Homosexuality
HOMOSEXUALITY
POST VATICAN II From CATHOLIC NEW YORK, 3/12/87. “`There are divine laws which give us life; we don’t believe they can be changed’ said Cardinal O’Connor, explaining the suspension of the weekly Masses sponsored by the homosexual organization, Dignity.
“In remarks after MMass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral last Sunday, the cardinal said that homosexuals are welcome to participate in regular parish Masses or those sponsored by the group Courage, an organization for homosexual Catholics which encourages them to lead celibate lives. `We are not throwing anyone out of the Church,’ the Cardional said. “The night before (March 7, 1987) more than 1,000 people gathered for the final Dignity Mass at St. Francis Xavier Church, a Jesuit-run parish.
“The pastor, Michael E. Donohue told the congregation, `This is a sad day in the life of our parish community.'”
From CATHOLIC NEW YORK, 4/30/87. “In a full-page ad in Newsweek, Dignity USA criticized the Catholic Church’s stand on homosexuality and asked bishops to stop expelling its local chapters from Church facilities.
“Jesus said nothing about homosexuality, the ad said, but the Vatican last fall called homosexual activity an `intrinsically moral evil.'”
A homosexual priest in Philadelphia admitted his sex preference during an interview on TV but stated he didn’t practice homosexuality `because he was celibate.’
SECULAR JOURNALS From THE ORLANDO SENTINEL, 11/8/86. “An attorney for three teenaged boys who say they were sexually molested by a Catholic priest over four years said Friday he expects the cases to be tried in Brevard County (FL) by April.”
From NSIPS, 11/8/86. “The Vatican has warned a self-professed homosexual Jesuit priest, John McNeill, that he may be expelled from his religious order unless he caceases his active suypport for `gay causes.’ Father McNeill is a founder of a gropup called `Dignity’, described as a `Catholic Gay Rights organization.’
“McNeill blames Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger.”
From THE ORLANDO SENTINEL, 2/7/87. “`When I came into religious life in the 1950s, I came in as an absolute innocent’ he said. `I never set foot in a gay bar until I was 29.’ The man talking to a reporter for THE BOSTION GLOBE is a Roman Catholic priest. He has AIDS.
From THE MIAMI HERALD, 1/3/88. “The Roman Catholic Church in the United States has been forced to pay millions of dollars in damages to families who content that their children have been sexually abused by priests. In spite of that, the problem has grown so severe that many lawyers and victims say the church ignores and covers up such cases.
“Church officials insist that a notorious 1985 Louisiana case in which a priest molested at least 35 boys has taught them to deal firmly with the problem.
“A three month investigation by The San Jose Mercury News reveals that in more than 25 of the 185 dioceses across the country, including Florida, church officials were guilty of at least one of the followinbg: failing to notify authorities of abuse complaints, transferring molesting priests to other parishes, ignoring parental complaints and disregarding the potential damage to child victims – before, during and after the Louisiana case.”
From SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS, 12/30/87. “At a time of heightened national awareness of the problems olf child abuse, the Catholic Church in the United States continues to ignore and cover up cases of priests who sexually molest children, according to court records, internal church documents, civil authorities and the children themselves.
“Millions of dollars in damages already have been paid to victims and their families, and one 1986 church report estimated that the church’s liability could reach $1 billion over the next decade.
“`The sexual molesting of little boys by priests is the single most serious problem we’ve had to face in centuries,’ said Father Thomas Doyle, a Dominican priest and canon lawyer who tried for two years to force the U.S. Catholic Conference to deal with the issue.
“(California church officials) acknowledged two South Bay cases in recent years. A Fremont priest resigned in 1982 after being accused of fondling eight girls and before 1981, an unidentified Santa Clara priest was sent away for psychiatric treatment for sexual attraction to children and since has returned to the San Jose diocese.
“In Florida, the father of a 12-year-old girl fondled by a priest in 1983, was outraged by testimony that the same priest had been accused of fondling two other girls six years earlier. “Their attitude toward a child molester is, if he’s not causing a problem – by that they mean a public relations problem – they do nothing. If he’s causing a problem, they move him to another parish.’
“When the actions of such dioceses come to light, church officials often lash back at their accusers as being anti-Catholioc. But the complaining parents are almost always Catholics themselves, and often so are the lawyers, prosecutors and the police officers who investigate.
“The Church has established treatment centers to deal with cases of priests who repeatedly commit molestations. The Servants of the Paraclete order in Nerw Mexico added a wing for pedophilic priests to its hospital.
“Dr. John Mooney of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine wrote, `Like any other institution that prohibits or prevents ordinary heterosexual relationships, the church not only encourages homosexual expression, but also becomes a magnet for youths who enter the priesthood having already recognized their sexual status as … homophilic pedophiles attracted exclusively to younger boys.'”