Remembering Fr. Howard Hall, Pioneer of Catholic LGBT Ministry

From a personal recollection by Francis DeBernardo, of New Ways Ministry:

Father Howard Hall, one of the pioneers of LGBT ministry in the Catholic church, has passed away from pancreatic cancer.  Fr. Hall was instrumental in developing diocesan ministry to LGBT people in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and he was involved in the work of so many of the national Catholic organizations that work for justice and equality for LGBT people:  Catholic Association for Lesbian and Gay Ministry, New Ways Ministry, Fortunate Families, and Dignity.

I had the pleasure of meeting Howard on several occasions over the years, and he was always a gentle and joy-filled presence.  My greatest memory of him comes from the summer of 2000 when I spent two weeks doing New Ways Ministry workshops in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.  Howard was instrumental in helping us set up and promote the workshop I conducted in his hometown of Baton Rouge.  It is a testimony to the great groundwork that he did there that this workshop was one of the best attended that I have conducted in 18 years of this ministry.

Like many people, I will remember Howard for his great kindness and generosity.  While I was planning that trip to the Gulf Coast, Howard realized that it would be a grueling schedule for me, as I spent each day traveling and doing a program for almost two weeks straight.  To alleviate the stress, Howard offered me use of his small cabin in the countryside not far from Baton Rouge for two days of solitude and silence.  It was a modest, cozy place, and I’ll never forget the peace that I experienced there or the generosity of the priest who provided it.

via   Bondings 2.0.

Even today, it is extremely difficult for a gay priest to come out to more than a few close friends - and even that is not easy. It is even more difficult for those working in parish ministry, and outside a supportive religious order. Yet, it is striking in Father Hall's story, that as a parish priest, he began reaching out to gay and lesbian parishioners as long ago as the early '70's, some forty years ago, and in 1973 launched one of the first Dignity chapters, based in his Baton Rouge parish. He has also worked extensively in LGBT ministry with other organizations, such as New Ways, CALGM, Fortunate Families, and PFLAG.

There is still a long, long way to go on the path to full inclusion for queer Catholics, but we have come a long way already, from the dark days when "gay Catholic" was simply assumed to be an impossible oxymoron. Today, we have widespread acceptance by ordinary Catholics in the pews, who believe that homosexuality is simply not a matter of morality, recognition by many professional moral theologians that official teaching needs a drastic overhaul, and a shift in emphasis by many bishops from the Catechism prohibition on "homosexual acts", to the accompanying Catechism inistence on "dignity, compassion and respect".

This shift over the last half century would not have been possible without the brave work of the early pioneers - like Fr Howard Hall.

(For more extensive biographical information, see his profile on the LGBT Religious Archives Network.)

Related Books:

Arpin, Robert L:  Wonderfully, Fearfully Made: Letters on Living With Hope, Teaching Understanding, And Ministering With Love, from a Gay Catholic Priest With AIDS

McNeill, John:  Both Feet Firmly Planted in Midair 

McGinley, Dugan: Acts of Faith, Acts of Love: Gay Catholic Autobiographies as Sacred Texts 

Murray, Paul: Life in Paradox: The Story of a Gay Catholic Priest 

Stuart, Elisabeth: Chosen: Gay Catholic Priests Tell Their Stories

 Wagner, Richard: Secrecy, Sophistry and Gay Sex In The Catholic Church: The Systematic Destruction of an Oblate Priest

Related articles

• 25 Years of LGBT Ministry in LA Diocese
• Huffpost's "15 Inspiring LGBT Religious Leaders". Who's Not on the List?
• Catholic Teaching on Same - Sex Relationships: An "Ongoing Discussion"?
• Gay Priests, Creeping Out of the Closet

• ALL ARE WELCOME: Say the Words (newwaysministryblog.wordpress.com)
• A Habit of LGBT Equality (newwaysministryblog.wordpress.com)

A Gay Priest’s Journey, From Exile to Reconciliation

Coming out is almost always a challenging experience, for priests (of any denomination) more than for the rest of us.  The Rev. Canon Albert Ogle of San Diego is not a priest of the Roman Catholic Church, but a priest all the same. He has written of his personal difficulties and journey in a book due for publication  . Some of the story is told in a post at San Diego Gay and Lesbian News.

Starting out in the Church of Ireland at a time when homosexuality was still a criminal offence, he soon found himself fired by his church, without even time for a proper farewell to his congregation, and with no transition plan.

From exile to reconciliation: The remarkable journey of a gay clergyman 

,

In 1980, I was fired for being a gay priest. It was a long time ago but it was very difficult, and an example the results of a "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy practiced by both church and state.

In the early 1980s it was still illegal to be gay in Ireland; and there was a stigma which the Church strongly endorsed through its interpretation of Scripture. My partner Frank and I were young and naive, and we didn’t really know what we were dealing with in terms of the culture of the Church of Ireland, which was still very homophobic.

