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Local article from our paper. Short story of the long version. One of our beloved young priest came out the closet. He wrote a letter to all of his parishoners, and the bishop. Said while gay, he has kept his vow of celibacy and is not in a relationship. He didn't plan on resigning. Bishop agreed. Said as long as he is not doing the act or in a relationship, his orientation is within the confines of official doctrine, and they want him to continue his ministry.
Catholic priest reveals to parishioners he is gay
By LAURA McKNIGHT
The Courier
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Surrounded by Christmas lights, the Rev. Jim Morrison greets a parishioner after Mass Saturday evening at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church on the Nicholls State University campus in Thibodaux. (MATT STAMEY/THE COURIER)
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THIBODAUX -- For years, the Rev. Jim Morrison has counseled Catholic parishioners struggling with their sexual orientation to be honest about it with their loved ones.
On the second day of the new year, Morrison’s desire to practice what he preaches drove him to reveal his own hidden turmoil and acknowledge publicly that, though celibate, he is gay.
About a month after the Vatican issued a new document on homosexuality and ordained ministry, Morrison sent a letter dated Jan. 2 to his 300 parishioners and 200 student-ministry members, telling them of his sexual orientation.
The well-liked priest has served as pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church at Nicholls State University for more than three years. Students frequent his office to chat, drawn by his warm demeanor and quick wit. A yellow Labrador retriever named Blue shadows the 44-year-old clergyman, often crouching beneath Morrison’s desk.
Morrison said he does not intend to resign, as being celibate and gay is not against Catholic doctrine. In an interview, he said he’s not a practicing homosexual and is not in a romantic relationship with anyone.
Louis Aguirre, spokesman for the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, said Morrison is not being asked to resign, and Bishop Sam G. Jacobs has not mentioned any actions in response to the letter.
"He’s not being asked to do anything but to continue his ministry," Aguirre said.
In his letter, Morrison said he didn’t reveal his orientation for attention or approval but to be more true to himself, God and those he serves.
"I have come to realize that while I was encouraging others to be honest, I was not putting these words into practice in my own life," Morrison wrote.
He restated that belief in an interview Friday.
"Not following my own advice," he said, "caused me great concern."
Morrison is not only a priest but also a public figure. He has spent much of his more than 18 years as a priest leading churches in Terrebonne Parish. He was pastor of Annunziata Church in Houma for 11 years, St. Bernadette Church in Houma for three years, St. Joseph Church in Chauvin for three years, and director of vocations and seminarians for the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux.
But Morrison has never stayed tucked inside church walls. The priest is well-known for playing an active part in the community, helping found a school for at-risk Terrebonne youths and creating a benefit race to support that school. He has traveled to Nicaragua to minister, mentored youths hoping to become priests and won awards for his service.
After Hurricane Katrina, Morrison welcomed storm evacuees with pets to the St. Thomas Aquinas Center when some other shelters wouldn’t allow animals.
THE BISHOP’S VIEW
In a written statement Saturday, Jacobs said the Roman Catholic Church makes a clear distinction between a person’s homosexual orientation and a person who "acts out" that orientation.
The Vatican’s new document states that homosexual acts are "acts of grave depravity," intrinsically immoral. Yet the Vatican also states that those with deep-seated homosexual tendencies do not choose their orientation, and must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity, the bishop said.
"Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided," Jacobs quoted from the Vatican statement.
Jacobs added that people should not be judged by their tendencies or orientations but by their actions.
"As Jesus says, one judges a tree by the fruit it bears. A good tree does not bear bad fruit and a bad tree does not bear good fruit," Jacobs wrote. "In my short tenure as bishop of Houma-Thibodaux, I have known Father Jim Morrison to be a compassionate and energetic priest who has provided good pastoral ministry to the people he has served. Unless I discover otherwise, as with all of our priests, I support him in the good that he does for our people. A bishop is a father to his priests and to his people and has concerns for both."
