that means universal, that means "here comes everybody," as writer Flannery O'Connor used to say, although it's been said a million other ways. Plus, we're incarnational, which means that God took on all of humanity in Jesus--including sexuality and gender. (Of course, he couldn't be everything--he was still a 1st-century male Palestinian Jew, and I won't make a guess about his sexual orientation, but you get my point.) Not only that, in this universal and incarnational church, God has called through baptism all five letters of that acronym. Every Sunday those of you who go to communion are communing not only with the big JC, but with Gs, Ls, Ts, Bs, and, yes, Qs, whether you know it or not--and now you do.

So good for DePaul, who gets the "real Catholic" university award from me. And a G myself, I appreciate being included in the Catholic equation, since, for me, being Catholic isn't so much about agreeing as it is about being together and sticking together.