You are here
GRISWOLD WAS PRO GAY AS BISHOP OF CHICAGO LETTER REVEALS
Special Report.
By David W. Virtue
www.virtueonline.org
WEST CHESTER, PA (12/4/2005)--When he was bishop of Chicago, Frank Tracy Griswold wrote a confidential letter to a person saying that he had no problem with active non-celibate homosexuals acting out their sexuality as priests in The Episcopal Church.
The letter dated June 23, 1997 and marked "CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION" was given to VirtueOnline recently. In it Griswold was clearly responding to a question about homosexuals in the church and wrote, "Thank you for your letter of May 25 and for your forthright expression of concern regarding the presence of homosexual persons in the ministry and for the judgement which will surely be mine at the hands of the risen Christ."
Then Griswold says this. "First of all, if a person in the ordination process informs me that they are a homosexual, I feel no more need to exact from them a promise of life long celibacy that I do from persons who present themselves as presumed heterosexuals. I do, however, make it clear in our conversation that one's sexuality must be lived under the aeges of the gospel and that the cross is just as present in sexual dimensions of our humanity as it is in other areas of our lives."
"Secondly I am very clear about the fact that there are patterns of sexual behavior, both homosexual and heterosexual, that are clearly sinful and need to be named as such. As far as my own discernment of a person's life and ministry go, I tend to look for the fruits of the Spirit as delineated by St. Paul and apply Jesus' rule that you know a person's integrity from the fruits that their life produces."
Griswold signed the letter,
"Yours sincerely in Christ,"
Frank T. Griswold
Bishop of Chicago
