This is a rare book in that it is the memoir of a Roman Catholic priest who is open about being gay, living a life of celibacy, and faithful to his calling. By most accounts there are several thousand gay priests in the Roman Catholic Church in the United States alone today, but there are only a handful who are open about it and remain in their ministries.
The reader is invited to accompany Paul F. Morrissey, OSA from childhood to adulthood, into the priesthood, and through all the challenges of being gay in a church that has been historically unwelcoming and unwilling to even talk about it. Why I Remain a Gay Catholic is a courageous book about love, listening, compassion, and zeal — for a life Father Morrissey owns and treasures even when others tell him it is wrong. Tellingly, the book’s dedication is “For Bob and all the others, living or deceased, beloved by God. And for Pope Francis’s 'Who am I to Judge?' “
One regret: the publisher’s price is strangely high, making it unlikely that this memoir will receive the wide readership in the Church that it deserves.
Father Morrissey still lives in Philadelphia where he co-founded a chapter of Dignity, an LGBTQ ministry in the Catholic Church, back in 1973.
