“Dear Bishop Pat, I am a serving priest in an Irish diocese and I also happen to be HIV +. My bishop was told of my status by a former lady friend in whom I had stupidly confided. At a time in my life I was sexually active with two priests and a lay man. The priest who infected me is now deceased I have not been sexually active for many years and made a general confession while on retreat at a monastery. Incidentally, another monk at that monastery tried to seduce me during that retreat and I fully resisted him.
My bishop called me in and was very aggressive with me during the interview and has used my status to control and bully me. I am not strong enough to stand up to him. I also like being a priest and do not want to be dismissed.
I know five other priests who are also HIV + and they live in fear of their bishops finding out. I just wanted people to know of this problem in the priesthood and the lack of kindness we receive even when have confessed, been forgiven and living a life of continence. Thank you for all you do to let people that we priests have all the same problems others do”.
My Dear Brother Priest,
Thank you for your email. I personally know six priests who are HIV + and still in ministry. Its far from being a small problem in the Irish RCC.
Most of the affected I know have not told their bishop about their status. There is no need for Bishops to know the private details of priest’s health.
It is against Article 8 of the Human Rights Act.
The judge in Belfast contravened that article when he publicly announced my status.
I did consult the N. Ireland Human Rights body but was some says late in submitting a complaint.
But the N. I Chief Justice circulated instructions to all the judges.
Any priest having problems with his bishop in this area, or any area should consult a solicitor.
Any priest who needs a good solicitor can contact me for information on solicitors who are not afraid of taking on the RCC hierarchy.
This Blog has friends in the legal profession North and South.
From THE TIMES
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 
170 replies on “ARE CATHOLIC BISHOPS BULLYING AND INTIMIDATING HIV + PRIESTS?”
St. Luke’s Institute will give you HIV test upon arrival. This information is then supplied to your Bishop. If you are positive it is grounds for laicisation. Many Bishops in Ireland have used this. Be warned!
LikeLike
10.47
Can you cite an authority for your claim? It seems unlikely.
LikeLike
Not about St Luke’s but there has been routine HIV testing in formation in the past. A friend who had been a Passionist in the early nineties said they all had to get tested and if they refused didn’t enter the noviciate.
LikeLike
1:10 With respect, if you read my comment carefully you will see no such claims. The person who claimed that was Bishop Pat.
You do know other people can comment here, don’t you.
LikeLike
11.42
With respect, that doesn’t substantiate your claim about HIV+ status beings grounds for laicisation.
LikeLike
The first comment today at 10.47 makes that claim. Apologies if that’s not you. It’s not Pat.
LikeLike
Any man in Holy Orders who contracts that disease through sexual misconduct should be stood down from ministry without delay. Indeed and sexually active priest, gay or otherwise, should be removed from ministry for a period of recollection and reform of life.
These men shame us. No wonder the church is in the mess – Satan has struck at the shepherds!
LikeLike
11.47
Let him who is without sin cast the first stone as you have done.
LikeLike
Ah, the let sin and scandal continue deflection. Pseudo spiritual bollocks.
LikeLike
12.55
You may use whatever vulgarity you choose to name it. It’s a quote from the New Testament. Take it up with the author.
LikeLike
And the interpretation is all yours, dear.
LikeLike
Do Bishops get tested for HIV?
LikeLike
11:50 pm: An interesting question…after all.. they are only.. human…
LikeLike
There are bishops with HIV – even in Ireland.
LikeLike
10:21
In the context of issues highlighted on this blog over the last two and a half years, if there are bishops in Ireland with HIV, it might explain why some clerics are given a pass while others are shown the door.
LikeLike
Didn’t Pope Betty’s boyfriend Archbishop Ganswein have a stint in hospital with a mystery illness? I bet he was a go-er in his youth!
LikeLike
Abp. Viganò confirms Cdl. Ratzinger’s former secretary for 19 years was homosexual.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/abp-vigano-confirms-ratzingers-former-secretary-for-19-years-was-homosexual/
LikeLike
And the former secretary ‘investigated’ an Augustinian abbey that sounds like it was a continual orgy:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/recently-closed-sex-abuse-investigation-of-austrian-abbey-raises-questions-of-cover-up/
Truly there is no such thing as a good priest.
LikeLike
11:50pm Most of them shagging each other – sure who else would be bothered with them only desperate Rent boys with addiction & other issues. Makes for an easier life with the Bishop if clergy a notch on bedpost too. They only human after all, to each other anyway, we all read about what they do to those unfortunate or daft enough to go near them.
