I am Catholic. I go to church most Sundays, and although I do not necessarily enjoy each mass–being a seventeen-year-old who pushes all of his homework off until Sunday afternoon–I do identify as Catholic.

However, with the increasingly conservative views of many followers of the Catholic church around the world including in the U.S., I am often ashamed to call myself such. But with the naming of a new pope who is implementing wide ranging reforms in the Church and with the acts of one priest who lives in a little chapel off Forsyth, I have hope.

Father Gary Braun, priest at the Washington University Catholic Student Center, is not an average priest. In a Catholic church that in the decades preceding the naming of a new pope two years ago had been leaning increasingly conservative, Braun leads seminars such as one entitled “Gay and Spiritual.”

The church he leads is just as unique as he is himself. Going into the Catholic Student Center (CSC) on Sundays, you won’t find a giant organ or a choir dressed in white robes. Instead, you might find someone playing the bongos standing next to someone playing the recorder in front of a choir of all ages and races. And then there is the man that made it all possible: Braun, who attributes many of his liberal views to those around him.

“It is amazing how the leader is formed by those he is leading,” Braun said. “I’ve been formed a lot by the questions and the pain of students.”

The CSC is often thought of as an aberration, even with the more liberal Pope Francis leading the greater Catholic community. Braun hopes that the CSC can one day become the norm.

“I don’t want the CSC to be an aberration, I want us to be mainstream. I want the whole church to reflect what we are trying to do,” Braun said, “This vision of how to do church, which Francis is trying to [implement] on the universal scale now, is going to make fringe those priests who get up there and scream and yell and rant about gay marriage.”

Braun was able to witness the views of the Pope when he was invited to Washington D.C. to hear the Pope and President Obama speak at the White House.

“I got to be in the front row and there was nothing [in front of] me except the pope and the president and the White House,” Braun recalled. “It was this incredible moment. All I tried to do was memorize it.”

Looking back, Braun expressed how the experience changed his views.

“What it changed is just my hope. It really confirmed my hope for the Church,” Braun said. “The Pope is doing a remarkable job of leadership because people’s attitudes towards the Church, especially non-Catholics, are so different right now. They are so much more positive.”

Braun was finally given the opportunity to try and create this new kind of church when he was offered the job at the CSC by the archbishop of Saint Louis 25 years ago.

“I always had this vision and I always wanted to try it, but I was always an associate in a parish. I never got to lead. It was so neat to try it here and have it work. I’ve been hoping and praying these 20 years that it would catch fire,” Braun said.

Father Gary, as he is most often called, is known for his devotion to students and for the unique nature of the CSC community. Although the CSC is known to be a more liberal environment, Braun does not believe the Church should take on any political agenda.

“The only agenda we should have is the agenda of Jesus,” Braun said.

Braun is also critical of the Church putting too much emphasis on “pelvic” issues.

“Everything between your knees and your waist is what has mostly been promulgated by the last two popes and the last two bishops,” Braun said. “Some of the more pressing issues that the gospel is even more clear about are getting shoved to the side.”

Although he does not believe the church should take on a specific political agenda, Braun has strong views on issues of social justice that are unique within the community, including gay rights.

“The suffering of gay people, which is getting easier, is still very painful: it’s still really hard for kids to come out,” Braun said. “My goal is to take the suffering I keep seeing in gay people and the shaming [and say]: All those things happened to Jesus too. We’re not here to moralize about being gay or not. We are here to connect your story to the story of Jesus. It can really reframe your suffering so it’s not a dead end.”

Braun described what made these issues become so important to him.

“When the archbishop asked me to come and serve here, all of the sudden the issues of eighteen year olds became hugely important to me,” Braun said. “For example, women’s issues. To see the pain of women after being treated unequally either in the church or in our culture became hugely important to me. Also, Gay issues. One of our eighth grade boys tried to commit suicide because he thought he was gay. I turned on a dime. I mean, you can’t be exposed to anyone’s suffering without being affected by it.”

I have been to churches where conservative agendas were pushed. I have been to a mass in which members of the community were swayed to vote one way. I have heard of churches that have condemned homosexuality and gay marriage.

However, with places and communities like the Washington University Catholic Student Center, the Church has no excuse to stand stubbornly by its outdated opinions. There is change in store, and people like Braun will pave the way.