Even as a gay man myself I am deeply disturbed by the transformation of the Catholic priesthood into a gay cabal.
And in the “gay community” there are two types of people – people with morals and principles – and people with no morals and no principles.
And from what I can see – the Catholic Gay Clerical Cabal is filled with those with no morals and no principles.
In the USA this horrible phenomenon was represented by ex Cardinal Ted McCarrick and his followers.
Because of its smaller size Ireland now has a smaller but equally vicious Clerical Gay Cabal.
The Irish Clerical Gay Cabal consists of secular priests who work in dioceses and priests in religious orders. It also contains a small number of very senior clerics and religious superiors.
And its not just about sex. Its about secrecy, lies, cover-up and above all else about each of its members protecting and promoting each other.
Its also about being vicious and nasty to non cabal members – especially heterosexuals.
The priesthood should not be under the control of any particular segment.
The priesthood needs to be as universal and as diverse as possible – like the community it serves. So it needs people from all and every place.
When I started in seminary in 1970 the priesthood was much more diverse. In those days any priest who “ran away” usually ran away with a woman.
Im sure there were gay priests – but they kept a lower profile then.
Having said that in the mid 1970s just before ordination I had three senior clergy come on to me – a senior monk and two older PPs.
Maybe gay priests have been freed and emboldened by the changed attitudes in society in general on homosexuality.
And then there was the sexual revolution.
When I was in the seminary and as a young priest I regarded things like “impure thoughts” and masturbation as serious sins, especially for a seminarian or priest, and ran to Confession regularly about those things.
I remember Archbishop John Charles McQuaid, quoting the then priest professor of psychology in UCD, who said that any seminarian who had not stopped masturbating by the end of his second year in the seminary, should be expelled.
Now the priests and religious are masturbating in cars on beaches, patronising gay saunas, having group sex in seminaries and presbyteries, having sex on altars and the rest.
Any yet the RC church officially teaches what it taught 50 years ago.
Its all very strange.
And it does not bode well for the future.
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 