Gregory Greiten, a pastor at St. Bernadette Parish in the Milwaukee Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church, has announced both to his congregation and to a nationwide audience that he is gay.
On Sunday, Father Greiten says he told his congregation that he is gay. A day later, Greiten announced it to the world in an article on the National Catholic Reporter. He ended the article saying, "I am Greg. I am a Roman Catholic priest. And, yes, I am gay!"
Father Greiten is a priest of the Milwaukee Archdiocese and a pastor at St. Bernadette Parish who was ordained in 1992. With support from spiritual mentors, he explains in the self-written articlethat he realized that he no longer could hide and pretend to be straight priest in the Catholic church.
"I can only imagine that day in our church when we are accepted for who God created us to be and no longer fearing that we might be dismissed from active ministry," says Greiten.
Greiten apologized to the LGBT community for staying silent for so long. He vowed in the article to live the life that God created him to live, and encouraged all to be their authentic selves.
Homosexual clergy in the Catholic church remains a subject of intense debate among its members. In 2016, Pope Francis told Catholics to be more accepting of gays and lesbians, though he has not changed any official doctrines on the matter.
Scripps' Milwaukee affiliate TMJ4 has reached out to the Archdiocese of Milwaukee for a statement on this story and will update when we learn more.
