Gay Jesuit candidate attacks ‘ideological militants’
Jay Pearson is as proudly and publicly “gay” as one can be.
“My name is Jay, I am a Greek Byzantine Catholic, I’m a candidate to become a Jesuit and I’m gay.”
He has a YouTube channel; and he is on Twitter and Facebook. In a decidedly awkward turn of phrase, Jay posts his social media content under the handle of “Jay of Proceeding” based on the St. Ignatius-inspired “way of proceeding.”
As a candidate for the Western Province of the Society of Jesus (though he has not stated yet whether as a future priest or future brother),
Jay has gone uber-public about all this in part to “speak out against some bishops as well as those among the ideological militants in the Church who are attempting to blame gay priests specifically and homosexuality generally for the sexual abuse crisis.” Jay vigorously attacks the “scapegoating” of homosexual clergy he believes has been perpetrated by bishops like the late Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wisconsin and Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.
Jay claims the core problem here is that these “IMs” (his term for “ideological militants”) have a “perversely persisting, fundamental lack of understanding of what ‘gay’ actually is. There are, unfortunately, those who see ‘gay’ as just a sexual perversion unto itself, and that’s wrong. And we know that’s wrong; we’ve had decades of data to prove that.”
Jay says “we know” that “gay” is “not a perversion” because such boys and girls “knew they were gay” long before puberty. “It’s just part of our diversity, it’s part of our colour, it’s part of who we are.” The real problem is that the “IMs” need “education” and “encounter” because ideological militants don’t really know Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself can “enlighten” minds. Such minds are needed for the “wheel of change” that Jay insists the Church desperately needs.
You see, Jay’s being “gay” is crucial to his freedom as imago Dei — image of God. He absolutely must let all people know he is “gay.”
“As a candidate to be a Jesuit, this is key. … [A]s a Catholic, I cannot be true to the Gospel if I am in a closet. … I cannot be true to my ministry if I am in the closet.”
This is, in fact, his “message” to bishops like Bishop Morlino and Archbishop Viganò, he says: “I am image of God, and you do not get to judge me.”
PAT SAYS
I was very impressed by what Jay said.
He did not say whether or not he intends to be celibate in the Jesuits.
Jesuits have a VOW of chastity.
I do not like Church Militant or Michael Voris.
They are nut cases.
The RC church has to get its act right on sexuality and homosexuality.
I like a lot of what Jay says.
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 