In a sad and sorry tale, Gawker has published extracts from a dossier on gay clergy in Miami, put together by a group called “Christifidelis”, and titled “Miami Vice” . The report has been met with outrage and indignation at several self-righteous Catholic sites, treating at as a grave scandal to the Church. I agree that indeed there is a great scandal here - but it is not the one they see.
The saga seems to have been precipitated in 2005 when Father Andrew Dowgiert, a Polish priest working in the diocese, was sacked - ostensibly because of “his bad attitude and fondness for alcohol”. Fr Dowgiert responded, strongly supported by Christifidelis, with a lawsuit against the diocese, which he alleged was overrun by some kind of gay mafia overseen by Archbishop John C. Favalora and his numbers two and three in command Monsignor William Hennessey and Monsignor Michael Souckar. The dossier discloses several alleged misdeeds, and reproduces some of the evidence submitted in court. There is a claim that these allegations lay behind the sudden resignation of Archbishop Favalora last year.
It’s a sordid tale, of allegations and counter-allegations, of financial misdeeds, nepotism, alcoholism, sexual abuse and voyeurism, priests living a life of luxury - and love between men. So, where’s the scandal?
The Scandal of Compulsory Celibacy
We know from scientific research that an active sexual life contributes to both mental and physical health. In adult humans, celibacy is unnatural. I fully accept that sexual diversity includes some who are simply asexual, and others who have the psychosexual maturity to embrace it as a voluntary spiritual discipline. Where it is imposed by coercion though, there are dangers. Where adult men are unable to lead natural sexual lives in loving partnerships, there is a real risk of them leading lives which are unnatural. In some cases, this leads to the tragedy of sexual abuse of the vulnerable - children perhaps, or in some of these allegations, with subordinates.
In other cases, this leads to relationships which are fully natural and healthy - but because of the rules on compulsory celibacy, lead men to try to hide their lives, possible behind second homes. This forces their partners too, into lives of secrecy, and into a shared clerical closet.
Pope Benedict himself has agreed (in his book, Light of the world), that celibacy is difficult, but “becomes possible” where priests live in a supportive community. Such community support is presumably found in monasteries, and in the religious orders. It may once have been found where parishes were able to support several priests in a shared presbytery. But where is to be found today, where so many priests live alone, or at best in a shared house with one other person, not necessarily a suitable soulmate? Most Catholics accept that sexual relationships are natural and healthy, and should be available in marriage as an option for priests. A substantial proportion of priests, both gay and straight, simply ignore the rule. Some bishops have pleaded with Rome for permission to ordain married men. Even the Vatican approves married priests - for those in the Eastern rites, or who were originally ordained in other denominations.
The obvious and sane response to the crisis of the celibate priesthood would be to remove the absolute insistence on compulsory celibacy, for priests ordained under the Catholic Roman rite, at least for diocesan priests. Yet, the only response from Catholic officialdom - is to clamp down on even discussion of a married clergy, or of women priests.
That is the first scandal behind the “Miami Vice” dossier.
The Scandal of the Denial of Christ’s Love
Among many salacious details described in the dossier, is the disclosure that one priest’s boyfriend was uncircumcised. Is this remotely relevant?
Directly, it clearly is not. It cannot matter any more than if he were dark-haired or fair, clean-shaven or bearded, Hispanic or Anglo. What is extremely relevant, and greatly scandalous, is the manner by which this information was obtained. The compilers of the dossier hired private investigators to sift through the couple’s garbage, where they uncovered printouts from a hook-up site the man had been using.
One might argue that we have a “right to know” these things, and that the investigators therefore had an obligation to uncover them. I wonder. Imagine, for a minute, if their suspicions had been unfounded, if they had not uncovered any evidence of sexual conduct - and had instead found material which was in some other way deeply personal (medical details, for instance) . This kind of digging is a simple invasion of privacy and should not be tolerated.
