Gay Augustinian Priest: My Hope for the New Pope

Fr. Paul Morrissey, OSA

Today’s essay is by Fr. Paul Morrissey, D. Min., an Augustinian friar priest who was one of the pioneers of gay ministry in the U.S. Catholic Church. He has authored many magazine articles and three books, including the forthcoming Why I Remain a Gay Catholic: A Spiritual-Sexual Journey (Paulist Press, June 3, 2025). His webpage, TouchedbyGod.net, intends to foster a dialogue about the gift of sexuality.

Shock and awe! That’s what many of us felt when we heard the announcement about our new pope, Leo XIV, a member of the Augustinian Order.  With my fellow Augustinians, I am particularly proud to have the Augustinian way of life thrust into the spotlight. How might this way of life affect the style and decisions of the new pope?

The first  clue was in his opening words, “With you I am a Christian, for you a bishop.” This sentence is a version of St. Augustine’s famous statement, “Where I am terrified by what I am for you, I am given comfort by what I am with you. For you I am a bishop, with you, after all, I am a Christian.” (Sermon 340, on the anniversary of his ordination).

Pope Leo’s statement shows he has a humility about  using power and authority in the Church.  Wielding power and authority in the church and in the world is of great importance today.  We have vivid examples abounding of the misuse of power for self-enrichment and self-aggrandizement. Pope Leo’s statement recognizes that his sense of solidarity with others may temper any misuse of these tools.

Another clue is in the opening words of the Rule of St. Augustine, written at the beginning of the Fifth Century: 

“Before all else, beloved, love God and then your neighbor, for these are the chief commandments given to us.” (Rule 1,1). 

“St. Augustine” by Fra Angelico

Pope Leo XIV

The new Pope Leo has spent many years as a missionary in Latin America. He knows the needs of the poor and wants the Church to be a missionary movement to reach out to such “ordinary people.” Like Pope Francis, he seems to encourage us “not to be afraid to smell like the sheep.” Of course, to some already posting on right wing media, this trait makes him a Marxist. So be it. Then Jesus was a Marxist too.

A particular area that I wish to address is my hope for the pope in areas of concern for LGBTQ people, whom Pope Francis reached out to so regularly. Reports emerged that the new pope said some disparaging things about marriage equality in 2012 and “gender ideology” in 2023. In 2012, many people were still unable to grasp the human struggles involved in a person growing up gay or lesbian. In the ensuing years–with enormous pain, prayer, and action–LGBTQ people and their families have brought the Church into a more delicate balance:  how to be faithful to our traditions while learning to expand our grasp of God’s ever-widening reach of acceptance and love.  And we are only at the beginning of a similar journey concerning transgender and nonbinary people.

What the church needs is a way to converse confidentially with one another in an experiential-pastoral way about the many sexual issues which so impact our personal and family lives. Pope Francis has set up for us a model to do this in his “synodal way.” My hope is that Pope Leo XIV–as St. Augustine initiated before him with his Confessions— will guide us carefully and bravely into such a conversation. One image of St. Augustine’s that should impact Pope Leo XIV’s approach to leading the Church: St. Augustine called God “Beauty.”  Before reading the Confessions, I had never heard of God spoken of as Beauty:

        Late have I loved you, O Beauty so ancient and so new;

         late have I loved you!

         Lo, you were within, but I outside seeking there for you,

         and upon the shapely things that you have made I rushed headlong,

         I misshapen.

         You were with me, but I was not with you.

         They held me back far from you,

         those things that would have no being

         were they not in you.

         You called, shouted, broke through my deafness;

         you flared, blazed, banished my blindness;

         you lavished your fragrance, I gasped, and now I pant for you.

         I tasted you, and I hunger and thirst;

         you touched me, and I burned for your peace. (Bk. 10, 38)

         LGBTQ people know a lot about this hunger and thirst. We are certainly aware of the passionof passion for “shapely things”–for other human beings as well as creation and God–the Beauty, who created them and ourselves. We have wrestled our whole lives with owning the beauty that we are, including our sexuality. This is our gift to the world and Church.

So, let me say it simply: my hope for the new Pope Leo XIV is that he experiences this Beauty as a true Augustinian, and that as pPope of the whole Church he shows us how to see this Beauty in others, especially those who are marginalized in society and the Church. 

We can help him. He can help us. We will. He will. Shock and awe…and the joy of Easter to you all, Alleluia!

Fr. Paul F. Morrissey, OSA, May 17, 2025