AKA: "Msgr. Meth"
The Catholic priest busted for allegedly dealing crystal meth was suspended after church officials discovered he was a cross-dresser who was having sex in the rectory at Bridgeport's St. Augustine Cathedral. - Read more here.
Saturnos are spinning! Cappas twirling!
"What's wrong with
a little blush?"
Wow. That store the article says he bought isn't far from where I grew up. I thought it was just for bongs and stuff.
ReplyDeleteIt was those Broadway musicals and show tunes that led him to do those things.
ReplyDeleteI always knew that my deep and abiding loathing of them had a sound theological basis.
What is the purpose of posting this kind of stuff? It seems to me that it is very near unto detraction and gossip. I also think you have an unhealthy pre-occupation with the sexual sins of priests. I think it's better to focus on the positive (of which there is MUCH) in the Church.
ReplyDeleteAloysius, if you find the content of this blog disturbing I suggest you stop reading. I post, you click and read - you don't have to do that.
ReplyDeleteTerry, who said I found it disturbing? I find very little disturbing these days. I said what I said out of concern for your soul. It was fraternal correction. I suggest you discuss this with your confessor. Maybe he can help you come to realize that some of your posts (but certainly not all) are not helpful to yourself or others.
DeleteDouble Ugh...
ReplyDeleteand an extra, Good grief!
ReplyDeleteHere's the deal. You would think that somewhere along the way, there were clear intimations that all was not right with this guy. I have become a firm believer that lay people, both men and women, need to be on whatever committees are used to help decide whether someone should be ordained, and how they are progressing in their priesthood. That won't totally prevent unsuitable candidates from being in the priesthood, but it might help. Let bishops who have ears hear.
ReplyDeleteIn most seminaries such committees or panels exist. They are filled with psychologists, doctors, theologians, and all sorts of people. Today, most of the undesirables are weeded out. In the past, this was not so.
DeleteI don't know how I feel about panels/committees continuing to watch over priests after ordination. At that point the priest is responsible to only two people: God and the Bishop. Bishops need to be Fathers to their priest sons. Sadly, after the Scandal, they have become bureaucrats who are more concerned with covering their own asses than helping their priest-sons grow in holiness. If bishops were good spiritual fathers, they would know the struggles of their sons, and much of this would be avoided. As it is, no priest trusts his bishop and thus won't reach out for help until it is too late. That needs to change!
Thomas Tucker - That is why I hi-light stories like this - which are already news stories by the time I pick up on them BTW.
ReplyDeleteSome one knew about this guy and his proclivities. Some one excused and probably absolved him along the way. My making fun of other conspiracy theories is to point out that no one ever had to worry much about Bella Dodd and her Communist infiltrators when people like this guy were given a free pass. There are restrictions, canonical impediments to ordination that ought to be taken more seriously. They weren't and they aren't.
There was a book from the '70's which discussed a 'homosexual network' - I have never really bought into the idea that there is a monolithic organization - but people get connected in what may better be described as an old boys club. I know what I'm talking about. Priests know what I'm talking about as well.
I think its good thing to shine light into the dark, dirty corners in order to clean them out. I would hope we all pray for priests, who though men, need to be more like angels.
ReplyDelete"I always knew that my deep and abiding loathing of them had a sound theological basis." WTF?! I hope you're being sarcastic.
ReplyDeleteEverybody's got something and this does not shock me. What it does do, is draw me to a deeper repentance for my own past sins / inclinations and say "there but for the grace of God ..." and pray for him.
I'm sure everyone here can agree with that (?)
Aloysius - thanks very much - that is very kind of you. God bless!
ReplyDeleteDB - The author was being sarcastic and was referring to his personal loathing of broadway musicals.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Terry -- it wasn't so meant to be so much sarcastic as a joke.
DeleteYeah, it was a joke, DB.
Although I do have a deep and abiding loathing of musicals -- that is dead serious.
