The allegations of sexual misconduct made public in June against Archbishop Theodore McCarrick finally brought the decades-old open secret of the disgraced former cardinal’s sexually abusive behavior out in the open – also raising the question of the extent of the abuse, and how it was enabled and covered up by other U.S. prelates.
At the same time the exposure of “Uncle Ted” and his impressive rise in the Church – all while he apparently targeted young boys, seminarians and priests – bared as well the phenomenon of gay networks within the clergy of the Catholic Church.
Professor Janet Smith, a moral theologian at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, addressed the subject of homosexual networks in the Church on Facebook this week, saying that doing away with them is necessary to restore the priesthood.
“Many people think the sexual scandal in the Church is that bishops knew about McCarrick and did nothing about it,” Smith said. “And too many clerics and laity think if a few heads roll, and some mechanism for reporting vicious bishops is put in place, we can move beyond this.”
“WRONG!” the theologian said. “The deeper problem is the presence of homosexual networks in the Church — likely in dioceses all over the world and certainly in the Curia.”
Active homosexuality is not the only sinful conduct priests partake in, Smith said, but it is fundamental to addressing all clerical depravity.
“Yes, there are lots of other immoral behaviors – adultery, greed, luxuriousness, clericalism and substance abuse, for instance, that need to be addressed,” she stated, “but first things first.”
“Eradicating the homosexual networks from the Church would do a lot to purging the Church of immoral priests,” said Smith, “and doing so should help us get at the other problems.”
McCarrick allegations helped to shed light on the crisis
Reports have persisted for years of homosexual networks at varying levels within the Church up to and including the Roman Curia, whether labeled a “homosexual underground,” the “lavender” or “gay mafia.” The networks are said to protect and promote those clergy among and sympathetic to them, and punish those priests or seminarians who are not.
Smith told LifeSiteNews the reason that homosexual networks must be addressed before any other corrupt conduct is that the networks do more to impede the work of the Church than priests involved in other kinds of immoral behavior.
“They tend to protect each other and advance each other,” Smith said. “That can mean that sometimes the best priests and talents are prevented from assuming positions of responsibility.”
“We are receiving reports of seminarians and young priests who have been preyed upon by active homosexual priests and who have received no help from their bishops and have sometimes been silenced,” she continued. “How many good young men have not survived seminary or the priesthood for these reasons? How many young men won’t even consider the priesthood for fear of entering such an environment?”
It’s not about pedophilia
The Catholic Church sexual abuse crisis has by and large been mislabeled by the media and mistaken in the perceptions of many Catholics as an issue of pedophilia – the psychiatric disorder where an adult or older adolescent has sexual attraction to prepubescent children.
The Church’s own statistics on the abuse crisis indicate a vast prevalence of homosexual abuse of teenage boys.
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice study of sex-abuse complaints commissioned by the USCCB in 2004 found that in more than 5,000 incidents, 81 percent involved priests with young male victims, and of the young male victims, 90 percent were teenage boys.
The report said as well that, “A very small percentage of the priests who had allegations of abuse were motivated by pathological disorders such as pedophilia.”
The USCCB’s National Review Board had also stated at the time that although the sex abuse crisis had no single cause, “an understanding of the crisis is not possible” without reference to “the presence of homosexually oriented priests.” The board had cited the data that “eighty percent of the abuse at issue was of a homosexual nature.”
Dr. Paul McHugh, a former psychiatrist-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a member of the National Review Board, stated clearly what the problem was in an August 25, 2006 National Catholic Register editorial.
McHugh said that the John Jay study had revealed a crisis of “homosexual predation on American Catholic youth.”
The abuse statistics in a subsequent John Jay report affirmed the same.
Despite the data, the U.S. Church has failed to actively identify or address the issue of homosexual clergy, let alone power networks comprised of them.
The USCCB’s Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, produced at the Bishops’ semi-annual meeting in Dallas in 2002 after the sex abuse scandal first broke, focuses entirely on sexual abuse of minors and priests as perpetrators.
