The following comes from a Sept. 24 story on Channel 10 ABC News in Stockton.
Dean McFalls, a well-known priest in the Stockton Diocese, has resigned after telling parishioners he’s about to become the father of a baby boy.
“I definitely have disappointed many people,” McFalls said. “That’s why I’ve talked about it openly, so they won’t be left guessing about what’s going on.”
McFalls was the pastor at St. Mary’s Church in downtown Stockton. He announced his resignation in a statement read during mass on Sunday.
McFalls came to Stockton in 2008 from Lathrop’s Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, according to The Record newspaper in Stockton. He has been outspoken about the city’s struggles with crime and violence, among other issues.
The Catholic Church requires priests to be celibate and unmarried. McFalls discussed those rules and his resignation in an interview with News10’s Tim Daly.
“If the situation in the Catholic Church were different, I would be a better man,” he said. “More stable, more effective in the long run as a human being.”
McFalls would offer little information about the woman about to give birth to his child.
“She’s a better person than I,” he said.
McFalls said it’s not clear what he’ll do after leaving the Stockton Diocese. He said he told Bishop Stephen Blaire about two weeks ago what was happening.
To read original story, click here.
To read previous Cal Catholic story on Father McFalls’ Mass in conjunction with the SEIU and Mi Familia voting campaign (Oct. 18, 2012), click here.
To read Father McFalls’ response to the Oct. 18 story emailed to Cal Catholic (Oct. 23, 2012), click here.
I’m sorry…but what an arrogant jerk. Watch his interview, and he doesn’t seem the least bit sorry that he has conceived a child out of wedlock, and did it while being a priest to boot. The Church needs to change, he says, he needs to be true to himself, he says. A child needs a married mother and father, Fr. (Mr.?) McFalls, in an (ideally) loving, (definitely) stable married relationship. And, a parish needs a pastor faithful to his promises of ordination, totally devoting himself to the spiritual good of his community, and not engaging in sexual dalliances with women. Fr./Mr. McFalls is a blind fool, typical of what one would expect from a man of the Left. Now go get a job in the secular world (however, I concede that that might be tough, as the Leftist policies you have helped make into law by your political advocacy have killed job creation in this State), support that boy, and for heavens sake, stop making any more public comments!
You’ve said it all, and very well!! Thanks for sharing your insights!
“If the situation in the Catholic Church were different, I would be a better man,” he said. “More stable, more effective in the long run as a human being.”
You see as far as he can see, he has done nothing wrong. the Church, the Holy bruised body of Christ is the problem here.
Let’s hope the Diocese of Stockton takes responsibility to raise this child.
Let’s hope McFalls takes responsibility to raise his child!
Let’s hope Dean McFalls does!
Why should the diocese take responsibility for his child? This is the reason why priests should NEVER EVER be allowed to marry. It’s the members of the Church who would have to pay for the children of these married priests. I also wouldn’t want to be this woman on judgment day when she is being judged for sleeping with a priest. Whoa!
How about the priests being married before they have any kids? I hope the women in this does not end upgetting an abortion.
A priest cannot marry becouse their spouse is the Church.
Perhaps she has already asked God’s forgiveness and gotten it.
Dave N.
Why should the people of the Diocese of Stockton be expected to raise the child? Let him get a JOB and earn his keep and that of his sex partner and child.
While I worked at XX Company in Aerospace (which I did) had I made some woman pregnant, should that XX Company been expected to raise the child of that troust?
May God have mercy on an amoral America!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director, Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
This analogy is not correct. The Holy Church is not a corporation and a priest is not a W2 employee.
Well, well, the reverend father will now have his own family to vote for extreme left-wing causes:
“Father Dean McFalls will conduct a special mass – “Faithful Citizenship” – as part of the drive to improve Latino participation in the Nov. 6 General Election. The church service begins at 6:30 p.m. Washington-based labor leader Eliseo Vasquez Medina, secretary-treasurer of the Service Employees International Union, also will speak on civic participation. The event is jointly sponsored by the SEIU and Mi Familia Vota Education Fund.”
Liberation Theology and the option for the poor have been hard at work for years to destroy our country and our Church. Like bishop Zavala here in Los Angeles.
