A Hook Up Site for Gay Priests?

William Donohue of the Catholic League and the Opus Dei crowd - which seeming includes Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli and might explain his bizarre fixation on gays - must be having convulsions and shrieking at this story about a supposed hookup site for gay Catholic priests.  Yes, you read that correctly, a gay chat and hook up site for "HomoSensible Roman Catholic Priests."  Combined with Pope Francis' recent statements about the "gay lobby" at the Vatican the pious folk must be on the verge of hysteria and will no doubt be demanding a witch hunt for gays within the priesthood.  Here are highlights from a "Catholic" blog out of Dallas:

It’s St. Sebastian’s Angels all over again.  But much worse. In Rome!  A gay hookup site specifically tailored for priests and seminarians in ROME!  Good Heavens what is to become of us?:

It is not easy to talk about some things, but  Pope Francis’ statement of a gay lobby in the Catholic Church draws waves. As the Catholic writer, Vittorio Messori made ​​known, there is a page on the Internet called Venerabilis which is run by  a fraternity of Homo-Sensitive Roman Catholic Priests.

The homo Sensitive  priestly society claims to be a loose association of gay and homophile Catholic priests. The website serves as a gay dating site, so that aberrosexual priests can find contact among themselves, or homosexual laity can meet like-minded priests and vice versa. This page offers chat rooms in five languages, including in German, a Twitter service to the Catholic Church and some news from a “homo sensitive” view. The ads are unique. Anyone who registers on the Venerabilis and gives a personal ad or responds to one, seeks homosexual sexual contact………

…….Since the 1st of May  the [homosexual]-brotherhood, which calls itself Fraternitas Sacerdotalis.[Is this a catty shot at the masculinity of FSSP priests?] is a “meeting place” in order to meet “personally” and at “no risk”. And in fact, Rome Feltrinelli bookstore in Largo Argentina  has a “6- 8pm” at the cafeteria or in the department “Philosophy and Religion”. “For the seminarians of the Jesuit university Gregorian University and the Dominican Angelicum from 11 to 12 clock in the same place. ” [So now the great colleges of Rome, erected at great expense by religious orders that shook the world, are now reduced to being hookup sites for sexual deviants. Nice. I wonder how much is taught at these former bastions of orthodoxy and erudition that would challenge these lost souls in their depravity? Anything?]

So, I went tot he site, and while I didn’t find anything pornographic, at least not that I could understand, it’s obvious what the site is about.  It’s about finding sex partners. The homo-mafia in the Church obviously feels sufficiently strong and emboldened to operate almost in the open.  This site is smart in that everyone operates under automatically generated IDs, but people are dumb and have left their personal e-mails all over the place. I bet a decent multi-lingual private investigator could identify dozens of people from the site in an afternoon’s work.

 

It’s a certitude there are more sites like this out there. They just have to be found. And then the hard part. Will competent ecclesiastical authority take any steps to remove those priests found to be partaking in this homosexual hookup site?

Folks, don’t fool yourselves into believing this mafia is made up only of a few scattered bishops and maybe a cardinal or too. It is at least as widespead in the episcopate as it is in the regular clergy, and possibly even more so. Think about for a while.  Lord, have mercy on Your Church!  Please extirpate this foul evil from the midst of Your Body!

As I said, they probably had to call 911 when William Donohue heard this news.  One can only imagine the verbal diarrhea he will be spewing.   As for Ken Cuccinelli, if the gay rumors I keep hearing whispered are true, now he's got a new discrete hook up site he can use.  It certainly beats MegaPhone which former GOP Congressman Ed Schrock used before he got caught or Larry Craig's "wide stance.".

