13 From Mode Magazine
I used to be a fairly devout Catholic, however those things can be measured. My parents were front-pew Catholics; I was an officer in the Junior Knights of Peter Claver; I flirted with the fantasy of becoming a priest after learning the Jesuit motto: ite, inflammate omnia.
Go, set the world on fire.
But then s****l abuse committed by my parish priest—which resulted in unspeakable tragedy for my best friend’s family—tore our world in half. The deep friendship between my family and my best friend’s family ruptured, along with my faith.
And I was getting old enough to see that there was no place for me in the Church anyway. I knew I was gay; now I also knew that the church didn’t want me if I wasn’t willing to embrace celibacy or an outright lie.
So I left.
That
