catholicworldreport.com
2024-03-30
I met Paul Darrow in July 2018 at a Courage conference, having been invited by a friend to attend. As a married man and father, it was a little peculiar why I was there, since this is an annual conference for Catholics with Same-Sex Attraction (SSA) striving to live chaste lives in accordance with Catholic teaching. Nevertheless, I found it to be both a noble apostolic mission and a conference worth attending in order to gain some perspective on a topic unfamiliar to me.
Paul and I have corresponded periodically over the years. He is a man of deep prayer, imbibed with the gratitude of a thankful revert who recognizes his ransoming from sin and death by the blood of Christ, helped by Mother Angelica of EWTN fame. His background as a hedonist and an international model in his past life shows that none of us are beyond the call of grace and metanoia. His testimony in the 2014 documentary The Desire of the Everlasting Hills is both moving and insightful.
Paul and I recently had a conversation about his thoughts on the unique struggles of SSA Catholics, male friendship, and living an authentic Catholic life, especially in the wake of the controversial Vatican document Fiducia Supplicans. My hope is that Catholics without SSA can gain some insight in hearing from a faithful brother in Christ and that this lends itself to genuine accompaniment as a corporal body of believers in charity.