We have seen many despicable attacks on the Church and our priests, but this honestly is about as low as you can go.
The Washington City Paper has this:
A new Web site hopes to use the oldest trick in the book to combat the Catholic Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage: A good, old-fashioned forced outing!
At ChurchOuting.org, you’re invited to scroll through a list of every Achbishop, Bishop, and Reverend in the Archdiocese of Washington, zero in on one you know is gay, and then submit your “detailed account of how you know the priest in question is being hypocritical through his silence.” (Alternately, get at them via Twitter or Facebook).
Tim Graham at Newsbusters notes “The web site’s creator is Phil Attey, who just last year was an Obama Pride coordinator in DC. The DC gay magazine Metro Weekly adds that Attey worked for the left-wing gay activists at the Human Rights Campaign for the “bulk” of the 1990s.”
The website gives this as its raison d’être:
For generations, in Catholic churches across the country, LGBT youth are told they should be ashamed of who they are and that they should lead loveless lives as social and religious abominations. The emotional, psychological and spiritual abuse inflicted on them by Catholic priests and our church hierarchy is in reality as damaging as the physical or sexual child abuse anyone would quickly condemn. Yet to this abuse, few raise their voices and say “ENOUGH!”
So opposing gay marriage is the same as child abuse. The sad irony that the priest doing the actual child abuse were mostly homosexuals is lost on them.
It goes without saying that this evil invites the slander of any good priest against whom somebody has a grudge. Just evil.
Perhaps sensing the evil of what they are doing, they try to couch it in the language of “choice.” Why do they always try to conflate evil with choice? Anyway:
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
Ahem, there is nothing new about it. Our “hateful bigotry” goes all the way back to Jesus and beyond. They are going to help priests “choose” to oppose the Catholic Church, whether they like it or not. Not much of a choice.
November 22, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Contrarian comment here: I think they'd be doing the Church a real service. Closeted priests, in my opinion, often subvert the Gospel as well. If by forcing the outed priests to chose between the Church and their orientation, we'll lose many deviants and heretics-in-place, and have many priests recommit themselves to holiness.
November 22, 2009 at 3:48 pm
I am tempted to think this could help in ways they don't imagine. It could expose what the media was at pains to obfuscate about the sex abuse crisis–that it was a homosexual pederasty problem, not a pedophilia problem.
However, this disclaimer put an end to that temptation:
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.
So that we can "so that we can work with them, one on one" sounds an awful lot like blackmail. The ones "outed" will be the ones that didn't go along with their program. I suppose we'll be able to pick out the ones that do "go along" based on their position…oh wait…that's probably already happening.
November 22, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Steve,
If there is a good priest out there who happens to have rather feminine mannerisms that suggest he has homosexual tendencies, I don't think he deserves to be "outed" on the Internet – even if he does have said tendencies. I find the suggestion that being attracted to other men makes a man somehow incapable of being a good pastor and preacher appalling. I know that homosexual men are not allowed to enter seminaries, but if you say they would necessarily subvert the Christian message from the pulpit then you must be ready to say the same thing about married men, who are in a similar situation in the Latin Rite. The one difference between the two is that one has a disordered sexual orientation, but that does not imply a disordered everything else.
Like Patrick wrote, this website could be abused by people who just have a grudge with their (possibly orthodox) priest. Certainly a taste for good music and beautiful vestments might be interpreted as evidence that a man is homosexual. There is a possible situation that concerns me more, and it is one where the accusations are actually true and come from a spurned lover. A priest may have had a temporal affair with a man, but have since repented, confessed his sins, and rectified his lifestyle. His former lover might want vengeance in some form, and this website provides one way to achieve it. Parishioners need not know about their pastor's moment of weakness, let alone the people of the city and the whole nation…
We look up to our priests for spiritual guidance and inspiration. Anything meant to destroy our esteem of them is necessarily evil. To make things worse, these people seek to make priests publicly oppose the teaching of their Church… if they succeed on the first purpose, I can only hope their project backfires on the second.
That they think our "hateful bigotry" is something new should give us heart, I think. It means they're alarmed by the bishop's defense of traditonal marriage, so we must be happy that our bishops are doing this right.
