A reader writes:
First a simple 'thank you' for all of your writing. It both challenges and supports me.
I am a gay catholic priest, so often your pieces on how you reconcile being gay and catholic really resonate. For myself, I've always separated the concept of 'institution' from the concept of 'what do we believe', or more accurately 'how we believe'. This is never an exact separation but it at least allows me to serve the people in the church without too much conflict that I'm serving 'the Church'
It's an insane time right now. But many folks in the pews also notice the insanity.
I sing in our local gay chorus and I've had parishioners at several of our concerts. They see not the slightest conflict in the idea that a man can be both gay and still able to proclaim God's word. It's THEIR faith that sustains me when the institution does not.
Unfortunately as someone who's studied a lot of church history, I'm also aware that the pendulum of the church's attitude swings slowly. We may not get out of this in our lifetime. So that isn't my goal.
My goal is to nudge that pendulum along so that our next generation will have it better.
That, I think, is accomplishable.