Salon.com reports that a retired Catholic priest officiated at a same-sex marriage in New Jersey.
New Jersey’s new marriage equality law went into effect just after 12 a.m. on Monday, and dozens of couples across the state marked the historic shift by exchanging midnight vows.
Three couples in Asbury Park got a little help from retired Catholic priest Rev. Thomas Pivinski, who officiated their ceremonies and called his state’s recognition of marriage equality “wonderful.”
“I am just very grateful that the state has recognized the equality of all people,” he added.
So I just did a quick Google search on the priest. There’s more going on with this guy than just being retired. For one, he preaches and worships at an Episcopal Church in Asbury Park. Secondly, he has a “partner” named Malcolm.
According to the website of Trinity, an Episcopal Church:
Fr. Tom, a Catholic priest is retired from active ministry and has a small private psychotherapy practice in Asbury Park. Tom and his partner, Malcolm, have lived in Asbury Park for 12 years with their dogs: Chloe, Bojkie, Lily and Rosie.
They are co-owners of Heaven Art and Antiques on 721 Cookman Avenue and both are involved in Asbury’s civic life. Malcolm works with the Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ), which works at bringing new business into Asbury Park and contributes to restoring the city’s infrastructure.
Tom is a Monmouth County Master Gardener, the Chair of the Asbury Park Environment and Shade Tree Commission and the Vice Chair of the Asbury park Hope Academy Charter School; Foundation Board.
Tom says, “Trinity has become my place of worship because of its uniqueness as a diverse community of faith. Tradition and ritual are wrapped in welcome and acceptance and God is alive here. The invitation to extend the Eucharistic table out the doors into our daily life where a God-hungry world awaits is a constant theme that nourishes and challenges me every Sunday.”
Tom assists Trinity by doing the pre-marital counseling with couples, participating in the Adult Formation classes, and preaching at the weekend liturgies on a regular basis.
So I’ve got to wonder, is it really fair for Salon.com to refer to Pivinski in their lede as just a retired Catholic priest when he’s preaching at an Episcopal Church?
October 22, 2013 at 5:07 am
"You are a priest FOREVER" (that means heaven….or hell)
October 22, 2013 at 12:56 pm
When Fr. Tom was a Catholic priest, he was director of vocations and priestly formation for the diocese of Paterson, New Jersey. He says he soon wants to "marry" his "partner," with whom he was "living" while still an "active" priest of the Paterson diocese.
October 22, 2013 at 3:45 pm
@Tom, yep. And yet there is no crisis in the Church, and if there is, those who talk about it are reactionaries or judgmental, and it's not our place to comment on such things because our pastors the bishops are running such a tight ship, and things are getting better, really, and there is no "lavender mafia" in the seminaries, and…
Oh wait, I'm not reading a blog on the Patheos Catholic portal.
October 22, 2013 at 4:08 pm
So when and how was he Catholic? Doesn't the history arecounted here make him a heretic and a schismatic? I wouldn't expect Salon to know the difference.
October 22, 2013 at 5:36 pm
One word: excommunicate
October 22, 2013 at 5:47 pm
You're asking Salon to be fair?
October 22, 2013 at 6:19 pm
""Oh wait, I'm not reading a blog on the Patheos Catholic portal.""
HAHA! Awesome.
October 22, 2013 at 6:34 pm
I've never had any reaosn to read about the Diocese of Paterson before, but when I saw that this retired priest wanting to marry his 'partner' had been the vocations director there, I thought, 'oh, why not?" and started reading. It only takes a few minutes to find headlines like "Bishop says 'I had no idea he was molesting a young boy in my beach house'" and "Paterson Bishop accused of cover-up". It's quite a place. I wish Francis would go in there and make a mess. That would be a thing.
October 22, 2013 at 7:52 pm
I value FAIRNESS. I value it highly. We should treat all people in a fair manner. Wages for work. Dignity to all people.
I dont value our abuse of the term EQUALITY. I am not equal to a woman. I cannot bear children. That gift, God gave to women. I am not a homosexual. They deserve compassion as any sinner, like me, should be given. Marriage is not a question of making all things equal. It is an institution created by God when he made Adam and Eve. Reinforced by Jesus himself. Equality is a widely abused term and I think people confuse fairness (treating everyone with dignity and respect) with equality (a right granted, not by God, but by government to force all people to be treated the same regardless of our differences). We can be different and fair. Rather than forced artifical equality standards on men and women or homosexuals or whatever that perturbs all notions of reality.
October 22, 2013 at 8:19 pm
"…and has a small private psychotherapy practice…"
Now why does THAT not surprise me? (Full disclosure: I have a female cousin who was ordained an Episcopal priest…)
October 22, 2013 at 8:29 pm
Proteios, explain why equality is bad for humanity. My black friends want to know.
October 22, 2013 at 8:40 pm
Pat, equality of opportunity is a basic right. On the other hand, equality of outcome is not. It is a rigged game, and can only result from someone playing Robin Hood. And of those who have tried, the Feds have been the most inept.
October 22, 2013 at 11:49 pm
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October 22, 2013 at 11:50 pm
Equality is great, Prat. Treating two completely different things as the same thing is called "lying", and is a gross injustice and inequality. E.g., "homosexual sex" is pretty much a legal fiction we made up so we could charge men with rape for non-consensual sodomy. A two-member digestive-tract circle-jerk is not sexual intercourse.
Anatomical inability to have actual sex, not polite-fiction-for-mutual-masturbation "sex", is and always has been an impediment to marriage. We're sorry you don't like it; go back in time 1.5 billion years and lodge a complaint with whatever primitive eukaryote invented sexual reproduction.
October 24, 2013 at 4:55 am
Sophie you talk about gay male sex too much. Does your husband know you are obsessed with it? Does your shrink? And I've asked u before not to say things like "circle-jerk" since children read this blog. I can't understand how your posts pass the censor.
October 24, 2013 at 7:38 pm
There is no such thing as gay male sex; that's not sex, it's masturbation,. But since that sex-act, though not actual sexual intercourse, is the whole issue—homosexuals are not people who feel warm and fuzzy about members of their own sex, they are people whose sex acts exclusively involve members of their own sex—anyone who objects to discussing the reality involved is admitting they have no right to their opinions. If you're not going to discuss sex acts, you are not discussing marriage, marriage is nothing but how "mating" works out for a sapient species.
For the rest, I am a man. Has the toxoplasmosis rendered your brain incapable of processing the concept "possessive adjective"? The substantive in my name is "Favorite", "Sophia's" is an adjective modifying that substantive.
So along with ninth-grade bio you're also admitting you flunked fourth-grade English. Tell me, why doesn't your remedial primary school block blogs?
October 25, 2013 at 6:40 pm
"marriage is nothing but how "mating" works out for a sapient species." Wow – how sad for your husband. I bet he thinks marriage is more than just sex.
And don't you think it's funny how worked up you get about whether people think you're a man or a woman? I dont give a fig if you're a 99 year old Jewish hermaphrodite or a 6 year old Asian prodigy. But picking on you sure is fun and you sure do invite it with the foolishness and filth that you post here. Cheers.