Stephen Brady at Roman Catholic Faithful provided me this undated e-mail from the St. Sebastian's site, written by Fr. Art Mallinson, who resigned his new pastorate in north Texas yesterday after his participation in the online site a few years back became an issue. Fr. Mallinson's e-mail to the secret society reads:
I have been stalked once -- due to a chat conversation. I was planning on meeting this guy for coffee sometime in the future. In the course of a chat I mentioned a place that I often visited and when I would go. I thought nothing of it. But then one day this total stranger tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I was K___, my on line nick [sic] -- I freaked! He came to watch me and check me out!I never thought I would feel this way -- and I wasn't doing anything untoward. He didn't even know I was gay -- but I knew that he was. And he knew I was a priest ... even though he didn't know my real name. But the idea that someone had come to look at me while I was unaware ... very strange.
We strike a ballance [sic] on this list -- we confided feelings and secrets that we couldn't utter anywhere else -- and feel liberated in doing so, while at the same time -- keeping a level of distance or anonimity [sic] for security. It's a bit strange and scarry [sic] at times -- but what options do we have?
Well, you could try living out your vow of celibacy, for one. Or joining a support group of priests struggling to deal with their sexuality in healthy ways, and not dealing with it by arranging anonymous encounters on the Internet.
There's a lot of pathos in this, actually. The skulking, the clandestine meeting arranged on the Internet, the loneliness, the burden of his secret and his desires. No one can deny the frail humanity of a man in this priest's position. But I deeply doubt that anyone so conflicted about the tension between his nature and his calling as a celibate priest has any business in active ministry. Surely Father Mallinson's superiors at the chancery when this was discovered must have been able to see that here was a priest in crisis. And yet?
How has he resolved this crisis? It cannot be a matter of indifference to his parishioners, or those who may yet be under his spiritual authority. It shouldn't be to his bishop either.
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We've reached agreement! (Too bad I don't drink.)
You could always start.
One is too many, and a million isn't enough, if you know what I mean.
I may have to join in the (virtual) tee many martoonies of agreement here. Rod, you may be right that the Catholic faithful in general do not care enough. In their defense, though, I would offer the thought that they've been carefully taught for many years to believe that any priest is sacred ("alter Christus!") simply by virtue of his ordination and without any regard for his personal behavior. The total failure of the ecclesiastical superiors to deal with priests who were alcoholics, philanderers, abusers, embezzlers, or simply boorish, ignorant, abrasive, and deficient in spiritual practice has certainly helped to confirm the laity in the feeling that "Father" has the Mandate of Heaven and will never lose it no matter what he does. They have also not been given any official channels through which to communicate their disapproval if they did feel any. Short of picking up their pitchforks and torches and storming the episcopal residence, what are they to do? If they join an extra-ecclesial group of some kind to present their grievances, they're more likely to be tagged as fringe elements or troublemakers than they are to get a respectful hearing. This happens both on the left and the right.
I think that all attempts to get better behaving priests, holier priests and more transparency from bishops and their bureaucracies has to include attempts by us lay men and women to being holier ourselves. Otherwise the agenda is at best skewed if not corrupted and hidden.
This whole thing works two ways.
Peace
"Catholics have learned, via "the Scandal", that they cannot trust their bishops to do the job of pastoral oversight. These lay Catholics will drag every last dirty secret into the light, and God bless them for it. They are doing whatever they can to make sure that children will be protected.
They are saying : "We are watching you."
They are saying : "Never again."
Posted by: Quinn | May 15, 2008 1:04 PM"
I'll drink to that (but beer, not a martini).
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