A Marquette alumnus and current Catholic priest in the Milwaukee Diocese Gregory Greiten came out as gay last Sunday to his congregation.
Greiten is a priest in St. Bernadette Parish, located north of Whitefish Bay. He was ordained in 1992, after graduating from Marquette with a degree in social work.
Seen wearing a Marquette sweatshirt talking candidly for an on-camera interview with TMJ4, Greiten said, “We need healthy role models to be out there to be able to say there’s nothing wrong with being gay and who we are, and to reflect that out to others. That’s important to have those positive role models because it just hasn’t been there.”
Greiten wrote in a column for the National Catholic Reporter that it is rare for a Catholic priest to come out as gay.
“A few Roman Catholic priests around the world have mustered up the courage to break through the wall of silence and speak the truth about their sexual identity,” he wrote. “Today, I stand with these few courageous priests who have taken the risk to come out of the shadows and have chosen to live in truth and authenticity.”
Greiten’s announcement was met with support from his parish and the Milwaukee Diocese. According to an archdiocese spokesperson, Greiten met with Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki before coming out.
In a statement issued Monday, Listecki expressed the dioceses’ support for Greiten: “We support Father Greiten in his own personal journey and telling his story of coming to understand and live with his sexual orientation … As the Church teaches, those with same-sex attraction must be treated with understanding and compassion.”
Homosexual clergy members is a controversial subject within the Catholic church. In his column, Greiten wrote that Pope Francis urged the Christian community to apologize to the LGBTQ community.
“I believe that the church not only must say it’s sorry… to this person that is gay that it has offended … but it must say it’s sorry to the poor, also, to mistreated women, to children forced to work,” Pope Francis said.
Despite that statement, no changes to any official doctrines have been made.
