Gay Retreats Are Not a Good Sign in a Diocese! Can a Bishop Really Do Nothing?

Fr. Brayan Massingale is a flaming
pro-gay propagandist

Controversial Priest to Lead Retreat for Gay Priests, Brothers, and Deacons

Fr. Bryan Massingale is scheduled to give a retreat for gay clergy and consecrated religious in the Diocese of Milwaukee in October. Sad to say, Bishop Jerome Listecki does not appear to be taking much action to prevent the scandalous event.

In the interests of full disclosure let me make it clear that Bishop Listecki put out a message that he objects to the retreat, but that he has no power to stop it. That baffles me! A priest can only say Mass in a bishop's diocese with his permission. A religious order can only operate in a bishop's diocese with his permission. It's true that the bishop has no police force, so he can't send in the Church guard to remove these folks, but he can make it darn unpleasant for them.


I confess I'm more than a little disappointed with Bishop Listecki who was one of the few bishops who denounced Notre Dame for giving an award to pro-abortion president Barrack Obama. That was an act of courage. But in a head-shaking message last December, Bishop Listecki expressed support for a priest, Fr. Gregory Greiten, who "came out" to his parish as gay and became a cheerleader for the gay agenda when he shared his story in the fishwrap aka The National non-Catholic Reporter. That should have gotten him immediately removed from ministry in my opinion.

Greiten uses all the gay buzzwords in the article, advancing the homo agenda and the normalization of a disordered inclination to evil. He was treated like a hero by his congregation for his "courage," given a standing ovation in fact. Not too surprising. After years of ear tickling and bad catechesis, secularly indoctrinated parishioners cheered him on. Moral truth is almost dead in our world!

Listen folks, when a man says, "I'm gay!" he is saying, "I'm sexually attracted to men including young men, including teenage men with lithe, supple bodies who look really good in Speedos!" Looking at Fr. Greiten's picture I can imagine him drooling over a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and, perhaps, handsome young teenage altar boys as well. I'll pray for him, but trust him? You gotta be kidding!

Here are the last three paragraphs of Greiten's article in the fishwrap:

Fr. Gregory Greiten

I am breaking through the silence and reclaiming my voice — silent words to prophetic words, despairing words to hopeful words, angry words to forgiving words, and sad words to joy-filled words, with the passion of the words attributed to a great woman saint and doctor of the church, St. Catherine of Siena, "Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire." 

This fire burning deep inside my heart, I will no longer contain. I will not be silent any longer; the price to pay is way too great. I must speak my truth. I have lived far too many years chained up and imprisoned in the closet behind walls of shame, trauma and abuse because of the homophobia and discrimination so prevalent in my church and the world. But rather, today, I chart a new course in freedom and in integrity knowing that there is nothing that anyone can do to hurt or destroy my spirit any longer. First steps in accepting and loving the person God created me to be. 

"I am Greg. I am a Roman Catholic priest. And, yes, I am gay!"

What courage! Wow! Let's cheer for those who get up and say, "Hi, I'm me and I'm a pedophile...an alcoholic...a kleptomaniac...a doper...whatever. Give me a standing ovation. I'm so courageous for revealing my disordered inclination to sin!

Let's say that Fr. Greiten hasn't acted on what he calls his "sexual orientation" which is really an inclination to sodomy and other unspeakable perversions. Would that make his proclaiming his "orientation" okay -- the fact that he hasn't acted on it --- yet?

Or does he act on it?

How does Fr. Greiten spend his spare time? Does he consider himself faithful to his vows if he is merely "celibate" which means he doesn't marry? Does he consider himself faithful if has porn under his mattress and on his computer?  What if he relieves stress in his life by engaging in what is euphemistically called self-abuse? And what about a little "innocent" fooling around as kids call it with some brother priests or guys he meets in a gay bars? Has he really lived a chaste life since high school seminary? Really?

I'm Mary Magdalene and
I have an adulteress orientation!

Let's look at this from another perspective. Take a woman, an adulteress or would be adulteress  who is frequently tempted to engage in sex with men, especially married men. She has an "adultery inclination." She struggles with wanting to commit adultery. She thinks about it often and loves to look at "gentlemen's magazines" and at church she ogles the men in the congregation. She's tired of hiding her inclination to adultery, so one day she stands up in the church and announces to all present saying, "I need to break through the silence and reclaim my voice and be who God meant me to be. I have a fire burning inside my heart I will no longer contain. I won't be imprisoned because of your prejudice against adultery. You will not destroy my spirit. I am Mary Magdalen and, yes, I lust after men!"

