Led by a gay priest, Holy Spirit Ecumenical Catholic Church embraces homosexuals and others who feel rejected by Rome.
By MEGAN SCOTT
Published August 4, 2003
CLEARWATER - There was no rainbow flag outside the door.
And there was no gay pride banner inside. Nor any other outward signs that suggested alternative lifestyles were welcome here.
But Holy Spirit Ecumenical Catholic Church embraced gays and other breakaway Catholics on Sunday morning, as more than 40 people gathered for the church's first service at Morton Plant Self-Health Center in Westfield Shoppingtown Countryside.
"We want to let people know that it's okay to be Catholic, regardless of the story of their life," said Father Steven Rosczewski, who officiates the services. "And to come and be with us and celebrate with us, and even if you're not Catholic, to come and check us out."
Rosczewski, 45, of Palm Harbor is a former Roman Catholic priest who happens to be gay.
In December 2000, he offered his resignation to his superiors in the Mercedarian Friars after admitting to a homosexual relationship with a man he met in an Internet chat room. He was dismissed as parish priest at the Transfiguration Catholic Church in St. Petersburg. The Vatican released him two months later from the vows he took at his 1989 ordination.
While canon law allows priests to be gay, it requires them to be celibate.
Now Rosczewski's new church is coming together at a time when the Vatican is rejecting the idea of making church doctrine more accepting of homosexuals.
"You can't disenfranchise people and hate people and say that you're a Christian church," said Jeanne Isacco, a church member from St. Petersburg who is gay. "That doesn't make any sense."
The first service at Holy Spirit came four days after the Vatican released a 12-page document, approved by Pope John Paul II, warning Catholic politicians that support of same-sex unions is "gravely immoral."
While condemning "unjust discrimination against homosexual persons," it asserts that legal recognition for gay and lesbian couples would amount to "approval of deviant behavior, with the consequence of making it a model in present day society."
Rosczewski discounted the Vatican's statement.
"I don't see calling a marriage between heterosexual partners and homosexual partners as being very different at all," he said. "For me, it's the union of two people to the exclusion of others."
Closer to home, a spokeswoman for the Diocese of St. Petersburg said Rosczewski's new church is not recognized as Catholic.
Diocese spokeswoman Mary Jo Murphy said the diocese is bound by the teachings of the Catholic Church under Pope John Paul II. The teachings come from the Scriptures and tradition, she said.
"We are all under the authority of the Holy Father," Murphy said last week. "People who want to call themselves Catholic in union with the Holy Father all believe the same teachings."
Rosczewski recognizes the difference in Roman Catholicism and his church. He compares it to a family who has the same name but members run their households differently. The household of Rome runs its house differently, he said.
His church follows the rules of sacraments, Scriptures and communion.
"We're trying to appeal to ... the one who has been upset by all the abuse stuff, the lack of accountability, the lack of honesty, the lack of inclusion," he said. "Women who feel called to be priests. Why can't they be priests? Because they don't have the right genitalia?"
From a young age, Rosczewski knew he was different. When he was a kid, he stole his sister's Easy Bake oven. He grew up in Pontiac, Mich., in a Roman Catholic family. Homosexuality was something you kept to yourself in that place and time.
He began studying for the priesthood in 1980, choosing a religious order because it provided a community life.
The breaking point came a few years ago when Rosczewski was reading The Church and the Homosexual by John McNeill. In the book, McNeill writes that same-sex relationships never work unless both partners are open about their sexuality.
Rosczewski read it and began to cry.
"I said, "My God. I'm always going to be alone because I can't be out,"' he said. "That was really one of my turning points. I said, "I'm at this point that I need not to be alone. But I also deeply love my ministry."'
He met Ralph LeDesma, an interior decorator, when he logged into a chat room looking for someone to converse with. They had dinner together and fell in love. They exchanged vows at a Gay Pride festival.
Rosczewski, who is also a hospice chaplain, started Dignity Tampa Bay for homosexual Catholics in 2001 and soon realized there were more than just gays who were disillusioned with the church.
"We don't want to be known as a gay church," he said about Holy Spirit. "We want to be known as a church that welcomes and loves and celebrates gay people as well as all people."
Holy Spirit is a member of Ecumenical Catholic Communities, which was formally organized in 1996 and is referred to as a breakaway denomination. Holy Spirit's diocese has a few thousand members but participation is growing.
People came from all over to attend the first service.
"It was wonderful," said Bart Coyle, 55, of Bradenton, a member of Dignity Sarasota. "Definitely, I think it's something that is needed. It's basically bringing together people that have been disenfranchised."
"I just wanted to be at a place where people are more accepted," said Jennifer McDonnell, of Clearwater, who was there with her husband and son. "We want everyone to be accepted."
Rosczewski doesn't see his interpretation as wrong. The core of faith is not wrong, he said.
Rather, individuals have corrupted Catholicism by caring more about money than people and their lives, he said.
"I will always be Catholic," he said. "I love being Catholic. But I will not sit at the Roman table because the Roman table will not sit with me."
If you go:
Holy Spirit Ecumenical Catholic Church meets at 10 a.m. Sundays at Morton Plant Self-Health Center, Westfield Shoppingtown Countryside, U.S. 19 and State Road 580, Clearwater. For more information, call 727 709-1542 or log on to www.holyspiritecc.org
