Posted on 01/08/2006 5:54:51 PM PST by Ellesu
THIBODAUX, La. (AP) - Deciding he had to practice the honesty he preached, a popular priest has told his family, his bishop and the people in his parish that he is gay.
The Rev. Jim Morrison said he had been working since October on the letter which he sent early this month to 300 members of the congregation at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church and 200 members of the student ministry.
He mailed the letter and handed his bishop a copy on Jan. 2, about a month after the Vatican released a policy statement saying people with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies should be kept out of the priesthood.
Saturday evening, the pews at St. Thomas Aquinas were full.
As pastor, Morrison told the congregation, "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.
Morrison said he told his parents, four sisters and two brothers before he mailed the letter.
"I wrestled with talking to my parents," he said. But, he said, the family talks were "very positive."
In the letter he said that for years, he had counseled people struggling with their sexual orientation to be honest about it with people they love.
"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 said he wasn't looking for attention or approval but trying to be more true to himself, God and those he serves.
"I thought it took a lot of courage," Winnie Faucheux of Thibodaux said after the Saturday evening Mass. "I love him. I think he's a wonderful person. I think the community's going to grow from him being honest."
Morrison said he has kept his vows of celibacy and is not in any romantic or sexual relationship. Being celibate and gay is not against Catholic doctrine, so he does not plan to resign, he said.
Nor is he being asked to, said Louis Aguirre, spokesman for the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux.
"He's not being asked to do anything but to continue his ministry," Aguirre said.
In a written statement Saturday, Bishop Sam G. Jacobs said the Roman Catholic Church makes a clear distinction between homosexual actions and orientation.
The Vatican's statement says homosexual acts are intrinsically immoral, but people don't choose their sexual orientation and should not be discriminated against because of it, the bishop wrote. And, he wrote, people should be judged by their acts.
Morrison, a priest for more than 18 years, has been pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church at Nicholls State University for more than three. Students often drop by to chat, drawn by his warmth and wit.
He has led three other churches in Houma and Chauvin, and has been director of vocations and seminarians for the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux. He also helped 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.
"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."
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon,
Now touch me, babe!..."
Anyone want to take a guess at the percentage of gay priests?
Why do gays think that we want to hear all about it?
About the same as the general population, or maybe the same as Baptist ministers!!
What is the direction of his counseling would be my next question. Again, I presume he counsels his parishoners with the Church's teaching.
Either you don't know many Catholic priests' or your "GAYDAR" is broke.
really? I wonder what his boyfriend has to say about it?
Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.
Being "honest" doesn't require this. The only thing such a confession can accomplish is to further undermine the Church he is supposed to be serving.
Did he give any thought at all to what the children of his parish would make of this? Bad enough to get it in school and on the TV set, without getting it in church too.
No, Harry, I do not. I think I'd like to keep my head in the sand on this one, ok?
BTW, wrong context on this - chastity.
LVM
Too late. The kids would be more surprised if he revealed he was straight.
Jimmuh Carter tells the world he's an adulterer in his heart, but faithful otherwise.
We all are tempted to sin, we also choose to do so.
I may be tempted to steal, but only I choose to steal.
I may have a predisposition to steal, another may have a predisposition to commit adultery or engage in gay behavior; but, I was not made to lie, cheat, steal, or commit sexual sin. I choose to indulge my sin.
One of the few things which Freud said that makes sense is that kids go through a latency stage, when they don't normally think about sex. It's just not a concern to them. We are doing them no favors by saturating the air with sex, sex, sex all the time. Now you can't even go to Mass and listen to a sermon without being exposed to some guy coming out of the closet.
It's just not part of his job description to do something like this. His bishop should ship him off to Siberia.
"Being "honest" doesn't require this. The only thing such a confession can accomplish is to further undermine the Church he is supposed to be serving.
Did he give any thought at all to what the children of his parish would make of this? Bad enough to get it in school and on the TV set, without getting it in church too"
The fact that he would discuss this in front of children, without warning, if he did so, validates your post, and tells me he is part of the "homo promo" agenda.
If we are tempted to steal and don't, does that make one a thief?
If we are tempted to lie and don't, does that make one a lier?
If we are tempted to cheat on our spouse and don't, does that make one an adulterer?
What then makes this "celibate" priest gay?????
Very well put.
Diocesan priests make a promise of celibacy, religious order priests make a vow of chastity. The two terms are synonyms, particularly with regard to the Priesthood. Anyone who tries to argue otherwise is either not very bright or a liar.
Main Entry: cel·i·ba·cy
Pronunciation: 'se-l&-b&-sE
Function: noun
1 : the state of not being married
2 a : abstention from sexual intercourse b : abstention by vow from marriage
Main Entry: chas·ti·ty
Pronunciation: 'chas-t&-tE
Function: noun
1 : the quality or state of being chaste : as a : abstention from unlawful sexual intercourse b : abstention from all sexual intercourse c : purity in conduct and intention d : restraint and simplicity in design or expression
2 : personal integrity
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