Friday’s RNS report starts with a story about an openly gay Catholic priest considering the anticipated Vatican document on gays in the church. Renee K. Gadoua writes: It wasn’t until two years after his ordination as a Roman Catholic priest that the Rev. Fred Daley of Utica, N.Y., acknowledged he might be gay. … A light went on, he said. “I began to become aware of my sexual feelings and desires,” he said. He was 27. Almost 30 years later-after a painful, prayerful and mostly lonely journey-he disclosed his sexual orientation to his Utica congregation in May 2004. As speculation grows that the Vatican is preparing a document addressing gays and ordination, Daley says he’s proud to be a celibate, gay priest.
Sarah Mausolf has a story on a pastor who records ghost stories in his town of Riegelsville, Pa.: Footsteps awaken Jeffrey A. Wargo as he sleeps in the parsonage at St. John United Church of Christ. Voices call his name. And the clocks on the first floor stop at exactly 3 a.m. each morning. In this sleepy village, the pastor has assumed an unlikely second role: collector of ghost stories. His book, “Ghosts in the ‘Ville: True Stories of the Unexplained in Riegelsville, Pa.,” chronicles strange happenings in the former paper mill town. Perhaps the most fascinating tale is his own, a story of a pastor who doubles as scribe for the supernatural.
