Prominent gay-activist Jesuit dead at 82
March 15, 2010
A Jesuit who helped found the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force has died at the age of 82. Father Robert Carter, SJ, also helped found the New York chapter of DignityUSA, an organization that dissents from Catholic teaching on homosexuality.
“When the Catholic authorities said Dignity could not meet on church property, Father Carter celebrated Mass in apartments all around Manhattan,” The New York Times reported. “He led blessing ceremonies for gay couples. He testified in support of the gay rights law proposed by Mayor Edward I. Koch before it was passed by the City Council in 1986. He urged Dignity to march in gay pride parades and marched himself, in his clerical collar.”
Carter remained a Jesuit although he confided to friends that he had become an atheist.
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Further information:
- Robert Carter, Priest and Gay Activist, Dies at 82 (New York Times)
- Gay Pioneer Robert Carter Dies (Gay City News)
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Posted by: Lucius49 -
Mar. 15, 2010 10:29 PM ET USA
What an oxymoron:a gay,activist,atheist Jesuit! St.Ignatius is turning over in his grave. Why have all the recent Popes refused to intervene to clean up/clean the Jesuits?? Pius XII noted the Jesuit problem in 1958. The Popes since then have dropped the ball. Why? Pope Paul VI stopped a Jesuit reform movement in the 70's. Why? Since Bl John XXIII's medicine of mercy speech, there seems to have been a paralysis in dealing with dissent and di
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Posted by: Don Vicente -
Mar. 15, 2010 10:46 AM ET USA
It seems that Robert Carter was a profoundly dishonest man. If, tragically, he had ceased believing in God, then why continue the charade? He continued being fed, housed and clothed by the Jesuit order and the Catholic Church, whose most basic premise -- the existence of God -- he denied. However, as just another unhappy gay atheist, he would not have stood out of the crowd and garnered the kind of notoriety he did. This is a tragedy; we must pray for him. BUT - How many like him are left?
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Posted by: -
Mar. 15, 2010 8:42 AM ET USA
What damage this man has done to souls! May he find mercy . . . .
