BishopAccountability.org
 
  DC Gays to Blackmail Closeted Priests

By Rod Dreher
Beliefnet
November 21, 2009

http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2009/11/dc-gays-to-blackmail-closeted.html

Things are getting hardcore in the Archdiocese of Washington, DC: gay activists have organized to force gay priests out of the closet to protest the Catholic Church's stand against gay marriage. Excerpt from the Church Outing website:

Lastly, we encourage every Catholic priest to trust in God and in the power of the Christ to help you through this difficult, but important act of truth, faith and love. It is not the intention of this site to complicate the lives of closeted gay priests, rather to help them make the difficult choice to stand up against the hateful and harmful new direction the Church hierarchy is taking the Holy Mother Church.

Disclaimer: The goal of this site is not to force Catholic priests out of the closet against their will. The goal of this campaign is to aggregate reports on every gay priest in the Archdiocese, so that we can work with them, one on one, helping them stand up to the the church hierarchy's stand on this important issue.

Translation: denounce and disobey the hierarchy or we'll expose you.

Truth to tell, there are a lot of orthodox Catholics who agree with the liberal pro-gay ones when they say, as the Church Outing site does:

Even more shameful, is that many of these priests, while remaining silent, actually lead duplicitous lives rich with romantic and sexual relationships -- both homosexual and heterosexual.

This hypocrisy must end.

...except what the orthodox Catholics find shameful is that these priests are violating their vows regularly and unrepentantly.

I agree that the hypocrisy should end, and I can't say that I'd feel terribly sorry for a priest who leads a life "rich with romantic and sexual relationships -- both homosexual and heterosexual" who got busted for his duplicity (and I say that for Orthodox priests too). That said, I disapprove of outing on principle. The hypocrisy of these clerics makes me ill, but if there is no crime involved (e.g., sexual abuse), I find it a more frightening and offensive thing that someone would take it upon themselves to ruin somebody's life through outing.

 
 
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.