Posted on 05/14/2002 9:34:39 PM PDT by Diago
WHICH American cardinal recently disclosed to insiders a confidential letter he received from a bishop urging the cardinal to resign for the good of the church? The cardinal is being urged to quit before his much-gossiped-about homosexual indiscretions are uncovered by the media . . .
WHICH ranking priest of a major diocese predicted over a boozy dinner the other night that if the media outs this particular cardinal, "then the dominoes will really start to fall?
http://brianhalderman.net/newways.htm
http://www.couragerc.net/PRVaticanGramickNugent.htmlCONGREGATION BANS TWO RELIGIOUS FROM MINISTRY TO HOMOSEXUALS
JULY 13, 1999 (VIS) - Made public today was a Notification from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding Sr. Jeannine Gramick S.S.N.D. and Fr. Robert Nugent S.D.S., founders of the "New Ways Ministry" organization in the archdiocese of Washington, U.S.A.
For more than 20 years they have been involved in pastoral activities directed towards homosexual persons. They are also the authors of the book:" Building Bridges: Gay and Lesbian Reality and the Catholic Church." Below are some excerpts from the document - published in English, Italian, Spanish , French, German and Portuguese - which is signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B., emeritus of Vercelli, respectively prefect and secretary of the congregation:
"From the beginning, in presenting the Church's teaching on homosexuality, Father Nugent and Sister Gramick have continually called central elements of that teaching into question. For this reason, in 1984, James Cardinal Hickey, the Archbishop of Washington, following the failure of a number of attempts at clarification, informed them that they could no longer undertake their activities in that Archdiocese. At the same time, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and for Societies of Apostolic Life ordered them to separate themselves totally and completely from 'New Ways Ministry'."
I'm not going to specualate, but I will pray he resigns.
Let's roll! The light of truth needs to shine on ALL of the vermin and scatter them OUT of the church.
Yes. Those dominoes need to fall, ASAP. The good of the Church requires it. Besides, the scandal that has been caused couldn't get much worse.
Thanks, Siobhan. I hope folks will help expose this travesty by forwarding this information (with a link to this thread) to Catholic media outlets like The Wanderer and DioceseReport.com.
From:washingtonpost.com
Man's Life, Faith Shattered: Family of Suspect in Shooting Says Church Failed to Listen
By Maureen O'Hagan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 16, 2002; Page A14
In 1976, the Rev. Maurice Blackwell took holy water and poured it over the forehead of the infant Dontee Stokes, baptizing him into the Catholic Church just like every one of Dontee's 46 Stokes cousins.
Now Blackwell lies at Maryland Shock Trauma Center in fair condition with three gunshot wounds allegedly inflicted by Stokes. Stokes is in jail, where guards are watching to make sure he doesn't commit suicide. His family's beliefs have been broken and its strength tested in unimaginable ways.
Yesterday, relatives said none of this would have happened if church officials had listened years ago when Stokes told them that Blackwell had molested him.
"The church didn't want to help," said Stokes's uncle, Charles Stokes Jr. "The church didn't want to believe."
The church was the Baltimore Archdiocese and West Baltimore's St. Edward parish, where Blackwell was pastor and where Stokes's relatives were stalwart members.
His grandfather, Charles Stokes, taught Sunday school and served as a parish corporator, one of just two laypersons whose name was placed on the title of the St. Bernadine Roman Catholic Church property, where Blackwell was first assigned.
Charles Stokes said: "That man could preach. Sitting there, you would think you were listening to Martin Luther King."
Charles Stokes raised his 12 children to be good Catholics, and they, in turn, raised their children the same way. Charles Stokes Jr. considered becoming a priest himself, and a cousin works for the archdiocese.
Dontee Stokes attended Sunday school, and as a teenager was appointed youth group president. After youth meetings, Blackwell often called the young man up to his office for "discussions."
That set Stokes on a devastating course, Tamara Stokes, his mother, said yesterday.
When Dontee was about 14, she said, he began acting differently. She had no idea why. He skipped school and his grades dropped; she put him in the St. Francis Academy, "where the nuns could look out for him."
But Stokes seemed to have the same problems there. He finally told a psychologist that he had been molested, Tamara Stokes said. In 1993, police and the city's Department of Social Services investigated, and Dontee Stokes ultimately took two polygraph tests. The results were deemed credible.
Yet church officials -- the people Stokes had been raised to trust completely -- decided that his allegations were not credible and dismissed them. The effect was devastating.
"The issue was, nobody believed him," even some family members, said Charles Stokes.
"When I told my sister, she broke down and cried," he recalled. "I thought she was crying for Dontee. She was crying for the priest."
The priest was welcomed back to the pulpit warmly; Dontee Stokes and his mother left the church.
So did other family members, their devotion to Catholicism now shattered. "I've now got more Baptists in my family than Catholics," Charles Stokes said of his 70-member clan.
Dontee Stokes began to question his most fundamental beliefs.
"He would go in and out of depressed moods," sometimes refusing to come up out of the basement, Tamara Stokes said.
Once he attempted suicide by swallowing pills. He dropped out of high school. He had trouble holding jobs. He began drinking "to erase what had happened," according to his uncle.
And he became obsessed.
