Today is special for two reasons. For the LGBT community in the
United States, it is National Coming Out Day. For the Catholic
community worldwide, it is the 50th anniversary of the opening
of Vatican II. Just a coincidence? Well, probably, but there’s
something interesting about this coincidence. National Coming
Out Day is a time to celebrate the “coming out” process for
sexual and gender minorities: that coming to awareness,
acceptance, and announcement of their true identities. Five
decades ago, the Catholic Church embarked on a project of
pastoral and theological reform at the Second Vatican Council
which was, in one respect, a coming out process: an emergence
from calcified traditions into a liberating recognition of its
true identity. When Pope John XXIII announced the Council, he
said he wanted to open some windows in the church. In the
process, it seems, he also opened some closet doors. But the
connection between these two celebrations is even more cohesive
than the metaphors described above. In one