Mardi Gras Party Priest Resigns

The Smoking Gun ^ | May 7, 2002

[Armando Guerra]

Memo to Catholic priests everywhere: If you plan on attending a future Mardi Gras, try not to be photographed shirtless next to a drag queen and some chiseled guys in biker shorts. Because that photo op just cost Rev. Thomas Bouterie his pastor's post at a church outside of New Orleans. The 47-year-old Bouterie--unknowingly snapped at last year's New Orleans bacchanal--appears in "Masking and Madness: Mardi Gras in New Orleans," photographer Kerri McCaffety's vibrant study of the annual Crescent City celebration. Following a meeting with diocesan brass, Bouterie announced Saturday (5/4) his decision to step down after 13 years as pastor of St. Louis Church in Bayou Blue, about 40 miles southwest of New Orleans. While no allegations of abuse have been made against Bouterie, a church spokesman said "these photographs could be a source of scandal for some and, thus, prevent Father Bouterie from effectively exercising his ministry." Bouterie said that his resignation was not "reflective of the current problems" in the Church, but more indicative of his "personal growth as a priest."

[Slyfox]

I do believe this Pope has not been as forceful as he could be.

Please see my post at # 20.

[Icthus]

I agree! The reason I used "Pedophile" is because in many cases that is exactly what it was. And I also agree that it is a gay issue at the core.

[Florida SunGod]

In this photo I would be willing to bet any amount of money Calvin Coolidge was wearing the black armband as a sign of mourning for the death of President Harding, whom he succeeded in office. Wearing a black armband has been a traditional sign of mourning for centuries, and was especially popular in the United States from the early 19th century until the early to mid 20th century.

[Xenalyte]

Same as these - decoration and protection. They're chic and practical!

[Armando Guerra]

When they have cleaned up their acts, God will reward the Church with an abundance of good men who will have at their heart to serve God faithfully. Our Holy Father said one time that there are many young people who are looking to priests to show them the way to Christ and that these young people would joyfully enter the service of the Lord if they are shown a proper example.

I agree. Already, the most orthodox Catholic Churches are the ones having no trouble filling the seminaries and convents and have the pews full on Sundays.

[Florida SunGod]

Being a pedophile is not inherently a "gay" offense. In fact, many offenders are otherwise "straight". Homophobic labeling of all "gays" as perverse and a threat to boys as being de facto sexual predators is small minded and incongruent with the facts.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I think the real problem may have been that blonde babe in front of him.

[SauronOfMordor]

Being a pedophile is not inherently a "gay" offense. In fact, many offenders are otherwise "straight".

From my recollection, about 95% of the priest "incidents" involved male priests and young BOYS. It would therefore seem that if we got rid of priests who have an attaction for young BOYS, then the problems would be greatly reduced

[SkyPilot]

New York Catholic Rod Dreher, an editor of National Review Online, addressed the issue in an April 22 editorial, “The Gay Question: Amid the Catholic Church’s Current Scandals, an Un-Ignorable Issue.” He informed readers:

“Stephen Rubino, a New Jersey lawyer, says that of the over 300 alleged victims of priest sex abuse he has represented, roughly 85% are boys, and were teenagers when the abuse occurred. Dr. Richard Fitzgibbons, an eminent Catholic psychiatrist who has treated scores of victims and priest-perpetrators, says 90% of his patients were either teen male victims of priests, or priests who abused teen boys....

The reluctance of bishops — and the general public — to address this issue, Dreher suggests, “arises, no doubt, partly out of a fear of antagonizing homosexual anti-defamation groups, who resent the stereotype of male homosexuals as pederasts. It’s much safer to focus inquiry on the question of mandatory celibacy, or the issue of ordaining women. Yet it defies common sense to imagine that an ordinary man, having made a vow not to marry, is therefore going to be sexually attracted to boys.

[SkyPilot]

Homophobic labeling of all "gays" as perverse...

Take a good look. This is what homosexuals march in and shout from the roof tops as "PRIDE."

And the little PC lables like "Homophobic" work well with the easily intimidated and the weak minded. They don't work here.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Homophobic labeling of all "gays" as perverse and a threat to boys as being de facto sexual predators is small minded and incongruent with the facts.

Nice of you to join us today. Where have you been? Down on Bourbon Street hanging out with the Mardi Gras priest? Or just out in the sun too long?

[ThomasMore]

This guy is cruisin'; and, I am guessing, but the black arm band is what he's lookin' for. Disgusting, perverted creep! They all need to be excommunicated! To infiltrate the priesthood with less than noble reasons is the worst. IMHO, they are lower than pond scum. God is delivering them up to their own depravities.[Rom 1:26]

[Arthur McGowan]

Or for his son, Calvin, who died aged 16 in the Summer of 1924.

[Charles Henrickson]

"Ecce homo!"

[pgkdan]

So this is a Catholic Priest preparing for the holy season of Lent? Antone who doesn't think the Churh's current problems are at root a homosexual problem have their haeads in the sand. This makes me sick.

[pgkdan]

This makes me sick.

It also apparently prevents me from hitting the preview button prior to posting. Sorry.

[El Sordo]

He appears to be silent on the issue.

[Romulus]

IMHO, they are lower than pond scum.

You know, Tom...as much as the photo of Bouterie disgusts and depresses me, there's something else in the photo (the first one, I mean) that's just as bad. See them? The straight couple on the left? The woman thinks it's cute and funny; the guy's probably seen enough already and wants to mosey back above St. Peter Street where he's counting on seeing college chicks flashing their tits. They're both nice middle Americans -- sexual tourists -- whose tolerant appetite and enjoyment of the fare offered up makes them complicit in the whole squalid scene. They don't even have the excuse of a psychological disorder; they're just suckers who've been shaped and conditioned by the porno culture in which we're all made to swim.

[ClearBlueSky]

It makes me sick too; as it would most of his parishoners, I would bet. WHO would shrug at seeing the priest who hears their confessions, celebrates Mass, and who is supposed to be Christ's representative, putting himself on display for other men? In the first picture he looks just like every other homosexual advertising his 'studliness'. It's the second one that is damning, IMO. Angle of the camera or not, it looks like he's about to pat the behind of the man on the right. It's the fact that he looks VERY much like the other strutting gay 'studs' that is disgusting. He looks very comfortable in those candid pics.
He looks like he's lookin' for something, and it AIN'T 'souls for Jesus'!
I grew up right on the fringes of the Quarter, went to Bourbon & Royal St's every Mardi Gras for about 30 years. Even took in the 'famous' gay costume contest, and I would bet anything that this 'priest' is 100% homosexual.He and others like him have NO PLACE in the clergy! Shame them out, scare them out,drag them out, force them out! I wouldn't want the sacraments from a known homosexual priest. I wouldn't attend a Mass celebrated by a known homosexual priest, and I will NO LONGER give my donations to a church that harbors them. How many others feel the same way?
My religion and my faith in it is strong, it's the perverts and evil people IN it who should, and MUST, be rejected.

[Grut]

Shockin'! Next, we'll discover Jesus consorted with whores and publicans! (That's publicans, not 'publicans; Jesus had some class.)