Sad to have a priest show his nakedness to a woman.
A priest, who should always wear a Cassock as a sign of his consecration to the Holy Mother Church.
This priest is like the sons of Heli and the woman is like the women who waited at the temples gate to sleep with priests prefering to give their virginity for the purity of priests. How offended God is such sins!!
Wow. Just wow.
Fr. Michael, hang in there. It is situations such as this that makes the faithful appreciate priests such as you more dearly. It has been faithful priests who have kept some of my friends and me in the Church, kept us faithful to our marriage vows when opportunity arose for cheating and helped keep us on the straight and narrow. Remember your reward in heaven will be great for all you have given up for us. and there is nothing like a clean conscience at the end of the day. One does not have to remember the last lie one told so one does not get caught in it. That in itself is a true prize. Regarding the priest in the article, what should I say? Only that he is very much like that president he adores — always blaming someone else for his faults and failures — never ever really taking full responsibility for much of what he does. No Mea Culpa for him.
At least Fr. McFall did take responsibility in his sermon to his congregation. I will give him credit for that.
Now he needs to carry his responsibilities through, not burden others with them.
In other words take care of his son himself.
At least Father gives a damn abut his child and isn’t urging his girlfriend to have an abortion. Very difficult moral choices, and no winners here except, hopefully, the child. Another example of the enormous stress and loneliness of priestly life, and choices made to deal with it, and another exhibit in the growing body of evidence that the priesthood is struggling badly with celibacy.
Good Cause: I see your point, but sadly what you say illustrates the depths to which we all as human beings will sink when trying to justify infidelity. The ‘at least’ mentality has really poisoned us all.
When someone is faced with a propensity for domestic violence, should we say ‘at least he didn’t kill his wife’. Or ‘at least he told her he wanted the divorce instead of cheating on her’ first.
In stating, ‘if only the Catholic Church were different’, in an apparent excuse, this poor man opens himself to the same can of worms when dealing with his new marriage. If only divorce were allowed, if only fidelity weren’t required, if only birth control were okay. Married life isn’t easy either!
If onlies and buts were candies and nuts, we’d all have a MERRY CHRISTMAS.
fyi: Priests have just as much difficulty and always have with celibacy as married folks have with fidelity (that is remaining faithful to one spouse through thick and thin and being faithful to the laws regarding procreation). I hope Father doesn’t realize that the grass of marriage isn’t necessarily greener.
Have we come to this, Good Cause? Excusing our sins by saying ‘at least’ I didn’t do fill-in-the-blank?
As to enormous struggles, staying faithfully married according to the auspices of the Catholic Church is right up there too. And the only growing body of evidence is that we are losing our compass if we believe it to be any harder to keep a vow now than in days past. What has changed is how much and/or how little we value said vows and put them above our own desires.
Times change. People don’t.
OMgosh…..good cause…how twisted. Its like saying “at least he murdered her quickly and she didn’t feel any pain”. Wrong is wrong mister!
So called “good cause” when are you going to stand up and tell us just what your “good cause” is?
Abeca, you are right, but that is not the way liberals “think”!
May God have mercy on an amoral America!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director, Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
You are right Mr. Fisher I was just hoping to talk some sense into him.
I think that having children, makes a priest more realistic regarding family life- also, a married priest would be more careful in accusing only women for abortion . We know that abortion is an easy way out for men, in most cases.
Maybe is really time to have married priests.
Geni: I think ‘married’ priests outside of the spiritual incompatibility of such a notion would bring about a huge increase in parish costs. Or are we hoping that these priests with wife and kids will now be more ‘understanding’ in matters of separation, divorce, birth control, abortion, etc.
Times change, geni, people don’t. The struggle to maintain a vow is just as difficult now as it was before – save for the fact that an increasing number of people, including Catholics, think breaking a vow is no big deal.
I pity his girlfriend. If he cheated on the Catholic Church with her, there is no good track record that he won’t cheat on her as well.
If he can’t remain faithful to his vows of the priesthood, what makes you think he’d be faithful to a wife in the rectory? With someone like this you might have the scandal of adultery instead of fornication. It’s all about keep your word and trust, which he has betrayed.
geni lies all lies…..a pastor does not need to have children to understand…he just has to be loyal to Christ and God will provide!
