“Many of us wept when we heard of that young woman who committed suicide because she was bisexual and did not feel welcomed. I wept,” Dominican Fr. Timothy Radcliffe told the Synod of Bishops assembly on Oct. 18. “I hope it changed us.”

On December 8th, 2019, Alana Faith Chen died by suicide at 24 years old after years of conversion therapy and sexual oppression.

( the following is an extract from the Alana Faith Chen Foundation)

Committed to serve God and her church, Alana confessed to a trusted priest at 14 years old that she thought she was attracted to women.

That priest responded by telling Alana that being gay, having “impure thoughts”, and acting out on those desires was a “mortal sin” and that she would go to hell if she were ever to have a lesbian relationship.

He also convinced her not to tell her family because if they accepted her as a lesbian she would not change and go to hell. As a devoted, impressionable girl, Alana listened to that priest.

Alana endured 7 traumatic years of this miseducation, “pastoral counseling,” conversion therapy, and religious abuse, which resulted in years of severe depression, self-harming and extreme suicidal ideation.

When Alana’s parents discovered her great suffering, they got her the help she needed through inpatient and outpatient therapies, and several specialized therapies.

Alana began a new healing journey, and even applied to get her Master’s in Counseling so she could become a therapist herself one day.

Even while Alana was getting legitimate professional help, the traumatic religious abuse and psychological torture that Alana experienced for many years was still too much to bear.

On December 8th, 2019 we lost Alana to suicide.

(End of extract )

The history of the Catholic Church is filled with accounts of the faithful who went on to become Saints after they gave up their lives for their faith . Alana Faith Chen gave up her life for her faith when she was told that her Divine Father could never Love her for who she was. This unbearable claim was not revealed to her by God but by clerics within the Catholic Church who tortured her pure and beautiful soul. There are many horrifying accounts of how the Catholic saints were brutally tortured and killed by those who abhorred their commitment to Our Heavenly Father. The horror and brutality of what Alana went through at the hands of these Catholic clerics and the ultimate sacrifice that she paid more than qualifies her cause to be considered for Sainthood. These Saints died because they refused to deny their Love for God. Alana Faith Chen died because Catholic clerics told her she was not worthy of His Love . Unable to live without Gods Love she , like those Saints before her, gave the ultimate sacrifice of her life. It is time to progress the cause of sainthood for Alana Faith Chen, Patron Saint of the LGBTQ+ Community.

Canonising Alana would send a very clear message that never again should a child of God feel that they had no option but to take their own life because they felt that they were not welcome in the Catholic Church. As Pope Francis has said: “The church is a mother and calls together all her children. Take for example the parable of those invited to the feast: “the just, the sinners, the rich and the poor, etc.” [Matthew 22:1-15; Luke 14:15-24]. A “selective” church, one of “pure blood,” is not Holy Mother Church, but rather a sect.”

Father James Martin a Jesuit priest, LGBTQ advocate and best-selling author said “The Catholic Church needs to listen to LGBTQ people, not give them more reasons to distance themselves from the church.“

There are those within the Catholic Church, often in positions of authority, who are unable to accept that God Loves all of his children . Our Heavenly Father is concerned foremost with what is in the hearts of the faithful not their sexuality. However those unable to accept the LGBTQ+ community will vigorously object to the canonisation of Alana. I say let the people of God and especially the Holy Spirit decide. To all of those who believe, as I fervently do , that God Loved Alana Faith Chen unconditionally because of her Love for Him I ask you to pray to her when you feel unwanted or rejected by our Church. Pray to her for the courage, resilience and wisdom to realise that as Pope Francis has said it is “people in the church” and not “the Church” itself which is the problem. Pray to her for the strength to forgive these misguided people as Christ forgave those who persecuted and Crucified Him. Pray to Alana for the strength to respond to their hate with compassion and Love as Christ would have it.

Alana is now seated at Christ’s table in Paradise . She is the ultimate advocate in Heaven of Christ’s Sisters and Brothers who belong to the LGBTQ+ community and your prayers to her will not go unanswered . Join those calling out for her canonisation . Share that call far and wide so that one day her beautiful soul will forever be remembered as Saint Alana Faith Chen , patron saint of Christ’s LGBTQ+ beloved flock .

Peace and Love

e mail : thelaypope@yahoo.com

“I may speak in tongues of men or of angels but if I am without Love I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. I may have the gift of prophesy and know every hidden truth; I may have Faith strong enough to move mountains but if I have no Love I am nothing. I may dole out all I possess or even give my body to be burnt but if I have no Love I am none the better. Love is patient; Love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful nor conceited nor rude; never selfish, not quick to take offence. Love takes no score of wrongs; does not gloat over others men’s sins but delights in the Truth. There is nothing Love cannot face; there is no limit to its Faith, its Hope and its Endurance.”
1 Corinthians 13: 1-7