Richard Sipe

Keynote speaker, DignityUSA 2003 Convention

Mr. Sipe is a psychotherapist and former Benedictine monk and priest married to a former Maryknoll nun, Marianne Benkert, MD., a psychiatrist at UCSD's Owen Clinic. For more than 30 years, he has been engaged in research on the institution and practice of priestly celibacy.

He has counseled clergy accused of sexual crimes. Ordained in 1959, Sipe began his psychotherapy training at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka Kansas on scholarship from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in 1964. He left the priesthood in 1970, and has written extensively on the church's policy of committing priests to a lifetime of celibacy.

Sipe is the author of such books as "Sex, Priests, and Power: Anatomy of a Crisis", "A Secret World: Sexuality & the Search for Celibacy", "Celibacy: A Way of Loving, Living & Serving", "Psychiatry, Ministry, & Pastoral Counseling" and "Hope: Psychiatry's Commitment". Mr. Sipe currently lives in the seaside community of La Jolla, Calif.

''If they were to eliminate all those who were homosexually oriented, the number would be so staggering that it would be like an atomic bomb; it would do the same damage to the church's operation,'' according to A. W. Richard Sipe. ''It would mean the resignation of at least a third of the bishops of the world. And it's very much against the tradition of the church; many saints had a gay orientation, and many popes had gay orientations. Discriminating against orientation is not going to solve the problem.''

On the Web: www.RichardSipe.com

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