Right on AC. Does one need to have cancer to minister to those afflicted with that disease? Sometimes being single allows one to have a better perspective on hardships; an objectivity about relationships that the married person does not have. Regardless, a man makes a choice to become a priest. He knows what he’s getting into. This priest makes a promise to God and His Son, and then breaks it because of what? Some idea of fairness? Entitlement? Superiority? If sex is so important to him, he can serve the church and God in some other capacity. Instead he drags the Church (and the Priesthood) through the mud, challenging Church authority like a spoiled child. And what about this woman he’s impregnated? What about her spiritual health? And what about all those Christians who are practicing abstinence out of obedience to God? Should they just throw in the towel?? Rewrite the rules to suit themselves?
Shame on this priest. Not only arrogance, but selfish to boot! Did anyone read how many people responded to the article on Facebook with cheers for this priest? How many others is he leading to the road to perdition by his example? And he blames the Church for his actions! Shocking.
Oh, please. Do the people that say this ever think it through? Just roll through a few scenarios in your brain of a married priesthood. If marriage was the solution to many of life’s troubles, divorce lawyers would go out of business.
The solution for priests is the same for anyone. Stay away from any near occasion of sin. Custody of the eyes is helpful too. So is prayer and fasting. I understand some demons can only be driven out by these two.
That’s right Anony. Thank you Nightinggale. : )
I think that in these vital times, we need to be aware that there is a symptom, a warning that false prophets will appear…right now we have the wanna Be’s from what I gather, they are the false teachers.
I was speaking of this priest and many like his kind.
No. A little more study into the nature of priesthood would change your mind.
So now we wonder, what else did this priest not believe in?
Nice tee shirt.
juergensen you are funny….
and your comment says it all lol
This response is only filled with love and prayers for Father Dean, I say this sincerely knowing that through the computer, one’s tone cannot be perceived.
This is SO heartbreaking . . . . not heartbreaking that Father has sinned – we are all human and struggle with our propensity to sin on a daily basis.When we are repentant, Our Lady picks us up and brings us to Her Son who will shower us with His Mercy. What IS heartbreaking is to hear Father blame the Church’s stand and teaching on married Priests. When he took his vows, he was well aware of the celibacy rule. It seems, at least from this interview, that when he started to look inward and thinking of himself ahead of his Bride, The Catholic Church, that he began to fall. Anytime we become “me” centered, we are doomed. It is the same for married people . . . once they start looking inward (I am stuck with a person who does not understand me”, “I am lonely with this person”) and focus on “me” (what I want, what I need)) then they too fall into sin. We (married and Priests alike) all took vows. Just because WE change, does not mean the Church should change as well.
No, Father, it is not the Church’s ancient teaching on celibacy that you are not “More stable, more effective in the long run as a human being.”, it is because you have replaced God and His one true Church with your wants, your desires.
My love and prayers are with you, Father – may you once again run to Our Lady for guidance.
suzanne i appreciate that you are trying to be kind but its not good to tone done the seriousness of sinful behavior in anyone. Like when you said “not heartbreaking that Father has sinned”…..to me it’s heartbreaking whenever any one of us sins. Love and prayers are also concern which can include righteous anger and disappointment. Jesus kicked out the money changers, Our Lord spew the lukewarm, etc. (another example of righteous anger and admonishment Matthew 16:23 “Who turning, said to Peter: Go behind me, Satan, thou art a scandal unto me: because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men”.) Continued…..
suzanne You have a good heart but don’t feel conflicted if you say that you love this person but don’t know if you can admonish or discern. Plus we know we are all sinners. We are not going to excuse his actions because of that. Yes pray for him if you feel lead but don’t think that love is always sweet and fluffed up, love is something greater than we humans can comprehend. We look to our Lord who completes us and is love. His great example at admonishing the sinner displays this. He loves us better than any parent although parents, well most parents, want whats best for their children. But as we can see, this priest did not care nor loved enough to be concerned how this child will grow up under this type of scandal on his name. Maybe his sins didn’t help him think well or discern. Pride is an ugly thing. In the old testament and even in the new, these sort of sins where taken very much seriously. What example is one giving their child. We are all to answer to that. Our Lord will not excuse us simply because we are all sinners…NO not at all. But He is merciful, that He is, far greater than we are to understand what that mercy in-tells.