LikeLike
The honesty of this priest is admirable. Pat, this is an issue that must only be discussed without any person being allowed to express judgment, condemnation or to castigate any priest who is HIV +. There are very nasty peoole who will say: “It’s your own fault: you took a vow of celibacy..therefore you forfeited your sexuality…..you should be pure at all times…” A rubbish argument. Priests are human beings first and foremost and have sexual feelings and emotions which we cannot simply annex from our psyche. Yes, self control is a virtue to strive for but if a priest fails and falls and has HIV status, it is support, guidance, care and kindness he needs, not vulgar, vicious and unkind judgment. I would suspect that any person with HIV regrets their medical status and their lack of protection while in a sexual relationship. It is regrettable that in the Church the two big illnesses you daren’t share with the institution are mental and emotional struggles and HIV or STD’s…..It is possible that a bishop might want rid of you. This is morally wrong and sinful as a response. I wish this priest and others like him God’s blessings. So Pat, do not allow nasty trolls to gleefully and mockingly judge this priest. I trust you will be compassionate.
LikeLike
This is exactly what was said about paedophile priests.
Which bit of celibate don’t you understand? And – yes – you should be out on your ear after one fall. All the formation manuals before Vatican 2 told formators to get rid of men who weren’t celibate, who even masturbated.
Your attitude is the whole reason the church is in the mess it’s in. The clergy MUST live as they profess to do.
LikeLike
Pat at 10:17
There would be if sexual falls were one offs but they never are. You’ve referred in the past to the wankers’ confession at your seminary – surely nobody seriously believed they would never masturbate again?
The whole thing is pretend and repentance is built into it.
LikeLike
Is there no room for repentance and forgiveness?
Is there not a difference between a priest who sins and is sorry and determined not to sin again?
Is there not a difference between one “fall” and an ongoing sexual lifestyle.
Is there not a big difference between a priest having consensual sex with an adult and a priest abusing a child?
LikeLike
I wonder how many victims of CSA by paedophile priests were subsequently diagnosed with HIV as a direct result of sexual abuse?
LikeLike
10.12am: This is a very predictable argument. I do not advocate for indiscriminate, unaccountable and irresponsible behaviour of any kind, least of all sexual abuse, misdeeds or promiscuity. We have our norms, objectives and moral standards which we are called to live by as priests. I began ministry with the highest of ideals, determination and resolve to truly be CHRIST for others and to live by his gospel. I found myself ministering to many “failed, sinful” parishioners – though I didn’t see them in this way. I saw them as human beings capable of being renewed, changed and healed, their dignity as human beings affirmed over and over again. I encountered some very broken people, who, were I to judge them by canon law or the CCC, they’d have been outcast and isolated as lepers. The mind and heart of Jesus is the core value to have as a priest. This is not to condone any grevious sin, abuse or irresponsible behaviour. We see all too regrettably the results of harsh, cold, unfeeling and merciless judgments in the lives of too many. I thank God that I have failed and made mistakes and that I experienced much inner suffering through various life’s experiences. I thank God, that though sinful I bring a depth of human empathy, kindness and compassion to those who seek my help in their suffering. Your conflation of paedophile priests with those who are genuinely ill is disingenuous and misjudged. I hope you’re not a sanctimonious black and white minstrel!! We’ve had too many of your type, screaming and finger wagging from the altars. The damage done by hell, fire and dambation is irreversible. JESUS CHRIST must be the ONE we live by and he, thankfully, sees the many grey areas of our efforts to be perfect. “Here below is to live…and to be prrfect is to have changed often..” St. Cardinal Newman…I will never cease having to change until I become the person God wants me to be.
LikeLike
11:52
He never got around to reading the manual. 🕶️
LikeLike
11:52 No. What a stupid conclusion to draw
LikeLike
10.12
So it’s a post Vatican II issue because the manuals were obeyed? Really. What about Pope Leo XII (1823-1829)? Not quite two hundred years ago. Nuncio to Switzerland and Köln is alleged to have fathered three children.
LikeLike
Ah, I thought you would pretend I was conflating paedophile priests with any other.
No wonder you don’t understand the word celibate. Now take a deep breath and look up celibate.
LikeLike
This looks a proper mess. The church will some time have to be up front about the celibate rule and the rule that priests who masturbate should be chucked out as well. The two men in public life imo who I believe are truly celibate are Francis Brennan and Ronan Mullins. Have they a vocation to the celibate priesthood?
The message of Jesus is
Love one another as I have loved you.
Jesus explained this Love in the parables of the prodical son and the Good Samaritan.
An expert in law asked how he could have eternal life.
Jesus answered
Love God and Love people.
We can tell who the church is by observing that they have love for each other.Without love it is just a religious club.
Jesus also said that if you give everything away that you possess to the poor but have not love you gain nothing of salvation.
