“Falling Short of our Humanity”: Shame and Queer Catholic Families

Queer Catholic Families (QCF) negotiate a complicated landscape of belonging and exclusion in the church that they love. In this dynamic, shame figures as a theological and moral qualifier of their experience when observed through the lens of the Catholic Church’s teaching on sexuality and gender. Understanding how shame is experienced in these families, how it deepens a rift between families and the community, and how families find ways to nourish and preserve their links to the Church, ought to be a primary ethical and pastoral task of the Church.