November 22, 2009 at 5:55 pm
I imagine the whole goal of the site is to try to add fire to their goal to destroy the Catholic Church. And besides, it is not a sin to have homosexual tendencies. The acting out of those tendencies is what causes the sin. It would be just as sinful for a heterosexual priest (or single person, for that matter) to act out on his heterosexual tendencies.
November 22, 2009 at 8:26 pm
As Uncle Di noted, homosexualist defenders have a history of claiming to have a dossier on all closeted priests and threatening to release it unless they shut up and let pass whatever legislation in favor of perversity happens to be around at the moment. (Chris Johnson has noted the same thing in the Episcopal church) and also historically, "where the churchmen hold pat the results are always nil."
Bluster, bluster, bluster.
Scott W.
November 22, 2009 at 8:29 pm
I agree with some of the commenters here. I think this, in some ways will benefit the Church. Although the site is clearly set up for evil purposes, there is never an evil thing that happens without some good coming with it. Any homosexual priest (closeted or otherwise) does not belong in the Catholic Church unless he has repented. Even if he has repented, I believe he should be defrocked.
Homosexuality is the worst possible sin against God, a mockery of Him and His established order of creation. It is the last perversion of a man. This sin is never just "a moment of weakness". This "moment of weakness" is courtesy of a life of self indulgence and living contrarily to the law of God. It is most definitely not the only serious sin these individuals have committed.
We would never allow a sex offender near our childeren. A homosexual should not be allowed to instruct, guide, or in any other way be a pastor to the children of God.
November 22, 2009 at 8:47 pm
They wouldn't have a leg to stand on if there weren't so many gay priests and bishops.
There's nothing to worry about here. Gay organizations can try all they want to destroy the Church, but our priests and bishops have been busy trying to do that for the better part of the 20th century. If they couldn't do it, neither will these clowns.
November 22, 2009 at 9:33 pm
Having homosexual tendencies and practicing homosexual actions are just like having temptations and actually committing adultery. So, being a homosexual and living as one are two different things. So, there are truly homosexual bishops and priests. But they are not living in sin. But they were, then expose it and let the church face the all consequences. The church needs to be purified from all sins. There should be consistency and integrity in the church no double standards and hypocrisy. I say bring it on and out in the open. One should not fear the truth. But it better be true.
November 22, 2009 at 11:36 pm
To the poster who said that having tendencies does not disqualify one from the priesthood—balderdash!
Deviants do not belong in the priesthood. Do you realize we would not have a sex abuse scandal if it weren't for homosexual priests?
Sheesh…after a billion dollars, you'd think people would learn.
November 23, 2009 at 1:16 am
"…rather to help them make the difficult choice…"
Hmm. Sounds similar to "Hey Fadder, nice little parish yahs got here, be a real shame if something bad happened."
November 23, 2009 at 2:17 am
I agree that it is balerdash! And there was a recent ruling that homosexuals cannot be priests anymore and I support that discipline. But that ruling did not expel those who were already ordained or consecrated. So, that's where I am coming from. I guess the Curia is just keeping its fingers crossed that the remaining gay clerics with retire or die off without causing any further damage. But if they need to be forced to retire or sent to Africa somewhere for the Church to be consistent, then let it be so. The Church must not succumb to blackmail.
November 23, 2009 at 3:39 am
Such venom from Kate. My guess is she got dumped by her man for another guy.
November 23, 2009 at 3:45 am
The one priest I know who is likely to be a homosexual is still a very, very decent man. I think "outing" him would do no good except for those that smuggly don't understand the Church and, come on, it's not like that would honestly change their opinion either way.
November 23, 2009 at 5:58 am
Show me a homosexual priest/bishop who is orthodox and I'll show you a purple polka dotted elephant.
But it's not just doctrine…it's the very presence of effeminate men that is destructive to the Church. Think of all the young boys who might have considered the priesthood, but Fr. Light-in-the-loafers turned them off to the idea.
November 23, 2009 at 3:05 pm
DEFAMATION… this is illegal and will not last
November 23, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Show me a homosexual priest/bishop who is orthodox and I'll show you a purple polka dotted elephant.