The Gift of Being Gay and a Dad

With today being Father's Day, it's difficult  not to ponder the wonder and amazing love that my children have brought me.  Of course, it's an experience that the Christofascists want to deny to same sex couples that don't include a partner who was in the closet and deep denial and married an opposite sex spouse as part of the ill-fated effort to "pray the gay away."  It's all part of the "godly Christian" agenda to make life as awful as possible for LGBT individuals and keep us stigmatized and ideally less than fully human in the eyes of society (more on that below).  But first, a post in the New York Times by a gay dad who achieved parenthood though surrogacy celebrates the joys of fatherhood.  It also reflects on the advantage that I believe gay parents have over their straight counterparts.  Here are some highlights:

When I finally accepted in my 20s that I was gay and that in order to live a life true to myself I had to come out, I knew there were “risks.” When my mother let loose a stream of consciousness list of fears that the world would visit on me for being openly gay – including never finding happiness, or being bashed coming out of a bar with my lover – the one she settled on was “…and you always wanted to be a father.”

It was the thing that broke my heart: the feeling that by coming out, I was giving up the one thing I had always wanted since I was a kid – more than any profession or any pursuit – being a dad.

I didn’t have a choice, of course. Most gay men of my generation came out when we simply could not stand the lying or daily self-denial any longer. Still, I mourned for myself and for the children I would never have.

Even as an adult, even having come to terms with my sexuality, even having decided – after much searching, and periods of being an atheist and an agnostic – that God had made me as I am, somewhere I still felt that being denied fatherhood was punishment for being gay.

Then came the revolution. Scientific advances outraced laws (and conservatives’ imaginations), and surrogacy provided a route to parenthood .  .  . our boys are the best part of our lives. They are our little miracles.

Every time I look at them I understand that far from being cursed, being a little gay boy was a blessing. It taught me compassion. It taught me how to rise above fear and self-hatred. It made me stronger.

Unlike straight couples who can find themselves unplanned parents after a thoughtless night of drinking or careless sex, gay couples have to plan and often pay high prices to become parents.  They want their children and will make sacrifices that straight counterparts often will not.  One need only read all the stories of child abuse by straight parents to see this truth.  Yet the Christianists desperately want to bar gays from being parents.  They claim that their concerns are "about the children."  Of course, the children and their welfare are the last thing on the Christianists' minds.  An article in Religion Dispatches looks at the latest snake oil being used to demonize gay parents.  Yes, the new bogus "study" on the children of gay parents.  Here are article excerpts:

Focus on the Family can hardly contain its glee over a new study that purports to show that “children raised by homosexual parents are dramatically more likely than peers raised by married heterosexual parents to suffer from a host of social problems.”

Calling this study “the gold standard” of same-sex parenting studies, FoF’s affiliate CitizenLink crowed that among those “social problems” were “strong tendencies, as adults, to exhibit poor impulse control; suffer from depression and thoughts of suicide; need mental health therapy; identify themselves as homosexual; choose cohabitation; be unfaithful to partners; contract sexually transmitted diseases; be sexually molested; have lower income levels; drink to get drunk; and smoke tobacco and marijuana.”


Sounds horrifying, right? And this study is the “gold standard” because, “All the other studies that have come out on how kids do in same-sex homes are all done by lesbian activist scholars,” according to Focus’ Glenn Stanton.

He’s obviously referring to the longitudinal study of same-sex parents conducted by Nanette Gartrell, M.D., who, according to her bio, “is a 2012 Williams Institute Visiting Distinguished Scholar, UCLA School of Law, and she has a guest appointment at the University of Amsterdam. She was previously on the faculty at Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Francisco.” Oh, and she has a female spouse, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Dee Mosbacher, M.D., Ph.D., with whom she has a 35-year long relationship.

Being a lesbian, Gartrell obviously has a vested interest in those findings, right? Maybe, but her research has been backed up by the likes of the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the National Association of Social Workers, “who all confirm that LGBT parents make good parents,”  .  .  .  .

The researcher for the new study, Mark Regnerus, isn’t free from his own bias, however. As Freedom to Marry points out in a press release on the study, Regnerus, ”is well known for his ultra-conservative ideology and the paper was funded by the Witherspoon Institute and the Bradley Foundation - two groups commonly known for their support of conservative causes. The Witherspoon Institute also has ties to the Family Research Council, the National Organization for Marriage, and ultra-conservative Catholic groups like Opus Dei.”

