The outsider: Peter Novak has practised Catholicism his whole life, starting as an altar boy and then studying for seven years towards becoming a priest.
Yet in recent months, the 39-year-old gay man, who did not complete his seminary studies, has been thinking about leaving the church because of the legacy of Pope John Paul's stance on homosexuality.
"It's not an easy life to do that, to want to maintain your identity as Catholic and gay," said Mr Novak, who married his partner in San Francisco last year.
"The church came out very much opposed to gay marriage and I would say that was part of it," he said, explaining why he stopped going to Mass regularly more than a year ago. "It has challenged my ability to feel comfortable in the church."
Under Pope John Paul, the Vatican preached that gays should be treated with compassion but made clear it absolutely opposed gay sex and called homosexuality a disorder. The Pope referred to gay marriage as an "ideology of evil".
The Pope "would be very compassionate to the gay person", said Fr Donald Cozzens, former president-rector of Saint Mary's Catholic Seminary in Cleveland. Yet he would "require of them what he feels the Gospel requires of all of God's people, which is if you are not married you do not have an active sexual life, whether within a committed relationship or not".
Many gay American Catholics ignore such teachings, as do heterosexuals who reject church rules against birth control. In areas such as San Francisco's Castro Street, a centre of gay life, Catholic churches perform a delicate balancing act. A billboard urges gays to telephone.
"We provide the teachings of the church with the understanding that people will make their own choices," said Fr Michael Greenwell, a Carmelite.
DignityUSA, a group of gay Catholics, conducts its own services, often with former priests. After a 1986 Vatican letter denounced homosexuality as "an objective disorder", US Catholic churches barred group meetings on their property. "The clock has been turned back during this papacy for gay people," said Jeff Stone, a DignityUSA member in New York.