At St. Bartholomew’s Church in Dublin, my rector, John Neill, when he discovered I was gay and in a relationship, suspended me from all duties and even from saying goodbye to parishioners. This hurt me personally, but it also profoundly hurt the congregation. Even worse was the impact this decision had on the whole Church of Ireland. The story of what happened circulated for many years after my departure and was cited as an example of the church’s poor handling of gay and lesbian clergy.

via San Diego Gay and Lesbian News.

Denied any prospect of ministering in Ireland, he and his partner moved across the Irish Sea, to start again in London, where he found work in community services - but once bitten, was careful to remain deeply closeted. Later, he cross the sea again - the Atlantic, to the USA and California. Along the way, the trauma had devastating impact  on his relationship, culminating in the loss of his partner.

In the light of some recent posts and comments here about the value or harm of Gay Pride Parades, I was interested to note the circumstances around the start of his rehabilitation in the Church - at his first gay pride parade (on vacation in LA), where he met the president of Integrity, who was actively looking for an openly gay priest:

I had heard about how progressive the American Episcopal Church was becoming, and on a vacation in Los Angeles in 1982, I met Marsha Langford at my first Gay Pride parade. As president of Integrity, the Episcopal Church’s LGBT advocacy organisation, she was looking for an openly gay priest to begin a ministry with the hundreds of runaway gay youth that flocked to Los Angeles every year, as refugees from homophobic Middle America. I moved to L.A. later that year and began the ministry at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center.

He tells much more of his own journey, which you can read in full at SDGLN, but I want to focus here on a key lesson that he points to, himself.

While he has been through what he calls a "profoundly healing experience", and while things are undoubtedly much easier in some denominations at least than they were twenty or thirty years ago, there are still profound difficulties remaining. One strategy of resistance that he recommends is one that I have been promoting since I began this site, three years ago: we must tell our stories.

It is my belief that the authentic spiritual journey begins in exile (the Garden of Eden story affirms it) and being fully healed as an LGBT person, we are gently encouraged to return to the place of the wound. The sacrifice that is being made by LGBT people on a global scale, on altars of certainty and righteousness is a daily occurrence. “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” takes on a new meaning when one’s own spiritual journey follows a pattern of crucifixion, death and resurrection.

Canon Malcolm Boyd, one of the great openly gay mentors for the church who I came to love and respect in Los Angeles, once told me “Albert, for every one of us who have survived, 10 have not.” I think of the many gay and closeted clergy I know from the Church of Ireland who either committed suicide, drank themselves to death in a bid to numb their alienation, or were shipped off to London as I was. The toll is devastating and the waste of God-given gifts is a great blight on the church’s stewardship of creation in all its diversity.

What thousands of blessings have been withheld from the church as a result of the rejection faced by clergy like me? Yet many lives, mine among them, have experienced healing and reconciling love thanks to dioceses, parishes and nonprofit organizations conscious of the needs of LGBT people.

We now have the opportunity to tell our stories, and there are thousands more to tell. Integrity and the Diocese of Los Angeles welcomed me and took me in, broken and afraid and humiliated, and surrounded me with the friends of God. They believed in me when I could not believe in myself. As I come up to my 35th year of ministry, I realize that my move to the United States allowed me opportunities that most gay clergy are not given.

For anybody who has a story to tell, as clergy or laity, gay, lesbian, trans or other, but does not know where or how to tell it - this site will always provide a space to speak. Write to me at Terence@queerchurch.com

Related articles

• In Celebration of Pride Celebrations
• Seen and Unseen

• Irish Gay Priest Speaks of His Reconciliation with the C. of I. (kiwianglo.wordpress.com)
• What Part of Jesus' Invitation to "Be Not Afraid" Don't the Bishops Get? (thewildreed.blogspot.com)
• I Hear from Cardinal George: It Is Sinful That Gays Are Harassed (bilgrimage.blogspot.com)
• Gays in the Pulpit (theliberalspirit.com)

"Shock" in Rome: Priests at Gay Sex Clubs !

In Rome, an undercover journalist from the Panorama news magazine has filmed three priests in gay sex clubs - and having sex.   Assisted by a gay "accomplice", the journalist monitored the three men for almost twenty days, accompanying them to "sex clubs", restaurants and private parties, where there was dancing with naked men. The accomplice is said to have gone home with one of the priests, and had sex with him. Film footage, the magazine has promised, will be placed on the net from tomorrow - including footage of a Mass celebrated by one of them, to confirm that they are indeed genuine priests. The intention, you will be relived to learn, is not to shock or cause scandal, but only to “illustrate” the double life some priests lead.

 

It really had to happen.  The only surprise here is that it has taken so long for the tabloid press to do something like this.

It is well known that a substantial proportion of priests, whether gay or straight, are not, well, as totally celibate as the Vatican would like us to believe. ("The Myth of Clerical Celibacy") Some are gay. If they are going to find sexual expression, just where are they to do it? Some few (very few) are fortunate in having regular, loving relationships, either openly or more likely, secretly. Options for the rest are limited. One option, as I wrote earlier this week, is to pay for it: but on a priest's income, that may lead to some pilfering from the collection plate to cover the expense. Another has been to indulge in anonymous sex in a nightspot. Up to now, they have been protected by the discretion of the press.

