Fr. Gary “Loud and Proud” Meier, an openly gay priest, is cheering the Supreme Court’s decision that was hailed as “tragic” by Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
Fr. Meier, writing in the HuffPo, said Catholics should celebrate the ruling:
There will be a lot of celebrating this year at Pride events throughout the country especially in light of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on gay marriage. But can Catholics celebrate? Yes — and they should.
Not surprisingly, the Catholic Church has already begun to soften their position on same-sex unions. But does that mean the Catholic Church will one day recognize same sex marriage as a sacramental marriage? Hopefully — and for hope’s sake, let’s celebrate. As Catholics, we can and ought to celebrate committed relationships of love between persons. We can and ought to celebrate life-giving relationships of love, physically, emotionally and spiritually between two people. And in the words of Cardinal Christopher Schonborn, we ought to “respect long-term, committed relationships between people of the same gender.”
Having said that, it is time to recognize that God’s love is infinitely capable of growing and fostering a loving relationship between persons of the same sex. One of my favorite definitions for love comes from Pope John Paul II’s theology of the body: “The communion of persons means existing in relationship of mutual gift.”…
As for me, I will be celebrating this weekend. It has been just over a month since I came out as a gay Catholic priest with the launching of the second edition of my book, Hidden Voices, Reflections of a Gay Catholic Priest, and a new website dedicated to the Rising Voices of Faith who support and love all people regardless of who they love.
In 2011, I attended my first Pride Fest, and if I had to sum up my experience in two words they would be: loud and proud. It was an amazing experience to witness, tens of thousands of gays and lesbians and their supporters being precisely that. Having lived for so long in a hierarchical atmosphere of silence and shame, it was liberating to be loud and proud — albeit only for a moment and in another city to avoid being recognized.
In the piece, Fr. Meier also distorts Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body to support his views. Fr. Meier came out as gay earlier this year and wrote a book about it which we won’t be linking to here.
The Archdiocese of St. Louis reported in May that “Fr. Meier has been on leave for the past year for reasons of vocational discernment.”
I would hope that further announcements concerning Fr. Gary would be forthcoming.
