``They are on a witch hunt,'' said a gay priest who says Mass for a group of gay Catholics called Dignity meeting at a Congregational Church in downtown Columbus two Sunday evenings a month.

He has been a priest for 20 years. But he refuses to give his name over the phone. He refuses to even say in which diocese he serves, though diocesan officials know that he is gay and that he ministers to Dignity.

The child sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church has put the issue of homosexuality in the spotlight. The most notorious of the accused abusers -- John Geoghan and Paul R. Shanley of the Boston Archdiocese -- have been gay priests charged with molesting or raping young boys.

In March, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, spokesman for Pope John Paul II, questioned the ordination of gays. ``People with these inclinations just cannot be ordained,'' he told the New York Times.

Last month, Bishop Wilton Gregory, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was widely quoted as saying that the Catholic priesthood should not be dominated by homosexual men.

``Gay priests have been carrying out the church's work for decades,'' said Marianne Duddy, executive director of Dignity USA, a national organization representing gay, lesbian and transgender Catholics. ``They've preached the Gospel, visited the sick, comforted the dying and the grieving, celebrated marriages, baptized children -- all the things faithful Catholics hope for from their pastors.

``Now, when the church faces a crisis, its leaders are willing to sacrifice these good men. How is that a Christian approach?''

Meg Bechter, a 28-year-old Cuyahoga Falls resident, senior psychology major at the University of Akron and employee of Children's Hospital Medical Center of Akron, is a lifelong, devout Catholic, a faithful member of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Cuyahoga Falls. She also is a lesbian.

``The idea of a backlash against gays and lesbians because of recent events does scare me,'' she said. ``But then I think, `How much worse can it get?' ''

Though Catholic doctrine does not say that it is wrong to be a homosexual, it does say that it is a sin to engage in a homosexual relationship.

Bechter said she came to terms with her sexuality when she was being treated for depression at an area hospital several years ago.

Bechter said she considers herself fortunate because she has a supportive family. She is also part of a diocese-sponsored support group for gays and lesbians.

She believes the clergy scandal has opened up a frank discussion about the topic of homosexuality within the church and that could lead to changes in church doctrine.

``We can't erase the shame until people start talking,'' she said. ``I hope the church will welcome and acknowledge its gay clergy, which will lead to gay clergy being able to openly minster to gay Catholics.''

Gay people, she said, ``are ordinary men and women carrying on ordinary lives.''

One reason the issue of homosexuality in the church is so sensitive is the number of priests who are gay.

Estimates on that number range from percentages in the single digits to as high as 60 percent. Within the general population, such estimates range no higher than 10 percent.

A.W. Richard Sipe, a former priest from La Jolla, Calif., a retired therapist and the author of Sex, Priests and Power: Anatomy of a Crisis, has studied sexuality and the priesthood for 42 years. His research indicates that 30 percent of priests are likely to be homosexual.

``The gay Catholic community is rightfully indignant at some of the church's statements,'' Sipe said, ``and, in fact, a good number of good Catholic priests who are homosexual in orientation have told me how wounded they feel, that they have given their whole life to the church and have been celibate and the church labels them as intrinsically defective.''

The Rev. Donald Cozzens, a Cleveland native and the former president rector of St. Mary Seminary in Wickliffe, said the current climate makes for a difficult time for celibate gay priests.

``For the celibate gay priest today, who is paddling as hard as he can as all priests are at this painful time, the church teaches the orientation is objectively disordered and not the person,'' said Cozzens, the author of The Changing Face of the Priesthood: A Reflection on the Priest's Crisis of Soul. ``That is a hard thing for any gay person to deal with and it can be hard for a gay priest to deal with.''

Cozzens, who sets the number of gay priests at ``considerably more than 8 to 10 percent,'' thinks that good ultimately will come out of the current scandal.

``The priesthood will be healthier and purified,'' he said, ``and the church will be stronger.''

For several years, the Cleveland Diocese has been reaching out to gays and lesbians by holding support group meetings for them, their friends and families.

Sister Rita Mary Harwood, diocese secretary for Parish Life and Development, whose office coordinates gay outreach, said the church needs to offer understanding and pastoral care to its homosexual brothers and sisters.

``The church calls all of us to live a chaste life and outside of marriage to live a celibate life,'' she said. ``And just as the church calls a heterosexual person to refrain from sexual relations outside of marriage, it also calls a homosexual person to refrain from sexual relations.

