The Catholics better gird their loins for this one.
The Village Voice is reporting that a new website called Church Outing.org will start outing closeted priests "to expose the hypocrisy of Archdiocese of Washington priests who go along with the church's routine emotional assault on gays while living lives of quiet desperation that involve them having gay sex themselves."
According to their website, the group's mission is not to drag priests out of the closet per se, but to get them to work with the site in battling the church's hierarchical anti--gay stance and to fight for gay marriage equality.
Church Outing.org's mantra is simple: The hypocrisy must end.
"For generations, in Catholic churches across the country, LGBT youth have been told they should be ashamed of who they are and that they should lead loveless lives as social and religious abominations. The emotional, psychological and spiritual abuse inflicted on them by Catholic priests and our church hierarchy is in reality more damaging than any level of physical or sexual child abuse that one would quickly condemn. Yet to this abuse, few raise their voices and say "ENOUGH!"
It is shameful that in many Catholic churches, this abuse is being supported by men, who are gay themselves, leading closeted lives of self-persecution and quiet desperation.
Even more shameful, is that many of these priests, while remaining silent, actually lead duplicitous lives rich with romantic and sexual relationships -- both homosexual and heterosexual."
The timing of the website is in part a reaction to the arguments brewing over D.C.'s recognition of same-gender marriage rights, which has been reported as largly opposed by Catholic leaders. However, this isn't entirely true. A D.C.-based group of religious leaders called Clergy for Marriage Equality has written a declaration, which anyone can sign, that reads,
"We are District of Columbia clergy and religious leaders of many faiths, races, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. We declare that our faith calls us to affirm marriage equality for loving same-sex couples."
The church leaders declare, "One of God's greatest gifts to us is our human capacity to love one another. The ability of two people to enter into relationships and form families of love and care is one expression of this gift. It is holy and good. We therefore affirm the right of loving same-gender couples to enter into such relationships on an equal basis with loving heterosexual couples."
Church Outing.org encourages anyone with information in the Archdiocese who is gay or is having a heterosexual affair to share their story.
The website was created by netroots organizing pioneer Phil Attey, who says his inspiration came from his outrage over "the sexual abuse survivors in Boston and across the country, who banded together to expose and end the Church hierarchy's attempts to cover up the rampant abuse on Catholic children. At the beginning of their campaign, many Catholics criticized them for bringing up such scandalous charges, but because of their determination, the spiritual and emotional lives of countless Catholic children were saved. It is their courgage which guides this campaign."
For more information:
- Submit your story to ChurchOuting.org
- Follow ChurchOuting.org on Facebook or Twitter
- Learn more about Clergy for Marriage Equality
- Visit the Archdiocese of Washington website
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Comments
This seems really, really wrong to me.
If publicizing child abuse and the cover-up got much of the abuse to stop, and it set off a series of prosecutions, convictions, and settlements, what is the goal here? To stop these romantic/sexual relationships? To drive these priests out of the church? To encourage suicide?
I'm all for priests outing themselves and putting pressure on the church to enter the 21st century, but this seems to be nothing but destructive. If you want the priests to act as the front line of the assault, they'll need our support and not our betrayal.
I have studied this phenomenon within the Catholic church and have discovered that their hypocrisy knows no bounds. The Church has known about gay priests (and nuns as well) for many years. Each time one of them was exposed, or caught in a situation that might besmirch the reputation of the Church, they simply transferred the offender to a remote location and hopefull the incident would pass into oblivion. The same has applied to hetero priests and their female consorts as well. If you study the history of the Church you will find that several Popes had very vigorus sex lives and even had progeny. Over the years the Church has become the bastion of white, male, heterosexuals who bash gays and women while denying them full participation in the Church (ie, no female priests). All this while the priests are molesting young children and inpregnating their parishoners.
To hide ones true self behind religion is despicable, and to be forced to hide ones true self is deplorable.
This is awesome!!! I can't wait to see how they respond. What a fantastic idea for a website. Gay priests deserve to be outed. They are the worst of all! Hypocrites and liars..
For reads on this topic and more, check out:
byrdsview.blogspot.com/
Anyone who commits there life to "god" is an absolute moron. No matter how educated they become the moment they profess a belief in the fabricated story of Jesus Christ I can't take them seriously.
We must continue to sue for our rights in court, not ask bible thumping lunatics for their permission to vote for our rights!