It’s no shock that the religious right would be touting a flawed study to shore up their battle against granting even the basic of human rights to LGBT people. A Gallup poll, published in May, revealed that their argument that homosexuality is somehow “immoral” is faltering with the public. The poll showed that 54% say gay or lesbian relationships are morally acceptable. Among Catholics, that number jumps to 66%. Protestants still lag behind, but 41% say gay and lesbian relationships are moral.

Resorting to pseudo-science is the last gasp of anti-gay groups and they will certainly tout this study, flaws and all, as proof that same-sex couples make awful parents and raise terribly troubled kids .  .  .  .

The case being made against gays and lesbians by the religious right has always been a spurious one, based on religious bias, bad science and outright lies. This latest study is just more of the same.

Family Research Council, the National Organization for Marriage, and Opus Dei - it doesn't get much more extreme or viciously anti-gay.  And that's who ultimately backed this "study."

Romney Projected to Win Maryland, D.C. and Wisconsin Primaries

Based on CNN's projections, Mitt "Etch A Sketch" Romney will win the Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin primaries. Part of me would never want Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum to actually win the GOP nomination. On the other hand, having Santorum remain in the nomination race would force Mitt Romney to keep spewing batshitery to prostitute himself to the Christianist GOP base. The end result, of course, is that Romney's etch a sketch routine in the lead up to the general election would have to be far more vigorous and obvious to all but the most ignorant and uninformed voters. As for Santorum, perhaps he can focus his lunacy on Opus Dei activities. Here are highlights from CNN on today's primary results:

With 11% of polling places reporting in Maryland, Romney had 52% of the vote. Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania had 28%, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich had 11% and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas had 8%.

Pre-primary polls predicted Maryland and D.C. were safely in Romney's hands, and the Wisconsin race -- where pre-Tuesday polls showed Romney with a single-digit lead over Santorum -- might be Santorum's final chance to slow Romney's march toward the GOP nomination.

As in previous contests, Wisconsin's early exit polls show Romney doing better among higher-earners and Santorum better with lower-income voters. Among exit-poll takers making $100,000 to $200,000 annually, Romney led 55%-30%, with Santorum winning the under-$30,000 voters, 44%-34%.

The Wisconsin exit polls show Santorum is more popular in rural areas and Romney in urban areas in Wisconsin. According to the exit polls, Santorum is winning the rural vote, 37%-27%, and Romney is winning big-city voters, 43%-23%.

The Washington Post has also projected that Romney will carry Wisconsin.

Mitt Romney has won all three of Tuesday’s Republican primaries, according to exit polls and early results--a sweep of Wisconsin, Maryland and the District that moves Romney closer to ending the GOP nominating contest.

All three wins were expected. Maryland and the District traditionally choose moderate Republicans over social conservatives like Romney’s rival, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum. In Wisconsin, Romney had initially trailed, but then roared back to overtake Santorum with the help of heavy advertising and key endorsements from Republican leaders.

Santorum, addressing supporters in Mars, Pa., said he would continue in the race--looking ahead to the primary in his home state on April 24. “Pennsylvania and half the other people in this country have yet to be heard. And we’re going to go out and campaign across this nation to make sure their voices are heard.”

Santorum made a familiar pitch: that Romney is too moderate to succeed as a Republican nominee, saying it was a tactic the party had tried against previous Democratic incumbents. It never worked, he said.

