Pope Francis, Bishop Clark and the LGBTQ Community

I read that Pope Francis said that transgender people can be baptized in the church, can be godparents to people being baptized and can be baptized themselves, which is huge progress in terms of church thinking around LGBTQ people.

As I read that, I also thought about some of our tradition here in Rochester with the church reaching out to marginalized people, including people with HIV and AIDS and LGBTQ people.

Our former bishop Matthew Clark came to mind because of his ministry with people with AIDS.

Former Bishop Matthew Clark ministered to people with HIV/AIDS and their families. Photo courtesy of the Catholic Courier.

One of the major things he did was to write a pastoral letter, which was a document that set the stage for the local churches around doing a ministry to people with HIV and AIDs in those very early days of the AIDS crisis. He also held Masses for people with AIDS and their families as well as LGBTQ people.

In 2016, when Trillium Health gave Matthew Clark our Founders Award for community service, he said that the church is a refuge for people and he likened it to a field hospital during wartime.

Bishop Clark was ahead of the times because he had a lot of backlash from the Vatican. His work was noticed and not always favorably. But he took the heat and did what needed to be done.

There’s another part to history with the church and HIV in Rochester in those early days of the AIDS crisis.

We took care of a large number of priests and seminarians with HIV/AIDS. Some people were from here, but there was a large number of people from the New York City area who came to Rochester and we took care of those patients at Strong and at the Community Health Network when we opened in 1989.

It was thought that priests and seminarians with HIV or AIDS in the New York City area couldn't get good care because of the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS at the time, especially in a priest. So they came to Rochester where the climate was a little more favorable.

And I think that Bishop Clark helped lay the groundwork for a lot of that.

As I thought about what Pope Francis said recently and what Bishop Clark did all those years ago, I thought, well, you know, Matthew, nice job.