Openly Gay Catholic Prit Discs Pope Francis' Appeal For LGBTQ Protectns | 90.5 WESA

Contents:

• OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC PRIT DISCS POPE FRANCIS' APPEAL FOR LGBTQ PROTECTNS
• ST. JOHN HENRY NEWMAN: THE FIRST OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC SAT?
• FRANCISNS GERMANY ELECT OPENLY GAY PRIT AS NEW SUPERR
• FRANCISNS GERMANY ELECT OPENLY GAY PRIT AS NEW SUPERR
• OPENLY GAY PRIEST ORDAINED IN JERSEY
• A BLACK GAY PRIT NEW YORK CY IS CHALLENGG THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OM WH
• JOHN MCNEILL, PRIT WHO PHED CATHOLIC CHURCH TO WELE GAYS, DI AT 90
• ‘IT IS NOT A CLOSET. IT IS A CAGE.’ GAY CATHOLIC PRITS SPEAK OUT
• TALKG TO JOHN MCNEILL, THE FIRST OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC PRIT
• MICHIGAN EPISPAL DCE WEL FIRST FEMALE, OPENLY GAY BISHOP
• OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC PRIT DISCS POPE FRANCIS' APPEAL FOR LGBTQ PROTECTNS

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

And so this ll for the civil regnn and protectn of gay civil unns, 's really an affirmatn of the humany of gay and lbian persons - that he's sayg that bee gay and lbian persons are human begs, that society, that the state, that ernments have an obligatn and a duty to protect their basic human Do extendg the right to a civil unn and acknowledgg that LGBTQ people should be allowed to have a partner their life through a civil unn and a fay - do that mean children? Now, may seem to be a semantic difference, but I thk what the pope is sayg is that he is not opposed to the legal regnn of fay life and the right for gay and lbian persons to raise and have As a gay Catholic yourself, I mean, as a man of fah, as a Catholic, is somehow ls signifint, I would image, a civil unn than beg able to be married the church? I personally - and I know many others, gay and lbian persons and those who are alli and who love - would want the church to be able to one day regnize the lovg mments of LGBTQ persons the sacrament of marriage.

And what the pope is dog wh this kd of claratn - he's clearly puttg the Catholic Church on the si of agast the crimalizatn of behavr and favor of protectg the human digny of gay and lbian But help me unrstand this bee 's my unrstandg that the Catholic Church still nsirs homosexualy to be a s, not somethg that should be enuraged a liftyle. In this untry, there have been efforts to say that Catholics, Catholic stutns n't be volved or the adoptn - or allowg gay and lbian parents to adopt children.

And I thk that this really giv a different lens for that kd of nversatn that go on the Catholic Church that we're basilly sayg that, no, gay and lbian persons n, you know, have a right to a fay. That's why he speaks up for those who are often shut out of the Catholic Church: gay and lbian people, trans people, remarried divorce. Recently, the bate about homosexualy the Church was reigned when prits a number of German parish rried out blsgs of same-sex unns.

ST. JOHN HENRY NEWMAN: THE FIRST OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC SAT?

Ian Ker, one of the foremost Newman scholars, says that the relatnship was not homosexual bee, by all acunts, the two were celibate. Of urse, the two men uld be gay and have had a strong affectnate and timate relatnship whout beg sexually active, jt as many gay men the prithood and relig life today mata their promis and vows of celibacy. Defendg Newman’s non-homosexualy by sayg that the prit was affectnate relatnships wh both men and women tri to expla away Newman’s love for St.

FRANCISNS GERMANY ELECT OPENLY GAY PRIT AS NEW SUPERR

While some people thk that homophobia agast gay men om a revulsn about male sex acts, I thk that for many people the more horrifyg and sndalo phenomenon is men beg emotnally sensive, tenr, and affectnate wh one another. Of urse, such gentle and timate rpons by men is only a problem if one suffers om tense homophobia or believ the enforcement of strict genr expectatns that men should not be emotnal and rg toward one another.

” In the 21st century world, there is an unspoken expectatn afoot that to be “openly gay” means havg ma some very public statements about one’s orientatn and inty.

FRANCISNS GERMANY ELECT OPENLY GAY PRIT AS NEW SUPERR

Yet, I thk a good se n be ma for Newman beg the “first openly gay” Catholic sat for the simple reason that we know so much more about him and his relatnship than we do about the other exampl. The 300-member Francisn provce of Sat Elisabeth Germany has elected as s new superr Father Mark Fuhrmann, who a few weeks ago publicly me out as homosexual.

OPENLY GAY PRIEST ORDAINED IN JERSEY

In an terview wh MK-Onle, the official news webse of the Archdce of Munich and Freisg, Fuhrmann explaed why he went public wh his homosexualy. Asked about the fact that his Francisn brothers knew of his homosexualy at the time of his electn, the new German superr said that " was very good for me to know that this is very posive for the brothers. Catholic teachg on homosexualy is summarized sectns 2357, 2358, and 2359 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

As the techism explas, “Tradn has always clared that homosexual acts are trsilly disorred and this clatn, which is objectively disorred, nstut for most of them a trial. The techism stat, “Basg self on Sacred Scripture, which prents homosexual acts as acts of grave pravy, tradn has always clared that homosexual acts are trsilly disorred.

In an terview wh MK-Onle, the official news webse of the Archdce of Munich and Freisg, Father Fuhrmann explaed why he went public wh his homosexualy. Asked about the fact that his Francisn brothers knew of his homosexualy at the time of his electn, the new German superr said that “ was very good for me to know that this is very posive for the brothers. Spong, head of the Epispal Dce of Newark, ordaed an openly gay man as a prit yterday, over the strong protts of tradnalist Epispal Church bishops and members who argued that the ordatn would disregard Christian moral ordatn of the Rev.

