A Black, gay Catholic priest on living authentically

The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin, S.J.

America Media

Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.9 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 February 2026

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fr. Bryan Massingale is a Black, openly gay priest, but not, in his own words, “a hybrid car,” that can be segmented into identity categories. Instead, he’s compound reality, a mystery made by God’s grace. Bryan joins host James Martin, S.J., on “The Spiritual Life” podcast to talk about the values of authenticity and integrity in his life and ministry. Timecodes: 0:00 Bringing God’s love forth 2:38 Why Bryan’s race and sexuality are significant 5:36 Challenges of being a Black and gay Catholic priest 11:35 How Bryan came out as gay 17:40 Authenticity frees us and others 25:55 Bryan’s advice to someone struggling with the church 29:38 The church’s tragic track record on racism 34:53 Why Bryan remains in the church despite racism 39:34 The spiritual practice of journaling & music 44:45 Audience Question: What can parents of L.G.B.T.Q. children do when their kids refuse to come to Mass? Read Fr. James Martin's article reflecting on this conversation Do you have a spiritual question for Fr. Jim? You can write to us at: ⁠thespirituallife@americamedia.org⁠ Become a subscriber today at ⁠Americamagazine.org/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why does the term health care leave people feeling sick to their stomach? Maybe it's because instead
0:04.5	of being tied to health, the word seems to have a deeper connection to industries. At Catholic
0:09.5	Health Care, we're returning the word health care back to its former glory, because when
0:13.9	health care really cares, communities thrive, prevention is prioritized, and everyone has access to
0:19.9	care. Say it with me, health everyone has access to care.
0:21.5	Say it with me.
0:22.4	Health care.
0:24.0	Sounds better already.
0:25.5	Catholic Health Care.
0:26.6	We Care.
0:27.8	You flourish.
0:30.2	Sponsored by the Catholic Health Association.
0:34.2	It isn't about me.
0:44.6	It was really my coming out was passionately motivated in many ways. It was to say, I am with you in this journey and as I often say I came out to let God's love come forth, that God's love is for all of us.
1:00.2	Welcome to the spiritual life. I'm Father Jim Martin. On this podcast, we reflect on how people
1:05.8	experience God in their prayer and in their daily lives. And I'm here with my magnificent producer. Maggie Van Doren,
1:13.6	Maggie, good to be with you. It's great to be with you, Jim. I appreciate the alliteration.
1:18.3	And this time we're very excited to be speaking with Brian Massengale.
1:22.4	Yes, who is a personal hero of us both. So last week we had this conversation with Ben Wetherington, the
1:29.8	Great New Testament scholar, to help us kick off Lent. And this week, of course, we are
1:34.7	continuing with that Lenton observance, but we are also celebrating Black History Month.
1:40.2	And Brian Massengale is really the perfect person to have on because in addition to being a black Catholic priest, he's a foremost scholar of racial justice.
	...

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