Joseph Izzo first connected with Quakers as a priest in the Catholic peace movement during the Vietnam War. “Everywhere I went, every conference I attended… there were Quakers,” they recalls. “As I listened, I kept thinking [that] this is the only other religious denomination I could consider belonging to.”
In the years that followed, Joseph’s support for women’s ordination and for ministering to gay and lesbian Catholics met with disfavor from church authorities, including the future Pope Benedict XVI, culminating in their excommunication. That eventually led them to the Religious Society of Friends. “The whole thing was a blessing,” they reflect. “It didn’t feel that way at the time, but I look back on it and see this is where I needed to be.”
“My spirituality was wrapped up in a lot of anger,” Joseph says of their Catholic years. “Anger at all the disagreements I had with the church’s doctrines and dogmas and beliefs… When I became a Quaker, all that anger dissipated, [and] my spirituality could be directed toward the goodness and well-being of others.”
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Transcript:
After I was excommunicated from the Catholic Church — what allowed me to heal through the process was not just the therapy, but my fundamental belief, that all Quakers have, is that God is within me. I look at it now as a blessing. The whole thing was a blessing. It didn’t feel that way at the time, but I look back on it and say, “Yeah, this is where I needed to be.”
So my name is Joseph Izzo. I prefer the pronouns they/them/their. I’m from Washington, D.C. I’ve lived here for almost 60 years.
My introduction to Quakerism actually started during the Vietnam War. I was heavily involved with the Catholic peace movement, while I was still a Roman Catholic and in the Catholic religious order. And everywhere I went, every conference that I attended on peace and trying to end the Vietnam War, there were Quakers. As I listened, I kept thinking to myself, you know, if I wasn’t a Roman Catholic, I think this is the only other religious denomination I could consider belonging to.
I was a child of the, a young adult actually, of the 1970s — which was when a lot of the civil rights movement was going on, women’s rights was going on, LGBTQ rights were going on, and the end result was I was affected by all of that. Because of my positions on women’s ordination, I was promoting women’s ordination, and because as campus minister at the Catholic University of America, I started a support group for the Gay and Lesbian Student, Faculty and staff. This did not put me in good standing with the Vatican. I guess I was kind of naive about the politics of the Catholic Church at the time, so I didn’t think anything that I did was going to be noticed. It just so happened, though, that the person who was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who later became Pope Benedict the 16th — he was an ultraconservative cardinal at the time, and he he went about repressing theologians that weren’t in agreement with the Catholic Church’s doctrine and dogma.
So what initially happened to me was that I was going to be shifting ministries from campus ministry to working with this organization called New Ways Ministry, which was specifically a Catholic LGBTQ ministry. The two co-directors, Sister Jeannine Gramick and Father Bob Nugent, were writing books about the need for the church to change their theological view about sexuality in general and the concepts of gender, and so forth. Jeannine asked me if I would be willing to be the co-director with her while Bob was away, but I couldn’t do that without asking permission from the order. So I started the process and I got called in by the Superior who told me I had to cease and desist all activities advocating for gay people, doing anything about women’s ordination, and so forth. And I was like, really puzzled. I thought it would be a pretty easy thing because the order that I was in, these were all college educated men. Many of them had doctoral degrees in different fields and so forth.
One of the the actual teachings of the Catholic Church is that the members of the church are supposed to follow their conscience. The conscience should be well formed by the teachings of the church, by the words and the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels and so forth. But you’re basically supposed to follow the truth as you’ve been given the truth to understand. And that resulted by the end of 1982 of my being excommunicated from the order and then from the church.
It’s all about power and control. You know, this is the problem with with most denominations. The people that have the power and control, they want it their way, and if anybody dissents from that, you’re wrong, you’re evil, you’re sinful, whatever. It’s the politics of organized religion. Which is why another reason why I’m a Quaker. We’re not hierarchical. We’re congregational in our approach to everything. We’re very democratic in that sense. There’s nobody at the top telling everybody what they have to do, what they have to believe or anything.
To a large extent, when I was still a Roman Catholic, my spirituality was wrapped up in a lot of anger. Anger and all the disagreements I had with the church’s doctrines and dogmas and beliefs about sexuality and women’s rights and so forth. And when I became a Quaker, all that anger dissipated. No more anger. My spirituality could be directed toward the goodness and well-being of others.
Discussion Question:
- Did you come to Quakerism through another religious tradition? What was it in Quaker faith and practice that led you here?
The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.
Joe is such a thoughtful presence at Friends Meeting of Washington. I love how he has communicated with my children as equals from toddler-hood into adulthood. His journey reminds me of my mother’s–a liberal Catholic from a very religious Polish family who was uncomfortable with the non-inclusiveness of the Church in the 1970’s. Her seeking led to stopping by the Quaker meeting in our hometown–Yardley PA. She became a member of Makefield (PA), Buckingham (PA), and Charlottesville (VA) Meetings–an active participant in peace and prison ministries over 25 years.
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Wonderful story of Izzo. I too was Catholic, for over 50 years. After strong disagreement over women’s ordination and birth control, I joined an Episcopal parish for several years. My beliefs and values were evolving, and I found a Quaker Worship Group started by a friend in my Episcopal parish. This became home over 30 years ago! I was especially amazed by the variety of members when I attended GFC gathering in 1995: nontheists, Jews, pagans, LGBTQs, together with the more traditional majority type. My mind, heart and soul alignment with Quakerism. This is what I chose before I came to earth! Blessed be!
Thank you for your story! I was really struck by the end where you said that as a Catholic a lot of your spirituality was wrapped up in anger, over disagreements regarding Church doctrine and dogma on sexuality, etc, but that once you became a Quaker, that anger dissipated. This was absolutely my experience as well. I was told by our parish priest at the age of 16 that there was no place for me in the Catholic Church the moment I came out as gay, so I left–but I wanted to come back for a long time, yet so much of that yearning was mixed up in anger and hurt. Once I started attending Quaker meetings on a regular basis I found I didn’t have to prove to anyone that I belonged, that I was worthy of community and fellowship, just by being alive and present I automatically belonged, and the anger I had carried my whole life was gone. Thank you again for telling us your experience, it was very powerful.
A good man. I was happy to hear his story, simply and clearly told, and to feel his kindness and warmth of heart.
Thank you for this video of Joseph, I enjoyed listening to their experience.