Help for my brother

[zekeberk]

Hey folks. First time poster here on this forum. I think I’m at the right spot for this question. I’m 58 years old and a practicing Catholic. My wife and I have 3 children. I have a brother, approx. 10 years younger, who came out about a year ago and let us know he is gay. My siblings and I suspected this for several years so this was no surprise. He, like the rest of us, was baptized in the Catholic church and attended a Catholic elementary school so he has some knowledge of the Catholic faith. I’ve made it known to him that I still love him and will be praying for him. But I don’t want my evangelization to be limited to just my family prayers. I’d like to try to “reintroduce” him to God and get him back in touch with the Catholic Church but I’m not sure how to do it in a way that would further his interest and get him thinking about his forgotten Faith. I’m not sure he is open, or interested for that matter, in learning about the Catholic faith. So a creative approach is my first thought. And I do know that if I do nothing, nothing will surely happen. We were close as kids but we don’t have a real brother-brother relationship now. Any thoughts or guidance?

 

[PassingSoul]

Hey folks. First time poster here on this forum. I think I’m at the right spot for this question. I’m 58 years old and a practicing Catholic. My wife and I have 3 children. I have a brother, approx. 10 years younger, who came out about a year ago and let us know he is gay. My siblings and I suspected this for several years so this was no surprise. He, like the rest of us, was baptized in the Catholic church and attended a Catholic elementary school so he has some knowledge of the Catholic faith. I’ve made it known to him that I still love him and will be praying for him. But I don’t want my evangelization to be limited to just my family prayers. I’d like to try to “reintroduce” him to God and get him back in touch with the Catholic Church but I’m not sure how to do it in a way that would further his interest and get him thinking about his forgotten Faith. I’m not sure he is open, or interested for that matter, in learning about the Catholic faith. So a creative approach is my first thought. And I do know that if I do nothing, nothing will surely happen. We were close as kids but we don’t have a real brother-brother relationship now. Any thoughts or guidance?

I can only speak from observations in my Parish on gay individuals. Our Parish is very Conservative to begin with but I would like to share this story with you. We have a gay young man about 27 years old who was the best volunteer in our church hands down. He was a Reader, Fund Raiser, Church Decorator and worked every church festival. A new Pastor was assigned to our Church who was very Conservative and informed this gay young man his services as a volunteer was no longer needed. Most of the Parishioners in our Church including the Conservative Parishioners were outraged over the Pastor’s actions. This happened at the time when the Church started taking a more Compassionate position toward gays. The Pastor was transferred and this young man is back in our church volunteering his time again. Other gays in our church volunteer on a routine basis for our church festivals.
My story may not be creative but asking your brother to help you out as a volunteer for festivals, fund raisers, food pantry, decorating the Church for the holidays might be a good start.