Gay Theology Pioneer Is Remembered at Fordham University

Brendan Fay and John McNeill

Fordham University recently celebrated the life of ground-breaking queer theologian John McNeill with a screening of the film “Taking a Chance on God,” a documentary which details McNeill’s life and pro-LGBTQ+ activism within the Catholic Church, reported The Fordham Observer. 

A panel discussion after the screening at the New York City school featured the filmmaker Brendan Fay, feminist theologian Mary Hunt, St. Joseph’s College professor Jason Steidl-Jack and Fordham professor Fr. Bryan Massingale–all three publicly identified as gay or lesbian Catholics. Michael Lee, theology professor and director of Fordham’s Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, moderated the discussion. 

McNeill (1925-2015), whose experiences as a prisoner of war in World War II inspired him to join the Jesuit order,  was ordained as a priest at Fordham in 1959. After training as a theologian, McNeill published three articles in  Homiletic and Pastoral Review, an influential Catholic ministry journal , in which he challenged Christian doctrine regarding homosexuality and called same-sex relationships “holy and life-affirming.”

These three articles later became part of a 1976 book, The Church and the Homosexual, the first fully developed book which questioned Catholic opposition to same-sex relationships. Massingale said that discovering the book as a closeted seminarian was “earth-shaping”. Hunt, who was featured in the film, said that it would “never have occurred” to other queer Catholic activists to do the work they did, if not for McNeill’s book and activism.

The book was originally approved by the Jesuit superior generalin Rome, but the approval was later revoked. Under pressure from the Vatican, the Jesuits forbade him to speak publicly about gay and lesbian issues.  He accepted the silencing for 10 years, breaking it in 1986 after the publication of the Congregation of Doctrine of the Faith’s document which, for the first time, labeled a homosexual orientation as an “objective disorder.”   McNeill wrote to his superior that he could not keep silent, and he was expelled from the Jesuits. For the rest of his life, McNeill dealt with stigma from his former community, though he never stopped advocating for queer Catholics.

The Church’s treatment of McNeill was “not the exception but the rule in those days, and it is still the rule,” said Hunt, as the panel began with discussion of how McNeill’s experience relates to LGBTQ+ Catholics today. “The doctrine hasn’t changed one whit, and the practice for most people has not changed.”

The panel went on to discuss how relevant McNeill’s legacy still feels today amid a push to ban gender affirming care for trans youth.Steidl-Jack said that in the last 10 years, the Vatican has made statements and decisions that “dehumanize transgender people,” and that the anti-trans movement within the Church is “especially harmful.”

Massingale agreed that Church leadership is resistant to change, saying:

“We are living in a country with an ideology of white Christian nationalism, which is not simply anti-black or anti-immigrant. It’s also profoundly anti-LGBTQ+. And we also know that our church leaders — at least in the Catholic Church — are not willing to challenge the purveyors of that ideology at least as long as they can respond as being pro-life, pro-traditional gender roles and anti-trans.”

When answering an audience question about how young queer Catholics should respond to rising right-wing sentiment in American Catholic spaces, Massingale said that Catholics must “create the church we need,” and that sometimes that can be done from within the church, or that “you have to walk away outside of it and then sometimes return.”

Fay and Steidl-Jack, however, had different advice: they argued that young queer people with a passion for theological reform remaining in the Church were essential to positive change.

Despite McNeill’s expulsion from the Jesuit order, Massingale says “of all Jesuit institutions, [Fordham] is the most open and accepting” and that he sees Fordham as being at the “forefront of this movement.” 

John McNeill was a pioneer of the Catholic LGBTQ+ movement and the suffering endured and the persistence that he showed mirrors the reality of many LGBTQ+ Catholics.  In 2009, New Ways Ministry presented McNeill with its highest honor:  the Bridge Building Award. To learn more about him and his thought, read his formal remarks from the award ceremony by clicking here. 

–Lynnzee Dick, October 23, 2025