Gay Semarians | Commonweal Magaze

Contents:

• GRDR, BLACKMAIL AND NFSN: THE LIFE OF A GAY SEMARIAN
• ‘IT IS NOT A CLOSET. IT IS A CAGE.’ GAY CATHOLIC PRITS SPEAK OUT
• GAY SEMARIANS
• EPISPAL SODOMY: GAY SEMARIAN PIPELE
• GAYS AND THE SEMARY
• HOLY APOSTL SEMARY RPONDS TO CM’S GAY SEMARIAN PIPELE REPORT
• THE GAY CHURCH
• WEEDG OUT GAYS OM SEMARI
• PONTIFIL SEMARI’ GAY SUBCULTURE

GRDR, BLACKMAIL AND NFSN: THE LIFE OF A GAY SEMARIAN

They are far om their village for the first time, whout their fay, and a strictly mascule ntext and strongly homosexual universe they beg to unrstand their, the ordands – even the olr on – are still virgs when they reach the semary: ntact wh other boys, their tennci are revealed or e to foc. ’He gradually disvered and accepted his homosexualy, and left for Italy, sce the Roman semari were “tradnally”, he tells me, the place “where the sensive boys of Lat Ameri are sent” the pal he started livg a well-partmentalised life, whout ever allowg himself to spend the night away om the semary where he stayed, and where he now had important me he is “openly gay”, and he talks about his obssns as tense sexual sir. At yet other tim the nfsns – even though this is a sacrament – lead to touchg, harassment, blackmail or sexual church puts up wh the nunciatn of homosexuals, but forbids prits who are ma aware of sexual abe nfsn to betray that secretWhen a semarian nfs that he has attractns or tennci, he tak risks.

”The semarians I have terviewed agree on another pot: a heterosexual nnot feel pletely at ease a Catholic semary, bee – and I’m quotg the exprsns they ed – of “the looks”, the “special iendships”, the “bromanc” the “boy-chasg”, and the “sensivy”, “fluidy”, “tenrns” and “generalised homoerotic atmosphere” that emanat om . A large proportn of those who went out at the ad of night lookg for chance enunters or, Rome, clubs like Diabolo 23, K-Men’s Gay, the Bunker or the Vic Club n now cise om the fort of their own to apps like Grdr, Tr or Hor, and hook-up s like GayRomeo (now PlaRomeo), Scff (for more mature men and “bears”), Daddyhunt (for those who like “daddi”), or Ren (for fetishists and “extreme” sexuali), they no longer need to move or to take too many wh my rearchers Rome, I also disver the homosexualy of several semarians, prits or curia bishops thanks to the magic of the they gave their email addrs or mobile numbers out of polens or plicy when we met the Vatin. This is te, for example, of several prelat that we followed Rome: most of them were unfaiar wh the nfintialy protols of the social work, and left their list of iends only had to look at the acunt of a Roman gay well nnected the homosexual muny of the cy to terme om “iends mon” whether a prit was gay or not.

‘IT IS NOT A CLOSET. IT IS A CAGE.’ GAY CATHOLIC PRITS SPEAK OUT

A timele need not nta a sgle gay msage: the way Facebook works almost always giv gays pe this you need to have partmentalised your life – g separate works and never havg shared the slightt personal rmatn – to such an extent that is almost phon and the ter are changg the liv of semarians and prits for better or for is an eded extract om In the Closet of the Vatin: Power, Homosexualy and Hypocrisy, by Frédéric Martel, published by Bloomsbury. ” And yet, thoands of the church’s prits are stori of gay prits are unspoken, veiled om the outsi world, known only to one another, if they are known at than about 10 prits the Uned Stat have dared to e out publicly.

GAY SEMARIANS

”The sexual revolutn happeng outsi semary walls might as well have happened on the moon, and natnal ton the fight for gay rights, like the Stonewall rts, on prit a ral dce said the l remd him of how his elementary school forced left-hand stunts to wre wh their right hand.

“Instead of seeg creased acuntabily on the parts of the bishops, uld bee once aga a nmnatn of lbian, gay, transsexual people wh the church, ” John Coe, 63, a permanent an Kentucky, who me out last year, said about the summ. The recent stctn om the Congregatn for Catholic Edutn regardg the ordatn of homosexuals suggts to me that semari are hardly the bt place to help gay men mature, learn om their experienc, and seek the support of siarly oriented men keepg their promise of celibacy. Ined, given the church’s teachg that homosexuals are “objectively disorred, ” barrg homosexuals om ordatn may be more charable than subjectg them to the ntradictory mands and rigors of an stutn that morally chastis them.

EPISPAL SODOMY: GAY SEMARIAN PIPELE

More than a year after the explosive allegatns of sexual abe of mors and semarians by ex-Cardal Theodore McCarrick, one of the important unanswered qutns is exactly what kd of misnduct the disgraced former bishop mted at Seton Hall Universy’s two semari — and whether this misnduct was suated the ntext of an alleged long-standg homosexual subculture that uld still be place today. But although that statement dit the review has been pleted and found that McCarrick had engaged historil “sexual harassment” of Seton Hall semarians, nspicuoly failed to discs the issue of homosexualy directly and whether a homosexual subculture had been found to still exist at Immaculate Conceptn Semary and St. Prits om ordatn class that spanned 30 years, durg both the perd when McCarrick was the archbishop and subsequently while Archbishop John Myers served as archbishop of Newark om 2001 until his retirement November 2016, also told CNA there was an “active homosexual subculture of prits and semarians wh Newark’s Immaculate Conceptn Semary.

