Fr. James Haley knows exactly what that cost is. When he brought information to Bishop Loverde he ended up being thrown out of the rectory and essentially cut off from the family of the Church. For a year he was silenced and shunned, but when he responded to a legal deposition exposing the horrors he discovered the persecution escalated and he became a man without a church, an outcast from his brothers, the rejected man.
A pastor of mine once said that there is no one deader than a dead priest because he has no family and is easily forgotten. There are few people to pray for him. But I think even "deader" than he is is a priest like Fr. Haley who is not only forgotten, but a pariah.
This is the cost of exposing the homosexual priest problem and a few priests have paid it. Most just leave, but some, forced out but reluctant to start a new life, live in a perennial limbo.
And is the problem really behind us? When an entire diocese (Miami) is exposed as being run by a homosexual cabal, one can only wonder how many others operate in the same way? How many continue to keep the secret?
Look at a diocese filled with dissent and there is likely a homosexual connection. The truth and the lie cannot coexist. And the homosexual bishop or priest is living a lie. He pretends to choose a celibate lifestyle, i.e., not to marry, but he has no interest in marriage in the first place. His choice of the priesthood, rather than being a sacrifice, puts him in his ideal situation. He is surrounded by men, some homosexuals like himself. He lives with men, vacations with men, enjoys the company of men and no one thinks anything of it. It's normal. His "special friend" raises few alarms.
Milwaukee under homosexual bishop Rembert Weakland is a perfect example of the dissent-ridden church created by a homosexual. The most immoral sex ed programs were introduced there. Dissent was rampant. Cleaning up the mess, like the fifth work of Hercules (to clean out the Augean stables in a single day), is a daunting task. And the problem is multiplied many times over throughout the U.S. with bishops who may be homosexual themselves or homosexualists who enable the ongoing problem.
Another aspect of the problem is that homosexuals also tend to be narcissistic. The homosexual priest loves being the center of attention. If he's a pastor, he's the Lord of his parish. He may use the money of his people to redecorate his rectory with lavish accoutrements. On the altar he stands in the spotlight. He enjoys the attention. He preaches sweetness and light or, in some cases, a watered down orthodoxy. But one thing is for sure. He will not preach the fullness of the truth about the Church's sexual morality. He cannot. And he is often the ringmaster at the liturgical circus. Even if he is trying to live a faithful life, his disordered nature makes his situation untenable. If he is assigned with a priest to whom he is attracted, he lives in a constant occasion of sin and a serious state of tempation -- like a man living with his fiance before marriage. If his confessor tells him to get out of the situation, where can he go? If he is in the closet, how does he explain the situation to his bishop? No, homosexuals do not belong in the priesthood -- ever. Those who are already there should never be given a position of authority. It is simply too dangerous. We have seen the result in the chaotic situation in the Church today. Not to deal with it head on and vigorously is irresponsible.
As the pope said, the greatest attack on the Church comes from sin within. Part of the sin, I believe, is the attack on good priests who dared to expose the pornographic horrors in the rectory closet and on the rectory computers. Part of the sin is continuing to downplay the seriousness of homosexuals in the priesthood as some bishops do. And part of the sin is the omission of preaching the fullness of the truth to the people in the pews.
Let us pray for persecuted priests and for our beloved Church. She is also a victim, the battered bride of Christ.
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