Posted on 06/30/2002 8:21:34 PM PDT by sinkspur
St. Pius priest leaves after threats 06/30/2002
By SUSAN HOGAN/ALBACH / The Dallas Morning News
A Dallas priest who apologized to his congregation last month for a suggestive message he had posted on an Internet site for gay priests will no longer serve St. Pius X Catholic Church because of threats against him, church members were told Sunday.
The Rev. Clifford Garner, the church's assistant pastor, received two "threats against his life" last week that had been reported to the police, Monsignor Lawrence Pichard said at the end of a morning service.
"He will no longer be here at St. Pius again," said Monsignor Pichard, the church's pastor. The announcement was made at weekend services, which average 4,600 people.
Some members of the East Dallas church were upset by the threats.
"It's pretty sad when somebody threatens a priest," said church member Elida Rodriguez, 34, of Mesquite. "It's disturbing that he has to fear for his life."
Father Garner, 36, couldn't be reached Sunday for comment. Church officials said that he was staying at an undisclosed location for his own safety. They would not comment on his future.
"He's taking time off," Monsignor Pichard said after the service. He declined to provide details about the threats.
The Dallas Police Department said Sunday that it had one complaint on file from Father Garner in the last seven days. The report, filed Thursday, said the priest received a message from an unknown caller threatening to beat him up.
Father Garner apologized during services on June 22 and 23 for posting a sexually suggestive message about Hispanic men on an Internet site for gay priests more than two years ago.
"I do have a very special place in my heart for those Latin blooded ones," the message said.
Some church members said they pressured Father Garner about whether he was gay at a special congregation meeting June 23. They said the priest declined to comment.
The Dallas Diocese was under pressure last week to remove the priest by church members upset that Father Garner had used the Web site.
Some church members said they did not want a gay priest.
Others said his sexual orientation wasn't the issue. They said he should go because of the nature of the message he wrote.
"That is not the kind of behavior you expect from a priest," said David Weber, 41, of Dallas. "He made his bed, now he has to deal with the consequences."
Father Garner, a Texas native, converted to Catholicism at age 18.
He was a chaplain in the U.S. Marine Corps before being ordained a priest by Dallas Bishop Charles V. Grahmann in 1999.
Bishop Grahmann couldn't be reached for comment Sunday.
Dallas Coadjutor Bishop Joseph Galante said recently that when he became aware of Father Garner's activity on the Web site, he met with the priest and told him never to use the site again. The priest also received counseling.
"I made a terrible mistake and dealt with it," Father Garner said recently. "It's been resolved."
Terri Niswander, a member of the church for more than 30 years, said she had forgiven the priest and was sorry to lose him.
"I'm sorry that he's gone," she asked. "My prayers are definitely with him."
I guess bounty hunters are next.
Well, we've gone from expelling sex abusers, to driving gay priests who post sexually suggestive messages about Hispanic men on an Internet site for gay priests out of the Church
Changes the situation ever so slightly, dontcha think?.
You disingenuously left out with death threats.
Do you think death threats are the way to deal with gay priests?
There! Happy? It shouldn't have come to death threats. He should have been kicked out of the clergy without them.
What would you do if this "Gay" priest sodomized your son..........?
Of course the death threats are terrible too. I don't think it was proper for that fellow to publicly expose him the way he did. But if our bishops were doing their jobs they could be trusted to deal with it privately and more strictly. Since they don't it takes public exposure and pressure to make them act. Their lack of diligence has caused a lot anger and they are going to have to deal with it.
We should all pray for the priest. We sin just like he does. God forgives us and will fogive him too.
??????
Romans 1.
And hopefully that's a one time temper tantrum that he never intended to follow through with anyway.
I don't see anything left to worry about.
That passage fits this entire mess perfectly.
I don't know why they felt the need to hide and harbor these men. Surely everyone would have been better off all around to simply treat their crimes as crimes and remove them from positions of authority.
As it is they have cast suspicion and shame on the whole church because they were more interested in protecting the guilty than guarding the innocent.
What in the world posessed them to move these guy's around and insulate them from the law I will never know.