From this I am confused when in the heart of the matter programme Salvatore the SF archbishop was asked who inspired him. He answered the writings of Pope Benedict where salvation is obtained only by sacramental means.
Salvation is not achieved by showing kindness to our fellow man as we take away their dignity by offering kindness and love to them. By showing kindness and love we are expecting something good for ourselves in return so to reach eternal life it is only through the sacramental way. Is Pope Benedict contradicting Jesus parables of the good Samaritan?
It is confusing.
LikeLike
I have attended many ordinations in various capacities. All of them demanded continence of the candidates, heterosexual and homosexual.
Infection of any sexual activity is against those vows!!
What is going on with the priesthood??
Am I the only one who’s naive in these thoughts??
LikeLike
@ 12:21
Mrs Doyle, you are experiencing what Americans call being red pilled i.e. becoming enlightened to the truth about reality, especially a truth that is difficult to accept or exposes disillusions. You are being made aware of the truth of the culture within the Institutional Church. Keep the faith.
LikeLike
12.40: Your arguments are fatuous, unintelligent an uninformed. Think you need to return to the classroom..Yes, I’m truly celibate. Thank you.
LikeLike
12:49 Nobody reading your comments here can be in any doubt that you are truly celibate, nor of how happy it makes you and the peace you spread around you. 🤣
LikeLike
Horrible way to be treated by his Bishop. Is It no wonder there is a shortage of clergy. What are the odds of even making it to Ordination between being jumped by predators in Seminary and as a student being subject to all manner of opportunist abuse by the resident cabal. After Ordination, it’s pot luck on the Bishop front.
LikeLike
1:00 am: I knew a seminarian kicked out of seminary for missing a Sunday Mass while another seminarian, a predatory gay man known by the faculty to be sexually active while in seminary, was ordained.
LikeLike
+ Pat, in this blog, and in yesterday’s – HAD DLF GOT HIS OWN “DR MENGELE” NOW? – you have commented on the responsibilities that bishops have to their clergy.
But have you considered the duty of care that those bishops have to the laity of their dioceses?
I would have thought that bishops, as part of their responsibility to young people and vulnerable adults, had a duty to be constantly monitoring their clergy’s lifestyle and health so as to keep a sharp lookout for any danger signals that a priest might not be a fit and proper person to be in public ministry.
Have you taken that into account?
LikeLike
DLF is a vampire sucking the life from elderly priests.
LikeLike
If sent for psychological assessment at St Luke’s, they routinely carry out HIV testing and other medical tests. You have to consent to an HIV test, and I refused. They made a big fuss of my refusal and noted it in the report, but they can’t force you. Remember, by the time you’ve arrived at a place like that, you are dead to them. Please don’t give them any ammunition to shoot you down. I eventually left on my terms, but without giving them the satisfaction of knowing my personal medical history.
LikeLike
Your bishop is spiritually abusing you! You are vulnerable, and he isn’t acting like the prodigal son’s father. He doesn’t sound very Christ-like at all. 😔
LikeLike
6:28am that’s what members of an organisation formally identified as internationally recognised Mecca of abuse & humiliation do. Never done with committing various breaches of Human Rights to all & sundry.
LikeLike
Are they bullying HIV+ Priests?
Let me challenge the question.
… is the bishop merely chastising the priest for being sexually active? i.e. is the HIV+ priest treated on par with a priest who has a child? We have recently heard on this blog of a priest being removed from ministry for not sleeping with married parishioner. We have seen you chase several deacons who trace back to the Strange Goings On in Maynooth… you frequently post about The Daisy Chai
And similar groups.
HIV+ Priests most likely got HIV by having sex. Do you have a different rule for them because of how you caught HIV?
LikeLike
How many priests have AIDS in the world?
How many nuns raped by priests?
LikeLike
I think if a priest has contracted HIV etc then getting legal help is the least of your problem’s. Make peace with your God while you have the chance.
LikeLike
HIV is no longer a fatal illness !
LikeLike
It’s more manageable than diabetes. Do you lot forget? U = U
Some diabetes is reversible but most cases are not.
LikeLike
A bishop would be within his rights to discipline a priest breaking his ordination promises.
He would not be within his rights disciplining a priest for having a disability.
Nor would he have the right to discipline a priest who broke his promises in the past and who now confessed that breach and been forgiven by God.
LikeLike
@10.01
Can you reconcile that post with your blogs relating to Dublin, Kerry, Kilaloe, Armagh? Using your logic here the men who recently broke their promises but were reconciled would deserve time to exercise their renewal.
Your post shows the difference between your view on young men looking forwards v old men looking back. Hindsight is great foresight.
LikeLike
THG 11:41 is making a fair point.
Some padres who have had a lapse of the vow, have been roundly criticised over and over. Padres who allegedly have tested HIV positive then are being pardoned!
