Posted on 08/02/2006 1:34:57 PM PDT by Coleus
The following is an edited update from Catholic attorney Sharon Bourassa regarding the situation in the Miami archdiocese. (Note: This statement contains a graphic description.)
“On March 21, 2006, Stephen Brady of Roman Catholic Faithful drove from Illinois to Fort Lauderdale to meet with Christifidelis members from All Saints Parish and parishioners from several other parishes -- St. Elizabeth of Hungary, St. Vincent and St. Augustine's. The subject of Brady's visit was to discuss strategies for dealing with the ‘gay subculture’ that has infiltrated the Miami archdiocese (as well as many other dioceses across the U.S.), abuse of parish monies, corruption, and non-adherence to Catholic teaching.
“According to a group of priests who remain faithful to Rome, 90 percent of our priests in the Miami archdiocese are non-celibate gays who steal and who own luxury properties. They are known to the hierarchy, and they are bringing their agenda into all levels of the archdiocese. The number seems extremely high, but over and over again, the underground of heterosexual priests say the figure is accurate. “This 90 percent figure, according to these priests, is in the parishes, grammar schools, hospitals, nursing homes, the chancery, high schools and colleges. One priest told us if the non-celibate gays were removed, we would have only ten Catholic churches in union with Rome. What we see is not what is. The good priests who keep in contact with me say that 70 percent of the U.S. bishops are homosexual. Five of the South Florida bishops are homosexual. This is very difficult for the heterosexual priests in the archdiocese. “Brady suggested the following:
“When you get evidence, do a press release. He will help us do this.
“Obtain your parish’s directory. Brady then will print on a postcard the message we want to get across, and he will have it mailed from Roman Catholic Faithful headquarters in Illinois. This way, the archdiocese knows that Roman Catholic Faithful is behind the endeavor. Brady has been very successful in getting bishops and priests removed. “Mr. Brady said, ‘Follow the garbage.’ Pick up their garbage. They are arrogant and they will put it out at the church, the rectory and their luxury homes. This is how Brady found a bishop on a pornographic Web site. “One of the priests in a Miami parish is in a photo with his penis hanging out from his shorts. This priest is now out on bail for sexually abusing a minor -- and there is more to come. “Another priest runs nude on a beach in Miami.”
Related link: http://www.hli.org/homosexuality_not_molestation.pdf
Matt C. Abbott is a Catholic journalist and commentator. He is a columnist for and/or contributor to RenewAmerica.us, MichNews.com, Catholic Online, Opeds.com, TheConservativeVoice.com and Speroforum.com. He can be reached at mattcabbott@gmail.com.
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I'm a committed and dedicated heterosexual. But I haven't been chased for a long time!
If interested, please contact Sharon Bourassa, Esq. at (954) 736-2425
SHARON BOURASSA, ESQ.
Co-Counsel for Plaintiff
9973 N.W. 45th Street
Sunrise, FL 33351
(954) 736-9192
I was chased all the time I was chaste! Well, that is, when I was YOUNG and chased...
Well, the numbers were probably accurate in South Florida a few years ago, but I think, Deo gratias, that even that is changing. South Florida (and the Gulf Coast) was horrible; the seminary was a scandal, a real pink palace.
That said, I have known some strong priests who fought their way through seminary - including, in one case, a man who was denied ordination for a year because the seminary director (a nun) said he was too conservative and not homosexualf-friendly - and are now good priests in other parts of Florida.
Here in North Florida, we have some good bishops, and one really excellent bishop, Bp Galeone of St. Augustine. They're orthodox, not gay and work very hard to get and promote orthodox, non-gay clergy, and I think slowly but surely the tide is turning here.
I'm not even Catholic and I don't want to believe they're that high. Will be interesting to follow this story and see what turns up. Hopefully Benedict XVI will root them out and clean house in FL.
Personally, I am disinclined to make contact with Ms. Bourassa.
Her assertions, lacking any supporting evidence, seem difficult to believe. She is an attorney of long experience, I doubt that I would have any advice to give on gathering evidence that she would not already know.
Apparently Mr. Brady met with an interested group of individuals and, among other matters, gave them his advice in March, 2006 about gathering evidence.
