On Sept. 16, Fordham University held a conference entitled “Learning to Listen: Voices of Sexual Diversity and the Catholic Church.” Deb Word, a panel speaker and member of Fortunate Families, shared her experience of raising her son, who is gay.

Kerry Weber

Note: This post and video have been changed to reflect the correct title of the conference. “More Than A Monologue: Sexual Diversity and the Catholic Church” is the title of a conference series. “Learning to Listen” was the first in that series.

Kerry Weber joined the staff of America in October 2009. Her writing and multimedia work have since earned several awards from the Catholic Press Association, and in 2013 she reported from Rwanda as a recipient of Catholic Relief Services' Egan Journalism Fellowship. Kerry is the author of Mercy in the City: How to Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty, Visit the Imprisoned, and Keep Your Day Job (Loyola Press) and Keeping the Faith: Prayers for College Students (Twenty-Third Publications). A graduate of Providence College and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, she has previously worked as an editor for Catholic Digest, a local reporter, a diocesan television producer, and as a special-education teacher on the Navajo reservation in Arizona.