Fr. John F. Harvey, founder and executive director of the Courage, an officially sanctioned ministry to Catholics with same-sex attractions, died Dec. 27 in Elkton, Md. He was 92 and had been an Oblate of St. Francis de Sales for 73 years.
A Mass of Christian Burial is scheduled for tomorrow (Dec. 31) at 11:15 a.m. at St. Anthony of Padua Church, Wilmington, Del. Interment will be at he Oblate Cemetery in Elkton, Md.
Harvey founded Courage in 1980 at the request of the late archbishop of New York, Cardinal Terrence Cooke and remained its executive director until three years ago.
On its Web site, Courage describes itself as a Catholic "pro-chastity" ministry with the goal of helping "persons with same-sex attractions develop a life of interior chastity in union with Christ."
Fr. Paul Check, a priest of the Bridgeport, Conn., diocese, is now executive director of Courage.
