Accepting, excepting….
The NY Times just ran a profile on the Rev. Robert Carter, SJ who just passed away at the age of 82. Fr. Carter made headlines in the 70s when he came out as gay and went on to found the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Yeah, whatever.
Quoted in the article is a section of Carter’s unpublished memoir in which he says:
Soon afterward he was visited by a subprovincial of the Jesuit order. “It seems that they were afraid I had had a psychotic break or something,” Father Carter wrote in an unpublished memoir.
Although there were calls for his expulsion by irate “Jesuits, parents and alumni of our schools,” Father Carter continued, he was not disciplined. In those days, the church and the Jesuit order were somewhat more accepting of gay people.
Well, maybe we were more accepting of gay priests back then. But in our defense, that was before we knew about them abusing all those children.
Yeah, that’s right. I am all for accepting, except….