Fr. Greiten, as a priest, is in a serious occasion of sin. He is surrounded by young altar boys. He likely spends his vacations and leisure time with other men who identify as "gay" with whom, perhaps, he playfully "flirts." On retreat he shares communal bathrooms with scantily clad men some of whom he probably finds sexually attractive. Is this a good environment for him?

What does the Vatican say? Read the 2016 Congregation for the Clergy document, The Gift of the Priestly Vocation beginning on page 81:

c. Persons with Homosexual Tendencies
   199. In relation to persons with homosexual tendencies who seek admission to Seminary, or discover such a situation in the course of formation, consistent with her own Magisterium, "the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called 'gay culture'. Such persons, in fact, find themselves in a situation that gravely hinders them fro relating correctly to men and women. One must in no way overlook the negative consequences that can drive from the ordination of persons with deep-seated homosexual tendencies". 

Keep in mind that this philosophy wasn't snatched out of thin air in 2016. It goes back to Vatican II and earlier, and Fr. Greiten's writing shows he was aware of it.  So consider -- a man doesn't come out as "gay" without having "deep-seated homosexual tendencies." And if he is revealing that in articles, he also shows his "support for the so-called 'gay culture'." Hence, it seems to me, the appropriate response for Bishop Listecki was to immediately remove Fr. Greiten from pastoral work, at the very least, and move him to a position with no authority and no contact with vulnerable people. The fact is, he never should have been ordained in the first place. And then there is the issue of honesty which the document also addresses:

It would be gravely dishonest for a candidate to hide his own homosexuality in order to proceed, despite everything, towards ordination. Such a deceitful attitude does not correspond to the spirit of truth, loyalty and openness that must characterize the personality of hi who believes he is called to serve Christ and his Church in the ministerial priesthood".

Did Fr. Greiten lie?  According to his own testimony he did. He writes in the fishwrap that at the age of 24:

on a five-hour drive back to seminary,... the truth broke through the denial. I finally admitted to myself, "I AM GAY!" I was driving down a road trying to keep from veering out of my lane or off the road itself, repeating to myself again and again, "I am gay!" Years of built-up, toxic shame came pouring out of me as the tears were flowing down my cheeks....With support from the director of spiritual formation at the seminary as well as my own spiritual director, both of whom assured me everything was going to be OK, I moved forward with ordination to the priesthood and with my ministry in the church.

There you have it, folks, the source of the problems we're seeing today. Homosexual candidates welcomed to the seminary, corrupt seminary administrators, and ordination of men with known "deep-seated homosexual tendencies."

Fr. Greiten knew, as his article makes clear, that he was not a fit candidate for the priesthood. He knew where the Church stood and with the complicity of directors at the seminary and his spiritual director, he lied in ordered to be ordained. Can we trust anything he says? He decries Church language about the disordered nature of homosexuality and is now among the champions of undermining Church teaching on human sexuality.

I know nothing about the seminary Fr. Greiten attended, St. Francis de Sales (presumably the one in Wisconsin), but we do know that he attended seminary and was ordained (1992) in a diocese headed by an active homosexual, Rembert Weakland. The scandals in Milwaukee during his extended tenure were legion. Weakland is the bishop who blamed young victims for their own abuse saying "Not all adolescent victims are so innocent. Some can be very sexually active and aggressive and often quite streetwise." Hey the kids were seducing the poor victim priests!

Please! Somebody have some common sense. As Fr. Haley always said. If he, as a man with a normal attraction to women, can't live with a convent full of nuns, how can it be okay for a same-sex attracted man to live in intimate relations with those to whom he may be sexually attracted? It is an occasion of sin!

I hope Fr. Greiten's parishioners flee and any parents who allow their boys to go to Confession or on outings with him, are sinfully negligent. In so many cases of abuse, the boys were seduced in the Confessional or in the sacristy or on youth trips. It's time to get real about what homosexuality is. Wake up, people!

As for Bishop Listecki. Well, all I can say is I'm disappointed.