Dominicans: Order of Preachers

       For my entire life I have had the blessing of instruction by men and women of religious orders. Of those, the most predominant by far were Dominicans. From grade school with Dominican sisters on to the Seminary when I had a Dominican priest as a spiritual director. What did this lifelong indoctrination yield?  Did I stray away from their commitment to "logic and persuasion, not force"? What have I learned? What can anyone glean from a life of direction and a life of example set by such holy women and holy men? How did that affect the fact that I am a gay man?

       A major realization is the importance of knowledge. Ignorance is no one's friend.  It offers nothing, it cannot even offer friendship because the knowledge and wisdom of consent is not there. Yes, knowledge is key, knowledge of self, knowledge of others and knowledge of God's created world. However, if I were to add to that I'd have to confess that knowledge must be tempered with wisdom, another key.  It is spurious logic and rationalizations that have caused evil in the world, that allowed even the Dominicans to partake in the Inquisition. Yes, knowledge is key.

         Perhaps the best and most precious gift anyone can offer is to try and teach and nurture our giftedness from God. "God don't make junk" as they say in a Cursillo. To know that God loves you with the certainty of what your name is, that is a gift to offer, and so they did.

          While no religious had ever blatantly tried to acknowledge or suppress my being gay, it was a hidden social agenda of the church and society. My formative years were in a time that being gay was not generally acknowledged, it was hidden and seen as an evil. It wasn't until later in life that I realized the Church (formal, Roman) actually enlisted their official documents by the way of their Catechism to note that gays were "intrinsically disordered".  Where in all this does the real church fit, especially what might be considered the sensus fidelium? Perhaps I am taking liberties with that term but I would suggest that most intelligent people, dare I say 'majority' of the faithful do not see being gay as an intrinsic disorder.

      So it came to be that a faithful person struggled so ardently with the mere possibility that I was gay.  At 50 years old I struggled out of a cocoon with the strength of faith ( taught and nurtured that I am unique and loved ) and therapy. I was able to utter the phrase " I am gay " and a rainbow butterfly emerged.  I fly high in wisdom, knowledge, faith and love. Let's not ever forget that knowledge and faith without love is a empty vessel.

         Praise God for all those religious and especially today, the Dominicans who helped me know that the uneducated phrases like "intrinsically disordered" pale in comparison the knowledge of faith in our all embracing, loving God, who reveals in every breath and in every molecule of the world the diversity and love that she is.  Ignorance will not prevail, love, knowledge and wisdom will. Thank you God, thank you for your 'preachers', the Dominicans.

        

DOMINIC, PREACHER, FRIAR, MISSIONARY (8 AUGUST 1221)