I suppose we are all walking and talking hypocrites on some level. Let he who has not been hypocritical, cast the first stone.
LikeLike
It is the straights that are acquiring HIV at higher rates than the gays now. The gays look after their sexual health and take it important.
LikeLike
The bishops will figure that out at the Council of Worms in 2345
LikeLike
The usual ignorant hate filled regurgitation by a troll seeing what he can get away with.
LikeLike
@1.35
That may be a reflection on how slow tge church develops its outlook
LikeLike
Pat, I am glad you raise awareness of hiv and reduce the stigma. A great advocate.
LikeLike
There are more priests and others living with HIV than people realise.
The real danger is that 25% of those with the illness do not know they have it.
A married man, totally heterosexual, I knew, who was refused sex by his wife used to visit “damas de la noche” in Dublin.
At the age of 60 he developed pneumonia and died within days.
His wife accused the doctor of not looking after her husband better. The doctor
Replied: “Mrs ……… your husband had no immune system left”.
LikeLike
+Pat, Do you know of any heterosexual priests in stable relationships with their female housekeepers, and fathering children, in Britain or Ireland?
I remember reading that such situations are not unusual in the Philippines.
LikeLike
Pat I am a priest and I am hiv+ and I think you talking about it in such a negative way maintains the stigma that is still surrounded by it.
Anyone with hiv, should not be afraid to say they are, much like if you were diabetic.
There was a young woman a few years ago on the BBC News who wanted to reduce the stigma of her and others having hiv.
So they interviewed her.
She never showed her face, her real name and had a voice actor.
How does that reduce the stigma? It didn’t – it maintained and heightened it.
LikeLike
Dermot Farrell is evil
Karma will catch up with him
He will be cast out and be back with Ledwith in no time.
LikeLike
Are you a priest?
LikeLike
@9.07 am
Indeed he will reap the seeds which he has sown. All actions have consequences.
LikeLike
Pat you are very quick to criticize to condemn other Priests and more so Ger, Stephen and many others.
However I do not see your commendation for the clergy that you seem to know all with HIV and I lost a Friend to HIV and he was not a Priest.
So I have nothing against HIV what I have is the Clergy the same as Ger and company who have ALL broken their Ordinations vows.
Really they should have resigned.
Employment Law states that you should complete your medical questionaries’ as Honestly as possible however the clergy with HIV are LIARS.
The Preachers who are HIV lecturing the Laity.
They should have resigned.
If I knew like many Roman Catholic knew our Priest was HIV or breaking his vows we would all go to another parish.
They should hang their head in shame not for being HIV but for breaking their vows and renew them at Chrism Mass they should not turn up at that as they are LIARS.
LikeLike
9.15
When you mention “the Preachers who are lecturing….” are you referring to the Order of Preachers?
LikeLike
When I reported to Noel Treanor I wanted to leave post, I told him about rumours that were circulating of colleagues having sex with each other, his response, “there is nothing I can do to stop that and I have no proof”.
LikeLike
He doesn’t care what his lot are up to as long as Pat does not catch them on
LikeLike
And they moan on here that nobody believes anything they say. 🤣
LikeLike
9.18
And that cranks like you rabbit on about Jesus’ intentions.
LikeLike
Leave me out of it – this has nothing to do with my intentions.
LikeLike
He shouldn’t be bullied or discriminated against for having HIV, obviously. But, unless the priest was born with it or got it from a blood transfusion before they were screened, surely the usual means of transmission – drug use or sex – mean there’s something not OK?
It’s always being highlighted here how the bishops don’t shepherd the clergy but here he should be concerned.
What in your view should the bishop do out of his concern for the priest?
LikeLike
I think the bishop should talk to the priest and offer him support and kindness.
The bishop should also ask him if he breaking his celibacy promise.
Breaching celibacy is grounds for dismissal.
Having a perfectly manageable illness is not.
LikeLike
Thank you. I’m a bit confused here because even without persecuting the priest or discriminating surely there would be grounds to start laicization in most cases?
Another good reason for priests not to tell the bishop the truth.
LikeLike
Pat, I’m slightly confused about your principled stand re: disclosing of medical status to bishop or anyone else. To me such formation is strictly confidential, whatever the nature of the illness or diagnosis. It is entirely the choice of the ill person to disclose to whomever he chooses and when appropriate. Obviously when an illness impacts our work, we may need to inform our employer but the disclosure of a diagnosis is the sole prerogative of the patient. Only in very rare situations might a diagnosis be sought or vital to an assessment of an individual I accept your principled stand on this. Yet, in some of the issues discussed about certain priests and others, haven’t you referenced their medical realities and allowed horrendous mockery of these people, almost bringing some to absolute despair, sickness and depression? Naming wrong doing and moral decay in others does not give anyone total freedom to disclose their personal illnesses or medical status. Information about many priests has flown like confetti on this blog accompanied by denigratory, inflammatory and abusive commentary. When we are discussing the sickness of others – moral, emotional, mental and physical – we must exercise great prudence, understanding, kindness and compassion. Where criminal behaviour is concerned, the civil courts respond.
