As a gay man who grew up in the Catholic tradition, the idea of last things can be anxiety producing. The church has had a spotty history on the subject.
In 1347, the bubonic plague killed half of Europe in a year. Gay men and women were certainly among those lost. They always are. And the Church that might have offered comfort had already decided they were beyond it.
In 1981, AIDS hit America, and its government looked away while a community buried itself. No funding. No urgency. No grace. Gay men died without medicine that could have saved them because the dominant culture had decided they did not deserve to live. The church called it divine retribution.
And now in 2026, the current administration and conservative Christians are moving to restrict and remove the HIV medications that are keeping people alive.
There is no other word for this. It is violence. It is immoral. It is unacceptable.
The ars moriendi — the art of dying well — was the Church’s promise to its faithful. Gay men and women are still being denied it.
In the Catholic realm, there is a sacrament for marriage. There is a sacrament for holy orders. Gays are barred from both, with no sacrament for gay Catholics. That’s not Godly.
