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Faith in America Addresses the Pope in Open Letter
April 14,
2014 by in Community / Charitable Support, Industry 
Faith in America has joined with the Ali Forney Center published an open letter the New York Times asking Pope Francis to see the harmful impact of the Catholic Church's teaching against homosexuality.
Faith in America is an organization founded by Mitchell Gold of Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams to educate the public of the harm caused by religion-based stigma and hostility to LGBT youth. The Ali Forney Center is an organization in New York that houses homeless LGBT youth.
The letter, which was published Palm Sunday in a full page ad, asks the Pope to stop church teachings that label being gay as "intrinsically disordered" and categorizing "homosexual conduct" as a sin. The letter cited statistics and stories about LGBT young people who have faced violence, parental rejection, homelessness and other losses because of the church's teachings.
The complete text of the letter can be found online.
Along with the letter, Faith in America has started a Change.org petition through which supporters can send messages to Pope Francis.
The letter is written by Carl Siciliano, executive director of the Ali Forney Center. Siciliano is Roman Catholic, has lived in two Benedictine monasteries and has spent more than 30 years serving the homeless. In the letter, Siciliano invited Pope Francis to the center to meet LGBT young people who had been impacted by their parents' religious beliefs.