General Announcement – Hear Our Voices

May 23, 2012June 16, 2026

My New Book

Dear friends and colleagues

I am pleased to announce the publication of my new book The Amateur’s Guide To Death And Dying: Enhancing The End Of Life.

(Click on the book art below for a synopsis and to purchase the book.)

The Amateur’s Guide To Death And Dying is specifically designed for terminally ill, chronically ill, elder, and dying people from all walks of life. But concerned family and friends, healing and helping professionals, lawyers, clergy, teachers, students, and those grieving a death will also benefit from reading the book.

The Amateur’s Guide To Death And Dying is a workbook that offers readers a unique group/seminar format. Readers participate in a virtual on-the-page support group consisting of ten other participants. Together members of the group help each other liberate themselves from the emotional, cultural, and practical problems that accompany dying in our modern age.

The Amateur’s Guide To Death And Dying helps readers dispel the myth that they are incapable of taking charge during the final season of life. Readers face the prospect of life’s end within a framework of honesty, activity, alliance, support, and humor. And most importantly readers learn these lessons in the art of dying and living from the best possible teachers, other sick, elder, and dying people.

The Amateur’s Guide To Death And Dying engages readers with a multitude of life situations and moral dilemmas that arise as they and their group partners face their mortality head on.

The Amateur’s Guide To Death And Dying offers readers a way to share coping strategies, participate in meaningful dialogue, and take advantage of professional information tailored to their specific needs. Topics include spirituality, sexuality and intimacy, legal concerns, final stages, and assisted dying. The book does not take an advocacy position on any of these topics. It does, however, advocate for the holistic self-determination of sick, elder, and dying people, which can only be achieved when they have adequate information.

Facing your mortality with the kind of support The Amateur’s Guide To Death And Dying offers does not eliminate the pain and poignancy of separation. Rather it involves confidently facing these things and living through them to the end.

This innovative workbook on death and dying is now available on Amazon and in bookstores. I welcome your thoughts, comments, and reviews.

All the best,
Richard

Richard Wagner, Ph.D., ACS
richard@theamateursguide.com
Our website: The AmateursGuide.com
Buy the book HERE!

April 26, 2012June 16, 2026

“VATICAN FALLS” Benefit

Staged Reading of Controversial New Play To Benefit
SNAP (Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests)

“VATICAN FALLS” by Frank J. Avella (author of “CONSENT”) Directed by Laura Caparrotti (Founding Director of Kairos Italy Theater)
May 15, 2012 at 6:45PM at the National Comedy Theatre

New York, NY (April 3, 2012) Impetus Ensemble is proud to present a special presentation of this ambitious new play set against the backdrop of the Catholic sex abuse scandal.

Based on factual material, “VATICAN FALLS” follows the life of one survivor who struggles with understanding how those closest to him could damage him the deepest. The multi-genre, non-linear play probes the conflicting feelings involved in most sexual abuse situations and dares to confront the truth about the ever-growing scandal and the Church’s complicity in it.

“VATICAN FALLS” was set to have its World Premiere in Rome, Italy, last May but was cancelled the night before opening amidst controversy and claims of death threats. This will mark the first U.S. presentation of the play to an audience since the last workshop in 2010.

Recent headline news reports about the Catholic Church putting legal pressure on SNAP to hand over more than two decades of confidential information has put the group at the forefront of a major battle with Vatican attorneys wishing to silence them once and for all. SNAP is holding steadfast in their efforts to protect the privacy of victims, witnesses–even journalists who have come to them for help in the past. All proceeds from this Benefit will go directly to these brave men and women. We hope to raise awareness about the real facts concerning the scandal and about this very important group that has provided a safe haven for survivors since 1988. SNAP recently filed a lawsuit against the Vatican for crimes against humanity.

“VATICAN FALLS” features: Francesco Andolfi, Carlotta Brentan, Drew Bruck, Matthew Crooks, Carlos Dengler, Joshua Dixon, Lucia Grillo, Kalen J. Hall, Liza Harris, Devon Talbott & Rob Ventre. Stage Directions: Cali Gilman. Musical Director/Arranger: Brad Gardner. Songs written by Claudio Procopio & Frank J. Avella.

The National Comedy Theatre is located at 347 West 36th St. (between 8th & 9th Aves), NYC. Tickets range from $20 to $50. Reservations via: VaticanFalls.com or call 973-715-2356.

Frank J. Avella (Author) recently completed Nemesis, The Mad Ones & Consent, a semifinalist for the O’Neill Playwrights Conference. Consent will be workshopped at the Celebration Theatre in West Hollywood, CA this Fall. Frank is currently working on his 17th full-length play and adapting Consent for the screen. Seven of his works have been produced in NYC (Unhinging, 3 Cains, Michael’s #1 Fan, Lexy, About Christine, The Bubble, Greener); one was produced in Cincinnati (Iris). Frank did his Grad work in Cinema Studies & Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He is a film journalist for newyorkcool.com and a proud member of the Dramatists Guild.

Laura Caparrotti has a Master Degree in Performing Arts, Cinema and Theatre History from the University “La Sapienza” in Rome. She also studied with Nobel Prize Dario Fo, among others. After ten years of professional theatre in Italy, she relocated to New York, where she continues to direct and/or perform. She is the Founding Artistic Director of the Italian Theater Company in NY Kairos Italy Theater.

June 29, 2011June 5, 2026

Book Available Worldwide and as a Kindle eBook

Hello again everyone!

I’ll bet some of you are surprised to hear from me again so soon. While others are probably wondering, “what in the world does he mean by ‘hello AGAIN’?”

Last week when I sent out my rather breathless email titled: Help me celebrate the publication of my latest book!, I inadvertently sent it out using my publisher’s name and email address instead of my own. Apparently many of you dismissed the email as junk, because you didn’t recognize the sender’s name, or it automatically went to your spam folder where it languished and perished.

Allow me to briefly repeat last week’s announcement. I am delighted to announce that my new book: SECRECY, SOPHISTRY AND GAY SEX IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH; The Systematic Destruction Of An Oblate Priest, has been published.

But wait, there’s more good news.

The soft cover version of the book is now available on all the Amazon sites around the world — UK, France, Germany, Canada and Japan.
For all you really trendy folks out there, the Kindle version of the book is now available in the US and will be available worldwide by 07/6/11.

Like I said last week, I welcome your comments and thoughts. It’s been so heartwarming to hear from so many of you already. And remember if/when you buy the book on Amazon you are entitled to write a review. Reviews boost me in the ratings. And if I get a dozen good reviews I’ll be, in the immortal words of Marlon Brando, “a contenda”. 😉

Richard

May 31, 2011June 5, 2026

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 publicly 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.