WHY HE MADE IT PUBLIC
Morrison said he began writing a letter revealing his orientation in October, wrestled with it, then continued to pray about it.
The priest began his January letter with references to this fall’s life-changing hurricanes.
"This past year has also been life-changing for me as I have wrestled with a third storm that has been brewing within me throughout my life," he wrote.
After the latest announcements by the Vatican concerning homosexuality, Morrison said he felt moved to be honest with his congregation, but not out of guilt or as a precursor to resigning.
Instead, Morrison said, he wanted to be a person of higher integrity, maintaining an open and honest relationship with his flock. The priest also wanted to break the shame-laden silence cloaking his orientation and put a face to the group he says the Vatican singled out for special rules.
In late November, the Vatican issued instructions that say men who practice homosexuality, show "profoundly deep-rooted homosexual tendencies" or "support the so-called ëgay culture’ " cannot be admitted to seminaries or ordained.
The Catholic Church in America has yet to grasp the full implications of the Vatican’s new document, Aguirre said. He said a key message in the Vatican’s statement is that due to the nature of homosexuality, it does require more screening and must be dealt with on an individual basis.
The Catholic Church does not consider having a homosexual orientation a sin in itself but considers homosexual acts sinful because sexual intercourse is permissible only within marriage, Aguirre said. Because the Catholic Church does not recognize marriage between same-gender couples, the church considers gay sex, as well as heterosexual sex outside of marriage, a sin.
Aguirre said men vying for priesthood are screened for any propensities that could prevent them from keeping their vows, including the vow of celibacy.
The Vatican document states that men wanting to be ordained must be screened to ensure they haven’t been sexually active with other men for the past three years or support the gay lifestyle.
Aguirre said he doesn’t know offhand of any specific time requirements for celibacy for heterosexual priest candidates, but they also are screened to ensure they can maintain their vows of celibacy.
SHOULD GAY PRIESTS TEACH?
Morrison said he is not bothered by those regulations as much as instructions he said the Vatican issued with the document that bar gay priests, even those who remain faithful to their vows of celibacy, from teaching at seminaries.
However, Aguirre said the Vatican instructions are still so new that much is left open to interpretation, including whether this instruction applies to celibate gay priests. The instruction, which Morrison said he saw in a Catholic News Service article in the diocesan newspaper, The Bayou Catholic, could have been an interpretation of a more-ambiguous Vatican statement, Aguirre said.
Morrison said he would heartily agree if the Vatican had chosen to exclude from seminary teaching anyone who had broken a vow of celibacy, both homosexual and heterosexual. But to single out homosexual priests for the rule was "very insulting" and cause for concern, he said.
"It seemed they were concerned about the number of gay candidates pursuing the priesthood," said Morrison. "It was offensive."
Before the new rules, Morrison said, he considered his orientation a non-issue due to his vows of celibacy, but "it became more of a concern to me because I felt that my silence was not helping the situation."
If gay priests identified themselves, maybe the church world would realize that homosexual orientation doesn’t hurt their service to the church, Morrison said.
"Those insulting comments are made. There’s no one to challenge that," he said. "That homosexual priests committed to their vows can’t teach, that makes no sense to me."
THE IMAGE OF GOD
The church teaches that gay people also are made in the image of God, Morrison said.
"There’s still a stigma that to be gay is to be bad. And that’s not the church teaching," he said. "If there is no shame, why is there silence?"
The priest also credits Nicholls State students connected with St. Thomas Aquinas Church for encouraging his disclosure.
Last April, a fundamentalist church from Kansas known for its animosity toward homosexuals staged a protest at Nicholls. As a result, more of his student parishioners told their loved ones they are gay, Morrison said.
During the past year, "I have counseled many students that were dealing with their sexual orientation," Morrison wrote in his letter to parishioners. "In all of these situations, I reassured these individuals of the unconditional love of God and encouraged them to live open and honest lives."