To whom it may concern:
ReplyDeleteI'd like to offer one more perspective: It is the perennial concern of many people who strive to live in fidelity to Church teaching, and many faithful Catholics who dread the loss of suitable vocations to the priesthood, who end up scandalized by such fallen priests.
There are genuine - legitimate concerns about the ordination of men who have issues with homosexuality, gender identity, depression and substance abuse, or histories of such. There are serious questions to be answered as to how men with such instability and deluded self-interest can assist ordinary men and women who seek guidance from the Church and her ministers, those who desire to grow in sanctity, as well as those who are called by marriage to raise children? How can these men model virtue and holiness for young priests and seminarians, single men and women, and children?
This priest was known to have problems before the arrest. I'll be writing about other priests I know who were known to have problems before their arrests as well.
Aloysius- good point about how priests with problems become afraid to discuss them with their bishop. And bishops need to be better mentors instead of bureaucrats. But I also think that continued formal surveillance and encouragement by a group, including laypeople, would be helpful. Certainly in the health professions, we have oversight by many different people, and the clergy would benefit from this too. I don't think it's good enough to say they are only accountable to God and to their bishop. They would benefit from being accountable to the lay people as well, lest they become accoountable to the criminal justice system instead.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that people who suffer with things like OCD, depression, and anxiety disorders should probably not be priests, but is this really "deluded self interest"? I mean, I have suffered greatly from OCD and depression, and when I came back to the church of course it has become nagging and obsessive scrupulosity, but is it all my own fault, or a cross to bear?
ReplyDeleteI know I have caused most of it, and I know my lack of faith is why I am so bad off with scrupulosity, but is it really in the same category as sexual perversion? Or is it NOT a medical problem at all, but merely a spiritual one that is self-caused?
I dunno, I'm sorry I made this about me again. Maybe it is deluded self-interest.
Merc - I throw these things out there with certain 'types' in mind, forgetting that someone else will think I'm talking about them. Blanket statements and generalizations are the bane of bloggers. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteI'm writing about men seeking entrance to seminary who have such issues. I have in mind a couple of priests who just made it through, most likely based on their devotion, guys who had some clinical depression/borderline personality issues. In a couple of cases they weren't even recommended for seminary. Once ordained, after a couple of years - a breakdown, one left priesthood, a couple of others were put on leave, medication adjusted, and back part-time - I'm condenseing the narrative here. One guy thought he should be a monk - tried it out, came back. Another thought he was being persecuted for being too traditional, wearing a cassock, boy only altar boys, etc.. That's what I mean by deluded self-interest. Yes - people won't like me saying that either.
Then there is the gay priest who murdered his accusers - he had a drinking problem, mental health issues, and accusations against him before seminary, during seminary, and after ordination. The guy used to act as if he was going into ecstacy during Mass, weeping copious tears at the consecration, he had half the parish fooled, the other half he completely alienated - again, he believed he was persecuted for being so traditional, reform-minded, and holy.
See what I'm getting at? They were never fit candidates for the priesthood in the first place.
I know of another guy who wants to be a priest. One order was too liberal, another order - though very solid and traditional, wouldn't accept SSA men - yet he's convinced he has a vocation.
I'm talking about, writing about, posting about such people who spin their wheels for decades imagining they are called to the priesthood when all the signs in their lives shout: NO! YOU AREN'T!
And yet, very often, they have priests as disoriented as themselves telling them they do.
Men who have been rejected by seminaries were rejected for a reason - some who managed to get themselves ordained in spite of that can be very good, exemplary priests - others, not so much.
Anyway - Merc - I detect no deluded self-interest in you. To be sure, OCD, depression is not in the same category as sexual perversion.
Excuse any misspellings - I can't do spell check on my comments - and I batted this one out. And remember it is my flawed, personal opinion and no one has to believe it, accept it, or read it.
:=)
Awesome explanation, Terry. I'm sorry I thought you were aiming at me.