It does not address sexual misconduct with anyone over the age of 18, nor that of a priest carrying out sexual activity, non-consensual or not, with another man. And it does not contain provisions for bishops who either abuse or cover for abusers.a
“I would rather err by protecting young men and women from weak clergy”
Fr. Regis Scanlon, O.F.M.Cap., spiritual director and chaplain for Mother Teresa of Calcutta’s Missionaries of Charity in Denver, said the incorrect interpretation of the John Jay study to say the Church’s sex abuse crisis was one of pedophilia made the focus on protecting pre-pubescent children, enabling “the problem of homosexuality among bishops to escape the notice of the Catholic Church almost entirely.”
Good bishops must speak up, he said in a recent blog post. Further, individuals who have been at all homosexually active must not be admitted to seminary, and seminarians must be able to refrain from impure thoughts or masturbation for at least a year before advancing to holy orders or religious life.
“There are those who will say that this regulation is too strict and unfair to homosexual and heterosexual young men who want to study for the priesthood,” Scanlon wrote. “But, if I am going to err, I would rather err by protecting young men and women from weak clergy, rather than risking their spiritual and psychological safety by being too lenient and wrapped up in consideration of political correctness and the so-called rights of homosexual and heterosexual weak priestly candidates.”
“No one has a right to be a priest or religious,” said Scanlon. “The Church must choose candidates for the priesthood and religious life based on what is best for the people —- not the desires or aspirations of the candidate.”
“We are sending seminarians into a corrupt Church”
Smith told LifeSiteNews she knows of many people with ideas on how the homosexual networks can be addressed, and that some sort of lay effort in response should soon coalesce.
“Laity will be putting pressure on bishops to eradicate any homosexual network in their dioceses,” she said, “and eventually to work on eradicating other problems such as adulterous priests or substance abusers.”
She clarified that “eradicate” does not in all instances mean asking for retirement, resignations, or laicizations. It may mean some of those things, she said, but if some priests sincerely repent and are willing to seek help and live true chastity, accommodations may be made.
Smith added that there is great consolation that many seminaries are now addressing questions of achieving true chastity and forming seminarians with a love for Adoration and other devotions.
“Most seminaries have come a long way in the last 15 years but we are sending them into a corrupt Church,” she said. “One thing we will need to work on is forming seminarians to be bold and not to be afraid to challenge those who behave immorally, even those above them.”
Full story at LifeSiteNews.
In 1985 , 1350 homosexual men were recruited into the seminaries around the world- we are now seeing the result.
I agree with every word. But the homosexuals won’t be rooted out easily nor willingly. You think they became priests because they have an authentic vocation and love the church? Nope. Their whole purpose is to undermine the church and use its money and prestige to gratify their lust and desire for power. The professor talks about getting rid of the homosexual networks in the church as if it’s just a matter of replacing a few subordinates. Not that easy. Probably 40% of priests and bishops are implicated. At least. And they go all the way up in rank. Very powerful. Not gonna let go easily.
Protection for whistleblowers must be made clear in Canon law.without an apparatus that can somehow stand aside corrupted networks,it will be hard to clean the swamp.part of the wisdom of the role of papal nuncio at one time involved enforcing church law….
Is anyone else bothered by Janet Smith’s continued reference to homosexual priests as the biggest problem, but then going down a list of other “bad” traits so that homosexuality is seen as just another evil? Not accurate, Janet. The Church needs to do three things, at least, on an immediate basis: (1) eliminate all homosexual seminarians, priests, bishops, cardinals, lay staff, religious (whether it is past or present homosexuality, no accommodation for confessed past activity); (2) return Catholic Tradition, including Latin and the TLM, to seminaries (Smith is hilarious by saying let’s teach seminarians to love Adoration and other devotions; much more is needed): and (3) have men instruct seminarians, not women; a heterosexual,…
Kudos to this brave woman. Let me add that getting rid of the gay network in the church, as she courageously demands, will involve more than just the priesthood and seminaries. Consider that the most popular composer of liturgical music in the United States, Dan Schutte, is an ex-Jesuit priest who lives with his gay lover in San Francisco (all verifiable on the internet). Just like McCarrick has been disciplined and had honorary degrees revoked, a full cleaning of house would mean purging all Catholic hymnals of Schutte’s music. Why sing songs at Mass written by such a man with such a lifestyle? Why give him royalties? But the publishers won’t be as brave as the woman in the article.
