Group created for those with same-sex desires or gender discordance
By Dennis Kellogg
Director of Communications
Catholics in the Diocese of Lincoln with same-sex desires or gender discordance have a program they can turn to for help in living a chaste life within the Church.
Eden Invitation, based in St. Paul, Minn., focuses on receiving the “whole person,” offering support and “building community with others who desire a way of life in congruence with Christ and His Church.”
Eden Invitation was formed in 2017 and offers in-person events nationwide and online community across the globe to those with LGBTQ+ experiences. Anna Carter is the co-founder and president of the organization. Carter told the Southern Nebraska Register she saw a need in the Church and started Eden Invitation to meet it.
“My background is in evangelization and discipleship ministry. I noticed that, a lot of the time, sexuality and gender are talked about strictly in a moralistic way—‘do this, not that, good luck!’” Carter said. “But the truth is, your sense of self and your experience of desire impact a lot of things. It affects how you see yourself, how you enter into friendships, how you discern vocation.
“And in our fallen world, when a more ‘progressive’ view, so to speak, is so dominant right now, it can also impact your experience of suffering, whether you trust the Church, and whether or not you believe God is good,” she continued. “We wanted to create a more integrated experience. We definitely address sexuality and gender, but we do it in the larger context of ... Catholic faith and Christ’s call to discipleship.”
Father Nathan Hall, pastor of North American Martyrs Parish in Lincoln, serves as one of the national chaplains for the group. He said part of what the organization does is share the truth in a way he learned about from a short video by Carter.
“It shouldn’t be a hammer that you beat someone over the head with, but it shouldn’t be hidden away,” Father Hall said of Carter’s message about the truth of same-sex desires and Church teaching. “Because if you are talking with someone who’s interested in Christianity and you’re hiding this truth, then later on when they discover it, it’s like a bait-and-switch. And that’s not fair.”
Father Hall first became aware of Eden Invitation several years ago when he was teaching morality. Some of the students were raising questions about the options for those with same-sex desires and gender discordance. Another priest recommended helpful videos from Eden Invitation on the subject matter. Father Hall eventually became more involved with the group as a spiritual director and then helped with a retreat with about 50 members in Minnesota.
“It was amazing. My heart was kind of like, ‘Oh, I’m all in now,’” Father Hall said. “This should have been in the Church 30 years ago, 40 years ago.
“There was one individual there who kind of let it be known he likes young adult groups at churches, but he’s tired of making excuses why he’s not dating any of the other single ones,” Father Hall explained. “And when I heard that, that opened my mind pastorally. What am I doing, or how am I helping people with these experiences?”
Carter said it is that pastoral approach from Father Hall their members appreciate, especially when he helps with their retreats.
“He has a beautiful combination of pastoral sensitivity, common sense, and grounded humanity,” Carter said. “It’s been very easy to work with him because he just wants to understand people and love them to Jesus.”
Father Hall said he turns to Jesus to offer the best example of reaching out to people in difficult circumstances. He said Jesus was never afraid to get into the “mess” of real life and invite those back who had lost their way. That is where the name “Eden Invitation” comes from.
“When Jesus was asked about marriage, what did He do? He went back to Genesis. From the beginning, it was man and woman, and the two became one flesh. And what God has joined together, let no one put asunder. So that even the name is just an invitation to come back,” Father Hall said.
The Diocese of Lincoln for many years had a local chapter of Courage, a national Catholic support group for those specifically with same-sex desires and their families. The group was led by Father Christopher Kubat, who is now the pastor of St. Andrew Church in Tecumseh. That group is no longer active. Eden Invitation is a similar group, but focuses mostly on young adults with same-sex desires and gender discordance, and the group does not offer a specific program for their family members.
