**Who was Gregory Baum?**
Born in Berlin in 1923 to a Jewish mother and a Protestant father, he converted to Catholicism after World War II, joined the Order of Saint Augustine, and was ordained a priest. During the Second Vatican Council, he was appointed *peritus* (theological expert) and collaborated in drafting the document *Nostra Aetate*, which redefined the Church's relationship with non-Christian religions, ESPECIALLY with Judaism.
Over the years, Baum became one of the most outspoken critics of the Church's moral teaching and began to increasingly distance himself from Catholic doctrine. He rejected the doctrine on homosexual acts, argued that same-sex relationships could be morally good, and supported the recognition of so-called homosexual "marriage."
He also called for a review of the prohibition of contraceptives established in *Humanae Vitae*, defended greater access to the sacraments for divorced and remarried Catholics, and expressed support for the ordination of women. After requesting his laicization, he obtained a dispensation from his clerical obligations, was laicized in 1974, and subsequently married Shirley Flynn, also a former Catholic religious sister.
In his autobiography, he also acknowledged experiencing attraction to men from a young age and recounted that, after leaving the priesthood, he maintained a relationship with a former priest. Furthermore, he became an outspoken advocate for the acceptance of homosexual relationships and so-called "marriage" between people of the same sex. Gregory Baum passed away on October 18, 2017, at the age of 94, in Montreal, Canada.
Until the end of his life, he continued to write and defend the theological and moral positions he had developed during the decades following the Second Vatican Council, including his stances on homosexuality, interreligious dialogue, social justice, and Church reform. Shortly before his death, he published his autobiography, *The Oil Has Not Run Dry: The Story of My Theological Pathway*.
Today, the ideas that Gregory Baum promoted during the final decades of his life continue to be defended by numerous clerical members of the Church who adhere to his theological approaches.
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