Tag: Catholic Church

An antigay priest from Detroit accused of molesting a teenage boy in the 1970s and supplying alcohol to at least two minors has produced a letter signed by over 50 former altar boys saying he’s not a predator because he never acted inappropriately towards any of them. Last month, the Associated Press ran a story about a former altar boy who alleged Rev. Eduard Perrone had molested him at a lake house in the late 1970s. The alleged molestation happened...

Government officials in at least 30 towns, villages, and regional assemblies throughout the staunchly Catholic country of Poland have declared themselves to be “free of LGBT ideology”. Does this mean these places are “free” of LGBTQ people as well? And what exactly is the supposed “LGBT ideology,” since there are as many “ideologies” as there are LGBTQ people. Unlike Polish officials’ apparent conceptualizations, we do not constitute a monolithic community marching in lockstep. According to the Polish LGBTQ non-profit civil rights...

A Dutch priest is blowing the whistle after he says he was fired by the Catholic Church for being gay. Pierre Valkering’s troubles began back in March when he was suspended from his duties after coming out during a mass in the Vredeskerk in Amsterdam. During the mass, the 57-year-old priest talked about the “big pink elephant” within the Catholic Church and criticized its culture of silence around homosexuality, saying he had “suffered a lot” because of it. Around that same time,...

On Saturday, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin, a Roman Catholic leader who by his own admission ignored incidents of child sexual abuse when they occurred in his church, tweeted the following message: A reminder that Catholics should not support or attend LGBTQ “Pride Month” events held in June. They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals. They are especially harmful for children. The Huffington Post explains why this is particularly rich coming from Tobin (who...

The rainbow heart mural at the Bergen Arts and Science Charter School, before and after the Catholic Church complained about it. (image via Garden State EqualityThe Bergen Arts and Science Charter School is a taxpayer-funded public charter school in New Jersey run by a private non-profit organization. But their landlord is the Catholic Church, and because of this, the school was forced to paint over a 16-year-old student’s LGBTQ-supportive mural after parishioners complained about it being “offensive” and “obscene,”...

A Catholic church in New Jersey has demanded that a public charter school cover up a Keith Haring-inspired mural because it is “obscene.” The school rents the property from the church. The murals, created by students at the Bergen Arts and Science Charter School, were inspired by famous artists and displayed in the cafeteria. A high school junior’s mural that depicted his trademark style of graffiti art, however, didn’t sit well with the landlords. “So…my school’s owned by a Catholic Church and...

A Catholic Vicar just said that families with gay loved ones and same-sex couple can be denied funerals by the Catholic church. Vicar James Bartylla sent out a memo that focused on “Consideration of Funeral Rites for a Person in a Homosexual Civil or Notorious Union.” As you probably imagined, the memo was not good news for gay couples. The memo stated that if one person in a gay couple died, the living partner: “Should not have any public or prominent role...

As if the Catholic Church has not been challenged with enough bad publicity over the past 15 years, yet another priest has emerged from the ranks, and subsequently been fired by the Archdiocese.  Father Gino Flaim, a priest serving the diocese of Trento, North Italy, got himself into a bit of a pickle this week.  It started with his verbal comments that he “could understand pedophilia,”  as “pedophilia is a sin,” but was at first “uncertain about homosexuality,” only...