Worse, it is unChristian. As Catholics, we supposedly are committed to following the example of Jesus Christ, who taught that the most important commandment is to love; who instructed us to remove the beams from our own eyes before inspecting the motes in others; and who suggested to the accusers of the woman caught in adultery, that the one without sin should cast the first stone.
What would Jesus do? Can anyone in their right mind imagine Jesus Christ picking through garbage - to uncover evidence that two men had a loving sexual relationship?
There is no sin in love, but there assuredly is in hatred and vindictiveness. The scandal here is of a pack of small-minded zealots, completely ignoring the example of Christ and his frequent criticisms of religious
That’s the second scandal - that of a band of religious fanatics, supposedly in defence of a Christian church, totally oblivious of the example of Jesus Christ and his response to the small-minded, regulation-obsessed religious authorities of his day, doing precisely what Jesus warned us against: setting aside his example of love to attack those they see in contravention of Church rules.
The Scandal of the Double Standard
There is a great deal among the allegations that is, correctly, of great concern. There are allegations of grave financial misconduct, and even serious criminality. There are allegations too, of sexual abuse of subordinates. Both of these are serious - but the report is presented as an exposé of a “gay mafia”. A homoerotic orientation among those accused was a common thread in the allegations, but not otherwise relevant to the crimes. To describe the whole sorry mess as a “gay” mafia suggests that this kind of criminality is a consequence of their being gay, which it clearly is not.
There is certainly evidence presented that some of these gay priests had regular sexual partners: it is equally true that a substantial proportion of straight priests have regular sexual partners. In some parts of the world, these relationships are publicly known in their local communities, if not publicly discussed. In some cases, bishops are known to pay for the education of the children that result - not a problem that gay priests will present to the authorities.
There is evidence presented of pilfering church funds to pay for expensive meals, and of larger scale misappropriation of funds to purchase expensive real estate. This is appalling - but comparable allegations in the past have been made against heterosexual priests, These other cases have never been presented as evidence of heterosexual criminality.
This is the third scandal - the selective condemnation of a specific group of alleged wrong-doers as representing the entire class of gay priests.
My Own Response to Specific Allegations.
I do not want any misunderstanding that I condone immoral or illegal conduct in the Church, so let me make clear my specific responses to the allegations.
First, they are allegations, based on evidence submitted in a legal application - which was not successful. Amidst all the allegations and counter-allegations, I reserve judgement on every specific case and individual. I respond here to allegations in principle:
I condemn all instances of sexual abuse by seminary rectors or ecclesiastical superiors, of seminarians or religious subordinates - or of any other persons, of either sex, who are vulnerable to sexual coercion. I condemn likewise the voyeurism and sexual opportunism implied in the allegations of seminary rectors photographing bare-chested seminarians in the gym.
I condemn all instances of nepotism by church authorities, to place favoured personal friends in comfortable sinecures, or the obverse - removing troublesome critics to obscure postings, to get them out of the way.
I condemn any theft of church funds to pay for real estate, including minor pilfering to support personal luxuries.
However:
I do not condemn loving and supportive adult relationships, of any kind. Rather, I believe that priests who choose in conscience to disregard the rules on compulsory celibacy in pursuit of a natural human desire for love, deserve our understanding and support. I have written before of the gay priests creeping out of the closet, and how they deserve support. I have suggested one way in which QTC may, just possibly, be able to help. I should have more specific information on that, soon.
Related articles
- Gay Priests, Creeping Out of the Closet.
- Gay Priests, Creeping Out of the Closet (2): Next Steps at the Queer Church.
- 35 Years as LGBT Catholics: Looking Back, Looking Ahead
- 1): Where Have We Come From?)
- 2) Where Are We Now? How the Church Has Changed
- 3) Where Are We Now? Internal Contradictions in Church Teaching
- 4) Where Are We Headed, and What Can We Do About It?
- Social Sin and Queer Shame: A Gay Priest’s Personal Spiritual Sharing
- “Wrestling with God”: the Challenge for Queer Christians.
- “From the Belly of the Whale”: A Gay Priest Speaks.
