Last October Abbot Richard Antonucci of Daylesford Abbey in Paoli requested a meeting with me, though he declined to tell me his purpose in advance. I have worshiped there since 1981 and since 2003 served as a lector. The abbot started our conversation by saying that he’d heard I had married my partner of 12 years, Jim Anderson. “I want you to believe this,” he said: “I sincerely wish you both many, many years of happiness together.”
Then he passed me a copy of a directive from Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia stating that members of same-sex couples should “not hold positions of responsibility in a parish, nor should they carry out any liturgical ministry or function.” The abbot said that, with reluctance, he must enforce the directive….
Some weeks before my dismissal, I had read about the archbishop’s directive. It’s very offensive….
Here’s the truth: my sexual nature, like that of all human beings, is holy; my marriage is a sacrament where I encounter the love of God every day in the love of my spouse and bestow it likewise on him. The archbishop has done us and all the church a great wrong.
I will take comments on this submitted by email only to KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.