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\u2019d heard I had married my partner of 12 years, Jim Anderson. \u201cI want you to believe this,\u201d he said: \u201cI sincerely wish you both many, many years of happiness together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then he passed me a copy of a directive from Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia stating that members of same-sex couples should \u201cnot hold positions of responsibility in a parish, nor should they carry out any liturgical ministry or function.\u201d The abbot said that, with reluctance, he must enforce the directive….<\/p>\n
Some weeks before my dismissal, I had read about the archbishop\u2019s directive. It\u2019s very offensive….<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n