- Inhabiting a Queer Space
- Minnesota Priest Challenges Law: New Apologetic Excuses Violations of Pastoral Relationships (Bilgrimage)
- The Catholic Church’s Secret Gay Cabal (Gawker)
- A Priest, a Reporter and His Boyfriend Walk Into a Gay Bar… [Exclusive / Miami Vice] (Gawker)
The Gawker piece is salacious and unjust and consists mostly of unsupported and unverified accusations. The article is a hodgepodge of innuendo and assumptions. Each person, even priests and bishops, have a right to their good reputation. It is immoral to accuse anyone of civil crimes or moral lapses without good, hard evidence. Among other travesties, Gawker implies active homosexual relationships on the basis of shared ownership of homes and providing for one another in wills. Diocesan priests are not under any vow or promise of poverty. When a diocesan priest bonds with brother priests, it may be totally innocent of any sexual expression, or not. Priests can own property, can own it jointly, and can ask other priests to care for their worldly affairs when they die. This is neither immoral nor does it violate any practice. As for a priest being free to misappropriate parish funds, that is very difficult to do in the places I have ministered. When there is evidence of malfeasance, it is investigated, and if found credible, it is turned over to public prosecutors.
Given the nature of this article, it would have been better to pass over it entirely rather than give it any credibility. There are better things to concern ourselves with than malicious gossip.
I agree that the piece is salacious and unjust, and thank you for pointing out that there is nothing to prevent a diocesan priest from owning property, alone or in partnership with others.
I’m sorry that you feel it would have been better ignored: there’s an important lesson here, which is to take note of how eagerly some people will look for the dirt on gay priests, leap to unjustified conclusions - and apply double standards. In my view, ignoring this would be a mistake.
I have read that most of the priests in the Miami Archdiocese are gay. And it seems that many of them are not really celibate. I wonder how the new Archbishop copes with this. They couldn’t run the Archdiocese without these priests and they know it.
I have no specific knowledge of Miami, Mareczku, but your observation is definitely true for many dioceses and regions, possibly for the world-wide church as a whole. - and many of those who are not, have sexual relationships with women.
My feelings on the subject are so different from when I was a young adult. I was under the impression that 95% of priests were living lives of chaste purity. I realized that some left to get married but still thought that most priests were virgins and not only that, but also that they refrained from masturbation and having wet dreams. So I thought most were in a state of physical purity. I suppose I needed more instruction on the facts of male biology. Now I think that most priests are pretty much like the rest of us. The clerical culture pretty much sold us a bill of goods and most people don’t buy it anymore. But knowing the truth gives me a kind of respect in a way for priests who struggle with their sexuality and try their best to serve God and their fellow Catholics. So some priests are still heroes to me.
You’re right. I’ve heard a claim that in South America, almost all priests are either gay, or in relationships with women. In Austria and Germany, there are formal support groups for priests with regular mistresses. In Italy, a group of priests’ mistresses approached the pope with a request to be allowed to make their relationships legal, in marriage. In parts of Africa, some priests live with their wives, and send the children to parish schools.
Of course, there are also very many priests who really do live within their vows, or at least try to, and treat any lapses as weakness or sin: but I’m pretty sure that even those who attempt to keep to celibacy, resort to masturbation as relief and recourse. The proportion who attempt to live with no sexual activity of any kind, must be really small.
What angers me in all of this is the sheer dishonesty of it all: which is why I keep insisting, that we cannot make real progress in sane, meaningful theology of sexual ethics, until we begin to talk frankly of the way things are, and not the theoretical constructs of medieval scholastics - “reality based theology” must be the goal.
Yes, the dishonesty of it is very troubling. From what I have read most priests in Africa and South America are in relationships with women. The Church needs to start being honest. Human sexuality is part of who we all are, even priests. I think the Church’s labeling of almost all sexual activity as mortal sins has born horrible fruit. Part of this has been the abuse crisis. When sexual abuse of children and young people is considered as no less of a sin than normal expressions of human sexuality then something very bad is happening.