The Outsider

Roman Catholic Faithful ^ | Mark Fellows

[Land of the Irish]

For years governments have had laws protecting whistle-blowers. These laws shield from retaliation those employees who come forward with evidence of illegal or immoral practices within their agency. The case of Father James Haley makes it evident that the Catholic Church in America offers no similar protection to its priests.

Father Haley, a priest in the diocese of Arlington, Virginia, has been permanently suspended by Bishop Paul Loverde for testifying in a legal deposition about the immoral practices of his fellow diocesan clergy. In a formal notice to Haley, given on October 28, 2002, Bishop Loverde stated that Haley was guilty of violating an order for him not to publicize priestly wrongdoing in order “to avoid scandal, to maintain ecclesiastical discipline and to protect the reputation and privacy of both the faithful and priests of this diocese.”

[RnMomof7]

That is very sad. Sins of omission will be judged just as sins of commission..one that stands silent is as guilty as the one that did it...

[Onelifetogive]

The bishops have protected and enabled child molesters...Are we really suprised that they would punish a whistleblower?

Does this suprise us given their proven level of morality?

[ultima ratio]

The old boy network is alive and well in the Catholic Church. Remember what one straight priest was told by the gay bishop who hit on him and was rejected: "You know, Father, you won't go very far if you don't learn to be more cooperative." This is how corruption works--by intimidating those who aren't "team-players".

[Lloyd Grey]

Does this suprise us...

I don't think suprise is the right word. I guess you hope that, sooner or later, they will learn from their mistakes.

[Land of the Irish]

"You know, Father, you won't go very far if you don't learn to be more cooperative."

That quote made my flesh crawl.

And the sad thing is that it could be attributed to more than one bishop.

[narses]

When criminals (yes criminals) are running the Dioceses, who is the "schismatic"? When two of three hierarchs in the "American Church" are accused of or complicit in the criminal abuse of children, what is a "schismatic"? When only one Bishop that I have heard of has bothered implementing the Vatican directive regarding Catholic politicians under the jurisdiction of the hierarchs, who is "in communion" with Rome? Would you trust your children to these people? I have seen every possible excuse for "accepting" the modernism that defines these people and every possible reason for rejecting any attempt to hold true to the pre-Modernist faith, but I cannot see the justification holding water in the face of the ongoing refusal of the "American Church" to accept the Mandatum of Ecclesia Cordia, to accept the clear instructions of Rime regarding abortion and politicians, to insist on the standard useages of the Mass, to refuse to allow heretics like Sharpton access to the pulpit and I could easily go on and on.

Those who have attacked the "integrists" and "trads" need to either defend the Sharpton event or admit that schism comes in many flavors. They need to look at the heat and criticism taken by Ave Maria and Fr. Fessio by those who "embrace" Rome while explaining why those self same heretics refuse the Mandatum. There is a great crisis in the Church and the faithful are needed now more than ever. Rather than attacking each other, we need to do what the teens in the Cardinal Neuman Society are doing, putting heat on the heretical, criminal and too often schismatic hierarchs who REFUSE orthodoxy while embracing Modernism and Americanism.

[Dajjal]

Haley was stunned to learn that
“A bishop would knowingly ordain a homosexual man…I thought that they would want to know that a man or a seminarian or a priest was homosexual. And they couldn’t care less, so I started to feel like the outsider, like maybe I was the unique guy. That it wasn’t the gay men that were unique, it was the straight men that were unique.”

Pray to St. Peter Damian for reform.

[ultima ratio]

Well said.

[Polycarp]

Schism does come in many flavors.