Rick Santorum and Catholic Extremism

Even as we see new daily stories on sexual abuse horrors - and now forced castrations of youths - involving the Roman Catholic Church, we learn more and more about Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum's slavish embrace of the most extreme aspects of the batshitery within the Catholic Church. Santorum's embrace of Opus Dei - considered something scary even by many Catholics - is but one example of this alignment with reactionary and extremist elements. While Santorum rants about gays, contraception and abortion, one never hears a word from him about feeding out the members of the Church hierarchy who aided and abetted sexual predator priests. Or accountability for members of the hierarchy who participated in the worldwide conspiracy to cover up crimes against children and youths. True, Santorum has the right to hold his own personal religious beliefs no matter how crazy they may seems to rational, thinking individuals. What he doesn't have the right to do is inflict his religious extremism on others and I do not believe that Santorum, given his extremism - almost mental illness in my view - has the ability to separate his personal beliefs from what he would try to enforce as a matter of public policy. The Washington Post has coverage on Santorum and the most disturbing aspects of Catholicism. Here are highlights:

In January 2002, prominent Catholics from around the world gathered in Rome to celebrate the Spanish priest who founded one of the church’s most conservative and devout groups, Opus Dei. The event drew cardinals, bishops and other powerful Vatican officials. And among those invited to speak was a future presidential candidate: Rick Santorum . . .

In a speech at the gathering, Santorum embraced the ideas of Opus Dei founder Josemaria Escriva . . .

Within the story of how Santorum grew up and decided to run for president, there is the story of a boy who grew up to become ever more devoutly Catholic, a journey all the more relevant as Santorum has vigorously asserted a role for religious conviction in the realm of governance.

Less well known is Santorum’s embrace of the Catholicism of Opus Dei, a relatively small yet influential group within the church that is defined by the intensity with which followers are urged to live out church doctrine . . . The group encourages “unity” between followers’ personal and public lives as Catholics, the rigorous practice of church sacraments and, to some degree, gestures of self-denial. Its most devoted members follow a daily two-hour ritual of wearing a spiked metal chain on their thighs to recall Christ’s suffering — a practice followed by Mother Teresa.

Opus Dei, whose name is Latin for “Work of God,” has become a significant presence in his life. Santorum has for years attended a church with a number of Opus Dei followers and other affiliations with the group, and he has sent two of his sons to a school run by Opus Dei members.

In his address, Santorum embraced Escriva’s view that it is “absurd” to leave one’s Catholicism aside in conducting politics. He said that “as an American, and as a public figure, I am deeply troubled by this turn away from God.” . . . . “Without a shared belief system that is held and enforced,” he said, “a culture disintegrates into moral chaos.” For guidance on these matters, Santorum said, he turns to “blessed Josemaria.”

About 70 percent of its members are “supernumeraries,” who can marry, while about 20 percent are “numeraries,” who live in celibacy. Numeraries typically wear the spiked chain and perform “the discipline,” occasionally striking themselves with a braided cord as a reminder of Jesus’s suffering.

In 2002, the scandal over sexual abuse by priests was shaking the Catholic Church, including Santorum’s former parish in Butler, St. Paul, where one of the young, long-haired priests of the 1970s was accused of molesting three boys, including a classmate of Santorum’s, and placed on leave that April.

It is unclear whether Santorum knew that when he gave a speech in July, expressing “profound sympathy” for victims and blaming the abuse on the moral relativism he had just spoken of in Rome. Priests, like all of us, are affected by culture,” he said. “When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected.” What was needed, he said, was greater fidelity to church teachings instead of “watered-down versions of our faith.”

When two of Santorum’s sons were around the age he was when he met Father Alex, he sent them to the Heights, a private liberal arts boys school in Potomac run by Opus Dei members. Its headmaster, Alvaro de Vicente, is a numerary.

When Santorum is home in Virginia, he attends St. Catherine of Siena in Great Falls, one of the few churches in the diocese that host a monthly Opus Dei spiritual meeting. A priest from the group comes in to hear confessions. Santorum often attends the noon Mass in Latin.

He [Santorum] said that Satan has used “the great vices of pride, vanity and sensuality” to corrupt universities, politics and even most Christian churches, except one.

“You say, ‘The Catholic Church?’ No,” Santorum said, explaining that Satan aimed at the country’s Protestant roots. “. . . If you look at mainline Protestantism in this country, it is in shambles. It is gone from the world of Christianity.”

