Here are some items you might find of interest:
1. Perez Hilton, an openly gay gossip columnist and media personality, has decided to return to his Catholic faith after having had what he says was a religious experience during a 21-day hospital stay, reports ChurchPop. Hilton, whose birth name was Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., grew up Catholic and went to a Jesuit Catholic high school.
2. Missouri’s Catholic bishops are endorsing a ballot measure to limit abortion and certain types of medical transition for transgender minors, reports UCA News. In 2023, Missouri enacted a ban on medical and surgical transitions for minors, but that ban expires in August 2027.
3. Jens Spahn, an openly gay member of Germany’s Bundestag (legislature) told Bild am Sonntag that his Catholic faith sustains him, and that he is not interested in the Church’s teaching on homosexuality. “Knowing that someone is there gives me a deep inner peace and tranquility. My faith sustains me, especially when things get difficult,” he said.
4. In a National Catholic Reporter article entitled “With or without Rome, LGBTQ+ inclusion forges ahead,” Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of DignityUSA, a Catholic LGBTQ+ organization, recounted Dignity’s history and how it developed into a lay-led organization. “We no longer seek permission or approval for who we are. We bring the gifts of who we are to the church,” she said. The article was written by Emma Cieslik, who has contributed articles to Bondings 2.0.
5. Bishop Paul Mason, the healthcare chair for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, has issued a statement opposing a proposed clinical trial of puberty blockers for children who are considering gender transition in the future, according to a press release from the bishops’ conference.
– Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry, April 18, 2026
