Posted on 02/08/2005 1:25:59 PM PST by Dominick
An embattled pastor announced his resignation Sunday, making him the second Dallas Catholic Diocese priest in a week to fall in connection with sexual misconduct allegations.
The Rev. William "Bill" Richard said he was leaving Our Lady of the Lake Church to bring "peace and reconciliation" to the parish, where protesters recently began pressing Dallas Bishop Charles Grahmann to remove him. They have cited Father Richard's efforts to save the job of a top aide – who is serving probation for indecent exposure – and his dismissal of critics from church positions.
Bishop Grahmann responded to the campaign by seeking Father Richard's resignation last week. It is highly unusual for him to give in to parishioners' personnel demands, especially given the diocese's severe shortage of priests – one was arrested on child pornography charges last week in Grand Prairie, and another recently was suspended for planning to get married.
Behind the Rockwall controversy lies some history that has never been publicized: A lawyer wrote the bishop in 1993 to say that Father Richard had been sexually harassing several boys at a Dallas Catholic high school and a Plano church. Sworn statements from three boys followed, describing unwanted looks, requests, comments and massages of the chest, back and shoulders.
"From time to time, Father Richard invited me to his bedroom, which made me uncomfortable and afraid," said a former altar boy's affidavit, which was filed in a lawsuit against the diocese. "Father Richard discussed bestiality with my brother and me, and seemed to imply he had participated in bestiality."
In 1994, Bishop Grahmann transferred Father Richard from the high school to Rockwall, where he succeeded a priest who had molested a girl and been sent to an out-of-state treatment center.
Father Richard has denied the allegations, which apparently went uninvestigated.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
If they'd let animals get married, this wouldn't happen.
What kind of deep soul-sickness is there in the Catholic church. I can't fathom it. There must be a reason why the priesthood is attracting so many sexual deviants. And what kind of useless evaluation system do that have in place that allows so many child-molesters enter the priesthood? Somebody isn't dealing with reality.
Personally, I won't rest until they allow same-sex interspecies marriage.
The priesthood is attracting so many sexual deviants because the USCCB is facilitating it, and the Vatican refuses to do its duty and say "no more". From many of the seminaries to some of the Bishops themselves, the homosexual culture thrives. The "good" bishops are doing what they can, but I question how efective they are. When you have bishops, for example, in St. Paul, participating in "rainbow"-themed "masses", when you have many churches with "gay-friendly" ministries, no one should should be surprised at the "fruits", so to speak.
The Church is not immune to the "soul-sickness" that plagues all of mankind.
And while there are lots of references to the "many child-molesters" in the priesthood, the recent scandal in the Church spanned the past 40 years. Taking into consideration how many men have come into the priesthood during those years, statistically, the Church had a lower percentage rate of these deviants than the general population.
I know how to cure this problem and let me preface this statement by saying that the genesis of the problem is the seminaries. Go and look at these seminaries, psychologically profile the people in authority there and use the product of this examination to "clean house." Once this problem is complete, go into the field and do the same. Voila!! Problem solved.
The difficulty is, though, that no one, including the Vatican, has the courage to do this. And, because of this lack of courage and moral authority, the problem will continue.
Rule One: No Poofters!
Do you really believe that the homosexuals in the seminaries are closeted? Do you think it would be very difficult to weed out obvious problems? The Lavendar Mafia RUNS some seminaries. Shut down the blatant ones, and you solve a major part of the problem. Let active homosexuals know that they will be drummed out if they don't resign. That will cure most of the problem right there. This should be job one for the heirarchy, but they're more interested in diversity and dialogue than cleaning house.
And, BTW, Luddite Patent Counsel, thanks.
So the answer has nothing to do with a psychological profile. It just has to do with kicking out those priests that are clearly out of the closet. Fine. So why bother mentioning psychological profiles - as I asked before, does an effective one even exist?
As far as I know, there is no reliable psychological profile that will identify a homosexual, if that's what you're asking. I believe that the original post suggested a profile of those in authority at seminaries. You could certainly design a study to determine the degree of sympathy or acceptance for homosexuality harbored by the subjects.
To me, the question of "testing" for homosexuality is irrelevant. You can't "test" to see if someone will embezzle parish funds, chase women, or otherwise violate vows. You can, however, make it clear that such behavior will be dealt with harshly. Again, that would be a positive step, IMO.
As far as I know, there is no reliable psychological profile that will identify a homosexual, if that's what you're asking. [...] To me, the question of "testing" for homosexuality is irrelevant. You can't "test" to see if someone will embezzle parish funds, chase women, or otherwise violate vows. You can, however, make it clear that such behavior will be dealt with harshly.
Precisely. That's all I'm saying. There isn't a test out there that can do this. I was replying to a post that said that this was possible. That's all.
just a regular guy, from an outsiders point of view ,it looks like a matter of money.The catholic church maintains an image, for monetary and political benefit.it must be hard to maintain an image of purity.
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