James Alison

James Alison was born on 4 October 1959,[2] the son of Michael Alison and Sylvia Alison (née Haigh). He has a brother and a sister. In Faith Beyond Resentment he describes his family background as "conservative middle-class English evangelical Protestant".[3] His father was Michael Alison (died 2004) who, after leaving the University of Oxford, had spent some time studying theology at Ridley Hall and had gone on to become a prominent Conservative Member of Parliament (1964–1997) and Second Church Estates Commissioner (1987–1997).[4] Alison left the Church of England at the age of eighteen to join the Roman Catholic Church.[5] He studied at Blackfriars College at the University of Oxford, and earned his bachelor's degree and doctorate in theology from the Jesuit theology faculty in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

He has lived and worked in Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, and the United States. Currently he works as a travelling preacher, lecturer and retreat giver, based in Madrid, Spain.[6]

Alison was a member of the Dominican order – his master's degree is a Dominican lectorate – from 1981 to 1995. In 1996, he wrote to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith telling them that he believed his vows to be null[2] as they were based on the "false premise of gay people being objectively disordered and thus celibacy being obligatory".[1] He offered to let them issue a decree saying that his ordination was null, but they declined, saying it was valid.[2] Instead, the congregation asked him to seek laicisation, but Alison declined: "The form for doing that also required that lies to be told, so, on advice of a canon lawyer, I did nothing and heard nothing".[2] He told Commonweal magazine in 2012 that he was released from the Dominicans without penalty, and that he is uncertain of the validity of his vow of celibacy.[7]

More than 10 years later, a superior in the Dominican order asked if Alison would object to his processing paperwork dismissing Alison from the order.[2] Alison said he did not mind the paperwork, but would not participate as he believed he was never truly a member anyway.[2] He eventually received a letter stating that he was a priest in good standing, not currently incardinated but available to be incardinated if a bishop wished to have him.[2]

While living in Brazil, the local bishop asked for Alison's consent to be laicized.[2] Alison declined, but instead offered to be incardinated into the diocese.[2] The bishop declined that offer.[2] The bishop then began a process of laicization without Alison's consent using the norm designed for priest who left their ministry to get married and would not answer requests for cooperation; Alison believed this was not applicable in his situation.[2] A year later, a letter from the Congregation for the Clergy arrived announcing that Alison had been laicized, forbidding him from teaching, preaching, or presiding. According to the letter, this decision was unappealable.[2] For Alison, "it was shocking to be tangential to a process in which it is unnecessary to inform the one charged of the charges against him, in which no legal representation is permitted, and whose sentence does not require the signature of the sentencee".[2]

A friendly bishop, who was once Alison's novice master, hand delivered a letter to Pope Francis in May 2017 appealing his laicization.[2] In the letter, Alison asked the Pope to make his situation regular; he proposed to treat the congregation's letter "as null, and to carry on as before".[2] On 2 July 2017, Pope Francis called Alison directly.[2] According to Alison, Pope Francis told him, "I want you to walk with deep interior freedom, following the Spirit of Jesus. And I give you the power of the keys."[2] Alison believes that, Pope Francis did not perceive the congregation's decision as binding; that he treated him as a priest and granted him the authority to hear confessions.[2]

• Knowing Jesus (1994) ISBN 0-87243-202-5, ISBN 0-281-04641-7 & 0281052220
• Raising Abel, The Recovery of the Eschatological Imagination (1996) ISBN 0-8371-6434-6 (Also published under the title Living in the End Times: The Last Things Re-imagined ISBN 84-254-2097-0)
• The Joy of Being Wrong, Original Sin Through Easter Eyes (1998) ISBN 0-8245-1676-1
• Faith Beyond Resentment, Fragments Catholic and Gay (2001) ISBN 0-232-52411-4, ISBN 0-8245-1922-1
• On Being Liked (2004) ISBN 0-232-52517-X, ISBN 0-8245-2261-3
• Undergoing God: Dispatches from the Scene of a Break-In (2006) ISBN 0-232-52676-1, ISBN 0-8264-1928-3
• Broken Hearts and New Creations: Intimations of a Great Reversal (2010) ISBN 978-0232527964, ISBN 978-1441107114
• Jesus the Forgiving Victim: Listening for the Unheard Voice (2013) ISBN 978-0-9818123-1-1, ISBN 0-9818123-1-7
• Fé Além do Ressentimento - Fragmentos católicos em voz gay (2010) É Realizações Editora, Brasil [8]
• O Pecado Original à Luz da Ressurreição- A Alegria de Descobrir-se Equivocado (2011) É Realizações Editora, Brasil [8]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: James Alison

• James Alison. Theology – Full-text articles and talks; book excerpts and reviews; links to other Alison's texts
• Works by or about James Alison in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Praying Eucharistically - James Alison's weekly homilies on YouTube