LikeLike
I have read the past few posts as indicating an unclear boundary between the bishop’s pastoral care for the priest and his becoming a manager of the priest, and the difficulty of deciding what to disclose because information might be misused against you.
It’s a huge mess.
And will doubtless explode in the church’s face in some way in the future.
LikeLike
Pat, any idea of the monastery mentioned in the priests email ?
LikeLike
No. I will ask him.
LikeLike
There is a reason priests are more susceptible to HIV and Sti’s. My observations over the last number of years focus on the behaviour. Many priests have not integrated their sexuality in their lives. Therefore their sex practices are more likely to be induced by alcohol or drugs and desperation. I know a priest who was celibate for most of the year in Ireland but when he travelled he would go to predominately gay destinations. He would need so much alcohol for confidence that he would get blackout drunk. He would wake up in saunas and clubs not having any recollection of who he had sex with. Many took advantage of him in a vulnerable state and did not wear condoms. This was the only way this priest could have sex (he was sexually stunted). Sure enough, he did test positive for HIV. His Bishop does not know, his parishioners do not know, only some of his friends. I have seen this case many times. Many priests are abusing themselves because they cannot relate to adults in sexually mature way. Their sex practices are more in line with gay men of the 80’s at the height of the AIDS pandemic. They go to extremes to get sex and thus put their health at risk – saunas, truck stops, toilets, parks, online hook ups, group sex, chem sex parties, sex holidays etc.
Priests are also less likely to get tested for HIV because of the shame associated with it. If you are a priest from a rural town then you cannot go to your local doctor or medical facility. I know many priests who had the virus but did not know for many years. They also put many others at risk of infection and I am sure they have infected others.
Priests of Ireland and the UK need to be sexually liberated from the bonds of Celibacy. It is life or death.
LikeLike
If you consumed that amount of alcohol you couldn’t get it up at all let alone engage in sex. Get real.
LikeLike
That’s not true especially for younger men.
I know of many priests who only go on Grindr after taking some alcohol.
LikeLike
How can i explain this gently; he was in receivership.
LikeLike
An excellent comment.
LikeLike
@ 10.39 Simply the greatest comment of 2022 thus far. Well done ✅
LikeLike
Spot on.
However you have perhaps without meaning to excellently articulated the reason that ‘celibate’ clergy cannot be trusted. And you refer to liberation from celibacy – however celibacy is a bond(age) they have freely undertaken as adults. Since they can’t live it they need to man up and go off to grow up until they can live with their sexuality in a mature way.
Because responsible adults speak up and do something about it if they can’t live up to the obligations they’ve undertaken.
LikeLike
Pat, yes. This is why you are a good priest. Because you know that and have dealt with it.
The majority of priests don’t do that. Yes we know the church treats people badly but they need to act like grown ups and get out of their annulled marriages!
You’ve reminded me of how my mother had her first marriage (in the fifties) annulled and the tribunal bizarrely told her they thought her husband was a homosexual but didn’t tell him. She told me to stop laughing and (they were still in contact) I asked her what she thought the ‘friend’ he lived with was really. 😂
She was even more deranged when I said it was just like Cary Grant!
LikeLike
At 24, when I was ordained, I was a very immature young man, with no real experience of life. I had not come anywhere near the integration of my sexuality with my life.
If I entered marriage like that it would be grounds for an annulment.
LikeLike
What does a young man confined in a homosocial environment for six or seven years know experientially of life and how can he be in position to make a supposedly freely chosen life-long promise of celibacy?
LikeLike
Nobody has any right to access or know health information about another person. Not even health officials. It is up to the individual to disclose what they want.
LikeLike
If you think health officials do not share information ‘off the record’ with third parties you are extremely naive.
LikeLike
You can not be laicised because you have hiv. It is not only sexually transmitted. Upon a diagnosis of hiv, under the DDA 1995, a person is defined as having a disability whether they are impacted by it or not. To laicise a priest on those grounds would be in breach of this act.
LikeLike
Since when had the RCC bothered to concern itself about the DDA? They would find other ways of managing you of the organisation.
LikeLike
Pat
Do you think Mark Moriarty is suitable for ordination?
