Openly gay priest in St. Louis wants

ootmother3

to "come out".

Father Gary Meier celebrated his 15th anniversary of his ordination yesterday.  He wrote and published "Hidden Voices" and is bringing his hidden identity to the attention of his superiors.

Do you ladies think this is a good idea or should a priest keep his sexual orientation private?

professorscience

As long as he lives according to the principles of the priesthood, I don't think the sexual orientation of a priest matters in the slightest.

chelseamb11

professorscience said:

As long as he lives according to the principles of the priesthood, I don't think the sexual orientation of a priest matters in the slightest.

This.  Honestly I wish more people who were gay but chose to live a celibate lifestyle would speak up more. 

Resa77

I don't know all the ins and outs of his situation, but I feel torn.  On the one hand, I could imagine that it could have some positive impact on gay youth within the Church who are being told by society to ignore the Church's teachings.  Having a real-life example of a homosexual man living chastely could be a good thing.

That said, I think it could be a tricky situation.  I mean, as a woman, I would feel very uncomfortable if a priest spoke to me about being attracted to women.  Not because I think he shouldn't ever experience attraction, but because when you're trying to resist attraction, you don't really talk about it.  I would feel like it was some backwards way of flirting.  So I could definitely imagine people feeling uncomfortable with ANY priest who spoke publicly of his struggle to live chastely, whether gay or straifght.  If I were a parent, and my teen son was being spoken to by an openly homosexual priest, I might feel uncomfortable, like "why is this priest telling my son he's gay?  That's inappropriate..."  Likewise, if a straight priest talked to me daughter about being attracted to women, I'd think it was inappropriate.  Not sure if that makes much sense to others, but that's my take on it!

Calypso1977

He wrote and published "Hidden Voices" and is bringing his hidden identity to the attention of his superiors.

wouldnt this mean he's already come out?

i just dont see the reason why anyone needs to make a big public statement about their orientation.  jodie foster is a great example - she told relevant people close to her about her orientation and then never really made a public statemetn about it until recently and even then it wasnt a big "im gay!" thing but rather somethign more meaningful in relevant context.

i suppose its one thing if he's doing this as a way to educate and help gay  youth.  but if its so he can be a poster child for why we shoudl allow gay relationships/priests within the church (not sure if he has a partner) then that's not good.

i also know this will bring out all of the pedophilia crap again because people love to talk about that.