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Sister Janet Rozzano spent 25 years as a nun before coming out as a lesbian. (Envato)
A nun has explained why she feels she is called by God to “affirm and celebrate” her lesbian identity in the Catholic church.
Sister Janet Rozzano is part of Sisters of Mercy, an international community of Catholic nuns who “take vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and service”, since 1956.
She described her journey, “filled with both struggles and joys”, in an op-ed published by
Reuters,ahead of a new anthology titled
Rozzano said it wasn’t until she was in her 40s, and had already spent 25 years as a nun, that she “began to deal with and integrate [her] sexual identity”.
Mercy Sr. Janet Rozzano discovered she was a lesbian gradually.
During the 1960s and 70s, she became emotionally close with several women, describing her feelings in journal entries filled with both fear and joy, as she wrote in an essay published in
When she gathered the courage to come out, other women in her community supported her, Rozzano told Global Sisters Report. Soon, she became an advocate for other LGBTQ Catholics. I came to see my telling people coming out to them as a ministry in itself, Rozzano said.
Her impact reached fellow Sisters of Mercy, including Sr. Mary Kay Dobrovolny, who describes herself in the book as unapologetically and enthusiastically queer.