Dontee began collecting clippings of newspaper stories about priests who molested children, his mother said, and he would flip through them constantly. Once, she took them away, and he "tore the house up" looking for them.
Tamara Stokes, a postal worker and real estate broker, decided that her son needed a good job, so she put him through barber school.
For the past five years, Dontee Stokes cut hair at Superman's Barber Shop on Baltimore's west side. There, in recent months, as more and more reports of priests molesting young parishioners blared from the television set, co-workers said Stokes took an ever-increasing interest.
One day, Stokes saw Cardinal William H. Keeler -- who had overseen the investigation of his allegations -- announce that there had been no incidents in the Baltimore Archdiocese since 1980. To Stokes, it was yet another confirmation that his cries had not been heard.
"That was devastating to him," Tamara Stokes said.
On Monday night, Dontee Stokes was leaving his home on Mount Royal Terrace when he saw Blackwell, who had lived around the corner for several years. Stokes asked Blackwell for an apology, but, his grandfather said, the priest just laughed.
And then Stokes, who has no criminal record, did something he's never done before -- he allegedly pulled out a .357 magnum and fired three shots at Blackwell. Then he went down the street, and did something he's been doing all his life. He entered a church and prayed.
"It was a church where he'd never been before," said his attorney, Thomas McNicholas. "They were having some sort of revival. At the end, he asked for the minister's blessing. And then he promptly turned himself in."
Staff writer Hamil R. Harris and Metro researcher Bobbye Pratt contributed to this report.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
Cleveland resident Brian Halderman is a faithful Catholic who plans to join the Marianist religious order -- the Society of Mary -- this summer as an openly gay man. ``Silence is violence on this issue,'' said the 25-year-old Halderman, a member of Ascension Catholic Church in Cleveland. ``Part of the body of Christ is gay, whether you like it or not.'' Halderman, who works for the Cleveland Diocese as the technology utilization manager in its secretariat for education, said he is bothered by conservative members of the church who believe gay Catholics are promoting a homosexual agenda. ``I have no other agenda than that of the gospel and my work is to build the kingdom,'' said Halderman, who is part of a Cleveland Diocese-sponsored support group for gays and lesbians.Both the rainbow logo and the word "gay" are secular symbols. Halderman's use of both on his personal website -- as well as his link to "Out in Cleveland" -- belie his shilling for the secular homosexual agenda.
Diago, you mentioned as a footnote that "The gay pride events have subsequently been removed from the Diocese of Cleveland Website." Cleaned up and hidden is more like it. Follow the link on the right under "New(s) From the Diocese" for "Visit the new Parish Life web site at www.dioceseofcleveland.org/parishlife," which will bring you to the Secretariat for Parish Life and Development of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. There, under "Additional Ministries of the Secretariat" you will find a link for "Ministry to the Gay-Lesbian Catholic Community," which brings you to the "Gay and Lesbian Family Ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland" (mentioned in Halderman's website under "Spirituality") whose homepage banner is the secular rainbow logo, with a letter of introduction from the Most Rev. Anthony M. Pilla, Bishop of Cleveland. (How much would you like to bet that the rainbow logo is Halderman's addition?) Please note that the "Retreat for Gay and Lesbian Catholics" at the Jesuit Retreat House in Parma is still listed under Upcoming Events.
Jim Carney gives Dignity free publicity in his article, but fails to mention that Dignity has been banned from celebrating Masses in Roman Catholic churches (note that their Masses are celebrated in "a Congregational Church in downtown Columbus"). Likewise, nowhere is there any mention of the apostolate for Catholics with same-sex attractions that is endorsed by the Holy See, Courage. (I might add that Halderman makes no mention of Courage on his website either, but gives a hyperlink to "Out in Cleveland" instead. I'm astounded that the Marianists are even considering giving this guy a pulpit!)
I, too, suspect that Carney and Halderman know each other personally.
There are many diocesan websites to sift through (I count 195!), and I could use some help. If any of you would care to choose a diocese from this list and report to me, it would help me tremendously.
God bless.
While the Jesuit Retreat for gays and lesbians is still listed, the Gay Pride events have, thankfully, been removed. These were events linked to the annual Gay Pride Weekend which includes a parade. This weekend, which I think is a national thing, is quite simply a celebration of homosexual perversions and sodomy.
The Diocese's site currently looks like this:
http://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/gayandlesbianfamilyministry/events/
But, you can still find how it used to look here:
And...if you scroll down to the bottom of http://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/gayandlesbianfamilyministry/events/ which is linked above, and click on webmaster, (at the very bottom of the page) you get our friend Holderman's email at the Diocese of Cleveland.
There are quite a few things I'd like to see changed. We need to get rid of some of these Judas's.
There are many diocesan websites to sift through (I count 195!), and I could use some help. If any of you would care to choose a diocese from this list and report to me, it would help me tremendously.
Great! I'll take care of Ohio and get back to you.
What I'm getting at is that we might find the rogue dioceses faster by checking those that do not appear on the list of local Courage chapters.
And which "Gospel" might that be?
First time in print I've seen Geoghan and Shanley referred to as gay priests. Prior to this, they've been "pedophile" or chararacterized as "having improper relationships".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.