Hello And WELCOME!

Welcome to HEAR OUR VOICES! This is the blog section of gaycatholicpriests.org.

 

I’m hoping that as we get going here we’ll find the courage to speak, anonymously, if must be, but speak nonetheless.  I hope that in time, and with the help of others, like you, we’ll be able to make this site a clearing house for all issues that impact on our lives as gay clergy and those of our non-clerical brothers.

If, as some have suggested, gay men comprise up to 60% of the ranks of the Roman Catholic priesthood, then I think it is high time we begin to take our rightful place at the table.  I think this will only happen if we learn from each other, support each other, challenge each other and through this interaction make the alliances we’ll need to become the activists we must.

Again, in time, I hope to be able to incorporate a social networking component to this site, to facilitate us getting to know one another better.  If any of you have resources to bring to this common effort, I’d sure like to hear from you.

I feel as thought I am better situated than many of you to launch a site like this, because of my status as a gay priest, but one that no longer publically functions in that capacity.  I am happily beyond the ecclesiastical reprisals a lot of you still fear.  But I am still  painfully aware of the spiritual isolation and emotional distress that we experience as gay men in the church.  My 13-year battle with the Oblates Of Marry Immaculate to save my ministry, after the publication of my doctoral thesis: Gay Catholic Priests; A Study of Cognitive and Affective Dissonance, in 1981  have left its scars.

So, let’s make this happen, shall we?

I welcome your thoughts and comments…prayers would be nice too.

Richard Wagner, Ph.D.