God, what are you calling me to do here, prayed the priest. Come out, or stay in the closet ? After 23 years in Chicago parishes, the question had pushed its way to the surface. He weighed his options. He thought about his parishioners. Many, he knew, were accepting of gay people, even of same-sex marriage, but others - less so. He had grown up in a large Catholic family; he understood what people's faith meant to them. He didn't want to harm his flock, or the Catholic Church.