williamlobdell.com
October 14, 2008
http://williamlobdell.com/archives/300
Last week, Fresno Bishop John T. Steinbock removed Father Geoffrey Farrow, 50, as pastor of the St. Paul Newman Center, which primarily serves students and faculty at Cal State Fresno, because he came out against the California initative that will ban gay marriages. He also admitted that he was gay. According to the Los Angeles Times story, the bishop also stripped the priest of his pay and benefits and barred him from ministry.
“Your statement contradicted the teaching of the Catholic Church and has brought scandal to your parish community as well as the whole Church,” Steinbock wrote in a disciplinary letter that also admonished Farrow against “using the Internet as a means of continuing your conflict with the Church’s teaching.”
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The righteous Steinbock, when adminstrator with the Diocese of Orange, was hip-deep in the church’s attempt to protect rapist priests and mislead the families of victims.
“It is hard to believe that our spiritual leaders would knowingly sacrifice lives of innocent children … to keep up the facade and [live] a lie,” a woman wrote in a 1986 letter to Steinbock, after learning that Andrew Christian Andersen, a Huntington Beach priest who allegedly molested her son in 1983, had gone on to sexually abuse three more boys despite the church knowing credible allegations had been made about the cleric for years.
“How many more innocent children does he have to molest before something is done about this sick man!” she wrote.
I would suggest that a priest who advocated for gay marriage has brought much less scandal to the church than a bishop who was a part of the clergy sex abuse scandal. Maybe Steinbock should strip himself of his post, salary and benefits and bar himself from ministry. At least that way, a real sin would be punished.
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