``The church calls us as a faith community to respect, compassion and sensitivity to persons with a homosexual orientation and says any discrimination in that regard is wrong.''

Harwood said there is much confusion among people in the church and elsewhere over the issue of child sexual abuse.

``It seems that people are equating that with a homosexual orientation, which is not correct,'' she said. ``The information that is available indicates it is not more likely for a homosexual person to have difficulty with sexual abuse any more than it would be for a heterosexual person.''

That confusion, she said, ``causes great concern for persons who have a homosexual orientation.''

The Rev. Norman Douglas, executive director of Heart to Heart Communications, started ministering to gays and lesbians and their families when he was pastor at St. Martha Church in Akron seven years ago.

As part of the diocesan outreach to gays, Douglas now heads support groups for families of gay Catholics.

Their main concern is that people don't confuse pedophilia or abuse of minors with homosexuality, he said.

Someone who is gay or lesbian ``is no more likely to be a pedophile than someone who is straight,'' Douglas said.

Robert Tayek, spokesman for the Cleveland Diocese, said diocesan officials received about two dozen e-mails earlier this month questioning the church's gay and lesbian outreach.

Tayek said it appeared to him that the campaign may have been orchestrated because all the e-mails had the same type of message.

``Why would the diocese be promoting gay and lesbian events when the catecism and the pope have clearly stated this is behavior not to be tolerated?'' one e-mail said. ``Why would you even post the meetings on your website.''

Tayek said the church's position on homosexuality was spelled out clearly in a 1997 statement from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops called ``Always Our Children -- A Pastoral Message to Parents of Homosexual Children.''

Though at times you may feel discouraged, hurt or angry, the statement to the parents said, ``do not walk away from your families, from the Christian community, from all those who love you. In you, God's love is revealed. You are always our children.''

Cleveland resident Brian Halderman is a faithful Catholic who plans to join the Marianist religious order -- the Society of Mary -- this summer as an openly gay man.

``Silence is violence on this issue,'' said the 25-year-old Halderman, a member of Ascension Catholic Church in Cleveland. ``Part of the body of Christ is gay, whether you like it or not.''

Halderman, who works for the Cleveland Diocese as the technology utilization manager in its secretariat for education, said he is bothered by conservative members of the church who believe gay Catholics are promoting a homosexual agenda.

``I have no other agenda than that of the gospel and my work is to build the kingdom,'' said Halderman, who is part of a Cleveland Diocese-sponsored support group for gays and lesbians.

``If we all stayed focused on loving one another and building the kingdom here on Earth, we would live in a better church and a better world.''

What on earth is this idiot ex-priest/therapist talking about? Celibacy (forgoing marriage) has nothing to do with these priests -- chastity is the issue. And, beyond that, Sipe doesn't seem to realize that a "good priest," as he puts it, does not "orient" himself around an abomination.

the church labels them as intrinsically defective.

All have crosses to bear. If a priest or anyone else bases his identity in his homo- or hetero-sexuality then he is not bearing his. A priest who advertises his sexuality has misinterpreted his calling. I do not know the sexual orientation of any of the priests I have known. It is not the focus of their lives. They have no need to discuss it or "act out." They are priests. A homosexual priest who gravitates toward Dignity is flaunting his sexuality. It IS his identity. He has a problem that he has not overcome. He is not avoiding "near occasions of sin."

I'm not for a witch hunt of homosexuals in the Church. BUT - it's crazy to have a church with huge numbers of homosexual men. This has led to seminaries turned into homosexual brothels, with commonplace rampant promiscous homosexual sex occurring in them. (I recently read about a survey of homosexual priests in which only 3% or so claimed to be chaste - and the stories coming out about seminaries are frightening.) Though not all homosexual men abuse teenage boys, a high enough percentage of them do TO HAVE CREATED THIS ENTIRE CRISIS. Finally, what parent in their right mind can let their teenage boys be in close quarters with a priest today, or think that their sons will necessarily be getting a solid grounding in Catholic sexual morality from their priest? When I (and millions of other parents) cannot trust their priests around their children, something needs to change. We are taught to show love and compassion for homosexuals (despite their disordered sexuality) as for anyone else. That does not mean that it's a good idea to have a highly homosexual priesthood. It's not.

Harwood said there is much confusion among people in the church and elsewhere over the issue of child sexual abuse.

There should be no confusion among people in the church, over this issue. There should be no confusion among people in the church, gay or straight over this issue.

