Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Is Outing Catholic Priests a Fair Game at Churchouting.org?

I recently did a post about a new organization called ChurchOuting.org which seeks to "out" closeted Roman Catholic priests who participate in the Catholic Church's jihad against LGBT citizens and same sex marriage in particular. The group and its goals have created a great deal of discussion as to whether or not such outings are appropriate and whether the threat of outing is a form of blackmail. As I indicated previously, I support the effort to take the battle to the Church's doorstep if you will. In agreement with me is fellow Bilerico blogger, Father Tony, a self described "Roman Catholic priest who has been on an extended vacation from that vocation for many years." Here are some highlights from Father Tony's take on the issue:
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There is nothing mean-spirited in churchouting. It isn't even anti-Catholic. It is the creation of Phil Attey, a man who cares deeply about his Catholic Church, and one who could have become a leader in that church had he been able to stomach the hypocrisy of teaching his flock that gay sex is evil and had he been attracted to the downlow lifestyle of the gay Catholic clergy
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If you are not a Roman Catholic, you probably wonder why a gay priest, bishop, cardinal or pope would be so two-faced. Chalk it up to guilt and self-loathing, and don't underestimate the power of security and status. At the age of forty or fifty, he realizes that there are almost no career options available to him that would afford him the same level of public authority and the same level of institutional security. He is not inclined to sacrifice the accomplishments of a lifetime on behalf of gay men who give themselves license to live the life he would not allow himself to enjoy.
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If a gay priest, bishop, cardinal or pope simply remained silent about the Catholic Church's anti-gay stance, we could almost respect his double life. Almost. Initiating a well-funded anti-gay campaign changes this entirely and makes gay Catholic clergy fair game for those who can and now should out them.
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If you know a Catholic priest who is gay, use this site to out him. You will actually be doing him a favor by freeing him from his secret shame. Once all the gay priests are pried out of their closets, it will be obvious to the bishops that unless they are willing to lose the majority of their workforce, their absurd homophobia must end.
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On the other end of the spectrum is Father Geoff Farrow who spoke out against Proposition 8 and was rewarded by being removed from his post by his supervising bishop. Fr. Geoff does not support outing closeted priests:
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What would happen to any Catholic priest who signed a public declaration which is directly opposed to the teachings of the hierarchy of the Church? Once it came to the attention of his (Arch) bishop, the priest would be required to publicly retract his statement and publicly apologize for having made such a statement. If he failed to do so, he would be suspended as a priest and stripped of salary, heath care, housing, etc. In effect, he would be left destitute.
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On the other hand if the priest complies with the demands of his (Arch) bishop, he then runs the risk of being publicly exposed. What this would mean in practical terms is that the priest would be removed from active ministry. He would most probably be sent to Saint Luke’s, an in-house psychological facility run by the Catholic Church for priests. There he would be treated for his “sexual addiction” and after a course of “treatment” be returned to active ministry as an assistant, under the watchful supervision of a superior. In effect, his career would be destroyed; however, he would still have a salary, housing, a car, health care, and retirement benefits.
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Targeting priests who are struggling with their own sexuality will simply not work as a strategy. It will drive out of the active ministry many priests who are quietly working on behalf of LGBT people. It will drive many gay priests more deeply into the closet. It will drive some gay priests into greater self-loathing. It will strengthen the power of the hierarchy by providing them with “thought/conduct police” which will further intimidate priests. Finally, this strategy runs a serious risk of casting the LGBT movement as resorting to extortion.
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With all due respect, Fr. Geoff over looks the fact that because of the anti-gay efforts of the Catholic Church and its anti-gay allies, countless LGBT Americans are fired from their jobs daily for lack of employment non-discrimination protections (some being left destitute), individuals are driven from the military shortly before retirement and left with no retirement, other individuals are denied health care access through coverage under a partner's insurance plan, and untold numbers of gay youths take their own lives rather than be damned to Hell as officially proclaimed by the Church and its closeted priests. Indeed, the Church even tells gays to undergo reparative therapy with all of its quackery and witch doctor like aspects. If a few thousand priests need to be outed and sacrificed for the benefit of hundreds of thousands or even millions of individuals, I'm sorry, but the priests need to be outed so as to cripple the Church's evil doing. Bad things happen because good people stand by and do nothing. Here, these closeted priests made their choices and must live with the consequences.

3 comments:

Jay Squires said...

Michael: Good job. This topic was my late night get pissed off and agitated topic. Glad I found your well-written response.

Anonymous said...

Donald W. Wuerl, archbishop of Wash. DC was called Donna Girl by the gay community. He is as gay as they come. For him to go against gay marriages is like the pot calling the kettle lavender. He was protecting 3 pedophilia priests in his diocese while he let one priest who was trying to defend his innocence be the fall guy, so the lime light would be off Wuerly Bird. One of the priest that Wuerl was protecting was his own secretary.

Anonymous said...

Donald W. Wuerl, archbishop of Wash. DC was called Donna Girl by the gay community. He is as gay as they come. For him to go against gay marriages is like the pot calling the kettle lavender. He was protecting 3 pedophilia priests in his diocese while he let one priest who was trying to defend his innocence be the fall guy, so the lime light would be off Wuerly Bird. One of the priest that Wuerl was protecting was his own secretary.