Old Catholic Church embraces marriage equality - even for its priests

Given the Roman Catholic Church's strong advocacy against same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, the news that a Catholic archbishop and a priest will be marrying their respective partners of more than 30 years at a Catholic service in Milton later this month is sure to raise eyebrows at first. Yet Archbishop Bruce Simpson, head of the Benedictine Order of St. John the Beloved, and Father Bernard Sheffield, a member of the order and a priest based out of Port St. Lucie, Florida, are not conventional Catholics in any sense.

The order belongs to the Old Catholic Church, an offshoot of the Roman Catholic Church that split off from Rome in the late 1800s over opposition to the doctrine of papal infallibility and other doctrinal matters. Bishops within the Old Catholic Church have the authority to govern their own jurisdictions, and within the Benedictine Order of St. John same-sex couples have just as much right as their heterosexual counterparts to a church wedding. Simpson, who lives in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and Sheffield will marry their partners at Milton's Holy Family Catholic Community, which also falls under the Benedictine order, on Oct. 29.

Simpson, who has penned a column on religious issues for The Advocate and other publications and who authored the 2004 book The Gay Face of God, said there are several practical reasons that he and his partner of 35 years, Jack Bixler, are coming to Massachusetts to be married, but he also hopes his wedding will send a message and serve as a counterpoint to the Roman Catholic Church's advocacy against marriage equality.

"And the final thing for me was Cardinal O'Malley's opposition to all things gay marriage in Massachusetts, and most recently his statement in favor of reinstating the 1913 law. This is my own statement on the matter," said Simpson. Parishes and orders within the Old Catholic Church hold a range of beliefs about homosexuality, ranging from very conservative to very liberal, but each parish makes its own decisions about its stance on LGBT rights.

The 1913 law, struck down last July by the legislature and Gov. Deval Patrick, had blocked most out-of-state same-sex couples from marrying in Massachusetts. The law, passed in 1913, banned couples from marrying in Massachusetts if they were ineligible to marry in their home state, and former Gov. Mitt Romney revived the long-dormant law in 2004 to prevent non-resident couples from marrying in the Bay State.

Simpson said even though Pennsylvania will not recognize the validity of his pending marriage, he and Bixler are exchanging vows for more than symbolic reasons. He said Bixler works for Hilton International, and recently the company required its employees receiving domestic partnership benefits to provide written documentation of their relationships to cut down on alleged fraud. The couple had to send the company personal documents proving that they were living together as a couple, and Simpson said sending them a marriage license, even from Massachusetts, would have made things much simpler. Simpson said the couple had a commitment ceremony about 15 years ago.

While questions around same-sex marriage have led to contentious debates and schisms in many religious communities - the Episcopal Church immediately comes to mind - there was little controversy around the issue within the Benedictine Order of St. John the Beloved. Simpson said the order, which just celebrated its hundredth anniversary earlier this year, has long been focused on social justice, and LGBT inclusion has been a regular part of that mission. The order, which currently has parishes in locales such as Massachusetts, California, Florida, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, includes ten clergy and about 200 parishioners across the country.

Simpson became the order's archbishop in 1999. He said he was initially hesitant about marrying same-sex couples, but by 2000 he had changed his mind and supported equal marriage rights within the church.

"I'm a product of the Roman seminary, and some of that conservative bent was in me. But I've been set free," said Simpson, with a laugh.

Indeed, like many Old Catholics Simpson and Sheffield grew up in the Roman Catholic Church but grew alienated from the denomination over its doctrines on social issues like homosexuality. Sheffield, now 62, was 18 when he joined a Roman Catholic seminary, but after two years he came to terms with his homosexuality and left the priesthood behind, instead joining the Navy and serving in Vietnam. He was estranged from the church until about seven years ago, when he and his partner, Francis Williams, Jr., were caring for his dying mother. When a Roman Catholic priest came to minister to his mother, said Sheffield, "it rejuvenated my spirit to the point where I wasn't going to be denied receiving the sacraments."

Sheffield got involved with his local Roman Catholic parish, putting on the back burner his concerns about the church's stance on homosexuality. But soon after his return to the church a friend showed him Simpson's book, The Gay Face of God, which talked about the Old Catholic Church and the stance of many churches within the denomination in support of gay rights. Sheffield began attending a nearby Old Catholic Church in West Palm Beach and eventually applied to be a brother in the order. He said the Old Catholic Church's focus on sacraments and the order's liberal stance on homosexuality appealed to him.

"When you've been raised Catholic you usually never are comfortable in a different church, and it's because of the absence of the sacraments," said Sheffield. He said he was ordained a priest three years ago, at which point he felt he had finally completed the journey that he began when he entered the seminary at age 18.

Simpson also left the seminary because of the Roman Catholic Church's stance on homosexuality. He was training to become a priest at Washington D.C.'s Catholic University in 1985 when the late Cardinal James Hickey asked him about whether he had a girlfriend before he entered the priesthood. Simpson came out to Hickey; he said Hickey told him his homosexuality might disqualify him as a candidate for the priesthood. Simpson voluntarily left, and another Roman Catholic priest recommended that he look into the Old Catholic Church. Like Sheffield, Simpson said he felt welcome in the Old Catholic Church. In 1996 he was ordained as a priest.

Simpson said he had been in a relationship with Bixler before entering the Roman Catholic seminary, but put the relationship on hold because of the church's rules on celibacy for priests. They resumed their relationship after he left the seminary. Simpson said they have been able to stay together through the years because the Old Catholic Church has no requirements on celibacy.

"He waited for me. He never dated while I was in and said he knew I'd come back to him," said Simpson.

Simpson and Sheffield originally planned their visit to Holy Family Catholic Community, which formed three years ago as part of the Brazilian Catholic Church and shifted to become part of the Old Catholic Church and the order last year, to learn about the congregation's missionary work and help the church's pastor, Father Peter Miller, develop a plan to shore up the church's finances. Holy Family does not own its own church; it meets at the Church of Our Savior in Milton, an Episcopal church. After learning about the repeal of the 1913 law Simpson decided to take advantage of Massachusetts's marriage laws while he was in town, and Sheffield decided to do the same.

Miller said members of Holy Family, Church of Our Savior, and the public are invited to attend the weddings, which begin at 11 a.m. on Oct. 29. He said he is proud to be able to perform the marriage ceremony for his order's archbishop.

"He is an articulate spokesman for same-gender marriage and equality, social issues, and that's why it's just wonderful that he is coming Massachusetts and that our community gets to perform the marriage for him and his partner and Father Sheffield and his partner. ... The church supports both of these clergy on their journeys and it points the way to a more certain future to Catholic people," said Miller.