Openly Gay Catholic Prit Discs Pope Francis' Appeal For LGBTQ Protectns : NPR

Contents:

• ‘IT IS NOT A CLOSET. IT IS A CAGE.’ GAY CATHOLIC PRITS SPEAK OUT
• GAY PRITS: BREAKG THE SILENCE
• OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC PRIT DISCS POPE FRANCIS' APPEAL FOR LGBTQ PROTECTNS
• GAY PRITS SPEAK OUT ABOUT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH'S CRISIS OVER SEXUALY
• ITS NOT A CLOSET. ITS A CAGE. GAY CATHOLIC PRIESTS SPEAK OUT.
• ‘I WAS A GAY PRIT FOR 25 YEARS’
• PARISH PRIT BREAKS THE SILENCE, SHAR THAT HE IS GAY
• I ME OUT AS A GAY, CATHOLIC PRIT ON THE FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATN
• 'I AM GAY': WISNS PRIT OUT TO PARISHNERS, GETS STANDG OVATN

‘IT IS NOT A CLOSET. IT IS A CAGE.’ GAY CATHOLIC PRITS SPEAK OUT

For years, church lears have driven gay ngregants away shame and sisted that “homosexual tennci” are “disorred.

” And yet, thoands of the church’s prits are stori of gay prits are unspoken, veiled om the outsi world, known only to one another, if they are known at than about 10 prits the Uned Stat have dared to e out publicly.

But gay men probably make up at least 30 to 40 percent of the Amerin Catholic clergy, acrdg to dozens of timat om gay prits themselv and rearchers. A prit Florida put this way: “A third are gay, a third are straight and a third don’t know what the hell they are.

GAY PRITS: BREAKG THE SILENCE

”Two dozen gay prits and semarians om 13 stat shared timate tails of their liv the Catholic closet wh The New York Tim over the past two months. He uld lose all three if his bishop fds his sexualy disqualifyg, even if he is fahful to his vows of environment for gay prits has grown only more dangero.

McCarrick, the once-powerful rdal who was ocked last week for sexual abe of boys and young men, has flamed accatns that homosexualy is to blame for the church’s rurgent abe crisis. And yet proment bishops have sgled out gay prits as the root of the problem, and right-wg media anizatns attack what they have lled the church’s “homosexual subculture, ” “lavenr mafia, ” or “gay bal.

He has lled homosexualy “fashnable, ” remend that men wh “this ep-seated tenncy” not be accepted for mistry and admonished gay prits to be “perfectly rponsible, tryg to never create sndal.

OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC PRIT DISCS POPE FRANCIS' APPEAL FOR LGBTQ PROTECTNS

The bate promis to be not only about holdg bishops acuntable but also about homosexualy “It really never was my shame. “The vast majory of gay prits are not safe, ” said Father Bob Bsen, a prit Park Cy, Utah, who was outed about 12 years ago after he held Mass for the L. ”“You uldn’t have a particular iendship wh a man, bee you might end up beg homosexual, ” explaed a prit, who once nicknamed his iends “the P.

GAY PRITS SPEAK OUT ABOUT THE CATHOLIC CHURCH'S CRISIS OVER SEXUALY

I entered the semary at 18, a young, enthiastic, whe, male virg who don’t know anythg, let alone straight or gay.

”The sexual revolutn happeng outsi semary walls might as well have happened on the moon, and natnal ton the fight for gay rights, like the Stonewall rts, on prit a ral dce said the l remd him of how his elementary school forced left-hand stunts to wre wh their right hand.

ITS NOT A CLOSET. ITS A CAGE. GAY CATHOLIC PRIESTS SPEAK OUT.

Many gay prits spoke of beg pulled between nial and nfn, fally g out to themselv their 30s or Green was 24 when he realized he was gay and nsired jumpg om his dorm wdow.

It was jt that no one talked about reached out to a former semary profsor who he thought might also be a gay man. “There will be a time your life when you will look back on this and you’re gog to jt love yourself for beg gay, ” Father Green remembered this man tellg him.

”One prit, whose parish has no ia he is gay, remembered a backyard cktail party a few years ago where fellow prits were sayg “vile” thgs about a gay bishop. The grapeve has tght them which prits their dce are gay, whom to tst and whom to “This is not the whole story of who I am. ”Though open, the closet means that many prits have held the most paful stori among themselv for s: The semarian who died by suici, and the match om a gay bar found afterward his room.

