Posted on 09/16/2019 6:43:05 PM PDT by ebb tide
WILMINGTON, Del. (ChurchMilitant.com) - A gay ex-cleric who "wed" a fellow former priest is serving on a diocesan marriage tribunal in Delaware.
In a bombshell report published Sunday, investigative journalist George Neumayr revealed that one-time priest Jack Anderson is serving as a defender of the marital bond for the diocese of Wilmington.
Neumayr uncovered the scandal while investigating Anderson's relationship to pro-gay Pennsylvania Bp. Joseph Bambera, who after seminary served with Anderson on the Scranton diocesan marriage tribunal.
Ex-priest Jack Anderson's profile naming his "spouse," Ted Olson,
on the parish website for Holy Spirit Episcopal Church in Harleysville, PA
In the course of his investigation, Neumayr discovered that Anderson quit the priesthood and later "married" former Wilmington cleric Ted Olson.
Neumayr contacted Olson, who confirmed that he is Anderson's "spouse." The ex-priest verified that Anderson and Bambera had worked together on the Scranton tribunal — in fact, he told Neumayr, he had "met Joe a few times." He also confirmed that Anderson remains a defender of the marital bond despite having left the priesthood and entered into a same-sex "marriage."
Olson also revealed that he and Anderson had abandoned Catholicism altogether: "We're Episcopalians," he told Neumayr.
In spite of all this, reportedly, neither has been laicized.
Ex-priest Ted Olson mentions his "spouse," Jack Anderson,
and their membership at Holy Spirit Episcopal Church in Harleysville, PA
The Wilmington diocese lists Anderson as a defender of the bond on their marriage tribunal website.
Neumayr reached out to the diocese of Wilmington to ask "how a former priest who rejected the Catholic faith (and therefore in the eyes of the Church is a public heretic) and entered a gay marriage could licitly serve as a 'defender of the [marital] bond' on a Catholic tribunal."
Jack Anderson is listed as a defender of the bond
on the Wilmington diocesan website
"The Wilmington officials to whom I reached out either declined to answer the question or ignored my calls," he reported.
Neumayr describes the story as "a window on yet another travesty in the American Catholic Church."
"To call Anderson's status irregular is an understatement," he noted. "It is an open scandal — a scandal that both Bishop Bambera and Wilmington Bishop William Malooly have facilitated, insofar as Anderson's presence on the tribunal requires their knowledge and approval."
In light of this, observers are asking why both bishops would risk scandal by allowing Anderson to serve on the Wilmington tribunal.
Bp. William Francis Malooly of Wilmington, Delaware.
"What accounts for his protected status?" Neumayr asked. "Is it possible that the bishops haven't removed him from the tribunal due to dirt he might have on priests in Wilmington and Scranton?"
"Anderson's departure from the priesthood is said to have been 'ugly,'" he noted, adding: "I had been told Anderson's decision to leave the priesthood was problematic, in light of his close and complicated ties with various Scranton priests, including Bambera."
Neumayr pointed to "an angry" 2012 letter to the editor in which Anderson challenged Bambera — one of the nation's most LGBT-friendly bishops — come clean on his stance on same-sex "marriage."
Anderson accused the Scranton prelate of hypocrisy, publicly opposing gay unions while privately backing them.
"Bishop Bambera, I'd like to hear your personal position regarding the marriage between two Catholics of the same sex," he wrote. "Please don't quote canon law."
Reflecting on Anderson's challenge, Neumayr underscored the scale of the scandal:
Here was a former priest turned Episcopalian in a gay marriage telling a bishop who has approved his presence on a canon law tribunal that he shouldn't "quote canon law" and that he should come clean about his real opinion of gay marriage. Extraordinary. Could the dysfunction in the Catholic Church in America be any clearer?
Church Militant reached out to the diocese of Wilmington for comment on Monday, but received no response as of press time.
Bishop William Francis Malooly can be contacted through his assistant: pbossi-smedley@cdow.org, (302) 573-3100
Ping
Time for another Martin Luther.
Time for another Torquemada.
The priesthood is corrupt from top to bottom. Those that were good have been corrupted - their acceptance of these travesties is evidence.
Not 1 minute of tolerance is acceptable.
Why in hell is an apostate heretic working for the Diocese?
Time for the return of Jesus - this is real end times stuff.
It all goes back to the Second Vatican Council.
Pope John XXIII opened the council with the words, it's time to "open the windows and let in the fresh air" in 1962.
His sucessor, Paul VI (who closed the same council in 1965) lamented, in 1969, "In many areas the Council has not yet put us at peace; it has rather stirred up trouble and difficulties which are useless for reinforcing the Kingdom of God in the Church and in souls.”
And later, in 1972, Paul VI stated, “The smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God through some crack: doubt, incertitude, dissension, worry, discontent, and conflict are plain to see…”
Yet for 50+ years now, we have heard nothing but the "spirit of the council" and how it has not yet been fulfilled.
Finally, Pope Francis declared the two above conciliar popes as francis-saints in 2014 and 2018, respectfully; thus effectively canonizing his beloved VC II.
N.B.: Every deceased post-conciliar pope, except for John Paul I, who only survived his papacy for 33 days, has now been canonized. The last pope, prior to the council, to have been canonized was Pope St. Pius X, who died in 1914. And his canonization was not declared until 1954.
Sick bastard lives 10 minutes from me.
No they don't, but they've been catechized by lazy suburban grandmothers to believe that the love of Christ is meekly accepting any and all perverse shit that is dumped on you, while the hierarchy protects its own. So this is how the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.
Neumayr reached out to the diocese of Wilmington to ask “how a former priest who rejected the Catholic faith (and therefore in the eyes of the Church is a public heretic) and entered a gay marriage could licitly serve as a ‘defender of the [marital] bond’ on a Catholic tribunal.”
THAT IS WHAT I’D LIKE TO KNOW HOW ABOUT YOU ????
As stated in the article, Anderson could have dirt on both bishops.
Mr. Newmeyr probably uncovered this with a few hours of Googling. Tells me that the Church was aware and/or did not wish to know.
No need for another Martin Luther. The writings of the first one still stand. Come join us in the confessional Lutheran church (NOT ELCA) any time
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