LikeLike
Mullaney failed to disclose how many past and current seminarians tested positive for HIV
LikeLike
What a strange thing it is – a sexually active gay bishop dismissing a sexually active gay priest 😞
LikeLike
But united in hypocrisy, your excellence. 🤣
LikeLike
Strange goings on Pat. I do hope Ryan McAleer and Stephen Wilson do get tested for HIV and STD’s.
LikeLike
9.41
Whey would his Grace Archbishop Eamon Martin ask Deacon Stephen to get an HIV test after all this time.
The allegations against him have not stood up just like the accusers will not meet with anyone from the Dioceses they wish to remain anonymous however you cannot in such serious accusations.
So come along to the joyful ordinations (Stephen and Colm) on Sunday 26th at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral or watch it online.
You still have four weeks left to come forward.
LikeLike
I’m looking forward to this one exploding in their faces in years to come.
Nobody has a right to be ordained and this whining excuse that it isn’t proven is rubbish.
Out here in the real world you’re not obliged to employ someone even if you just don’t want to (not for discrimination etc and as long as you’ve advertised the job).
LikeLike
Was one acquainted with Big Mick Lomasney who succumbed to the illness?
LikeLike
Disgusting – leave them alone – their lovers can get tested
LikeLike
10:36: Why not have him tested considering the controversy surrounding the individual?
LikeLike
Can an objection be made in public during the ordination ceremony?
LikeLike
There’s no such a thing as STD’s anymore. Antiquated archaic language highlights your ignoramus mind as I highlighted to another ignoramus which may be probably you again.
LikeLike
The church teaches that intercourse is solely for reproduction and solely in marriage. Therefore priests who won’t play by the rules should have communion withheld.
LikeLike
11.33
The church has never taught that. That is a caricature of the church’s position. Augustine put forward three reasons or ‘bona” of marriage. Educate yourself on what they may be about.,
LikeLike
Ah, I knew the ‘you don’t understand’ deflection would come out.
Come on, guys, I’ve nearly filled my deflection bingo card already.
LikeLike
🤢
LikeLike
12.35
Very unchristian to have a wish that celebrates someones down fall should it ever happen please God never.
It costs 30 -40 thousands euros or similar in pounds per year for a seminarian so it is a lot of money invested to get no return would be shocking.
It is the Laity that pays for seminarians not a Dioceses.
LikeLike
Every time a priest ‘falls’ publicly I am delighted. More fool the sheep for giving money to be spent on jock straps and lube.
LikeLike
Two sentences stand out from that priests letter:
“At a time in my life I was sexually active with two priests and a lay man.”
&
“I also like being a priest and do not want to be dismissed.”
This having it all attitude is the root of many problems in the priesthood today. A man who was having several partners is unsuited to be a priest. It is not simply a question of an individual priest personally being fulfilled by being a priest, but whether he fulfills what the Church is entitled to expect from its ordained members. It’s a public office in the Church, funded by the flock. It’s not a hobby or about the priest’s personal feelings or enjoyment.
LikeLike
12.24
He wasn’t permitted to have one full-time partner.
LikeLike
So had several. Thanks for confirming the moral inadequacy and emotional stunting of the priesthood. 🤣
LikeLike
He was permitted to have a partner but not at the same time as being a priest.
LikeLike
According to Martel active homosexuality is rife in the RC priesthood hardly surprising that AIDS is part of that picture.
Interesting to think that bishops have AIDS
Cardinal Trujillo died of pulmonary related disease – code for AIDS.
LikeLike
From Wikipedia:
An article (republished from The Telegraph, UK) in The Sydney Morning Herald stated, referring to Frédéric Martel’s book In the Closet of the Vatican, “According to the book, a leading figure in this hidden world was Alfonso López Trujillo, a Colombian cardinal who in public was stridently anti-gay and pro-family but in private slept with male prostitutes.” A further article in The New York Times reviewing Martel’s book suggests Trujillo “prowled the ranks of seminarians and young priests for men to seduce” and “routinely hired male prostitutes, sometimes beating them up after sex”.
LikeLike
The crux of where our problems lie @3:08 mins;
LikeLike
Pro tip: if your husband keeps cheating on you and whining about forgiveness and being given a second chance, it says all you need to know about him and the only way ahead is divorce.
LikeLike
One strike and you’re out is the only way in a marriage. If they cheat once they’ll cheat again and the trust is gone.
LikeLike
Yes. Previous behaviour is always the best indicator of future behaviour.
LikeLike
No room for change?
LikeLike
I meant to say some, but by no means all, of the old timers (as they are called in AA groups) drink again. However most of the long-term sober AA members stay sober. They are the survivors. You need the patience of a saint to deal with addicts.
LikeLike
1:38
Previous behaviour is the best predictor regardless of intent. Intent to change and likelihood of change can also be predicted using other variables including motivation and attitude to previous acts.