DeleteOh, I believe you have opinions alright!
ReplyDeleteNan - you're on thin ice.
ReplyDeleteWhat are you talking about? There's a cold snap!
ReplyDeleteMercury- i used to struggle with scrupulosity. It can be overcome. Have you ever visited the website Scrupulous Anonymous? Feel free to email me personally if I can help with this proble, and Terry, feel free to give Mercury my email address.
ReplyDeleteI have visited them, thomas.
DeleteMy problem is this - I want to be better, want to live my life for God, but I don't want to go over the edge and be Savonarola. So because of that fear I never make the small steps.
Just a minor example - I know I waste too much time with distractions like video games and the like, but whenever I make a move to do anything about that, I begin to fear for my soul every time I do something for entertainment - every time I watch a movie or play a game. So what do I do? I make very little effort to start.
Plus, I am tormented by just how HARSH the saints were - I was even tormented reading the Little Flower! Why? Because of the way she got so upset every time she liked some worldly thing, the way she felt guilty reading about science and history and not religion, and her dedication to the "Imitation of Christ", a book which, as far as I can tell has the message of "only like religious stuff and hate everything else in the world."
Merc - now I think I know why I woke up this morning with St. Therese. I was reflecting on how I wasn't interested in some of the studies on a given subject and I considered how Therese mortified her curiosity as regards further studies such as the sciences and all - despite the fact that she had such great interest in it. It wasn't that she was proposing that behavior or modeling it to be imitated. Not at all.
ReplyDeleteI think it is because she had already pretty much worked through the science of love of God - she was already on her course - she sensed the mystery within herself. I can't explain it - but her example helped me understand that I don't need to be up on all the studies and discussions of the day because I've already lived through much of the same things people are working though, and they must be left to work it through on their own. Sounds presumptuous to say, as if I already know - but in a sense I do. I'm content to acknowledge i'm too little, or such sophistication is not needful for me any longer, because I'm on my course. I've discovered the pearl of great price, as it were - I don't have to debate it, dissect it, or explore it.
Therese was only sharing her attractions, her understanding of what was best suited for her soul - she wasn't condemning others who would pursue studies. In some sense, I think Therese had issues with OCD and perfectionism - and she wrote about how she worked through it, knowing you and I may not have the same issues. It was about her.
You on the other hand - you are free to embrace study and growing in knowledge, you need to. You also need the leisure of online games to recreate yourself, you need to rejoice in created things because you are created to share in God's creation. You need freedom of spirit to rejoice and not to worry it will be taken from you.
Anyway - like I said - offer up your torments, pray as you can, fulfill your duties with detachment as to your failings, keep to Mass and the sacraments, and you will be a bigger saint than Therese.
She woke me up this morning so I will pray to her for you. Maybe my words are more confusing too - I'm sorry.
The thing to remember about saints, Merc, is that they're all unique so something that was bad for a given saint may not be bad for you.
ReplyDeleteAren't we encouraging relativism here Nan? Would that stand up in Judge Judy's courtroom? No, I shouldn't think so.
ReplyDeleteHah! Thank you both, Terry and Nan.
DeleteOn the way home tonight I had another scrupe rumination about how St Alphonsus used to not wear his glasses when he went to the opera so as not to see the women onstage. And this was BEFORE his major conversion. He certainly would not have been okay with appreciating a pretty woman, and definitely not with characters like the prostitutes in Les Miserables (which are there to illustrate the sadness of prostitution, not its attraction). I started to obsess about how if he was so strict, how could I ever go to a pool or beach, how could I ever be okay with my wife or daughter dressing for sport or swimming ...
And then it hit me - I am not him. I know what's expected of me, I know what's a danger and when to look away, and I also know that focusing on such things makes those things worse. If the saint's example there only causes me grief and fear, and if its something my spiritual director would most emphatically tell me NOT to imitate - its not coming from God.
Does that make sense?