Henri Nouwen

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Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen (January 24, 1932 - October 2, 1996) was a Dutch Catholic priest and writer who authored 40 books on the spiritual life. His books are widely-read and two much-loved titles are The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming and The Wounded Healer. He lectured at the University of Notre Dame, Harvard University and Yale University and travelled extensively throughout North America giving retreats and lectures.

His spirituality was influenced by many, notably by his friendship with Jean Vanier. At the invitation of Vanier he visited L'Arche in France, the first of over 130 communities around the world where people with developmental disabilities live and share life together with those who care for them. In 1986 Nouwen accepted the position of pastor for a L'Arche community called "Daybreak" in Canada, near Toronto. Nouwen wrote about his relationship with Adam, a core member at L'Arche Daybreak with profound developmental disabilities, in a book entitled Adam: God's Beloved.

The results of a Christian Century magazine survey conducted in 2003 indicate that Nouwen's work was a first choice for Catholic and mainline Protestant clergy.

Although he never publicly disclosed his homosexuality, Nouwen was known to have homosexual inclinations. While his sexual orientation may have been homosexual, his adherence to Catholic teaching and personal belief in the priestly vow of celibacy, precluded him from homosexual practice.

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Nouwen's sexuality

From http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/4673.htm

BBC producer Michael Ford met Nouwen while interviewing him for a TV program and later took a leave of absence to write the biography: Wounded Prophet: A Portrait of Henri JM Nouwen. Ford says it is not intended as a full-scale biography. Nevertheless, he succeeds brilliantly in shedding light on Nouwen's inner life, particularly his angst regarding his homosexuality.

'At seminary Nouwen developed an interest in psychology and in 1964 was named a fellow in the program for religion and psychiatry at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas. After that, he joined the faculty at Notre Dame University...

'At Menninger, Nouwen wrestled with his homosexual leanings, which he regarded as a disability, a cross to bear. While Nouwen was at Harvard, he was hard on gay students, telling them that homosexuality was an evil state of being.

'In time, he became friends with many homosexuals and was under increasing pressure to go public. Other friends, however, advised him to keep his secret, saying he would lose all credibility as a famous Catholic writer if people knew he was gay. Before he died in 1996, Nouwen was becoming more vocal in his support of gay men and women, saying they had a "unique vocation in the Christian community." Ford speculates that had Nouwen lived, his next major book might have been a study of homosexuality.

'Nouwen was troubled by the possibility that people would reject him if they knew about his sexual orientation. "This took an enormous emotional, spiritual and physical toll on his life and may have contributed to his early death," Ford says. There is no indication in the book that Nouwen was anything but celibate. Other writers generally have avoided the question of Nouwen's sexual orientation. To his credit, [biographer Michael] Ford has given us a fuller picture of Nouwen and demonstrated the depth of Nouwen's anguish about his sexuality and issues of intimacy in general.'

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