Avera Maria Santo is a 22-year-old U.S. Catholic who lives in Alabama and blogs at her website, [Inside My Holy of Holies](http://couragegulfcoast.wixsite.com/blog), about being same-sex-attracted and remaining faithful to the goodness, truth and beauty of what the Church teaches about human sexuality.
In an open letter circulated in Rome to the bishops participating in the Oct. 3-28 youth synod, Santo told them she had been “devastated” to learn of
the ongoing campaign by pro-“LGBT” groups that are trying to utilize the synod as a vehicle to shift Church teaching on homosexuality.
Consequently, she said, “I wish then to lay my heart bare, and to share some of my story and my convictions with you, dear bishops of the Holy Catholic Church, and plead with you to keep the Church’s teachings on homosexuality good, true and beautiful.”