A BLACK GAY PRIT NEW YORK CY IS CHALLENGG THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OM WH

Williams's ordatn had been vigoroly opposed by a group of six bishops, who argued that vlated Scripture and a 1979 church rolutn agast ordag ''practicg homosexuals. Williams, 34 years old, has lived wh a male pann for the last four years and sce June has head a special mistry for gay and lbian parishners at All pann, Jam Skelly, 39, a hospal admistrator and member of the All Sats choir, figured promently yterday's ceremony as one of several prenters of the ndidate for prithood and as a Spong, 58, one of the church's most ntroversial lears, has enraged nservativ the past by urgg the church to give s blsg to homosexual and other unmarried upl. The Synod was anized last June around objectns to what nsirs viatns om tradnal Christian teachgs, cludg the ordatn of Synod's prottg bishops argue that the ordatn of a sexually active unmarried person vlat a rolutn passed 1979 by the erng body of the Epispal Church, the General Conventn, which rejects non-celibate gay people and non-celibate sgle heterosexuals as prits.

Although some church have reached out to them through special mistri, most will not allow avowed homosexuals who are sexually active to be ordaed some dividual bishops have ma such ordatns, and other homosexuals have openly clared their sexual preferenc after beg ordaed.

11 news release, the dce announced that would celebrate ''an unual and probably unique sacramental act by ordag an avowed, non-celibate gay man to the Epispal prithood. Thompson, a spokman for the Synod argu that the ordatn vlat a church rolutn that stat part, ''It is not appropriate for this Church to orda a practicg homosexual or any person who is engaged heterosexual relatns outsi of marriage. ''The rolutn do not object to ordag any qualified homosexual or heterosexual who nforms to Christian moraly standards of ''marriage, maral fily and sexual chasty.

JOHN MCNEILL, PRIT WHO PHED CATHOLIC CHURCH TO WELE GAYS, DI AT 90

Found the Oasis''There's nothg non law that forbids the ordatn of homosexuals, '' he Williams, a native of Abilene, Texas, is a 1985 graduate of the Epispal Divy School Cambridge, Mass.

In June 1988, he was ma a an the Dce of Newark and a year later he found the Oasis, a mistry that unsels gay and lbian dividuals and aniz tn programs about homosexualy.

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

A versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn 1, Page 54 of the Natnal edn wh the headle: OPENLY GAY PRIEST ORDAINED IN JERSEY. Last November, he won the District 2 seat which serv East At and Dove Sprgs, by fewer than 100 vot over his opponent, a Lato cumbent, and beme the first openly gay board member. He ially me out to iends and classmat and fally to his parents an eight-page letter a year later, but wouldn’t be until 2011 when he left the Roman Catholic Church that he would be able to live as an openly gay man.

TALKG TO JOHN MCNEILL, THE FIRST OPENLY GAY CATHOLIC PRIT

For him, was always a “joy” when a young person would turn to him for guidance bee of stgglg wh the thought that he or she might be gay. ”The Vatin holds that gay and lbian people should be treated wh digny and rpect, but that gay sex is “trsilly disorred” and his hoy on a recent Sunday, Father Massgale—who beme public about beg gay 2019—envisned a world “where the digny of every person is rpected and protected, where everyone is loved. ”At Fordham, a Ju universy, Father Massgale teach a class on homosexualy and Christian ethics, g biblil texts to challenge church teachg on same-sex relatns.

“I realized that no matter what the church said, God loved me and accepted me as a Black gay man, ” he ordatn 1983 me the early years of the HIV/AIDS epimic that disproportnately affected gay men and Black Amerins. Among his first funerals as a prit was that of a gay man whose fay wanted no mentn of his sexualy or the disease. “Yet they uldn’t bee that stigma existed great measure bee of how many misters were speakg about homosexualy and AIDS as beg a punishment for s.

However, he has scribed homosexualy among the clergy as worrisome, and Vatin law remas clear: same-sex unns nnot be blsed wh the church.

MICHIGAN EPISPAL DCE WEL FIRST FEMALE, OPENLY GAY BISHOP

John McNeill, an openly gay Roman Catholic prit who, om the 1970s onward, publicly prsed the church to wele gay men and lbians — and who was expelled om his orr as a rult — died on Tuday Fort Lrdale, Fla. A Ju who was ordaed 1959, Father McNeill was known the s that followed as an thor, activist and psychotherapist specializg the needs of gay clients.

”That book was the first extend nonjudgmental work about gay Catholics, a subject that had long been taboo official church disurse. It has been creded wh helpg to set motn the re-evaluatn of the relig stance toward gay people — not only among Catholics but also among those of other fahs — that ntu today. “ ‘The Church and the Homosexual’ beme the primary text that is still nsired the key transformg the nversatn on relign and homosexualy.

”For Father McNeill, the book, and his disclosure soon after s publitn that he was gay, would lead to years of public opprobrium, censure by the church, excln om his orr and, the end, a newfound level of activism that staed him to the end of his life. “He was a gay man who was a Ju prit — and beg a gay man who is a Ju prit, by the way, is not an unual thg, ” Mary E. ”“The Church and the Homosexual” drew on Father McNeill’s ep amic trag theology and, though only tacly, on his own experience.

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

In the book, he argued that a stable, lovg same-sex relatnship was jt as moral, and jt as godly, as a heterosexual one and should be acknowledged as such by church an extensive review of the mancript by a panel of theologians, “The Church and the Homosexual” was published unr the imprimatur of the Vatin. “The experience of the joy and peace that wh that — was a clear ditn to me that homosexual love was self a good love and uld be a holy love, ” Father McNeill said the receivg his doctorate philosophy 1964, Father McNeill joed the faculty of Le Moyne College Syrace.