Actually, it's good to finally see priests being held accountable for what they do. Gay or straight. For many years priests have been the center of scandal for child pornograhy, molestation, homosexual & heterosexual relationships without any consequence. Especially in the area of child molestation and pornography. They do the crimes yet all they usually get are tranfers to other churches so they can hurt more innocent children. Regardless of what kind of leader you are, religious or political, and no matter if you're gay or straight, you must always live and lead by example. Though to be fair, I do not believe priests should be forced to vow celibacy. Thats the fundamental root cause of the sex scandals within the church.
You know, all that crazy stuff about "we the people, by the people, for the people" thing? FlexSF, I bet you try to sue people who say Merry Christmas because it contains the word Christ right? Well, by golly, have a Merry CHRISTmas! Now sue me lol.
As for FlexSF: It's individuals like you that are actually destroying the stability of a free nation by using the court system to impose your own self-righteous views by suing every one for every little thing you can whine about or make a quick buck with. Oops, I asked for hot coffee and got hot coffee now I need to sue because the coffee was hot. It's pretty pathetic really. You're miserable so you have to try to make others just as miserable. And just FYI, it's not strictly the 'bible thumping lunatics' as you so maturely put it like a rights-loving adult, it's actually called the MAJORITY, religious, non-religious, gay, straight, black, white, red, yellow etc. etc., you have to ask permission from, or in better terms, receive the most votes from them. It's called a democracy and, unfortunately for someone who loves to sue like you, it will always be this way if the government remains as a democracy.
As we openly accept immorality as in "gay marriage" and the mass killing of the unborn, our society is now on the brink of disaster.....let everyone stay in the closet both priests and others and pray to God to not act out on these sinful inclinations....we all have inclinations that are not right....and we all need prayer!
What kind of a "journalist" would put out this story when the "group" appears to be one, single individual with a website?
Dear Dan, the only people to outlaw Christmas in the United States have been Christians. So, this paranoia expressed by our 21st fundamentalist friends is wholly misplaced...but a real money-earner for tele-evangelists. If being a tele-evangelist wasn't such bad karma, I'd be one too. Work so little and make so much!
Homosexuality is not a sin according to the Bible. Any educated Christian would know that. Scholars who have studied the Bible in context of the times and in relation to other passages have shown those passages (Leviticus, Corinthians, Romans, etc) have nothing to do with homosexuality. These passages often cherry-picked while ignoring the rest of the Bible. The sins theses passages are referring to are idolatry, prostitution, and rape, not homosexuality.
(Change *** to www)
***.soulfoodministry.org/docs/English/NotASin.htm
***.jesus21.com/content/sex/bible_homosexuality_print.html
***.christchapel.com/romans_inter.html
***.stjohnsmcc.org/new/BibleAbuse/BiblicalReferences.php
***.gaychristian101.com/
Homosexuality is not a choice. Just like you don't choose the color of your skin, you cannot choose whom you are sexually attracted to. If you can, sorry, but you are not heterosexual, you are bi-sexual. Virtually all major psychological and medical experts agree that sexual orientation is NOT a choice. Most gay people will tell you its not a choice. Common sense will tell you its not a choice. While science is relatively new to studying homosexuality, studies tend to indicate that its biological.
(Change *** to www)
***-news.uchicago.edu/releases/03/differential-brain-activation.pdf
***.newscientist.com/channel/sex/dn14146-gay-brains-structured-like-those-of-the-opposite-sex.html
Gay, Straight Men's Brain Responses Differ
***.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,155990,00.html
***.livescience.com/health/060224_gay_genes.html
***.springerlink.com/content/w27453600k586276/
I am confused, I thought the church would embrace this, I mean, they are telling them which priests are gay/violating their vows. Secondly, tough, if a priest decries gays on sunday and then has gay sex on monday, he has zero right to whine when he is outed for being a liar.
And finally, if you are hateful bigot who wishes to remove another persons right to marry the one they love, don't be surprised if someone fights tooth and nail against you. The catholic church through their hat into the ring, why should we pull our punches to them?
To Dear Dan: I would have to disagree with you. Though, I will agree that there are Christians that do not support nor celebrate Christmas in the traditional sense due to the origins being pagan, however, there are many Christians who do because of it's 'meaning'. I, for one, being one of them except I celebrate Christmas for both, the meaning and the festive aspects. The most opposition I've personally seen came from other religious groups, atheists and those seeking their 15 minutes of fame. I'm not saying it doesn't happen because I'm sure it does and I fully agree with you in regards to the tele-vangelists. A majority of them are simply spreading fear, hate, radical belief, practices and are in it for the money. I always found it funny how they (tele-vangs) are always screaming (literally) for money yet they're always wearing rolexs and driving BMWs and Royles Royces. In either case, I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and happy new year! Same for all others here!
Do gay priests love Jesus for his body?
Yes, they love the body of Christ.
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