My Story

(Posted by Nick, '11)
Seeing as how tonight’s LGBTV movie concerns the intersection between religion and sexuality (in the form of a gay man dealing with his Mormon upbringing), I think it would be appropriate for me to write about their intersection in my life. My family is Roman Catholic. From about birth to age 17 I attended mass every Sunday. I was the star student in religion class (I went to public school, and attended religion on the weekend), not necessarily because I was a pious person, but because I was a star student in general. Religion was just another subject for me. In March of 2005, my cousin and I proposed the founding of a vacation bible school (VBS) at our church. No Catholic churches in the area had a substantial one, and we wanted to provide an alternative for those Catholic families who were sending their children to Protestant VBS programs. Our parochial vicar agreed to it, and soon we were in a mad rush to put on an event that needed a ton of planning. It was a success.

Fast forward to 2008. In my fourth year as director and fresh off of my first year at college, I decide that it would be my last as director. I always found VBS to be a fun thing to do, not necessarily because of the religious aspect of it, but because of the huge leadership skills that I acquired and used through it. I would manage a staff of about 40-50 teens and adults every year. That’s a huge thing for a 15-year-old, much less an 18-year-old! We were also very successful in raising money (through spare change donation) for our parish Sharing Committee – this past summer alone we raised over $1300 for needy families in our community. The reason I do VBS is because it’s a lot of hard work that really pays off with a feel-good feeling in the end.

People ask me if I have a hard time reconciling my faith with my sexuality. Not really. I’m more of a hands-off Catholic at this point. I recognize that I grew up Catholic, and that will always be a part of me. I can’t deny it. Right now, though, I take the teachings of the Church with a grain of salt. There need to be huge changes effected in the Church in order for me to believe in it fully again. For those that don’t know, the Catholic Church’s official stance on homosexuality is that it is not a sin to be queer – they’ve come to their senses and realized it’s not something you choose – but engaging in sexual acts with others of the same sex is considered a mortal sin. So the queer person’s burden in life is to be celibate. It’s not a teaching I agree with, and I know many Catholics who don’t either. Unfortunately, it’s something that won’t be changing anytime soon.