‘I WAS A GAY PRIT FOR 25 YEARS’

Ocsnally, a prit may even take off his llar and offer to unofficially bls a gay uple’s may ll this rebelln. ”Jt over a year ago, after meetg wh a group of gay prits, Father Green cid was time to end his silence. ”The ia that gay prits are rponsible for child sexual abe remas a persistent belief, pecially many nservative Catholic circl.

Wh every new abe revelatn, the tangled threads of the church’s sexual culture bee even more impossible to sort after study shows that homosexualy is not a predictor of child moltatn.

“He said, ‘I don’t ever want you to ll me to report about your pastor, unls he is a homo or an alchie, ’” he said, referrg to an alholic.

PARISH PRIT BREAKS THE SILENCE, SHAR THAT HE IS GAY

At the largt the Uned Stat, Munle Semary Illois, few ever talk about sexual inty, said one gay stunt, who is aaid to ever e out.

”Blamg gay men for sexual abe is almost sure to be a major topic this week at the Vatin, at a much-anticipated four-day summ on sexual abe. When the abe crisis broke out aga last summer, the former Vatin ambassador to the Uned Stat, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, acced “homosexual works” of Amerin rdals of secretly workg to protect abers. And this week, a sensatnal book tled “Sodoma” Europe (“In the Closet of the Vatin” the Uned Stat) is beg released that claims to expose a vast gay subculture at the Vatin.

A group of gay prits the Netherlands recently took the unually bold step of wrg to Pope Francis, urgg him to allow gay, celibate men to be ordaed. “Instead of seeg creased acuntabily on the parts of the bishops, uld bee once aga a nmnatn of lbian, gay, transsexual people wh the church, ” John Coe, 63, a permanent an Kentucky, who me out last year, said about the summ. ”A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn A, Page 1 of the New York edn wh the headle: A Silent Crisis for Gay Prits.

I ME OUT AS A GAY, CATHOLIC PRIT ON THE FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATN

Father Green "me out" to his ngregatn this Milwkee suburb about three years ago, at age 51, when he announced, "I am a gay prit, and a celibate prit. " This moment me after a lifetime of stggle, servg a church that teach that "actg on" homosexual feelgs is a s. He found folks his ngregatn were overwhelmgly asked Carol Webber, "Do matter to you that the prit here is gay?

While Pope Francis famoly rpond "Who am I to judge" when asked about gay prits durg a papal prs nference, he has also said that anyone wh "ep seated" homosexual tennci shouldn't be a prit. "Their place is not mistry or nsecrated life, " he Jam Mart, a Ju prit and thor, and the most high-profile advote for LGBTQ Catholics, said, "I thk that if you had sudnly all the gay prits the Uned Stat e out, I thk the Church would be forced to look at the qutn of homosexualy a very different light. We have high suici rat among LGBT youth, and we also have plac the world where gay people n be arrted and executed for beg gay.

"He lls Pope Francis (the first pope to e the word "gay" publicly) the most pro-LGBTQ pope ever, though acknowledgg that's "not a high bar. " "One of the thgs I lament is, if there were a se of, say, bullyg a parish or a school, would be wonrful for the gay prit to get up and say, 'Look, I was bullied as a boy, '" Father Mart said. ""It is a large, silent muny, a vast silent majory, " said Frédéric Martel, a French thor who spent four years rearchg his book, "In the Closet of the Vatin, " about the gay unrworld there.

'I AM GAY': WISNS PRIT OUT TO PARISHNERS, GETS STANDG OVATN

He suggts the largt group of men the Vatin may be gay, but do not practice, and n actually be the most homophobic – and terviews disvered a real range of sexual inti. "It's important to note: the prits "Sunday Morng" spoke wh, as well as the Vatin self, see no nnectn between homosexualy and the cleril sexual abe crisis.

A five-year study by New York's John Jay College, missned by bishops, found "the data do not support a fdg that homosexual inty is a risk factor for the sexual abe of mors. "Doane spoke wh about two dozen prits, who told they were gay, but few would share their stori publicly. Father Greg Green, fahfully servg his parish Wisns, said secrecy is a surge the church, so the first step for him is beg open and asked, "You signed up to work for an stutn that thks beg gay, actg out on that, is a s.