By Mark Dawes, Staff Reporter
Martin Schade
MARTIN SCHADE was in the Roman Catholic priesthood for 21 years. He was one step away from becoming a full-fledged Jesuit. Then he quit, and it was not because of the demands of celibacy. He wanted to be a priest for all religions.
Mr. Schade, 49, is technically still a priest, because in the Roman Catholic Church, once a priest, always a priest. If he were to marry, that marriage would not be validated by the Roman Catholic Church. He would need to be laicized a process by which the Pope declares one no longer a priest but a member of the laity a wish that the Pope rarely grants.
The holder of Masters degrees in Philosophy, Divinity and Theology, Mr. Schade is also a licensed lecturer for Roman Catholicism having obtained a Licentia in Sacred Theology.
At present, he teaches human sexuality, philosophy and ethics at the University of Technology. Born in the United States, he came to Jamaica during the 1980s. He was at one time the chaplain at St. George's College in Kingston, and a lecturer at St. Michael's Seminary. He entered the priesthood at 25 and was ordained at 35. Then he left the formal priesthood at 46. He will be 50 in June.
But why did he fall out of grace with the Roman Catholic Church?
"There are two sides to the coin of why I left. One, I could not limit myself. Two, I could not limit God. "The only way I could be a Roman Catholic priest is to be a Jesuit with their progressive thinking - I always say to people, the Jesuits make me a full human being than I think I could have been on my own with all the stimulation that they gave me academically, spiritually, socially
"But then I reached that point where I felt I was being limited in my own personal life. Now, I love the Jesuits and I still consider myself Roman Catholic. I still worship in the Roman Catholic Church. It is unfortunate that I can't teach at St. Michael's anymore. It is unfortunate that I can't celebrate mass with anyone who needs a priest. "I came to realise that as much as the Jesuits were progressive in their thinking and trusting me in their actions, and I was never questioned about relationships with women, women were always a concern. Where is this relationship going? Socially, I always had the umbrella of the Roman Catholic Church to stand up for; no matter what I did, I had to remain under that umbrella. And so, that was an aspect of limiting myself in the sense of allowing aspects that I wanted to nurture, one being my sexuality. And I don't mean genital sexuality I mean in the sense of being able to feel more freely and not feeling like someone is hovering over me, is this relationship sacred or whatever. I am talking about relating affective sexuality, not in any way genital. Celibacy is no kissing, no genital involvement it was my celibacy which enabled me to discover romantic celibacy, which enabled my relationship with God to be nurtured in that way. But I don't call God "She". I think of God as God. But I experience God in that romantic feeling.
"My friends who know me know that I remained friends with women and needed femininity in my life and appreciated my own femininity in some ways, and I can talk that way as a strong heterosexual man.
Mr. Schade felt also that being a Roman Catholic priest, he was limiting himself and thereby limiting God in the way he could do ministry. "As a Roman Catholic priest, people would call me up and ask me to do weddings and christenings but they wanted it to be spiritual but they did not want it to be Roman Catholic. But I could only do things that would have been Roman Catholic.
On leaving the formal Roman Catholic priesthood, he had to give up his title as marriage officer. He reapplied for it and was conferred with that privilege under the new title he gives himself 'Priest for all Religions.'
He explained, "I call myself a priest of all religions... I discovered that any religion limits god, because it is limited by human limitations. And then with a very doctrinal dogmatic church like the Roman Catholic Church, even though I love its theology, it limits God. That is why l left formal Roman Catholic priesthood. I qualify that. I never gave up the priesthood. I gave up the formal Roman Catholic element of it.
"My mission," he explained, "is to try in whatever way I can to bring God and to find God in everything To let people know that it is one God. To call people from fundamentalism to mysticism. Fundamentalism being closed and fighting for the doctrine of their one belief excluding all others, to a mysticism where one realises that it is one God and that the doctrine and the details are unimportant. It is the oneness of God that is important. To open people's eyes to the fullness of God and to break down the divisions in religion.
Before leaving the formal Roman Catholic priesthood, Mr. Schade met with, among other persons, the Most Rev. Edgerton Clarke, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kingston.
