Fr James Martin SJ asks this question in the wake of the appalling mass shooting in a gay club in Orlando Florida, USA on June 12th, 2016.

He is commenting critically on the reaction of most US Catholic bishops to the Orlando mass murder. Only one of those bishops (he alleges) made any reference to the LGBT community. Had the attack been on any ethnic group, or any other Christian denomination, would not all Catholic bishops explicitly have expressed solidarity with that group or denomination?

Does their reaction in this case mean that for the Catholic church the LGBT community is still essentially ‘other’ – never ‘us’ but always ‘them’?

Click here to view Fr Martin’s question on his Facebook page.