Weekly Prayer Vigil for All Minnesota’s Families

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Our presence is a sign of our belief that WE are all the Church,

and our diversity is an expression of the universal and

all-encompassing love of God

Join Us!

Tuesdays at 6:00 p.m.

in the St. Paul Cathedral
(Selby Ave. and Summit Ave., Saint Paul)

Statement from the Organizers

As an expression of support for the inherent dignity of all God’s people and the promotion of the spiritual well-being of every family, we gather each week to pray the rosary at the Cathedral of St. Paul.

As faithful Catholics, we believe that we are created by God and redeemed through the loving presence of Jesus among us and that, having been baptized through the grace of the Holy Spirit, we have been freed from the power of sin and welcomed into the community of God’s holy people.

We aim to follow the example of the all-inclusive and expansive love of Jesus Christ who welcomed all those who followed him.

We believe that all Catholics, including gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Catholics, have the right, the privilege and the duty to live the sacramental life of the Church. We believe that all people can and should express their sexuality in a loving, life-affirming manner that is in keeping with Christ's teaching.

Marriage, a lifelong and sacred vow of love and commitment, is the cornerstone of a healthy society. Because of the centrality of marriage to the well-being of families and communities, we cannot in good conscience exclude loving and committed couples from the blessings of this institution based solely on their sexual orientation as we believe this will result in deep and lasting harm to the people and communities we love.

Based on these beliefs, we pray:

• In deep concern for the many urgent needs of our community, in hope that our Church’s leaders will choose to direct our collective spiritual and material resources to lift up the weakest among us rather than diverting those resources toward political actions that cause pain and division and which result in further suffering for our GLBT brothers and sisters;

• In support of the sanctity of all our families who reflect the universal and all-encompassing love of God and serve as the fundamental core of our society and as the sanctuary for the creating and nurturing children;

• In steadfast opposition to discrimination against any child of God based on their race, nationality, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic situation, conditions of birth, or sexual orientation;

• In profound hope that we can reestablish our bonds as a Catholic community committed to seek God, to know God, and to love God with all our strength and to carry out God’s will through the service of others.

Our Commitment:

We commit to meet each Tuesday at the conclusion of the 5:15 p.m. Mass at the Cathedral of St. Paul, the Seat of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and to pray the rosary for these intentions. We expect the prayer session to last approximately 30 minutes.

We invite all people to join us in this respectful prayer of redemption and reconciliation. We request that participants in this vigil refrain from confrontation in word or action, leave politics and paraphernalia at the doors of the Cathedral and assume a prayerful demeanor. Our presence is the sign of our protest.

Our prayer vigil itself speaks to the following principles of non-violence espoused by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

• Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding. The end result of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation.

• Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people. Nonviolence recognizes that those who inflict harm are also victims.

• Nonviolence chooses love instead of hate. Nonviolence resists violence of the spirit as well as the body. Nonviolent love is active, not passive. Nonviolent love does not sink to the level of the hater. Love restores community and resists injustice.

• Nonviolence recognizes the fact that all life is interrelated. Nonviolence believes that the universe is on the side of justice. The nonviolent resister has deep faith that justice will eventually win out.

– Derived from "Pilgrimage to Nonviolence"
in Dr. King's book Stride Toward Freedom (1958).