Speaking with The Gleaner, Archbishop Clarke said of Mr. Schade: "He was evidently speaking on issues in ways that were not according to the Catholic teachings. He had been called in warned, dialogued with it. I know his superior had followed him up closely and had given him all the support that he needed, counselling and professional counselling and all kinds of things. He seemed bent on following a course that is of his own making. I don't know if it is from his readings or his own interpretation of things, but he made some very unusual statements in expressing himself about who he is and how he see himself as priest and how he sees himself as Catholic, which certainly did not fit into our understanding of all of that. It came to the point where he was very set in going his way. So the Society (the Jesuits) had nothing further to do than to say you are no longer a member of the Jesuits Society. He is still a priest but bearing in mind his outlook, his status, and what he considers himself to be, I certainly could not take him into the diocesan priesthood. He would have to
fit into the Catholic way of life and the Catholic understanding of itself, and what it is to be a priest and how it is to be a priest. He has his own unusual and extremely strange ideas as to who he is as priest. He is on his own out there and certainly not functioning under the Catholic auspices. We are always prepared to help people to come back and repent It is to the Lord he is coming back to, not to me."
Mr. Schade, having left the formal priesthood says: "I do baptisms for people who don't want a formal religion but they want the spirituality. I do weddings for people who don't want Roman Catholic rites but just a spiritual wedding. I do funerals for people who don't have a regular religion but want spirituality at the funeral. I do several house blessings. I am really enjoying my ministry now."
Standing at six feet three inches, with long hair, Mr. Schade fell in love with the island and became a naturalised Jamaican in 1994. He hopes to fall in love again and to get married. Though no longer a practising Roman Catholic priest, he says he remains celibate.
He believes that Roman Catholic priests ought to be allowed to get married and also that the way ought to be cleared for women to become priests.
"I think it is a travesty of justice that women, because of their gender and sex, cannot become priests. I do not think God is limiting in God's vocation To say that Jesus only called upon men as a foundation of theology and vocation I think is fundamentalism in Roman Catholicism to the core. God called This gender exclusivity and sex exclusivity has to stop - And this is one of the reasons I can no longer limit myself. As a (formal) Roman Catholic priest I could not say that. This Pope said it is not to be discussed. That's doctrinal. I could not discuss it publicly."
The Roman Catholic Church, Mr. Schade believes needs to rethink its views on celibacy. "Celibacy is a fantastic virtue. I don't think celibacy should be imposed. Being able to be celibate should not be the criterion upon which one can become a priest. And it will give greater validity to celibacy when it is an option rather than an imposition.
Roman Catholic seminaries, he maintains, need to give more attention to a priest's sexual formation. "Who are the saints in the Roman Catholic Church? Virgins and celibates for the most part. Even though theologically we make a great statement about the gift of sexuality we never promote it in the sense of who we promote and canonise. I think the highest vocation is a married couple with children keeping their harmony together. We say that the celibate life is not a better life but we send that signal by who we canonise and who we 'big up'. We are not incorporating the married life into our structure enough. We have to change that attitude totally. We have to talk about our sexuality. You have to know who you are before you commit yourself to the church and to a particular way of life called celibacy.
Though no longer a practising Roman Catholic priest, Mr. Schade is still sought out as a counsellor, particularly marriage counselling. A lot of his clients are people who knew him in his hey day with the Jesuits. He feels particularly qualified to give counsel concerning marriage having witnessed the successful marriage his parents had until his father died in 1999. Also, he explained, a strong attribute he exhibited as a Jesuit was that of being a most manly man. Furthermore, celibacy, instead of being a negative factor was in fact a big plus. "My celibacy enabled me to understand women even more. Because I was not a threat, I had approachability and many women friends. So I came to know the dynamic of relationships and the issues in relationships form an objective perspective. I was sexually active before I became a priest. I dated women, I know relationships.
Mr. Schade has no regrets about leaving the formal priesthood. But he explained: "The part that hurt me the most is any sense of disappointment and pain to my Jesuit brothers and the community that I served. Mostly, people respected my decision. They knew it was painful. They were sorry that I was leaving. That was the painful part.
"I want you to stress that I am still Roman Catholic. I worship in the Roman Catholic Church. I have not left the Roman Catholic Church. It is unfortunate that they exclude me in certain aspects. I want all my brothers and sisters to know that I did not leave and I would love to still participate as much as I can. But that is the church's issue, not mine. My life with the Jesuits is not over," Mr. Schade said.