Well, well, well, well, well….“If the situation in the Catholic Church were different, I would be a better man,” he said. “More stable, more effective in the long run as a human being.”…this man is a poor excuse for a priest……
Yes, I’ve run across this attitude many times with teenagers. They get angry when they’re punished and blame it all on the adult. I’d say there’s a maturity issue here.
Canisius and MamaK you are both correct. MamaK I agree, teenagers do that a lot. This priest is lacking character and more…its sad but its something that is everywhere. At his age, one would hope that life would of taught him something far greater, to grow in wisdom and even in the priesthood would have helped him but instead, we are not seeing good fruit here. Its sad and disturbing. Its a a symptom that we are seeing continue to grow in this worldly world. We need to keep his child in our prayers.
Sounds appropriate…unlike the gay sodomite priest’s who choose to stay and conceal their evil and the perversion’s they indulge in.
That’s right it’s the gay priests who caused this straight priest to stray from his obligations. Good call Joto.
“If the situation in the Catholic Church were different, I would be a better man,” he said. “More stable, more effective in the long run as a human being.”
Okay, let’s all blame others for our sins.
I agree. What did Adam do when God asked him about hiding behind fig leaves? “The WOMAN, YOU GAVE ME…..” the plight of justifying our sin carries on! Keep praying for the priests and the priesthood. The pressure is on to make the Catholic Church just like any other denomination!
When I tell my 5 year old to stop doing something nasty, he retorts that I am making him angry.
An honest Catholic priest in his views and I am sure there are many more out there. Bravo!!! I hope he stays in some type of religious life as there are many faiths that will take him immediately.
I pray God, Joseph, that this HONEST priest does not continue to give religious guidance of any kind, with the one exception of his repenting and returning to his vows. Should we applaud a married person who comes out and says that fidelity is just too dang hard and btw I’ve got a lover on the side and – well – that completes me. And only after getting caught. But hey, at least he didn’t kill his lover or his wife! Three cheers!
Yes, there are cheaters out there, (we all sin) but that doesn’t mean the institution of marriage should now become a group thing to accommodate those ‘needs’.
Being Catholic means holding to the tenants of the Catholic Faith – whole and entire. That’s what we should be striving to do. Not lowering the bar of ‘at least’ and giving up the good fight.
The good father’s focus on ‘letting down many people’ is also out of whack. It’s not the people that are the main focus here. It’s God.
THANK GOD HE WILL NO LONGER BE IN THE CONFESSIONAL! IMAGINE WHAT KIND OF SPIRITUAL DIRECTION HE GAVE OUT FROM THAT SACRED CONFINE!
Perhaps he was the priest at the REC that told a young lady who came to me: “you are young, and what you did (broke her virginity) is only natural, IT IS NOT REALLY A SIN!”
Thank God and His Mother that young lady came to me, and I directed her to another priest who had already contradicted many things they were hearing at that dissent fest!
May God have mercy on an amoral America!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director, Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
Interesting comment – Please define amoral America.
Yes, many ‘faiths’ to accommodate whatever sin or whatever makes you comfortable but there is only ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, and APOSTOLIC Church. Deal with it.
Magdalene, Thank you for your comment regarding the Church, however, it seems to me the Universal Church vanished right after Vatican 2. There is not a oneness any more and I know there are those of you that will cite the Bible & Scripture about this, but please think about this before you reply. You comment also applies to the question I keep asking Kenneth Flower to please tell me what the ‘modern church’ is that he refers to in his comments but he never reply’s to this question. Too Bad. Thank you again for your comment.
I think you mean Kenneth Fisher.
Joseph how can we take you seriously when you call Mr Fisher Kenneth Flower….
Anne, Thank you very much as I did mean Kenneth Fisher. I sure wish he would respond to to his comments ( Modern Church & Amoral American) as his answers are important to many of us. Thank you again.
This cannot be true.Joseph
You would be calling our Lord not honest, which is impossible.
If you know that Church as the Mystical body of Christ, you know then that the Physical Body of Christ was mangled and tortured by our sins. This is what is happening to his Mystical Body the Church. It’s down on the road to Calvary. Tortured and Mangled by our sins, in the public square.
