From the Library of ACCEPT The Church and the Homosexual By John J. McNeill Published by Beacon Press - 1993

„For ten years, until 1987, I observed the silence imposed on me by not speaking in public. During that period, my book was published around the world in five different languages. I had agreed to observe the silence, again in the hope that over time the Church would consider the evidence and begin a process of revaluation. The American bishops did take several progressive steps toward liberalising pastoral practice based on the distinction between homosexual orientation, which is neither chosen nor changeable, and homosexual behaviour, which they continued to judge as contrary to God’s will. They also called for legislation protecting the civil rights of gay people. But every time any move was made toward a better understanding and spiritual care of gay people, the Vatican intervened demanding that the Catholic Church in the United States maintain a homophobic stance on all gay issues. The best example of that interference is the Vatican demand in 1987 that all Dignity chapters be denied their right to meet on Church grounds.”

The first edition of the now classic work The Church and the Homosexual, published for the first time in 1976, helped so much in educating gays and non-gays that the Bible did and does not condemn homosexuality or homosexuals. Father McNeill’s book was, for a while, the only book on the subject of homosexuality and the Church, written by a gay man who is also a cleric. It is one of the main weapons used by gay activists against the official homophobia of the Church. Many gays that are also Christians have left the Church because they were told that their sexual orientation is contrary to the teachings of the Church, and intrinsically immoral.

The Church and the Homosexual is that one book which will strengthen the arguments of any gay man or lesbian wishing to argue their place in the Church community, regardless their sexual orientation. It is also a powerful instrument for self-education and a crasher of the long lasting social prejudice, against gays and lesbians in the Church.

John McNeill is an ordained priest and a practising psychotherapist. He was expelled in 1987 from the Society of Jesus, when he refused to stop ministering to gay men and lesbians.

Father McNeill received his doctorate in psychotherapy from Louvan University in Belgium, and taught philosophy and theology at Fordham University, in New York City, and at the Union Theological Seminary. He is also the author of other published books: Taking a Chance on God, and Freedom, Glorious Freedom.