I believe the first step in the process would be for Pope Francis to appoint a lead investigator with the appropriate authority and impeccable character to investigate the corruption. Probably a lay individual with an experienced advisor such as Cardinal Burke would be appropriate. A lay individual would be necessary to give the findings credibility because the corruption is pandemic in the Church and the credibility for the Cardinals and Bishops to accomplish this nil. I would start at McCarrick and those associated with him and work my way down while another group starts at the bottom and works its way up.
An excellent book on this subject is “Goodbye Good Men” by Michael Rose (Regnery Press).
The book reports on the gay subculture at a number of major seminaries in the United States in the 80s and 90s. My only comment is that the situations that were reported were far worse than I had heard.
As we have been saying now for decades, predatory priests must go. They predate upon young men who often are gay, often are not gay. But no child, of whatever sexual orientation, deserves to be a victim of these men.
Correction: homosexual priests must go, just as the woman says. In case you haven’t been paying close attention, the recent revelations aren’t so much about child abuse as they are about adult homosexual underworlds in seminaries and dioceses. Nice try, trying to make it all about child abuse and confuse and distract the laity, as the bishops successfully did after 2002 with the John Jay report that was spun to turn the spotlight off homosexuality. The laity aren’t going to buy that one anymore. Bishops have no credibility. Now it’s clear that the problem is homosexual priests, not child abuse. Yet every lay volunteer at a parish has to take safe environment classes as if they are the problem instead of gay priests.
I agree. They offered us a false solution that allowed homosexuals free reign to molest altar boys and seminarians. They are still trying to offer us false solutions. Don’t buy into their deceptions. Any solution that is implemented by Church leadership will not work. Any true solution will involve homosexuals going to JAIL for their sex crimes. Lock them up!!!!!!!!
People who believe this is primarily about child abuse are delusional. Richard Sipe recently died. Read Rod Dreher’s column about how he tried to warn bishops about the connection between prients and bishops’ lack of celibacy and child abuse: ““Sooner or later it will become broadly obvious that there is a systemic connection between the sexual activity by, among and between clerics in positions of authority and control, and the abuse of children,” Mr. Sipe wrote in a letter to Bishop Robert W. McElroy of San Diego in 2016.”
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-death-of-richard-sipe/
YFC and Brian,
Here are the issues at hand [in my view]. The primary issue isn’t homosexuality as much as it is gay subculture. Our problem today is because a gay subculture has been active in most of our seminaries over the past few decades. Most of these subcultures have been secretly allowed by the local bishop. In my opinion, most of these men never intended to live a life of celibacy. This is the scandal.
In juxtaposition, I’ve also known priests for whom I suspect a homosexual orientation and whom are good men. Some of them excel spiritually well beyond their heterosexual counterparts.
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If you ban all homosexuals, you’ll ban these good men. But if you allow homosexuals in limited circumstances, I guarantee you that many bishops will try to drive an entire gay subculture through this loophole.
Maybe a solution is a limited 80 year ban on all homosexuals in the seminary. This might be long enough to “right the ship” and destroy the gay subculture that exists in the priesthood and episcopate
I think a large part of the problem, is the total relinquishment of Church goverrning, since Vatican II, and insistence on “individual freedom of conscience for all,” clergy and laity. And deliberately elevating laity to false positions, while deliberately chastising and “dumbing down” clerical roles and responsibilities. Vatican II turned the Church into a zoo!!
Tina– I read your website news story. I think that most psychologists fail to recognize normal human decency and morality– and a good moral conscience! What is the difference between a decent, normal man (regardless of his job)– with normal morality, and a good moral conscience— and a man who is abnormal, has no sense of right and wrong, no conscience at all– and is actually– a CRIMINAL IN DISGUISE?? That is exactly what Catholic clergy are, who commit filthy, “dirty-old-man”-type, “Uncle Ted” sex crimes!– wolves in sheep’s clothing, CRIMINALS of the lowest type! Total FILTH!! CRIMINAL psychology will describe them, exactly!!
Now problems with alcoholism and another gay subculture being exposed at the Boston Archdiocese seminary. The dam is going to burst. It’s all coming out (pun). So far we have: McCarrick, Honduras seminary, Lincoln seminary, now Boston seminary.
It’s not just the dioceses and the Bishops and the Diocesan seminaries. The breakdown of celibacy and the pervasiveness of overt homosexuality in communities has penetrated the highest echelons of the major religious orders right up through the provincials and top superiors. The Pink Hand controls all admissions and approvals for ordinations.