So you now stand there in the public square and say, that mangled and buttered bloodied man/body cannot be the savior, cannot be the son of God. Look at him? He is bruised and mangled, like a stonned homeless man.
I tell you’ indeed! YES that is CHRIST in his Mytical Body the Church. Oh How he desires your Love now!! How he longs for Monica to wipe his Holy Bruised bleeding Face!!
buttered=battered
Our Lord has been many things, but so far as I know he has never been buttered.
Western, Thank you for your comment but what cannot be true? What are you referring to?
For some reason, the system edited out the emoticon that I provided after my comment. My comment as it was posted could be taken to be sacrilegious, which was not my intention.
This failed priest vowed celibacy and obedience before God. He broke those vows. He placed his own needs above the needs of those that he vowed to serve. He became nothing more than a social worker who simply does the job for a living. He, first and foremost, as a priest of God, has, as his primary duty, the care of souls. Priest, not social worker. by serving himself first, he has failed in his duty to God, and failed in his duty to the people of God. The Church does not need oath-breakers in Her service.
Souls? What is that?
No wonder he became so hostile to receiving our Right to Life reports. However, thank goodness the mother of his child understands the importance of respecting innocent human life. It sounds like, if the roles were reversed and MCFalls was pregnant he wouldn’t maintain the pregnancy.
Glad he’s hittin’ the road…he should not blame the Church or her prohibition on married clergy! I wish ALL the gay priest’s who get their jollies buggering other gays, would leave as well…sooner, rather than later
All priests straight or gay should adhere to their vow of celibacy. If they can’t they should ask to leave the priesthood.
Too bad that Fr. McFalls had to kick all priests on his way out, by suggesting that he would be more stable and effective if he could have a sexual life. Yes, that is what he is talking about — good old sex. Nothing is much said about violating his sacred vows, or of the woman that helped him to do it. (How could she be “a better person” than the daddy-priest? Better how? Better for what?) Of course, no one ever talks anymore about a woman being the source of immorali temptation. If anything, Fr. McFalls can join the long line of recently departed priests that left due to perceived failings of the Church, and not of their being unable to keep their vows. Perhaps Fr. McFalls can join “Rev” Alberto Cutie in the Happy Episcopalian Church, where you can pretty much do whatever you want to and be ordained!! The problem here is not that Fr. McFalls sinned, or fathered a child, but that he failed to understand his behavior as sinful. How much better to confess the sin, seek forgiveness and stop the sinful behavior. What a lesson to his parishioners that action would have been.
Yes, St. Christopher,
He got a woman pregnant and fancies that he knows what it’s like to be married because of warm fuzzy feelings and sex. But this is not what true, lifelong, sacramental marriage is. Cohabitation or fake throwaway “marriage” quickly ended by divorce is made of this.
Marriage is warm feelings of “love” and sex, yes, but despite what Disney would have us believe, marriage is also the self-sacrificing love when babies need to be fed and changed around the clock, trash needs to be taken out, toilets need scrubbing, and too many bills need to be paid with too little money.
The day to day work and dying to self and living in Christ in marriage is what the vocation is all about. True marriage is hard work, every day, around the clock. Work that is ignored. No congregation applauding, no awards or reporters with cameras in hand.
Looks like the seminaries are still doing a poor job of screening applicants. Has anyone noticed though that when priests are caught or otherwise exposed, they all say the Church must change?
He is not asking for God’s mercy or our prayers. Not really. Situations, hide-bound thoughts are at fault. One wonders what his formation.
That we are all sinners is besides the point. At least we can say that his sin was within the boundaries of Natural Law! These days that is some comfort. It almost restores my confidence.
“If the situation in the Catholic Church were different, I would be a better man,” he said.
To summarize – It is Institutions that are responsible for our own personal conduct, and not ourselves, and thus The Church & Society are to Blame – and ought to be ashamed of themselves for the way I myself
behaved…. ‘Ahem.
No Mention of the manner in which the relationship originated, and one can only hope it didn’t start out as something like ‘Mrriage Counseling’ – morphing in to adultery.
