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White Crane - Gay Culture & Wisdom White Crane - Gay Culture & Wisdom WC81 - 20th Anniversary Issue Issue #81 White Crane 's 20th Anniversary Issue Hi Friends! Below are excerpts from our latest issue! Please understand that we rely on the support of subscribers to keep going. So, subscribe today and keep the conversation going! Consider giving a gift subscription to your friends who could use some wisdom! Columns " Watch This Space " From Bo Young "The Big Two-Oh" PRAXIS by Andrew Ramer Departments Call for Submissions Subscriber Information Contribution Information Featured A WHITE CRANE CONVERSATION Two Spirits A Dialogue with filmmaker Lydia Nibley about the documentary Two Spirits. Clap If You Believe In Faeries Mark Thompson & Don Kilhefner on the 30th Anniversary of the First Radical Faerie Gathering A WHITE CRANE CONVERSATION The Temperamentals Bo Young Speaks with playwright John Marans. A Taste of Twenty Years Gay Intuition By Toby Johnson From White Crane #58 The Cult of Masculinity By Arthur Evans From White Crane #11 Portrait of An Artist As a Zen Monk A Conversation with Don Bachardy By Victor Marsh From White Crane #71 Leaving the Priesthood Web Exclusive By Bob Barzan From White Crane #55 Gandalf the Gay By Josh Adler From White Crane #60 Call Me Ennis del Marlow By Bryn Marlow From White Crane #68 More Than A Sum of Parts By Darrell g.h. Schramm From White Crane #17 Gay Intuition By Toby Johnson From White Crane #58 Culture Reviews The Second Coming By Joel Anastasi Reviewed by Toby Johnson Vladmaster By Vladimir Reviewed by Bo Young Two Spirits By Lydia Nibley Reviewed by Bo Young Subscribe today and keep the conversation going! Consider giving a gift subscription to your friends who could use some wisdom! If there's an article listed above that was not excerpted online, copies of this issue are available for purchase. Contact us at editors@gaywisdom.org For more White Crane , become a fan on Facebook and join us on Yahoogroups. Posted by Editors at 12:02 PM in Tables of Contents to Issues , WC81 20th Anniversary | Permalink | Comments (0) WC81 - Bob Barzan on Leaving the Priesthood Leaving the Priesthood Practical Advice for Roman Catholic Priests and Religious Men Selections from the sadly departed www.Leavingthepriesthood.com website By Bob Barzan For our 20th Anniversary we've decided to to share from the treasures of our past, by choosing a number of pieces from our 80 issues. This piece is a web exclusive and was originally published in issue #55 of White Crane (Winter 2002) Introduction Though many men have found rewarding lives in the priesthood, many, for a variety of reasons, have not or no longer do so. As a result, the path out of the priesthood is well worn. In the last thirty-five years, thousands of men have left the Roman Catholic priesthood, nearly 20,000 of them just in United States. Many thousands more have left religious life. Most have successfully made their way in the world with new careers, relationships, and living situations. The path is not necessarily easy. A major life change like this one can create a temporary feeling of panic and disorientation. Worries about future job opportunities, housing, health care, relationships, emotional support, or even opportunities for ministry can make for a fearful situation. The creator of this website was Robert Barzan, a former Jesuit priest and later the founder of White Crane Newsletter, the antecedent publication to White Crane . Joseph Kramer was in the Society of Jesus for more than ten years. He left when he was twenty-eight years old and is now the director of EroSpirit Research Institute and a researcher in the area of erotic spirituality. “During my years as a Jesuit, the meaning and direction of my life was clear. My commitment was to be a man for others living in a community of men with similar commitments. My desire was to do God's will by following in the footsteps of Jesus. But after ten years, I finally acknowledged that my special way of loving and serving others involved not celibacy but the gift of my sexuality. “As I stepped off the treadmill of religious life, I asked myself, "How much of what I value must I change?" Just because I was not called to be celibate, do I have to give up living in a community of men committed to justice-doing and love-making? Did the fact that I left the Jesuits mean that I no longer wished to do God's will or be in relationship to Jesus? “It was important for me to acknowledge every aspect of religious life that was nourishing and meaningful for me. I didn't want to give anything up-except celibacy. So, as a gay man, I started looking for new forms of monasticism that celebrate physically the dear love of comrades. I have been amazed at where that journey has taken me. One lesson I have learned is "Just because you leave the priesthood or religious life does not mean that you have to relinquish one iota of your spirituality." Terrence Halloran was a priest of the diocese of Los Angeles for seven years before he left at age thirty-three. He is now a computer programmer and lives with his wife and children. Most men who leave the priesthood or religious life enter the middle class and stay there. You will soon discover you can't afford the comfortable life style of the clergy and religious, unless you are single or both you and your spouse have careers outside the home. You will never get rich working for a large corporation, but the pay and benefits can add up to what you enjoyed in the priesthood or religious life. Don't feel you have to be a teacher or counselor or community organizer. You will soon notice that your seminary or religious community has educated you well for life in the real world. Try real estate, computer technology, or retail management, for example. You do not have to change or abandon your faith when you leave the priesthood or religious life. The church may refuse to bless your sexual orientation, or your marriage, or your method of birth control, but most Catholic parishes are remarkably hospitable. Priests will baptize your children, ask forgiveness for your sins, and give you the word of God and the bread of life. Try praying at home and attending Mass as often as most other Catholics you know. Avoid parishes that put too much energy into classrooms, golf tournaments, and fashion shows. Jesus taught adults and played with children, the modern church does just the opposite. Kevin McLaughlin left his diocese in 1995. He had been a priest for nearly seven years. I was very blessed and fortunate to meet other men who had left the ministry before me. I believe these men were put in my path by God to offer me the guidance I needed. Each was able help me focus various aspects of the transition. One, for example, gave me a great deal of assistance with the process of networking. Another offered me great support by challenging me to expand my search for a new career. And still another was a great sounding board on my budding relationship with the woman who eventually became my wife. What I found very affirming and, I must admit, somewhat surprising (though now I don't know why) was the strong sense of community among those of us who have passed through clerical ordained ministry in the Church. It is sad to say, but I never really found that same sense of community and fraternity (that the Church seems to want the world to believe exists) within the clergy. I count many of these men I met in the transition to be genuine friends of my soul...even though I have not seen some of them in a few years. Jody Blanchard left his religious order at age forty, after twenty-one years. He now lives in New Orleans and is a pastoral care worker in a hospice situation. I believe that all of life's transitions require courage, good self-esteem, and a goal for the future. Hopefully your courage will come from within and from support of friends and family. In dealing with friends and family, always be hones...