I'm sorry, but I find Santorum down right scary. Moreover, as one who threw myself into devout Catholicism in a futile attempt to escape my sexual orientation and inner demons, I cannot help but feel that something is not quite right with Santorum's mental/psychological state. I've known too many other Catholics who did as I did, and there's just something going on with Santorum that he isn't facing up to. And as he seeks to flee his demons through religious extremism, I cannot help by worry about the damage he'd do to the nation if he were to win the presidency.

Rick Santorum’s Church and Opus Dei

Having been raised Catholic, including serving as an altar boy for a decade and proceeding up the ranks to a 4th Degree Knight of Columbus, I know all about of the cult like aspects traditional Catholicism . But even among many "traditional Catholics" Opus Dei is regarded as more than a little scary. As Andrew Sullivan (who was also raised Catholic) recently noted about Opus Dei:

I was recruited by Opus Dei at Harvard. Why not? I was a very bright young Catholic, very motivated by and interested in the church. I even went on an Opus Dei retreat. . . . But it was not for me. The sex segregation was creepy; the cult of the Founder was creepier; the practices of self-mortification - the cilice, self-whipping - I found psychologically troubling.

It is within the broad spectrum of Catholic tradition; but the all-male sexual repression seemed all too close to pathology for my part, especially given what we were discovering about sex abuse from the heirarchy on down. So I resisted. There was something dark in there; and I preferred the light.

Unlike Sullivan, Santorum chose the darkness and his home church affiliation underscores his bizarre link to Opus Dei and how he is inflicting this strain of extremist Catholicism on his children. Knowing only too well the Church's obsession with all things sexual (and that all sex is deemed dirty) and the psychological and emotional that this obsession has the potential of causing - look no farther than the multitude of predator priests - I tremble at the thought of what Santorum's children are experiencing. An article in The New Republic looks at Santorum's church in Northern Virginia and its eerie ties to Opus Dei. Here are some excerpts:

Rick Santorum’s Catholic faith is an obvious centerpiece of his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, and it is rare for him to speak without referencing his religious beliefs. It is also rare, however, to hear him speak about his particular church, St. Catherine of Siena, which he and his family have belonged to for at least a decade.

St. Catherine is a modern, low-slung brick building that sits in the affluent and hilly Washington suburb of Great Falls, Virginia. It is a notably conservative congregation—its neat grounds include a “garden for the unborn,” and the schedule offers a Latin Mass each Sunday featuring Gregorian chant sung by a professional choir.

Mostly, the church is home to families with school-aged children—“big families, seven-, eight- or nine-children families,” as one parishioner told me. (None of the half-a-dozen parishioners I interviewed would agree to be quoted by name, and the parish office declined interview requests.)

Before the GOP race began, members of the church say, Santorum attended Mass with his family nearly every day. Even with his wife, Karen, now joining him on the campaign trail, several parishioners told me that the Santorums ensure that their children attend Mass almost daily by having other congregants drive them to St. Catherine.

St. Catherine also has ties to Opus Dei, an extremely conservative organization that encourages members to knit their Catholic faith with policy-making. Many members of St. Catherine belong to Opus Dei, McAfee told the Times, and Opus Dei priests still regularly hear confession at St. Catherine. For his part, McAfee was an Opus Dei cooperator—a formal title that identifies someone who does not belong to Opus Dei but assists its mission.

Santorum has said he is not a member of Opus Dei, just an admirer, but he has numerous connections to the group. In 2002, he travelled to Rome with high-profile American members for the 100th birthday of Opus Dei’s founder, Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer. (The five-day event is where Santorum first criticized John F. Kennedy’s “separation of church and state” speech, speaking to a reporter.) He has also sent two of his sons to the Heights School, a Washington, D.C. school with ties to Opus Dei.

St. Catherine is one of only about 10 sites in Virginia that offers “evenings of recollection.” These are monthly, hour-and-a-half long talks by lay people and priests belonging to Opus Dei. They are segregated by sex—St. Catherine men who attend these do so at the Reston Study Center, one town over, while women attend them at St. Catherine.