Come now. What about the pederast Fr. Timothy Svea, formerly the North American superior of the ICKSP? What about EWTN star Fr. Kenneth "Nobody Calls it Sin Anymore" Roberts? What about Fr. Marcel Maciel, for goodness's sake?
Sexual predators have long used pious guises to insinuate themselves into the sanctaury. Some are tortured by conscience and overcompensating; others are real sociopaths who simply find it a more effective cover for their predation. Others just get off on fooling people.
Assuming that you can discern a priest's (or anyone's) character and trustworthiness from his outward protestations of orthodoxy is a very quick way of being made a fool.
-Daniel
November 23, 2009 at 5:47 pm
It's an easy accusation to make. But what inteests more is why fags consider the accusation of homosexuality to be the ultimate slander. They are a self-loathing people (and whith good reason!).
November 23, 2009 at 8:04 pm
Since they can't win the actual argument they try to change the game. It's an old trick, but lots of people fall for it. The Red Herring.
The issue is same sex marriage, not homosexuality in the priesthood. It is a logical fallacy, and the proper course of action is to dismiss it and ignore it because it is not germane to the discussion at hand.
This attempted Red Herring is a based on another form of logical fallacy, the Ad Hominem Tu Quoque.
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ad-hominem-tu-quoque.html
November 24, 2009 at 5:10 am
It seems that the homosexuals behind this website are suggesting that homosexuals (or those who suffer from same sex attraction) are incapable of resisting their carnal desires. Is this a admission that homosexuals cannot be trusted with altar boys? Are the sodomites finally admitting their promiscuity? I think that the homosexuals know homosexuals best…so good riddance to bad rubbish.
November 24, 2009 at 11:44 am
Some of the comments here are shameful and against the mind of the Church and the mind of Christ.
Please let us not forget that all of us since the fall have disordered sexual impulses, in fact, disordered impulses of many kinds! Everyone who has every even for a moment wanted to have sex with someone not his spouse has experienced a disordered impulse! Everyone who has ever engaged in masturbation has given in to a disordered impulse,or deliberately entertained an unchaste thought, and I would suggest that that includes every male who ever lived except Our Lord, and most women. Whether inborn or learned/developed in the early years, most people have absolutely no choice over what sorts of sexual impulses they have, and this includes those burdened with the most horrible ones imaginable, who ought to be pitied and prayed for while they are restrained from harming others. Those who experience same sex attraction are no worse people than any of the rest of us, but they have received a more difficult path to salvation than most of us, at least as we start out our adult lives. I am quite sure that there are many many good priests who experience same sex attraction, even who primarily or only experience same sex attraction but who nevertheless are chaste and celibate. It is my guess that some who experience desire for younger teens and even for children manage not to act on their desires. While I would say that men in those latter categories should never be allowed to be priests, and that in the current climate and situation it is a regrettable necessity that even men with adult same sex attraction not be admitted, I think that those who have been serving the church for years without breaking their vows deserve only our gratitude. We have no right to know what sexual temptations they experience.
Someone above said that those who had sinned in this way could never have had "just a moment of weakness." Oh no? No more nor less so than any other sexual sin, is all I can say.
And may I remind people that at least two kinds of sin are much worse than sexual sins? Sins of pride and sins against charity are far worse than sins of sensuality. All sin turns us from God and harms us and can damn us, and God certainly cares what we do with our bodies. But pride was the sin of the fallen angels, and pride is the sin which keeps us from turning back to God when we fall, which makes us think we are just fine without God, which makes us thank God that we are not like that sinner. And uncharity, well, Our Lord agreed that the commandments to love God with all our hearts, strength, soul, and minds, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, summed up all the law and the prophets. Do you know who is your neighbor? The priest struggling with same sex attraction is your neighbor! In fact, the priest who is attracted to 13 to 19 year old boys, but who believes with his whole heart that to act on such an attraction is a great sin, he is your neighbor! So is the priest struggling with attraction to women, or to a particular woman. And so is the priest who has fallen in any one of these ways. If he has truly repented he is in God's grace and is on the way of salvation as much as you or I. Whether he can continue to be a priest is a prudential matter, but the gates of heaven are not closed to him; he is still our brother in Christ. Repent, ye prideful and uncharitable, and ye may yet see him there!
your fellow sinner, Susan Peterson