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Breaking ranks with his peers, a Roman Catholic bishop called yesterday for state legislatures to temporarily remove the time limits that have prevented many victims of sex abuse from suing the church.In making that extraordinary appeal, Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Gumbleton of Detroit also unburdened himself of a secret. As a teenager 60 years ago, he said, he was "inappropriately touched" by a priest.Gumbleton, 75, is the first U.S. bishop to disclose that he was a victim of clergy sexual abuse. He is also the first to endorse proposals in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and other states to follow California's example...

San Francisco -- Former Archbishop William Levada was expected to answer questions from lawyers Monday about how the Portland diocese handled priest sex abuse cases during his tenure there. Levada was served with a subpoena Aug. 10, right before he left for Rome to take over as prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the position formerly held by Pope Benedict XVI. It's the highest Vatican post ever held by an American. Levada served as archbishop in Portland from 1986 to 1995 before transferring to San Francisco. In 2004, Portland became the first Catholic diocese in...

MARATHON, ON, January 6, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The pastor of Holy Saviour Catholic parish in Marathon, Ontario, Rev. Scott Gale, announced to his parishioners during Masses on New Years day that he is a homosexual and can no longer stand the Church's requirement that he remain celibate. Citing his "longing for a loving relationship," Gale told his parishioners that he was quitting. "It has become increasingly difficult for me to be an official representative of a Church which does not accept and value my sexual orientation," he said reading from a 2 page letter. Strangely, Fr. Gale has remained in...

THIBODAUX, La. (AP) - Deciding he had to practice the honesty he preached, a popular priest has told his family, his bishop and the people in his parish that he is gay. The Rev. Jim Morrison said he had been working since October on the letter which he sent early this month to 300 members of the congregation at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church and 200 members of the student ministry. He mailed the letter and handed his bishop a copy on Jan. 2, about a month after the Vatican released a policy statement saying people with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies...

As he prepares to be deposed in San Francisco next week, former S.F. Archbishop William Levada may have to come clean about a priestly child molester he protected in Portland. By Ron Russell In April 2004, when questioned under oath by lawyers for victims sexually abused by priests, San Francisco's former archbishop, William J. Levada, was asked about Father Joseph Baccellieri, a parish priest accused of child molestation whom Levada removed from ministry in 1992 while archbishop of Portland. Levada restored Baccellieri to his post two years later. "I believe there was some allegation that occurred while I was there,"...

As Rev. Scott Gale strode through Marathon’s Holy Saviour church Thursday morning, a parishioner sitting in a pew caught his eye and said quietly, “See you on Sunday.” Sundays are typically busy for the outspoken Gale. But the day after tomorrow will be different — likely the last time the veteran cleric will address a congregation as an active priest. Gale, 47, resigned last month after revealing he is gay, and that he is no longer able to commit to being celibate. Most of Holy Saviour’s parishioners learned of Gale’s decision to pursue his “longing for a loving relationship” as...

"At Work in the Vineyard -- Planting, Nurturing, Harvesting" was the theme of this year's conference of the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries, held September 22-25. Participants of the conference, held at the San Jose Hilton, were "out and proud,"with priests admitting their homosexuality and attendees railing against upcoming seminary visits and the approval by Pope Benedict XVI of a document that, some reports have said, would ban homosexuals from the priesthood. San Jose' s Bishop Patrick McGrath gave a welcoming speech on the opening night of the conference. Although the Hilton ballroom was set up...

1. The recent instruction regarding the ordination of homosexuals took, by various accounts, anywhere from five to eight years to write. I realize that things move slowly in Rome, but this may mark a new record in time inefficiently spent. The instruction was not long, it broke no new ground, and it contained no theological obscurities that necessitated long periods of high-level head scratching. It could have been written in a single afternoon. Perhaps it was, after which it was shuffled from one desk to another--for years. If in that time it was seen by many competent eyes, I wonder...

"At Work in the Vineyard -- Planting, Nurturing, Harvesting" was the theme of this year's conference of the National Association of Catholic Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries...Participants ...were "out and proud," with priests admitting their homosexuality and attendees railing against upcoming seminary visits... San Jose' s Bishop Patrick McGrath gave a welcoming speech on the opening night of the conference.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - A priest accused of sexually abusing boys more than two decades ago has been dismissed from the priesthood, the Catholic Diocese of Juneau said Sunday. The dismissal of Michael Patrick Nash stems from an investigation that began in late 2002, when a former Juneau resident claimed that he had been abused by Nash in the early 1980s."I am relieved we are coming to a sense of resolution and some conclusion to what all around has been a tragic affair," Bishop Michael Warfel said Sunday.The diocese decided that Joel Post, who now lives in Duluth, Minn., had "suffered...

Despite the leadership of the Roman Catholic Church urging support for a petition against same-sex marriage, only 20 percent of priests who work in the Springfield diocese signed the petition, according to a Web site tracking the issue. Of the 154 active local priests, 31, or 20 percent, signed the petition that seeks to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Information about petition signers was gathered from the Web site of the pro-gay marriage organization, knowthyneighbor.org. Leaders of the organization said their Web site's petition database contains all the names accepted by the Massachusetts Secretary...