As I was blundering around on the web, I did not find a great deal of variety in the hits related to her. I did see that Mr. Abbott posted her statement when the Dowgiert case was dismissed. (The Co-Counsel for The Plaintiff reference) The case was filed in May, 2005 and dismissed in August, 2005. She was disappointed that the lower court took that action but it was not entirely unexpected. She said they were considering an appeal. I'm sure if a request for review by the appelate court had been filed there would be multiple hits on it by now.
On a completely different note, I meant to comment earlier that I found the phrasing and logic of this sentence to be very odd: "One priest told us if the non-celibate gays were removed, we would have only ten Catholic churches in union with Rome."
I would expect a Catholic to use the word parishes, not churches. And then there's the thought that's expressed: remove all the gay guys in one swell foop and the laity tells the Church to take a leap? That doesn't sound right. Or perhaps the person speaking considers the priests to be the churches? That doesn't seem very Catholic.
It's an odd sentence.
*The St. Vincent DE Paul Seminary ain't too inspiring. Last year the local fishwrap, Palm Beach Post, published a piece by a Theology Prof from St. V's which was ghastly. I wrote a response to it and CC'd it to Bishop Barbarito (Diocese of Palm Beach County). The Post didn't print it and I never received even an acknowledgement Bishop Barbarito received it despite requesting a response.
C'es la vie...
*So, we have ten Bishops in Florida, and five are queer? It would have been nice if trhe attorney named them
I hate gossip, and I have no respect for gossippers.
Abbot doesn't offer readers any documentation to prove his claim that 70% of our country's Catholic bishops are homosexual. The Homiletic & Pastoral Review article on homosexuality as the underlying cause of the clerical sex abuse scandal is right on target, but the article does not claim that 70% of bishops are homosexual.
I don't know what the situation in the Diocese of Miami is. Perhaps many or most of its priests are homosexual. If so, then that is a problem. But just because one diocese has a high number of gay priests, that doesn't mean that all dioceses do or that most bishops are gay.
Over the last 30 years, only a small percentage of priests and bishops have been accused of sexually abusing minors. I think that figure is under 5%. If a majority of bishops and priests were gay, then the percentage of priests and bishops accused of abuse would be much higher. And, don't forget that not every priest who has been accused of abuse is guilty.
Finally, as most Catholics already know, the Vatican is currently conducting an investigation of all of the seminaries in the U.S. When the visitations and investigation are over, "lavender" seminaries will be purged or closed. This will solve much of the problem.
You're correct, according to the John Jay study: "The dioceses, eparchies, and religious institutes reported information on 4,392 individuals who had been the subject of at least one allegation of sexual abuse while serving in ecclesial ministry between 1950 and 2002. We found that this count of priests with allegations was 4.2 % of all diocesan priests in ministry for that time period and 2.7 % of all religious priests in ministry in the same period."
And by the time the story became national news, the peak of the allegations was a generation earlier: "When the events of sexual abuse were displayed as yearly counts by date of occurrence over the 52 years from 1950 to 2002, we observed a gradual but steady increase until the early 1980s and then a more marked, but equally steady decrease."
In my #31, I referred to the chatty lawyer, not you!
Creates a bit of a dilema I'd say...Did it ever occur to you that God is perhaps NOT calling single men to the church???
Regardless, one would have to admit that an all male seminary along with an all male vocation would be a magnet for queers...Just as is the military...And of course we all know how the queer association got severely offended when the people decided we no longer wanted queers leading our boyscouts...
In my view, it would be wise to do some sort of check on all seminary students as well as faculty to try to derermine their sexual preference...One might wonder if young queer men are not recruited into the seminaries...
Of course it would be hard to determine a male's 'private leanings' when one is required to swear off women...
It happens in all the faiths, not just the one.
The others don't have big real estate to chase after and are often individuals, so they don't get chased by lawyers for civil damages as often.
Thanks for the link. I knew that percentage of priests accused of abuse was pretty small. In all of the hysteria surrounding this scandal, people have lost sight of the fact that the vast majority of priests have never been accused of any sexual misconduct with minors. While it is scandalous that even a small percentage have been, the idea that priests are somehow more likely to abuse minors than other adults are or that celibacy somehow turns men into perverts is simply wrong.
"And they would know this - how? "
It's not hard to spot a homosexual when he is flaunting it.
"Makes no sense, somehow mostly men called of God did not make it to serve the church but a bunch of gays did? Bunk IMO."
Read "Goodbye, Good Men."
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