Documentary tells of Jesuit priest expelled for challenging Vatican teaching on homosexuality

BY STEVE ROTHAUS, srothaus@MiamiHerald.com

A new documentary about the Catholic Church and homosexuality, Taking a Chance on God, is really a love story, according to the movie’s subject, Father John McNeill.

“This film is about my partner Charlie and our 46-year love affair,” said McNeill, now 86 and living in Hollywood. “The message is that God loves gay lovers and approves of them.”

Certainly, the Vatican didn’t approve of McNeill breaking his vow of celibacy and his longtime romance with Charles Chiarelli.

“I ignored that prohibition,” said McNeill on Wednesday, a day before Taking a Chance on God will be shown at the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. “I’ve had a lover the last 46 years. He’ll be with me tomorrow night [at the screening].”

McNeill entered the Jesuit order after being freed as a German POW following World War II.

“I always knew I was gay. I tried to be closeted but that didn’t succeed. I just abstained from sexual life,” he said. Becoming a priest offered McNeill refuge. “Part of the motive was to support my effort to live a celibate life. But that wasn’t the only reason. I wanted to be able to bring the message of God’s love to my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.”

In 1972, he founded Dignity/New York, an organization for gay and lesbian Catholics. Four years later, he published a book, The Church and the Homosexual, which is still in print.

"I don’t want any part of the church's homophobia," McNeill said. "I was bringing a message that God brought to me. God’s love is universal and includes both gay and straight people."

The church didn’t like McNeill’s teachings. “At one point the Vatican ordered me to silence. I kept that silence for nine years,” he said. “Then AIDS came along and I couldn’t in good conscience be silent any longer.”

McNeill was silenced by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. Under orders from the Vatican, the Jesuits expelled McNeill in 1987.

“It was very painful,” McNeill said of his expulsion. “I had been a Jesuit for 40 years. But I felt obliged in conscience to defend the rights of gay people to a sexual life.”

New York filmmaker Brendan Fay, an Irish-born gay Catholic, began interviewing McNeill for the film in 2002, while he was preparing to co-produce Saint of 9/11, a 2006 documentary about Father Mychal Judge, the gay New York Fire Department chaplain who died during the World Trade Center collapse.

“John became a hero to me the way Harvey Milk and other pioneers of the gay liberation movement had,” Fay said. “John is often a hidden figure. An unknown pioneer. There are not many who are aware of the dramatic impact and significance he had on the movement for change in society and the church in the early ‘70s.”

McNeill’s name appears on the homepage of Dignity USA: “Priest, Prophet, Patriarch of gay Catholic liberation.”

He and Chiarelli, now 76, moved to Broward County in 1997. They married in Canada in 2008. Both attend Sunshine Cathedral, a Metropolitan Community Church in Fort Lauderdale.

“About half their members are ex-Catholics” McNeill said. “They call themselves ‘exiled Catholics’ or ‘recovering Catholics.’ They’re all gay men and women who want to be out of the closet and hold on to their religious beliefs.”

IF YOU GO

Taking a Chance On God screens 7 p.m. Thursday at the Regal South Beach Stadium 18, part of the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival. Tickets $11.

U.S. Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, speaks at gay Log Cabin Republicans meeting in Broward

From Broward Log Cabin Club of Florida:

The Broward Log Cabin Club of Florida was please to host a coffee, spirits, and cake reception for three SE Florida Republicans who are running for political office, seeking volunteer support and donations, and planning to be the chosen representatives on the November 2012 ballot.
 
Congressman David Rivera, during a question and answer session, professionally address and successfully answered the group’s inquiries as he was challenged by attendees on the deficit, the mortgage and banking debacle, and the painful energy crisis.
 
Libby Eddy, who is a candidate for Florida State House Seat 99 addressed issues dealing with the pressing ordeal of passing the Florida's Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) exams and then actually learning and effectively dealing with the 3 R's of education, reading, writing and arithmetic in the real world.
 
Scott Herman who is a candidate for Florida State House Seat 94 was asked, among other things, how he would deal with his being a Conservative Republican, a member of Log Cabin Republicans, and a decorated vet living in a community that appears to be heavily slanted in favor of the more liberal Democratic party and entitlement programs that are effecting the challenge of realistically cutting and balancing the budget.
 
Although the weather served a number of inches of rain it did not dampen the lively spirit of those attending the panel discussion.
 
For information about Log Cabin Republicans e-mail the club's Vice President, Jack Majecke (jackmajeske@aol.com). The Broward Log Cabin Club was chartered by Log Cabin Federation in 1991 and on April 19, 1999 received a Florida State GOP Charter which was approved by Chairman Al Cardenas who served under Governor Jeb Bush.