Suit Charges Seminary With Pro-Gay Teachings

Newsday ^ | January 21, 2003 | Carol Eisenberg

[Polycarp]

A former seminary student has filed a $2 million lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, Bishop William Murphy and top officials of its seminary, charging they promoted what he called "pro-homosexual? teachings in contradiction to authentic Roman Catholic doctrine.

William Downey, a 57-year-old retired Manhasset businessmen, said he was expelled from the master's in theology program for lay men and women at the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Huntington after threatening to publicize his complaints that the seminary was teaching now-discredited moral ideas. He also complained that professors distributed what he described as "lewd and pro-homosexual materials,? including a pamphlet advertising books that affirmed gay and lesbian Christians.

[Polycarp]

pinging

[Polycarp]

When this auto-excerpted, it came out as one big paragraph, so I inserted tags for paragraphs. Now the entire article posted. Could you edit it to proper excerpt standards? Thanks.

[ArrogantBustard]

"We stand behind the seminary,” Novarro said. "It's a fine place.”

A fine place for what? Apparently not a fine place for learning authentic Catholic theology.

[VMI70]

"For our seminary to teach notions that run contrary to authentic Catholic theology, in fact to teach a condemned heresy that permits one who molests children to sleep at night, has created the conditions under which the sex scandal is a natural byproduct,”

"...condemned heresy..." Not to be picky but isn't this akin to a double negative?

[ArrogantBustard]

It's more of a redundancy.

[CanisMajor2002]

What legal grounds exist for this suit, that the courts must be involved? Fraud?

[Kryptonite]

But a liberal theologian, the Rev. Richard McBrien at the University of Notre Dame, said he found Downey's arguments lacking in credibility.

"The fact that it's taught doesn't mean the program was in violation of church teachings,” McBrien said. "Based on my experience, when a student complains about being thrown out because of his orthodox views, it's almost always for other reasons.”

Just wonderful. There is no reason whatsoever to believe this person, or even to take a wait and see approach about his credibility, because in other cases, other people have not been thrown out for their orthodox views. What a complete smear by this "liberal" theologian. We had one of those "liberal" theologians in Milwaukee - Archbishop Weakland - and after a secret $400,000+ payout to his boyfriend was discovered, he was removed. Using this "liberal" theologian's logic, there would never be any reason to give the next archishop, Timothy Dolan, a chance. Dolan has been great so far BTW.

[Desdemona]

I agree that this case will never see the inside of a civil court room. I wonder if there is any way there will be a Canon Law investigation?

I'm glad somebody out there is speaking up. And if McBrien is expressing doubts about this man's story, there's probably some merit to it.

[Mo1]

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[netmilsmom]

Pityfully, the Catholic church has become very pro-gay. Go to the Cleveland Diocese website and look at the Rainbow section. It's scary. (I am Catholic)

[Alberta's Child]

It sounds to me like a clear case of fraud.

Many of the complaints that this guy has about the seminary can also be applied to almost any Catholic institution in the U.S., but in the case of a seminary a person is actually involved in purchasing a product/service as opposed to just making voluntary contributions.

[Drango]

He also complained that professors distributed what he described as "lewd and pro-homosexual materials,

Salon.com?

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Wonder what the basis for $2 million in damages is?

[VMI70]

gotcha

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Parts of it to be sure but not the entire Church.

[expatpat]

It's not just the Catholic Church, but the Episcopalian, Lutheran, etc. churches, also. The homosexuals found another niche occupation for their enjoyment.

[ventana]

I think this guy has a lot of guts and I congratulate him. V's wife.

[wideawake]

The term "condemned heresy" is not redundant. At any given moment there are people teaching heretical doctrines which have not been specifically condemned yet.

That has always been the heretic's excuse: "But nowhere do I find my weird new teaching explicitly condemned as such anywhere".

This was the entire M.O. of modernism - the method was to take Church teaching and try and twist it into a heterodox sense without raising an alarm.

Mr. Downey is pointing out that the seminary has no excuse: it was teaching doctrines which had already been expressly declared heretical - therefore there is no word-mincing wiggle room for these false teachers.

[eastsider]

Downey does acknowledge that he complained regularly about the teaching of the doctrine of Fundamental Option, developed by a European theologian in the 1960s, which held that an isolated behavior might not be a mortal sin if a person led an otherwise exemplary life. Even though that doctrine was subsequently condemned by Pope John Paul II in a 1993 encyclical, Downey said that Msgr. Dennis Regan taught it as Catholic doctrine, with no reference to the pope's criticisms.

The following excerpt from the Quick Questions (1994) that is posted on New Advent discusses the doctrine of Fundamental Option:

What is fundamental option theory? I understand that the pope discussed this in his recent encyclical, Veritatis Splendor, but I don't know what it is or why it is important. Was it one of the opinions he condemned?

The pope condemned the fundamental option theory, but he admitted that it had some valid elements.

According to fundamental option theory, each person makes a deep and basic choice for or against God. Individual acts we perform may or may not be in accordance with that fundamental choice. For example, when a person who has made a basic choice in favor of God sins, this choice to sin is not in accord with his fundamental orientation in favor of God.

The key claims of fundamental option theory are that individual acts do not change our basic orientation and that only when our fundamental option changes against God do we fall out of a state of grace. A person can commit particular sins without losing a state of grace.

Historic Catholic theology would say that those sins which do not change our fundamental option are venial sins and that those sins which do change it are mortal sins. Whenever a person commits a mortal sin, he has changed his fundamental option and chooses to be against God; he loses the state of grace.

But this is not the way fundamental option theorists present their system. They typically claim that one can commit acts such as adultery, homosexuality, and masturbation, which the Church has always regarded as mortal sins, without changing one's fundamental option. Some go so far as to imply that no single act of sin one commits changes one's fundamental option; only a prolonged pattern of sinful behavior can do so.

The effect of fundamental option theory, when it is presented this way, is to minimize people's awareness of mortal sin and the danger it poses to their souls. It was this teaching, which undermines what the Church always has taught concerning sin, that the pope condemned (Veritatis Splendor 65-70).

Link to Veritatis Splendor