However the reality is humans tend to keep on doing the same things. Exactly like St Paul puts it.
The problem for Christianity of all stripes is that it fails to take this into account.
When you watch those videos where paedophile hunters catch them it is striking how they ALL say it will never happen again. This is clearly not how it works, and the problem is that Christianity tends to stress the possibility of change too much over the likelihood of not changing.
I know you’ve worked with addicts – you will have heard them say how they intend to stop but then use again. That’s how it works for these priests.
Incidentally change is better predicted by people acknowledging that they can’t change rather than rambling on about second chances and forgiveness cf quite a few of the comments today!!!!
LikeLike
I respect your well argued comment.
Only a small number of the addicts I worked with did not return to their addiction.
LikeLike
Very true, Pat, about addiction. Anyone who’s been to AA meetings for any length of time knows that in each AA group there is a small core (5-10%) of the membership who have been sober for a long time, decades even. As for the rest, there is a massive turnover of contrite drinkers who attend for a few months or a couple of years, and then they go off drinking again. Even the old timers, the long-term sober, succumb again. Addiction is a very powerful thing.
LikeLike
I’ve also had the pleasure of detoxing a heroine addict here in my home and he has stayed clean for 10 plus tears now.
LikeLike
I wonder if many of Larne’s loyalists have travelled to Belfast today for the monster rally in Stormont and big march to Belfast to mark NI’s centenary and to protest against the damaging Protocol? The train from Coleraine to Belfast was full to the throat with PUL people with a determined look about them.
LikeLike
I’m sure they have.
LikeLike
How does a band get on a train with all their equipment etc? If they are just spectators what’s the nearest train stop at Stormont?
LikeLike
They got off at Lanyon Place station in Belfast and either stay there and wait for the march to arrive there, or they took one of the free shuttle buses to Stormont.
LikeLike
Damas’ de la noche practice safe sex and any client who insists on bareback is refused – rarely do men contract AIDS from a lady of the night more likely another illicit encounter.
LikeLike
How do you know that ALL damas de la noche practice safe sex?
LikeLike
Pat I do keep pointing out to you that many commenters are motivated by making the blog impossible to read. That’s why you get so many nonsensical or just plain bigoted comments.
LikeLike
AIDS can be contracted via needles and blood transfusion not just unprotected sex.
I read that STDs entered the human via the route of human v animal sex – AIDS was monkeys.
Douglas Murray in the this weeks Spectator refers to a case in India where 4 men raped a lizard!!
Monkey pox is a human v animal route and is emerging as a new sexually transmitted disease.
LikeLike
Why did you think publishing this stupid comment would be a good idea, Pat?
LikeLike
Stupidity is not always a reason to ban 😀
LikeLike
And what impression did you intend to give to your readers?
LikeLike
To let them make up their own minds.
LikeLike
Make up their own minds about your inability to screen comments? Because I’ve got a brilliant one about when I was married to a horse…
LikeLike
I know that Dames de la Noche practice safe sex because to risk an infection is to risk loss of income – it’s a transaction after all.
I worked in a STD clinic and can assure you that sex workers are diligent regarding this issue.
More likely a married man would get an infection or AIDS via a civilian encounter like a one night stand than with a harlot.
LikeLike
@1.57pm You are a classic fraud. If you had worked in such a clinic it would have beem referred to differently a long time ago. Keep up
LikeLike
1:57 obviously worked in the clinic sweeping the floors circa 1957.
LikeLike
Recently I had reason to speak to a lady sex worker in her 30s who is HIV+. She was obviously not always careful.
LikeLike
@3.06 pm
Haha that did make me laugh.
LikeLike
I wonder if your sex worker friend meant bareback vaginal sex or OWO – OWO is technically unprotected sex but a risk or price many sex workers are prepared to pay/risk: however rare is the sex worker who offers bareback vaginal sex these days.
All I’m saying is, sex workers, dames da la noche, contrary to popular myth, are (on the whole) more rigorous about their own sexual health and their clients health, than say a one night stand.
Sex workers who offer bareback sex are soon identified by co workers and punters alike and as they are a danger to themselves and others.
Your bereaved widow might believe her husbands infection was transmitted through his encounter with a whore but it might equally have been a one night stand or similar encounter.
My experience is that professional sex workers are suoer diligent regarding sexual health civilians less so.
Of course, accidents do happen!!!
LikeLike
A sex worker who is HIV positive would be avoided like the plague and is probably an ex sex worker – a sex worker with AIDS is an oxymoron.
LikeLike
Another idiotic comment. Try reading up the page a bit to see why your comment is moronic.
If you can.
LikeLike
You mean like a priest who isn’t celibate, right?
