Our very distinguished speaker is Fr. Paul Check, the Executive Director of Courage, an international apostolate of the Catholic Church, which ministers to persons with same-sex attractions. Fr. Check’s talk is entitled “The Catholic Church and Homosexuality: Clarity and Charity.”
Fr Paul N. Check was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Bridgeport, CT in 1997. He holds an STB from the Gregorian University and an STL from the University of the Holy Cross, both in Rome. In his diocese, Fr Check teaches fundamental moral theology to seminarians and sexual and medical ethics to permanent diaconate candidates. For twelve years, he taught a two week course in moral theology in the “Gift of Faith” Syllabus for Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. Fr. Check graduated from Rice University in 1981 with a BA in history. He served as an officer in the US Marine Corps for nine years prior to entering the seminary. Since 2008, Fr Check has served as the executive director of Courage International, for which he spends much of his time traveling throughout the US and overseas making presentations to clergy about the Church’s teaching on homosexuality and her pastoral response. On January 1, 2017, he will become the rector of the St John Fisher Seminary in the Diocese of Bridgeport.
