Gay Catholic Priests Speak Out…
One priest in Wisconsin said he assumed every priest is gay unless he knows for a fact he is not. A priest in Florida put it this way: “A third are gay, a third are straight, and a third don’t know what the hell they are.”
http://archive.today/2019.02.17-194054/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/17/us/it-is-not-a-closet-it-is-a-cage-gay-catholic-priests-speak-out.html
"I really am gay," Father Greiten, now a priest near Milwaukee, remembered telling himself for the first time. For years, church leaders have driven gay congregants away in shame and insisted that " homosexual tendencies " are "disordered. The stories of gay priests are unspoken, veiled from the outside world, known only to one another, if they are known at all. Fewer than about 10 priests in the United States have dared to come out publicly. But gay men likely make up at least 30 to 40 percent of the American Catholic clergy, according to dozens of estimates from gay priests themselves and researchers. The environment for gay priests has grown only more dangerous. And yet prominent bishops have singled out gay priests as the root of the problem, and right-wing media organizations attack what they have called the church's "homosexual subculture," " lavender mafia," or " gay cabal. This week, Pope Francis will host a much-anticipated summit on sex abuse with bishops from around the world. When Pope Francis uttered his revolutionary question, "Who am I to judge? "The vast majority of gay priests are not safe," said Father Bob Bussen, a priest in Park City, Utah, who was outed about 12 years ago after he held Mass for the L.G.B.T.Q. community.
Today, training for the priesthood in the United States usually starts in or after college. Many gay priests spoke of being pulled between denial and confusion, finally coming out to themselves in their 30s or 40s. Father Greiten was 24 when he realized he was gay and considered jumping from his dorm window. "There will be a time in your life when you will look back on this and you're going to just love yourself for being gay," Father Greiten remembered this man telling him. "It's kind of like an open closet," Father Greiten said. Just over a year ago, after meeting with a group of gay priests, Father Greiten decided it was time to end his silence. Father Greiten had committed the cardinal sin: He opened the door to debate. His archbishop, Jerome E. Listecki of Milwaukee, issued a statement saying that he wished Father Greiten had not gone public. "The idea that gay priests are responsible for child sexual abuse remains a persistent belief, especially in many conservative Catholic circles. For years, church leaders have been deeply confused about the relationship between gay men and sexual abuse. At the largest in the United States, Mundelein Seminary in Illinois, few ever talk about sexual identity, said one gay student, who is afraid to ever come out. "Their attitude is that it is gay priests who inflict abuse on younger guys. Pope Francis has called the world's most powerful bishops to Rome to educate them on the problems of abuse, after high-profile abuse cases in the United States, Australia, Chile and elsewhere.
The event has worried gay priests. When the abuse crisis broke out again last summer, the former Vatican ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigana, accused "homosexual networks" of American cardinals of secretly working to protect abusers. And this week, a sensational book titled "Sodoma" in Europe ("In the Closet of the Vatican" in the United States) is being released that claims to expose a vast gay subculture at the Vatican. A group of gay priests in the Netherlands recently took the unusually bold step of writing to Pope Francis, urging him to allow gay, celibate men to be ordained. Sitting in his parish's small counseling room, Father Greiten reflected on it all. For now, Father Greiten was getting ready for his 15th trip to Honduras with doctors and medical supplies.
Skimcast: https://www.skimcast.com/view/?type=page&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpastebin.com%2Fraw%2FkaGP5ELw&len=30