The Priest / Penitent Confidentiality privilege is still treated like medical confidences by the law, although it is heavily under attack – mostly as a result of the coverups relating to the Homosex Abuser infiltration of the Priesthood to target Boys.
Hence – if there is a ‘silver lining’ in the whole sordid affair, it would be in the Ironic twyst that the wayward Priest Fathered a Boy – instead of molesting one.
Mind – there is no such thing as an “Illegitimate” Child, every child is Legitimate from the moment of conception.
The US Constitution forbids “Corruption of the Blood” for Treason (In N-Korea Guilt for Crimes against the State passes to successive generations) – Although in this Age of Abomination the Pale Male Pigs of the Patriarchy are provided an exemption…
– And held personally responsible for all other bad (but not good) acts by other Linear Pork By Product (males) everywhere – as a sign of ‘tolerance’
By impregnating an innocent woman, this Catholic priest has violated his oath of priesthood, and even more important, his respect for God.
Moreover, blaming “the situation in the Catholic Church” for his sacrilegious activity illustrates Dean McFalls’ failure to take responsibility for his own anti-Christian immorality.
Indeed, the Catholic Church is better off without him serving as a priest.
“Innocent woman?” I don’t think so!
George Patsourakos,
“By impregnating an innocent woman!”. What the heck is your definition of an “innocent woman”? In your liberal way of thinking, Eve was probably “innocent”!
May God have mercy on an amoral America!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director, Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
Unless the woman was raped, was a child, or was lied to about Father’s being a priest, calling her ‘innocent’ is a stretch. Any grown Catholic woman, or even a non-Catholic for that matter knows what a budding relationship feels and looks like.
Embracing liberal beliefs and causes brings with it a package of behaviors and beliefs. Selective obedience is not obedience, and he acted as if he had the right to pick the rules he would obey. His selective obedience brings scandal and the consequences of his self involvement to his partner in crime and an innocent child. In the Eastern churches, they will ordain a married man, but will not marry an ordained man. He would have to leave the priesthood to marry there as well.
Like Gabino Zavala, another Marxist organizer masquerading as cleric. Given their real line of work, they resigned for the equivalent of jaywalking.
Former Bishop Gabino Zavala was already a father and still seeing the mother of his two children when he was ordained a Bishop. At least this priest stepped down early on. Hopefully he will now marry this woman and raise his family like a responsible man.
Tracy, I agree with you completely in hoping that he will do the honorable and right thing for this woman and child.
Asking the Church — in other words, US — to shovel money their way is not the proper way of handling such situations. He himself should step up and take responsibility. If he doesn’t, the baby’s mother should take him to court and make darned sure he pays child support.
We all need to pray and sacrifice for our priest and seminarians.
I’ve driven past the church many times on the freeway and always wondered what the interior looked like. Now I know. No High Altar, at least none apparent from the photo at another website. Nor can I see where the tabernacle is. Could these be a couple of probably many reasons for this priest’s failure?
So if the 10 Commandments would just go away, then he would not be a sinner….I get it.
A sad report, indeed.
Pls add this man, his child and the mother to your prayers. They ALL need them.
“Let’s hope the Diocese of Stockton takes responsibility to raise this child.”
NO, NO y NO!!
Father McFalls’ is responsible for the well being of his child NOT the laity.
Dear father I will pray for you and your family. Thank you for fighting for the legal right of the immigrants.
“If the situation in the Catholic Church were different, I would be a better man,” he said. “More stable, more effective in the long run as a human being.”
Blaming the Church for your adultery and breaking your vow? That only adds to the list of why you are unsuited to be a Catholic priest.
Even if he was married, this guys sounds exactly like the sort that would be mixed-up in adulterous affairs. The only difference then is that he would blame his wife rather than the Church. Sicko stuff…
Someone said the Diocese should take care of the little boy, but I believe Father Dean McFalls’ fall from grace means that he himself will be taking care of his son and, hopefully, the baby’s mother.
This kind of thing has been going on since the time of Jesus, and, in the midst of all the sadness and anger and confusion and scandal, I hope and pray that the parents of this new human being will work together for the good of the boy.
I still find it hard to quite grasp that SOME Catholic priests CAN be married and have children (that is, the former Episcopalians), while OTHERS can never get married and have a family.
