Bad Apples

Here's a posting seen on Facebook that illustrates how bad priests and seminarians drive good men away from the priesthood. The author is Ron Belgau:

When I was discerning whether or not I should apply to seminary (2000-2002), a ministry that I was involved in forced me to work with a priest who was clearly gay and almost certainly sexually active: he talked about socializing with other priests at The Cuff, which describes itself as “Seattle's premiere leather & fetish bar and nightclub.”

I went to one of the most orthodox priests I knew in the diocese. This was a guy who had a reputation for preaching the truth without compromise: I had heard him give a very good homily explaining the Church's teaching on contraception and a pair of homilies explaining the Church's teaching on marriage and why homosexuality was not compatible with Church teaching. However, when I went to him about this priest, he said vacuous things about how he heard that he did good ministry, and recommended that I pray for his vocation. But it was very clear that he didn't think I should try to make formal complaints about this priest.

This interaction was one of the pivotal experiences for me in my vocational discernment: if Catholic priests--even apparently very orthodox priests who were happy to preach Catholic teaching without reservation or apology to the laity--were that impotent when it came to policing their own, then it would endanger both my faith and my integrity to join their club.

...The priest I complained about was ordained by a notoriously liberal bishop. The younger priest whose advice I sought was--and still is--widely seen as one of the good John Paul II priests in that diocese. I would bet that he will be made a bishop in the next decade or so. Given the alternatives, he's probably one of the better choices we have available.

I decided not to even apply to the priesthood. Another friend, who had been discerning around the same time in the same diocese, did apply and was accepted. He studied in seminary for a couple of years, then went to work in a parish for a pastoral year. The priest he was assigned to work with had a copy of The Joy of Gay Sex in his bedroom, and had a group of his priest friends come over every Friday night; my friend was banished from the rectory during those parties. When he spoke to the vocations director about it, it was made clear that he needed to learn to work with whoever he was assigned to work with, and not create problems. If he complained about this, he would be kicked out. After a few months of this treatment, he decided to leave. He's now married and worships with his wife and kids at an Eastern Orthodox parish. I don't blame him.

The priest I complained about? He was removed from ministry after 2002, because he had molested a bunch of middle school boys in the 70s; the diocese had known since the 80s.

The priest with The Joy of Gay Sex my friend was told to put up with? He was dismissed from ministry several years later as the result of a civil lawsuit over sexual harassment of an adult male.

Thank God that those two priests are gone. But humanly speaking, the civil courts and the Boston Globe had a lot more to do with their removal than the Archbishop or their fellow priests.

My friend and I looked into that dysfunction and walked away.

The next generation of bishops, however, will be selected from those who were willing to stay, and who advised us not to make waves.