John McNeill, lodestar for gay theology movement, dies at 90

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Religion

John McNeill, lodestar for gay theology movement, dies at 90

By Elaine Woo October 1

Decades before Pope Francis grabbed the world’s attention with his “Who am I to judge?” remark about gay priests, the Rev. John McNeill was a pillar of gay theology, whose robust challenge of one of the Catholic Church’s most closely held doctrines got him expelled from his order.

Rev. McNeill wrote “The Church and the Homosexual,” a 1976 book that argued that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality. It caused front-page headlines and Rev. McNeill’s very public acknowledgment that he was gay.
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Rev. McNeill, whose scholarly writings helped galvanize gay and lesbian Catholics, died Sept.?22 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. The 90-year-old author, psychotherapist and pioneer of gay civil rights had cancer, said his nephew, Timothy McNeill.

In 1986, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI who was then chief enforcer of church teaching, called homosexuality an “objective disorder” and instructed bishops to stamp out pro-homosexual views within the church. Rev. McNeill criticized Ratzinger’s directive as “cruel.” ... In 1987, he was formally expelled from his order. Still a priest but barred from performing most priestly functions, he called himself “a Jesuit in exile.”
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— Los Angeles Times

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