Morrison said at first, he excused himself from following his own advice, claiming that the disclosure could harm his congregation. But his thirst for honesty with his church members eventually won.
"I felt that we could move further in our spiritual growth with greater honesty," he said.
Before he mailed the letter, Morrison said he revealed his homosexual orientation to his parents, four sisters and two brothers.
"I wrestled with talking to my parents," he said.
But the conversations with family were "very positive," he said.
After he mailed the letter, Morrison said, he hand-delivered a copy to the bishop before parishioners began receiving the news.
Jacobs seemed supportive, Morrison said, but expressed concern about the response his priest could receive.
"I told him I was at peace with whatever the response was," said Morrison. "From the moment I wrote the letter to the time I mailed it, I was very much at peace."
A LONG JOURNEY
Morrison said his priestly ambitions surfaced at a young age. Morrison remembers wanting to join the priesthood since fourth grade. As a child, he was an altar server and enjoyed attending Mass and religious classes.
"I just felt very called to the church," he said.
Though the teenage Morrison threw the notion aside, his desire to join the clergy resurfaced during his senior year of high school.
The Houma native attended Vandebilt Catholic High School for three years but graduated from St. Stanislaus College in Bay St. Louis, Miss.
At 18, Morrison went to a co-ed college in Kansas but switched to a Catholic seminary in Indiana after his first year.
It was then that Morrison said he first became aware of his homosexual orientation. The seminary leads priest candidates through counseling and other programs aimed at self-discovery to ensure each student knows who he is so he can make a firm commitment.
"You can’t develop a relationship with God unless you know yourself," Morrison said.
Morrison said his self-examination revealed he was gay.
"At the time, I processed that as being irrelevant because I had been wanting to be a priest since a child," he said. "It seemed like a non-issue because I was going to pledge celibacy anyway."
PARISHIONERS’ VIEWS
Saturday evening, parishioners filled the pews at St. Thomas Aquinas Church.
Morrison said he received a lot of calls of support from current and former parishioners after mailing the letter, and some calls of concern, but nothing mean-spirited.
"Some just didn’t understand," he said.
Friday afternoon, Morrison said, grinning nervously, that his three weekend services would be telling.
He did not avoid the topic in his Saturday-evening homily.
Morrison told his congregation that as pastor, "I ask you constantly to trust me. I ask you come to me with your life, all the blessings, all the struggles."
"But it’s not a one-way street," he said.
The priest poured out his heart to his congregation, describing the angst he felt while keeping his sexual orientation secret.
"I feel that God led me to this place so we could be a holier (church) community, so I could be a better priest," Morrison said. Being truthful leads to greater accountability and greater holiness, he added.
Honesty’s not easy, but Jesus calls his followers to truthfulness, Morrison said.
"There seems to be a respect here that a person’s more than their orientation," Morrison said.
"I don’t look forward to the bumps in the road," which he said he expects to come as people digest the news. "Sometimes we make our greatest growth through the difficult times."
After Mass, Morrison stood outside laughing with parishioners, giving handshakes, and getting hugs and words of support.
"I thought it took a lot of courage," said Winnie Faucheux of Thibodaux, who attends Mass weekly at the church. "I love him. I think he’s a wonderful person. I think the community’s going to grow from him being honest."
Bill Gilbert of Thibodaux shrugged when asked for his thoughts on the priest’s disclosure.
"If that’s what he wants, that’s what he wants," Gilbert said. "I think he’s sincere in everything he said."
Jeremie Aubert of Vacherie, a Nicholls student involved in the Catholic student ministry, said he thinks it’s good Morrison revealed his orientation because it encourages others to be honest.
"It’s the community’s turn to be here for him," Aubert said
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I tried to find somebody of that sort that I could like that nobody else did - because everybody would adopt his group, and his group would be _it_; someone weird like Captain Beefheart. It's no different now - people trying to outdo ! each other in extremes. There are people who like X, and there are people who say X are wimps; they like Black Flag.
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