Here’s my question. It took this priest 80 years to figure out that the Church was against same-sex marriage?
An elderly priest at Creighton University has chosen to leave the Jesuit order and laicize himself at least partly over the Church’s refusal to ordain women and endorse same-sex marriage.
In an open letter to friends and supporters that appeared in The National Catholic Reporter, the 80 year old Fr. Bert Thelen, S.J.,announced his decision and said that it was Creighton’s community that “freed, inspired, and encouraged” him to renounce his vocation.
Thelen stated plainly his reasons in his letter, saying, “I am doing this primarily out of the necessity and consequence of my new call, but, secondarily, as a protest against the social injustices and sinful exclusions perpetrated by a patriarchal church that refuses to consider ordination for women and marriage for same-sex couples .”
July 16, 2013 at 4:38 pm
This is a good thing for the Church, a good thing for everybody. Some people want to label this a sad event, but the sad event occurred when this priest stopped believing in the truths taught by the Catholic Church, whenever that may have happened in his life. Recognizing the truth in public is just good for everybody. Unfortunately nowadays these liberal priests are unwilling to do this until they've retired.
July 16, 2013 at 4:46 pm
sad.
July 16, 2013 at 4:51 pm
May he take many of his brethren with him when he goes.
July 16, 2013 at 5:56 pm
An 80 year old Jesuit renounces his vocation in protest of the Church's inability to ordain women. Ah, the Biological Solution. Hopefully he isn't of sound mind thus isn't fully culpable. Eternity is a long time to be painfully wrong.
July 16, 2013 at 7:02 pm
Don't let the door hit you on your way out, (former – but never, really) father.
July 16, 2013 at 8:13 pm
Fr. Pfleger should follow him out the door.
July 16, 2013 at 8:38 pm
Don't let the door hit you…etc. etc. etc.
July 17, 2013 at 12:20 am
Amen!
July 17, 2013 at 12:25 am
Who would have thought at his age, at a time when he should be getting ready to "crossover" into the afterlife and go before judgement.
July 17, 2013 at 3:01 am
It took him 80 years to admit to it, because before that he was all too glad to take his support from the order. And heck, at Creighton he could spread his dissent.
July 17, 2013 at 6:12 pm
To reject his vocation at this time, is of course, terrible! Wolf in sheeps clothing? What was his ministry like up until now? His "hour of death" may not be very pleasant. Last breath suffering can seem like an eternity. And even sadder, the majority of people die alone with no one to pray for them. So let's pray for him, he needs us.
July 18, 2013 at 12:28 am
The priesthood requires a vocation. Marriage requires consummation of the marital act.
July 18, 2013 at 6:55 pm
He celebrated a Mass at my Catholic all-girls high school, and started Mass with "In the name of the father and mother, son and daughter, and the holy spirit." This turn of events is not surprising to anyone. It baffles me that I have heard people on facebook call his declarations "brave." I agree with the above commentor that he has probably felt this way for years, but Creighton was a convenient place to spread dissent. He actually used his ordained status in a much more scandelous way than he way he haughtily accuses other priests of lording it over people in his letter. He continued to perform the sacraments all the while teaching and preaching in opposition to the Church. I have also heard commentators say that he is leaving the priesthood but not actually leaving the Catholic Church. If anyone has read that letter and not seen it at complete odds with what it means to be Catholic, then no wonder the Church is so distressed in our country right now. People lack even the most basic understanding of the faith and the "cafeteria" of believe-whatever-you-want-but-still-claim-to-be-Catholic is allowing more and more crazy items on the serving line.