No we DO NOT know if he is active. And if there are minors involved, if he is active, they have not come forward and there has been time to do it. So I think, until something else emerges, we cannot presume that he is active. The thing is, he should go NOW, just based on what he has done that we DO know about. If we was talking about little girls it would be just as bad.
We have to think about if we are to compare a priest having an active gay relationship with another adult male to one having an heterosexual relationship with an adult woman. You can bet your life, any priest who has an affair with a grown woman gets a second chance. And we are going to have to give gay priests a second chance if they have an affair with a male adult. So it is not just all about being gay. It is about being celibate, and serious about your vocation.
Yes, it is all abut being gay.
It's called an abomination and says they have been given over to their desires.
That's not Priest material in my opinion. It's abnormal and it's an abomination. While a desire for women IS normal and that desire is put there by the Almighty himself. He made a covenant, blessed it, told you not to break it and then Paul said to marry and have sex was okay and fine for those who could not accept being celibate.
You just can't rationalize everything and that kind of thinking is what got the Catholic church to the spot it's in now.
(I swear, the most dangerous, destructive force known to man is a bunch of guy's sitting around rationalizing and diminishing what's plainly written in black and white)
It does make a difference.Looks like a new technique to elicit sympathy is emerging from the drawing board.This is testing the waters.
Next step,a spate of death threats necessitating the homosexuals,fearing for their lives, requesting and being granted "leaves of absence with pay".
This could be a boon for the "cruise/tourism" industry.
If he was posting on the St. Sebastion's Angles website, it is a safe bet that he was active.
" In Dallas, the Rev. Cliff Garner apologized to members of St. Pius X Catholic Church for saying on the chat site that he was sexually attracted to Hispanic men. Father Garner boasted in the chat room about a "cute" male youth minister from Dallas with whom he shared a room at a November 1999 national Catholic youth retreat. "He's no Ricky Martin — but he is Hispanic and we got along — wonderfully. It was almost like we were meant to be together. I do have a very special place in my heart for those Latin blooded ones." According to the Dallas Morning News yesterday, Father Garner told church members at the end of an evening service Sunday and at other weekend Masses: "I apologize to anyone I may have scandalized, confused, or angered. There was no excuse for the inappropriate remarks." He was accompanied by the Most Rev. Joseph Galante, bishop of the Diocese of Dallas. "But the apology was so vague that many members of the east Dallas congregation said they didn't know what he was talking about," the newspaper reported. "Church members said they were asked whether Father Garner should remain their priest. They said they were divided on the issue." Father Garner, the Rev. Larry Pichard, pastor at St. Pius X, and Bishop Galante have refused to respond to repeated inquiries from The Times about Father Garner's homosexual advocacy on the site."
It's a shame his life was threatened...but he is a sick pervert who has no business in the priesthood. I hope that parishes all over the country drive out every gay priest in their midst.
Any kind of sexual activity with children whether gay or straight is an abomination. Incest is an abomination. Bestiality is an abomination. Rape is an abomination IMHO.
In the days of the apostles it was common for Roman males to take young male lovers. They did it because they were trying to preserve the virginity of the young women till marriage. That's an abomination because the males did not even think about restraining themselves till marriage and they had homosexual sex by choice.
I think there are people in all cultures that are just hedonistic and though not normally gay they just get pleasure where ever they want with whoever they want male or female. That's an abomination. It is hedonism.
Then there are heterosexuals who are grossly promiscuous, pornograhers, people who engage in orgies and in open and habitual vulgarity. I think that's an abomination.
Then there are some people who have same sex attaction disorder caused by the events and conditions of their childhood. I don't think having that disorder is an abomination any more that having an anxiety neurosis is an abomination. But acting on it is wrong and intrinsically disordered. It is immoral. The more outrageous the conduct is, the more flagrant, habitual and in your face, then the more the word abomination fits.
Just my opinion. For now I still believe that it is possible that there are gay men who want to be priests and fully intend to be celibate and then like a heterosexual priest might do they give in to temptation. I am talking about affairs with adults thier own age or close to it. If it is just one time. I think both deserve a second chance.
I could be wrong. But I think if you start calling people with same sex attraction disorder abominations they fall might fall into despair or lash out by being as outrageous as they can. There has to be some kind of door open for them.
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