It has been observed that in the Vatican, the community of Vatican journalists know precisely which highly placed prelates - senior priests, bishops and cardinals alike - are sexually active, with whom, and with what particular sexual preferences or peccadilloes. Rather like the discreet French journalists who similarly know the sexual habits of their politicians but do not report them, the Vatican press contingent have kept their knowledge private.

To my mind, there are two scandals here. The first is not that these men were attempting to include sexual expression in their lives. Sexual activity is an entirely normal and natural part of the human make-up. It is rather, that the rules left them with few options but to do so in the impersonal, emotionally sterile context of casual encounters rather than in loving relationships. The second,  concerning the actions of the press, is not their invasion of privacy - but that their victims were ordinary priests, and not the cardinals most active in promoting the hostile anti-gay doctrines of the church. Perhaps that will still come.

There has been little official comment yet, beyond complaints that this was mere "scandal-seeking", supposedly devoid of any actual evidence.  (Just wait until that is all over the internet.) However, the Vicar of Rome has said that all gay priests should come out and leave the priesthood.

“No one is forcing them to stay in the priesthood to exploit the benefits,” the Diocese of Rome said in a statement posted on its Web Site. “If they are coherent, they should come out into the open.”

Is he serious? If all gay priests really did follow his call, the current dire shortage of priests would immediately become dramatically more acute.

From the Daily Mail:

A gay priest sex scandal has rocked the Catholic Church in Italy today after a weekly news magazine released details of a shock investigation it had carried out.

Using hidden cameras, a journalist from Panorama magazine - owned by Italian Prime Minister and media baron Silvio Berlusconi - filmed three priests as they attended gay nightspots and had casual sex.

Today there was no immediate comment from the Italian Bishops Conference and the Vatican - which has been rocked by a series of sex scandals involving paedophile priests since the start of the year.

A preview of the Panorama article sent out by email last night added that video footage from the investigation would be made available.

-(Read the full article)

Or try looking at these Italian sites:

1. 
   
   

   “Le notti brave dei preti gay”, inchiesta di Panorama che ...

   - [ Translate this page ]22 lug 2010 ... 91 Commenti a ““Le notti brave dei preti gay”, inchiesta di Panorama che imbarazza il Vaticano”. Flavio scrive: 22 luglio 2010 alle 22:24 ... www.uaar.it/.../le-notti-brave-dei-preti-gay-inchiesta-di-panorama-che-imbarazza-il-vaticano/
   
2. 
   
   

   PANORAMA CHOC: "LE NOTTI BRAVE DEI PRETI A ROMA" VATICANO ...

   - [ Translate this page ]22 lug 2010 ... Preti sorpresi a frequentare i locali di ritrovo dei gay romani, ..... Panorama in un reportage parla di "notti brave" dei preti gay a Roma. ... www.leggo.it/articolo.php?id=73779
   
3. 
   
   

   Panorama, inchiesta shock su preti gay Il Vaticano: è puro ...

   - [ Translate this page ]23 lug 2010 ... «Le anonime ma autorevoli fonti vaticane citate relativamente all'inchiesta diPanorama sulle notti brave dei preti gay a Roma - sottolinea ... www.ilmessaggero.it/articolo.php?id=111859&sez=HOME_INITALIA
   
4. 
   
   

   «Panorama», inchiesta choc: le notti brave dei preti gay a Roma ...

   - [ Translate this page ]ROMA (22 luglio) - Preti sorpresi a frequentare i locali di ritrovo dei gay romani, filmati con una telecamera nascosta durante feste notturne con ... www.ilmattino.it/articolo.php?id=111869
   
5. 
   
   

   Le notti brave dei preti gay, inchiesta shock di Panorama ...

   - [ Translate this page ]22 lug 2010 ... La copertina di Panorama su cui campeggia il titolo ''Le notti brave dei preti gay'' e si vedono due mani giunte su un rosario con lo smalto ... www.ansa.it/web/notizie/.../2010/.../visualizza_new.html_1874375812.html

[ad#In post banner]

Married Priests, Women Priests, Gay Priests: Let's All Stand Together

In ongoing debates, discussions and raging arguments over compulsory celibacy for priests, we usually overlook the simple, plain fact that there are already many thousands of married Catholic priests. The eastern rite churches within the Catholic church have always accepted a married clergy, and in recent years there has been a steady trickle of married clergy converting from other denominations, who have been ordained in the Catholic Church and are now ministering openly and officially in Catholic parishes, in many parts of the world. Most of us know this, even if we do not think about it consciously.

"Eastern Rite Catholic Priests"

We completely overlook, however, that by far the greatest number of married priests today are those who started out conventionally enough in the Western Church, but later left formal ministry within the institutional church. Many of these left in order to marry, others left and only later chose to marry. All, however, remain priests. In catholic theology, the principle is clear: “Once a priest, always a priest”.