In a Diocese, I’ll betcha this causes some tension in the priesthood, where some men have a wife and kids (and probably are paid a larger salary) and other men may now start to feel like second-class citizens.
I have already heard some friends of mine say: “Well, those married priest can understand better what WE go through…” This must be discouraging for those priests who made a promise of Celibacy 40 or 50 years ago, and now are disparaged for it.
Suzanne,
I have known many married Catholic Priests, Eastern, Lutheran, and Anglican Catholic. They have ALL told me that they could be a better priest if they were not married!
May God have mercy on an amoral America!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director, Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
Kenneth,
I find this comment very, very hard to believe. These are very personal individual thoughts and for a religious person to tell this to a lay person seems out of place. Please back up your comments with facts. Thank you.
Kenneth, I too am having trouble with this one. I am not in favor of seeing the Church lift its requirement of celibacy for priests, but I will report from the front that I too know married priests who have become Catholic priests having been Episcopalian priests, and they have affirmed what is obvious to me, that they are deeply gratified to be married to wonderful women and to have had children, all of whom were grown by the time I met these priests. I feel sorry for their wives, however, who are indeed watched by hundreds and expected to be perfect Catholics and free workers for all Church events, and always to look perfect, act superbly, speak properly and have answers to questions that are none of the inquirer’s business but that will satisfy without divulging too much. The questions they get are the same ones over and over, and one persistent one is, “Do you believe all priests should be allowed to marry?” Now how would you answer that in their positions?
I don’t know of seminarian training for wives of Catholic priests, but surely they need it. What if they don’t want to become Catholics themselves? What if under the pressures of the new situation their husbands have placed them in, they choose to divorce their husbands rather than go through this? Now will the newly ordained, married Catholic priest become among the first newly ordained, divorced Catholic priests? How will this life-shattering event affect their ability to function effectively as priests? Are these wives to be denied the right to divorce once their husbands decide to become Catholic priests? No wonder we are all waiting and wondering.
Kenneth, would you mind disclosing where you met all these “many” married Catholic priests, and how it was they all said the same thing in answer to your question? I find that extraordinary but fascinating.
I hope and pray that the mother is single and that if they are truly in love with each other they marry as soon as he is released from his vows.
My experience with married priests of other faiths is that they do not have the time to do justice to either calling – the priesthood, married life and fatherhood. One of these gets short changed as it is not humanly possible to be all things to all people. This is not to say that they are not good people……they are. But they are only human and there is only 24 hours in a day. Which would come first, your sick wife or a parishioner who needs the sacrament of the sick. I have seen this happen and it is not an easy decision.
It is consistent with the Stockton diocese. What else would one expect. As for Dean McFalls he is typical of most liberal clergy who exhibit behavior typical of those with Narcissist Personality Disorder. They want God and the Church on their terms; much like the “Bus” nuns who are willing to throw anyone or anything under it in order to propel their agenda.
If he Catholic Church allowed Priest’s to marry…he’d be an adulterer not a better person; his personal failure is the cause of this grave situation for him and for the woman and now their child. This does not judge his actions but his acceptance of what he’d done. Let’s stick to the discipline of Celebit priests!
Revelation 14:4: I heard a sound coming out of heaven like the sound of the ocean or the roar of thunder, it was like the sound of the harpists playing their harps. There before the throne they were singing a new hymn in the presence of the four living creatures and the elders, a hymn that could be only learnt by the hundred and forty-four thousand (probably a symbolic number or the early priest martyrs) who had been redeemed from the world. These are the sons who have kept their virginity and not been defiled with women; they follow the Lamb wherever he goes; they, out of all people, have been redeemed to be the first-fruits for God and for the Lamb. No lie was found in their mouths and no fault can be found in them.” Cardinal Stickler said that it was thought that the Apostles became celibate after their ordination, and that the Church took care of the spouses of those who had wives. Considering the Apostles took off to other countries, that certainly would seem to be the case.
This priest isn’t the first to father a child, and won’t be the last. Popes have fathered children as well. Sexual attraction is about as basic as it gets, at least until a man’s testerone level drops.
