"I'm a Roman Catholic priest and I'm gay."
With that confession, 63-year-old Karl Clemens became the first priest in Canada to openly declare his homosexuality.
Clemens - a priest for 33 years who retired from the Kingston diocese seven years ago - now lives in Toronto, calling Church Street in the city's gay village his parish.
"I don't have a parish," Clemens told 360 Vision in a documentary that aired last night on VisionTV. "My parish is the street - the highways, the byways, the bars."
Clemens, who wears a priest's collar and says mass every day in his living room, said he is celibate.
"If I were any more celibate, I don't know that I'd be alive," Clemens said, recalling a joke he once told a bishop.
Link.
Two observations:
1. He apparently retired when he was only 56. In my diocese, we're trying to get priests to work until they're at least 70. I wonder why this guy retired so early.
2. I don't understand his joke (see last paragraph above). He apparently slayed himself with it, since he's used it at least twice now.