At St. Catherine, Santorum is never mentioned from the pulpit, members told me. “Not even a, ‘How about our boy,’” one stressed. But many said they planned to vote for him. . . . . And almost all of the parishioners I spoke to were familiar with the sight of Santorum attending the daily 9 a.m. Mass, young children in tow. “Their faith,” one congregant told me about the Santorums, “is totally who they are.”

During my years in the closet I too attended daily mass - for many years in fact - as I tried to "pray away the gay" and be what I was not. Those were very tortured years even though I did my best to keep my internal turmoil hidden. The effort to "change" obviously did not work, and part of me cannot help but wonder what demons Santorum is trying to flee by his daily mass attendance and extreme religiosity. It's Santorum's extremism of devotion and antiquated sexual mores that I suspect drives away many Catholics who sense something strange as well. Not to mention, of course, their displeasure with Santorum's efforts to destroy the political acceptance of Catholics pioneered by JFK. Sadly, Santorum seems only too willing to make Catholics look bizarre and subservient to Rome. In contrast, JFK clearly stated that he would not be a tool of Rome. In more ways than one Santorum is trying to drag us backward in time by 50 years or more. We certainly do NOT need him as a serious contender for the presidency.

Is the National Organization for Marriage a Front for the Catholic Church?

I have often speculated that the Roman Catholic Church is a financial principal backer of the National Organization for Marriage ("NOM"). It would certainly explain why NOM is fighting legal battles in seven states seeking to avoid revealing its financial contributors. We now know that instead of being the grass roots organization it claims to be, NOM is principally supported by less than a dozen donors. Obviously, if these donors are Catholic dioceses and organizations, the blow back against the Church could be huge. NOM Exposed has gone a step further in tying NOM to the Catholic hierarchy - including a $10,000 per guest function at Archbishop Timothy Dolan's residence in New York (the invitation is set out above). Here are some highlights:

On several occasions, I've told you about OPUSFidelis. This is the Catholic firm to whom NOM has outsourced all of its social media, web design, and assorted online work. For the past year or so, OPUS head David Lejeune -- working with subordinates like Joe Giganti, Casey Fimian and Colton Brugger -- have essentially been speaking for NOM in the social media world.

But what does this affiliation say about NOM's ties to the larger Catholic establishment? Well consider the following.

This past summer, just one day before NOM's marriage-excluding dreams were crushed in Albany, another, far less pro-gay soiree was happening in Manhattan. The invite read like so:[see image above]

You'll notice the names Fimian and Lejeune -- both confirmed NOM figures. But also check out the address as the bottom. It's the same as OPUS' mailing address. The same OPUS that proudly touts NOM's anti-equality protestations as its big company highlight.

In terms of the Catholic socio-political template, you don't get a much more influential handshake. At least not outside of Rome.

So what does this tell us? Well, nothing that we didn't already know, really. It's just more confirmation that NOM, a group that presents itself as a generalized special interest group that "protects" faith generally, is, in truth, a Catholic organization that exalts Vatican values primarily. They of course have every right to take this approach to their advocacy. But they really should call themselves something like The Catholic Alliance for Canonical Rites rather than the National Organization For Marriage.

Benedict XVI -Ratzinger: God's Rottweiler

Another blogger gave me the link to a blog with this name. Check it out: http://pope-ratz.blogspot.com/. This opening comment sets the tone of the blog:

Pope Benedict XVI is the papal clone of John Paul II. As Cardinal Ratzinger he was the General of the Third Reich of the Catholic Church, the right-hand man of John Paul II in the great cover up of the pedophiliac holocaust committed by the JPIIPPA - the John Paul II Pedophile Priests Army.

It is nice to know that other bloogers are likewise trying to expose the rank corruption and moral bankruptcy of the leadership of the Catholic Church. As for Opus Dei (the skull of its founder is at left, above), the organization is down right scary.