So, this man failed his vow in a predictable and – it should not go unnoticed – natural way. He has acknowledged it and apologized, and been defrocked – all as it should be.
I wish him a long and happy life, and will save my outrage for something outrageous.
I was wondering why this priest was considered to be so “prominent” so I searched him on the internet. I came across a September 2008 article titled “New St. Mary pastor inspires optimism among parishioners …” Quite an eye opener.
Wow, I found out that Dean is 68 years old!. He was ordained to the priesthood at age 50 and was a convert to the Catholic faith. He named his son Gabriel, who was born yesterday on the feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Rafael. It appears that he is not interested in marrying the baby’s mother, but would really wish that he could remain a priest.
Our sins have consequences, the least of which is the frustrations of ‘what we’d wish’. Whereas Father thinks he might be more effective if the Church had different rules, it may be that his removal from the priesthood, his having to support his own child by way of labor, and his not marrying his ‘partner in crime’ is what will be more fruitful.
Prayer, penance, and dying to self are sorely underrated but highly fruitful. I pray father finds the grace of just such a hidden life.
Well said Ann.
Ahh, now a little light shines behind the veil. “Fr” (oxymoronic) McFalls, if he was ordained in 1995, it would have been under then-Bishop Donald Montrose, a Mahony-croney who previously was rector at St. John’s Camarillo during some of its worst years. Montrose was bishop after Mahony (1985-1999) and had such a severe vocations crisis that he went to other dioceses and especially to Mexico to try to recruit priests. I suspect Fr. McFalls had a pulse and his breath formed a vapor on a mirror held near his mouth, and so he met the qualifications in those days to get ordained. All very sad and disturbing.
By the way, adding to Tracy’s comments, Bp. Gabino Zavala was heavily lobbied for by a very corrupt group (in my opinion, I have the facts) of priests in Phoenix to come and success the disgraced Bp. Thomas O’Brien (who resigned after a fatal hit-run driving incident in 2003). I had known Zavala was compromised in some way because of certain dissident Jesuits who were overjoyed at the prospect of his possibly running the Phoenix diocese (He was also adjunct professor of Canon Law and Pastoral Theology in the graduate programs at Loyola Marymount University/LA —what a hoot!). The issue is, as others said above, not that this is such an outrage, but that it is so dishonest and clandestine of both these men.
Come to think of it, I bet Marxist-tilted Bp Zavala was the one who taught Brian S. about Catholic social justice teaching. Death to the Capitalists, to the barricades, comrade!
Marxist-tilted? Zavala was president of Pax Christi USA and of Interfaith Worker Justice both notorious front groups. As for all the talk of grace or fall from grace, none applies. McFalls, like Zavala, was a mole in the organization (read his prevarications and life story from last year referenced in this article). What’s sad is that both these “community organizers” operated with impunity and left only for incidentals–call it moonlighting.
INTERESTING LITTLE THING I FOUND…
Earlier in 2008, McFalls – then serving at Our Lady of Guadalupe in Lathrop – helped coordinate an event in Modesto to commemorate the Cristeros movement in Mexico in the 1920s and ’30s, which was a rebellion against the then-socialist Mexican government’s pressure to crush the Catholic Church.
“It’s kind of a forgotten chapter of Mexican history,” McFalls said. “The socialist government basically tried to destroy the Catholic Church, not only the preaching, but also the social services. For example, one large church was taken over; it’s really beautiful, but it was used as barracks for the soldiers. You can still see one corner that the soldiers used for the firing squad.”
Read more here: https://www.modbee.com/2013/09/24/2939910/former-ceres-priest-resigns-after.html#storylink=cpy
You know this faith is indeed from Christ for it has survived 2000 long years of rotten clergy.
Yeah, Wes, but I am getting worried…
He who has not sinned throw the first stone. The person has been open about what happened. We might disagree with him. Even married men have affairs, struggle with pornography, and more. We are sinners. We don’t have to change the standard even though we fail. Christ calls us to confess our sin to change our lives. It’s so simple, but so difficult.
Christ came to save us not condemn us. It’s sad. How can we help this person? This priest? What is his penance? What is the medicine we can give him to heal? Is it disdain, condemnation, a verbal lashing? What does love demand?
A. to Wheels: Honesty and Integrity is a start.