#queer catholics

The professor touring with us told us about Saint Francis’s father, a wealthy guy who ran a fabric company—meaning that he provided the wealthiest, most stylish people their clothing. Francis just wanted to go around in rags and help the poor, and this was embarrassing to his father, who threatened to disinherit him if he kept it up.

One day, Francis took off all his clothes in the middle of the street, in the middle of the town, and folded them up, all those fine fabrics that had made his family rich, and handed them back to his father. “My only father is my Father in Heaven,” Francis said, and he stood there, naked in front of the whole town. What a badass.

“From then on, he lived “like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field,” in a complicated, dire, but occasionally blissful poverty. He died naked in the cold winter, on the altar of a church he’d built with his own hands, surrounded by men and women who’d followed him into poverty.

For my confirmation back in eighth grade, we were supposed to pick a patron saint, and I picked Saint Francis because he talked to animals, plants, and planets and called them his brothers and sisters. The lady in charge of confirmation at the church looked uncomfortable, and after class, she pulled me aside and said it was “very strongly suggested” that we pick a saint of our own gender. When I heard that, I instantly picked a female saint so that no one would suspect there was anything amiss about my gender.

Saint Claire and all the women saints cut their hair short as a sign of holiness, but I knew I could never cut my hair short. When I’d tried to get it “short” at the hairdresser as a kid, the lady had given me a Dorothy Hamill bowl cut that I hated.  For a while, I thought it might be literally impossible for scissors to cut female hair shorter than a certain length, because people’s reactions made it seem so outlandish when I asked for it, until I stopped asking.

If anyone's interested, I preached this weekend on queer visions of the Trinity + queer resonances in Mary's yes to social disgrace.

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Deezer

As a trans person who is not a Christian, I was not a fan and I side eye a bunch of things that happened under his watch as far as cover ups and corruption. That said, he was better than I had any hope of him being and so much better than predecessors in so many ways and on so many issues. He DID represent progress, even though he didn't go as far as one would wish. His anti-authoritarian moves were important.

I am really worried about what comes next.

Saint Brigid

This week's episode is on the 5th-century Irish abbess Saint Brigid. Join us to hear about a miraculous abortion, powerful women in the Catholic Church, and a flying priest.

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