The Eden Invitation program involves a sequence of steps someone moves through at his or her own pace, with the option to drop out at any time if participants feel the program is not for them. It begins with what is called a “story call,” which takes place either anonymously or face to face. It involves basic questions to get to know the person, such as “Who are you? Where are you? What’s been your experience in the Church? What’s been your experience with any of these desires?”
After the story call, the person will review a book that deals with spirituality and the human experience through an online small group led by a trained member of the team. If the person wishes to continue, they are invited to consider staying connected either on the "porch" or in a deeper level of their online community.
“So you have access to the community, but kind of on the porch level... you’re still learning,” Father Hall explained. “They use an image of a house. (After the porch), you move to the threshold. The threshold is more book studies. You can come to an in-person retreat. Then there’s the actual hearth. Hearth is the final step where it’s like, ‘I’m all in. I want to join and be active in a community monthly with others in my area, in my town.’”
Eden Invitation’s Statement of Belief emphasizes its adherence to Church teaching in all instances. It states, “We firmly accept and hold each and everything definitively proposed by the Catholic Church regarding teaching on faith and morals... We believe that sexual expression is intended to be unitive and procreative within the context of an exclusive, indissoluble marriage between one man and one woman. Sexual expression outside of this union is sinful for all persons.”
The Statement of Belief concludes with, “Every person is called to holiness and to chaste integration of their sexuality according to their state in life.”
“As a priest, I had to sign something that looked like an oath of fidelity to the Church’s Magisterium and to Christ’s teachings on human sexuality,” Father Hall said. “So they’re even vetting the priests. Every participant had to sign it.... So I would say anyone who might be uncomfortable with this, just know I, 100 percent, would not be a part of this if it was off the rails, trying to change Church teaching. It’s not. It’s trying to receive the people and then maybe one day get them there.”
Father Hall said he is working with a couple of individuals in the Diocese of Lincoln who are actively involved in the program. Lincoln does not have enough members for an in-person group, but is instead part of an online community with members in other Great Plains states.
“It’s been word of mouth,” Father Hall said. “Other priests that know me, that are friends with me, have sent me people and they’ll come to my confessional. So I don’t know them, I just offered the invitation – you can come talk to me at any time.”
He said an in-person group is ultimately the goal.
Father Hall said he has preached about Eden Invitation in his own parish and had “a lot of positive responses.” He had a meeting one night before June, secularly designated as “Pride Month,” and about 70 individuals came to talk about the topic and listen. He said it’s important to always keep the truth of Jesus front and center, but it’s also about letting people know the gospel is for everyone. He said it is not as easy as just saying, “stop what you’re doing.”
“How well did that work for you when you had an experience of temptation of lying, temptation of anger?” Father Hall said. “There’s a lot who struggle with pornography. What if someone never reached out to you with mercy? And it was like, ‘Just stop that.” How well would that work with you? Instead, it’s like a message of hope.”
In fact, Eden Invitation’s theme this year is joyful hope.
“Because a lot of people with these experiences haven’t had hope. And it hasn’t been joyful,” Father Hall said.
Carter said she hopes Eden Invitation can continue to welcome seekers who can feel welcomed and the organization “can be a little beacon for both the Catholic Church and the LGBTQ+ community, that God somehow makes the paradox of ALL our lives work in mysterious ways—broken and blessed, fallen yet fruitful, with grace sustaining us “more than we can ask or imagine” (c.f. Ephesians 3:20).”
Father Hall’s hope is that everyone in the diocese who seeks help and support to deal with same-sex desires and gender discordance will know that help and support are available through the Eden Invitation program.
“I hope that every priest can create a parish where anyone with any of these experiences can feel comfortable still being a part of the community and family, and received with mercy in the confessional,” Father Hall said. “I hope parishes can be the beacon of truth—right in the middle, not a hammer, but not hiding the truth either. So parishes become more receptive like the heart of Mary.”
For more information on Eden Invitation, go to the group’s website, edeninvitation.com, and reach out to Father Nathan Hall at North American Martyrs Church in Lincoln.
