From Seminary to Scandal to Sabbath Table: A Life Fully Lived with Bill St. John

What happens when the institution meant to shape your calling becomes the source of your deepest wound? In this compelling episode, host Howard Snooks sits down with Bill St. John — fourth-generation Coloradan, theologian, award-winning journalist, wine expert, and food educator — for a raw and wide-ranging conversation about faith, family, identity, and resilience.Bill traces a remarkable arc: from a strict Catholic upbringing as the eldest of nine children, to a seminary stay shadowed by years of clerical sexual abuse, to a celebrated career writing about food and wine for the Rocky Mountain News, Denver Post, and Chicago Tribune. Along the way, he navigates coming out as gay, leaving his family, and ultimately returning to care for his ex-wife Penny as she faces Parkinson's disease.This episode is for anyone who has wrestled with the gap between the values an institution preaches and the harm it enables — and for anyone who has found, despite everything, a way to build a life of genuine kindness, community, and meaning.Main Topics CoveredGrowing up as the eldest of nine in a devout Catholic Denver family — and the 17-year generational gap between siblingsHis father's evolution from a strict disciplinarian to the beloved, gentle children's dentist known as "Feather Fingers"Leaving Denver at 14 to enter the seminary — and the five years of clerical sexual abuse that followedBeing asked to leave the seminary and the lasting psychological toll, including a suicide attemptThe link between theology, ethics, and a lifetime devoted to food, wine, and the table as a place of meaningHis mother's remarkable cookbook Friends for Dinner — born from her quiet struggle to accept three gay children — which raised over $100,000 for AIDS Meals on WheelsComing out as gay, leaving his marriage, and how he and ex-wife Penny rebuilt something richer than what came beforeMentorship across generations: learning from his father, Dana Crawford, and the students and readers who call him a mentor in returnKey TakeawaysGenerational gaps look different depending on which direction you're looking — and they close with time in ways that are impossible to predict from the inside.Institutions can wound as deeply as they can form. Healing often comes not from the institution but from the relationships and values you carry out of it.Mentorship doesn't require a formal role or a significant age gap. A single sentence from a younger person — "change your perspective, change your life" — can be just as formative as decades of guidance.The table is more than a place to eat. For Bill, food and wine became the vehicle for everything theology promised: beauty, community, care, and transcendence.Love can outlast the form it took. Bill and Penny's story is a quiet testament to the fact that commitment, reimagined, can be more present and more honest than the original arrangement.Enjoyed This Episode?If this conversation moved you, made you think, or gave you something to carry into your own relationships across generations, please take a moment to:Follow Bridging Generations with Howard Snooks wherever you listen to podcastsLeave a review — it helps more people find the showShare this episode with someone in your life who bridges generationsConnect with Howard SnooksWebsite: https://www.howardsnooks.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@howardsnooks-modelactor8449Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2dx6GfWFgSedypZnLZWksp?si=77139a2b22ac4cccInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/howardsnooks/?hl=en