The Rev. Gregory Greiten told his congregation Sunday "I am Greg. I am a Roman Catholic priest. And, yes, I am gay!"
The priest in the Milwaukee Archdiocese serves as the pastor of St. Bernadette Parish. On Monday, he came out to the rest of the world with an article in the National Catholic Reporter. He received a standing ovation from his parishioners when made his announcement prior to the article's publication.
Greiten said he was breaking the silence of gay men in the clergy so he could reclaim his own voice.
While it is established that there are gay men who serve as priests, it is rare for a priest to come out to his congregation in this way. Greiten estimates in his article that there are between 8,554 and 21,571 gay Catholic priests in the United States. Church theology teaches that acting upon homosexuality is a sin.
In announcing his identity as a gay man, Greiten chastised the Catholic Church for its stance on homosexuality.
He wrote:
"By choosing to enforce silence, the institutional church pretends that gay priests and religious do not really exist. Because of this, there are no authentic role models of healthy, well-balanced, gay, celibate priests to be an example for those, young and old, who are struggling to come to terms with their sexual orientation. This only perpetuates the toxic shaming and systemic secrecy."
Greiten wrote that he stands with the "few courageous priests who have taken the risk to come out of the shadows and have chosen to live in truth and authenticity."
He described the experience of concealing his identity as exhausting and that he wished all that energy could have been used to building up communities of faith.
He echoed words from Pope Francis last year when he urged the church and other Christian communities to apologize to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, along with "other groups it has offended throughout history."
Greiten shared how for years he had been told that homosexuality was something to be punished. He said he realized while on a five-hour drive back to seminary he admitted to himself, at the age of 24, that he was gay.
Greiten said he would like to make that apology and made a pledge not to live in the "shadows of secrecy."
"I promise to be my authentically gay self," he wrote. "I will embrace the person that God created me to be. In my priestly life and ministry, I, too, will help you, whether you are gay or straight, bisexual or transgendered, to be your authentic self — to be fully alive living in your image and likeness of God. In reflecting our God-images out into the world, our world will be a brighter, more tolerant place.
"I have lived far too many years chained up and imprisoned in the closet behind walls of shame, trauma and abuse because of the homophobia and discrimination so prevalent in my church and the world. But rather, today, I chart a new course in freedom and in integrity knowing that there is nothing that anyone can do to hurt or destroy my spirit any longer. First steps in accepting and loving the person God created me to be. 'I am Greg. I am a Roman Catholic priest. And, yes, I am gay!' "
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