LikeLike
No priests are celibate
LikeLike
3.03pm
Do you know, I did just that, read up the page a bit, just as you so graciously and kindly. suggested, I get the oxy part but wonder if the moronic is reserved just for you.
LikeLike
Oxy? You could definitely do with a good clean.
LikeLike
Most bishops are bullies. But then again their priests learn that this behaviour is acceptable and become bullies themselves . Best thing the RCC could do is close the doors and fade away into oblivion
LikeLiked by 1 person
Anti Bully.
I sadly would never have believed that Bishops are bullies and have their chosen few.
Bunty Bill Nolan has placed the lance straight into the Cathedral Administrator Canon Sharkey and is moving him out for one of the daisy chain hosts Andrea.
Canon Sharkey bailed Archbishop Philip out when he came back from Scots College to replace the last Cathedral Administrator whose teenage daughter turned up at the Curia Offices.Canon Sharkey deserves better treatment but But like Andrea and Pauline.
Ruthless Bunty.
LikeLike
Are there others on the move ?
Maybe + Bill reads the blog after all …..
LikeLike
Who is replacing sharkey?
LikeLike
1.18pm
Er.weirdly I feel flattered, not only am I a fraud but I’m apparently a classic one – as Luther said ‘if your gonna sin, sin boldly’ or indeed classically.
Er, given you don’t (nay can’t) know my age aren’t you rather quick to judge the veracity of my story – I did indeed work in a clinic which treated sexually transmitted diseases – for which I deserve a big clap.
LikeLike
7.57
Canon Andrew McKenzie from St. Joseph’s Tollcross
Not till 2nd September.
Canon Sharkey is going to Clydebank in place of Canon Tartaglia but Canon Sharkey will likely not like the folk band that plays on Sunday’s
LikeLike
3.04pm
And what’s wrong with sweeping a floor?
1957? How very dare you!!
LikeLike
Nothing wrong. And I knew it from your utter ignorance about any clinical matter.
I apologize about the year, it was of course 1956.
LikeLike
3.29: The intelligence of a low lifer…Do fade away, hater!! Haters are worse than useless.
LikeLike
The new Archbishop elect of Cardiff, when asked, said, “Fr Patrick Buckley was incardinated into Cardiff but not fully”. Since your excommunication Pat he seems to suggest they have no more responsibility for you.
LikeLike
4.33
I understand the Archbishop Elect is seeking clarification from the Holy See on the situation as he being asked by the Irish, Scottish, English and Welsh Bishops.
Bishop pat is like many of the independent Clergy on their own and nothing to do with the Holy Catholic Church.
The only difference is Bishop Pat has his matrimonial home supplied by the Diocese of Down and Connor.
LikeLike
You’re both idiots. Haven’t you noticed he’s been excommunicated. 🤣
What a legend.
LikeLike
The Redemptorists have so many members that are HIV+ but that’s because they like to keep things to themselves.
LikeLike
I’m not surprised to read about Redemptorists. I was discerning priesthood in the 90s and attended ‘come and see’ weekends. Those guys were like dogs in heat. I had sex with one of them. He was a regular in the Horse and Carriage, Inn on the Liffey and the Boiler House. There was also a moral theologian/priest from another order who was always in the boiler house.
LikeLike
4.56: Can you validate that accusation whuch is scurrilous? Give facts and your sources for statistics. Be brave. Be morally courageous.
LikeLike
It’s privileged confidential information and can’t be released to the likes of you, 6:46.
LikeLike
Is this month of May spring or summer? Lá breá samhraidh a bhí ann. Go hálainn ar fad! 😎
The world will be a better place, if people will pray just one decade of the rosary in this month of May. On this Saturday, it is Joyful! 🙏
ST. MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL
Saint Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle,
be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil;
may God rebuke him, we humbly pray;
and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host,
by the power of God, cast into hell
Satan and all the evil spirits
who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.
Pax
LikeLike
The answer is yes and no One does not need to be HIV to be bullied by a bishop. Many bishops can be as flexible as a cowboy saloon door Padre
LikeLike
There’s no need for it, Bp Pat, not nowadays, what with PreP widely available, even free in Scotland.
LikeLike
The Scottish pulpit poofs are well provided for, Bp Pat, we can be thankful for that at least.
LikeLike
Are these the same as the daisy chain ?
LikeLike
‘A married man would get AIDS via a civilian encounter like a one night stand than with a harlot.’ at 1:57.
Howling with laughter.
Don’t die of ignorance, 1:57. 🤣
LikeLike
I see Cardinal Sodano in the Vatican RIP. This blog could donate a month of blogs to this crook. Abuse cover ups.. money.. legionnaires of Christ.. abuse of power .. the list is endless…
LikeLike