That there IS or APPEARS to be confusion, will continue to hurt the catholic church. I am not catholic, but my wife is. She completely agrees.

This is ridiculous. A minority of priests who are homosexual have perpetrated 95% of these molestations against teenage boys. Ipso facto, it's quite clear that homosexual priests have had far, far, far more difficulty keeping themselves away from teenagers than have heterosexual priests. It's absurd not to admit the obvious.

IMHO, very well said.

This guy Halderman is an arrogant ass and intends to bring his active Homosexual lifestyle into the priesthood,will he bring Aids too???

His Bishop and the Priest in charge of the Seminary should be defrocked if this idiot becomes a priest.

Homosexuals are trying to bring their teachings of the Homosexual lifestyle into the public schools for dissemination to children as young as 3rd and 4th grade.

They also want to teach the mechanics of Homosexual sex to these children as if it is a normal lifestyle.

I really can't believe this guy Halderman is so Brazen as to push his aberrant lifestyle at this point in time.

Sorry for naive question, if priest is a gay should he be celibate too ?

The Church teaches, quite simply, that sex is a gift to be used only in the bonds of marriage. A priest is not married, therefore he should not be having sexual relations with anyone. Whether he would like to do it with men or women is beside the point. Sexual activity outside of marriage is strictly verboten.

Celibacy: The condition or state of life of an unmarried person, particularly of one who vows never to marry.

Chastity: Never voluntarily having had sexual intercourse.

You are correct in noting the difference.

Sister Rita Mary Harwood: ``The church calls all of us to live a chaste life and outside of marriage to live a celibate life,'' she said. ``And just as the church calls a heterosexual person to refrain from sexual relations outside of marriage, it also calls a homosexual person to refrain from sexual relations.''

I don't normally agree with these outreach groups because they do tend to say it is okay to be gay since God made you that way. However, what Sister Rita is saying is what the Church does say. She does seem to correctly grasp that an inclination to be attracted to the same sex is not the same as acting on it. Gays are not to engage in homosexual relations and if the outreach programs help parishioners struggling to lead chaste lives then it is fine. Sipe, however, seems to have a problem with the Church saying homosexuality is wrong and priests should not be identifying themselves with that lifestyle.

``They are on a witch hunt,'' said a gay priest who says Mass for a group of gay Catholics called Dignity meeting at a Congregational Church in downtown Columbus two Sunday evenings a month.
Dignity is meeting in a Congregational Church because Dignity has been banned from Catholic churches. The only approved Catholic ministry to those with same-sex attractions is Courage.

The Catholic men and women of Courage lead chaste lives in accordance with the Church's traditional teaching that homosexual acts are intrinsically evil, and do not even identify with themselves as "gay." Anyone identifying him/herself as a "gay Catholic" is shilling for the "gay activist" and are about as Catholic as "Catholics for Choice."

"Gay people, she said, ``are ordinary men and women carrying on ordinary lives.''"

HOMOSEXUAL AGENDA-Part I! How can sexually active Christian homosexuals, especially Catholics, consider themselves " ordinary men and women carrying on ordinary lives". They not only ignore the teachings of the Church, but the Bible too. This is like a married person having sex outside of marriage as a part of his/her normal ordinary everyday lifestyle. Both are sins, neither of which can receive forgiveness if continued as "normal", the difference is that homosexuality is concidered abnormal.

Homosexual Christian=Oxymoron

Either you abide by the covenant of faith or find another religion. You simply cannot be homosexual and Christian. Homosexuality is explicitly condemned in Christianity. It's condemned by nature itself.

I posted this before in response to someone who suggested that homosexuality was natural and occured within the animal kingdom, as if it were an excuse for perversion.

And yet Creation allows for homosexual behavior in the animal kingdom. Why?

Allow me to summarize the concept of homosexual behavior in the animal kingdom.

EXTINCTION

Yes, the great mechanism that Darwinists everywhere have embraced as a means to dispose of "that which is unfit to exist" or "that which should not survive". The great purge of the obscure, obsolete and useless. Making space and freeing up resources for those organisms that function properly and effectively within the natural order of life.

Extinction : The great tool by which all of nature's failures are erased.

Perhaps we should revisit exactly what occured with the Dinosaurs. Did Mr. T-rex suddenly lose interest in Ms. T-Rex? Was that giant meteor thing just a big sham? Is this yet another dark secret being guarded by the militant homosexual mafia? Inquiring minds want to know!

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