SAN FRANCISCO, December 22, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Archbishop George Hugh Niederauer, soon to be installed as the new Archbishop of San Francisco, has told a local news outlet that he is opposed to the Vatican’s prohibition of homosexuals in seminaries. “Some who are seriously mistaken have named sexual orientation as the cause of the recent scandal regarding the sexual abuse of minors by priests,” Niederauer said Monday in an interview with the Intermountain Catholic News. Niederauer referred to the “sexual orientation” of homosexual men, what the Vatican document on ordaining homosexual men called “deep seated homosexual tendencies” as merely “a...

Texas Priest Accused of Groping Teen MARBLE FALLS, Texas (AP) -- A Roman Catholic priest accused of groping a 16-year-old boy at a movie theater during a showing of "King Kong" has been charged with indecency with a child by sexual contact. Father Paul M. Clogan, 74, was arrested Friday as he left the theater, police Capt. F.T. Goodwin said in Monday's online edition of the Austin American-Statesman. Clogan was free on bond Monday. Clogan sat next to the teen in the theater, Goodwin said. The boy, who did not know Clogan, told investigators the priest groped him about an...

Father Robert Hoatson, who recently filed a lawsuit against the New York and Newark archdioceses, is now the second priest to go on record as saying that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick abused his authority by "inviting" certain seminarians to sleep with him. (Father James Haley was the first priest to on record about the matter.) Then-Bishop McCarrick reportedly would have the seminarians sleep next to him, but did not engage in sexual activity with them. Recounts Father Hoatson: When I had decided to leave the Irish Christian Brothers to become a priest in 1994, the very first question I asked...

Russian Orthodox back Vatican stance on gays. RUSSIA’S ORTHODOX Church has backed the Vatican’s position on homosexuals in seminaries, and accused Protestant denominations of “succumbing to secular values” over the issue. “Homosexuality was called a sin in Holy Scripture – there’s no possibility of any other interpretation,” said Fr Igor Vyzhanov, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Commission for Inter-Christian Dialogue. “There are certain differences in how we handle candidates for priesthood, since celibacy is obligatory for Catholics whereas Orthodox can marry if they don’t aspire to hierarchical posts. But there’s total agreement between both Churches as concerns candidates’ homosexual tendencies.”...

Russian Orthodox back Vatican stance on gays. RUSSIA’S ORTHODOX Church has backed the Vatican’s position on homosexuals in seminaries, and accused Protestant denominations of “succumbing to secular values” over the issue. “Homosexuality was called a sin in Holy Scripture – there’s no possibility of any other interpretation,” said Fr Igor Vyzhanov, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Commission for Inter-Christian Dialogue. “There are certain differences in how we handle candidates for priesthood, since celibacy is obligatory for Catholics whereas Orthodox can marry if they don’t aspire to hierarchical posts. But there’s total agreement between both Churches as concerns candidates’ homosexual tendencies.”...

San Francisco's incoming Catholic archbishop, George Niederauer, has spoken boldly in support of gay priests and has praised gay parishioners, leaders of gay Catholic organizations said Thursday. Many in the church hierarchy have blamed the international clergy sex abuse scandal on gay priests, and the Vatican's recent instruction on gays in the priesthood stated new rules on gay clergy were "made more urgent by the current situation." Niederauer disputed those ideas in an interview with his diocesan newspaper in Utah. "Some who are seriously mistaken have named sexual orientation as the cause of the recent scandal regarding the sexual abuse...

Collegeville, Minn. -- A priest at St. John's University said he was resigning his leadership position because of the Vatican's latest statement that homosexuals should be barred from entering the Roman Catholic priesthood. "Because I can no longer honestly represent, explain and defend the church's teaching on homosexuality, I feel I must resign," the Rev. Bob Pierson said in an e-mail Wednesday to administrators and students at St. John's and the nearby College of St. Benedict. The Vatican announced last month that it was toughening its stand against gay candidates for the priesthood, advising that men with "deep-seated" gay tendencies...

VATICAN CITY (AP) - A group of gay Italian clergy said Wednesday that their homosexuality has not stopped them from being good priests,a direct response to a recent Vatican policy statement banning priestly candidates with "deep-seated" homosexual tendencies. The message, an open letter in which the priests said they felt like the church's "unloved and unwanted children," was posted on the Web site of the Italian Catholic news agency Adista. The agency last month leaked the Vatican instruction on gay priests a week before its scheduled release by the Holy See. Adista said 39 priests, 26 diocesans and 13 more...

ROCHESTER -- The Rev. Michael Volino was sentenced today to 15 months in federal prison and 10 years supervised release in connection with child pornography charges. U.S. District Judge David Larimer also prohibited the Catholic priest from ministering to children or working with school programs. Volino is an Elmira native. "I think Father Volino had more than an idle curiosity. It was extreme," Larimer said. Defense lawyer John Parrinello had asked for a sentence that did not include jail time. He argued that there had never been an allegation of molestation or inappropriate physical contact. He also had asked that...