Father Ramsey told the Register Augt 2018 about the culture durg his time at Immaculate Conceptn, explag that, his view, “the term ‘gay subculture’ is a strong term, though there were certaly gay semarians there. ” However, while the one-page review update summarized s “key fdgs” regardg McCarrick’s actns, unreported sexual harassment and pliance wh Tle IX polici, ntaed no mentn of the allegatns of a homosexual subculture the semary.

And appeared to be reviewg the semari solely on the basis of Tle IX requirements, not on the addnal basis of whether Immaculate Conceptn has sought to ply wh Vatin directiv regardg the admissibily of homosexual ndidat to Catholic semari. Asked by the Register whether the vtigatn was nducted acrdance wh the 2005 stctn om the Catholic Congregatn for Edutn — which stipulat that “the Church, while profoundly rpectg the persons qutn, nnot adm to the semary or to holy orrs those who practice homosexualy, prent ep-seated homosexual tennci or support the so-lled ‘gay culture’” — Lrie Pe, the director of media relatns at Seton Hall, cled to ment.

GAYS AND THE SEMARY

And the prit spects that, right om the outset, universy officials and Cardal Tob had munited to vtigators that they shouldn’t probe eply to the issue of the existence of an entrenched and long-standg homosexual subculture at Seton Hall’s semari. The Register asked Maria Margtta, the director of munitns for the Archdce of Newark, if Cardal Tob, given his oversight role, uld ment further on the vtigatn or on steps the archdce is takg, asi om a Tle IX-based review, to addrs the allegatns of homosexual behavr the semary.

John Lavers: "The vtigatn, when we began April/May of 2012, revealed that there was a wi work of semarians which were volved abnormal behavr and homosexual activy spreadg across a number of dc the eastern part of the Uned Stat. Semarians who had actually been expelled om var Colombian semari for homosexual activy were quietly told that they should fd their way to the Amerin "discernment" hoe if they wanted a ticket to gay-iendly semari the Uned State.

HOLY APOSTL SEMARY RPONDS TO CM’S GAY SEMARIAN PIPELE REPORT

Approximately three or four years later, the archdce of Newark shut down the Columbian hoe when the homosexual activy volvg Amerin prits and the young Columbians was disvered, as this would e great embarrassment to the archdce if ever beme public.

The archbishop of Hartford at the time was Henry Mansell, who figur promently the Pennsylvania grand jury report for his time as bishop of Buffalo, when he shipped at least one known homosexual predator prit to Pennsylvania. Church Milant spoke exclively to multiple semarians who were at Buffalo's Christ the Kg Semary at the time, and two of them told that homosexualy at the semary unr Mansell and Gatto was rampant, and that some of the Colombians were actually parceled out to parish assignments wh active homosexual pastors, who lavished expensive gifts, cludg rs, on the young, gay Colombians exchange for sex.

Former semarians tell Church Milant that the volvement of Mansell and Serratelli movg around gay semarians beme well known by Church officials, as both the bishops had large numbers of semarians wh their dc, and they need to stter them around different semari so as not to draw too much attentn to their exceptnally high number when the Church the Uned Stat was experiencg a massive drop the numbers of semarians. In 2012, this issue of the South Amerin gay pipele me to a head when var plats of homosexual activy and sexual abe beme known at Holy Apostl Semary Cromwell, Connecticut, the dce of Norwich, after some there reported that a large number of Colombian and U.

THE GAY CHURCH

Church Milant has received rmatn om semarians about what went on at the semary and how the lol clergy om the archdce of Hartford, as well as other prits om other dc, were volved homosexual activy as well as sexually abg young men studyg for the prithood. And absolutely worth notg — very important — all this was wh jt the last few years, not s and s ago, as many guilty prelat keep tryg to sist orr to flect attentn om the massive, massive crisis of homosexualy among clergy and bishops lyg to ver up.

WEEDG OUT GAYS OM SEMARI

Once Mansell arrived Hartford 2003, he stepped up his game, so to speak, palizg on what had bee the gay Colombian pipele for Newark, which homosexual predator Theodore McCarrick had left as archbishop jt three years earlier. And yet, the face of a growg mounta of evince that this is a natnwi homosexualy the clergy epimic, bishop after bishop and rdal after rdal ntue to further enrage the fahful every day by nyg the obv — om Newark Cdl.

PONTIFIL SEMARI’ GAY SUBCULTURE

The vast majory of bishops the Uned Stat who have issued statements have all ftly si-stepped and ignored the central issue, what is at the heart of this: the majory prence of homosexual men the prithood, stealg the money om the fahful, stroyg souls and rottg lns of mds. Robert Baker of Birmgham, Alabama are so far the only two on rerd llg a spa a spa and admtg what a huge number of Catholic lay already know: that this is a problem of homosexualy wh the ranks of bishops and prits.

Pot man, says gay admissns, psychologil screeng tts and enforcement of celibacy l will all be the ncerns of Amerin prelat are reports that an aggrsive gay ethos has arisen on mp, maniftg unwelg cliqu and eccliastic flamboyance--a tenncy to embrace the stagier elements of the lurgy, for stance. " Not only will further rce the number of semarians, which has plunged om 49, 000 1965 to fewer than 4, 000 today, but may also retroduce a of secrecy among those gay men who enter the semary anyway--or disver they're gay only after enrollg. — Some of the semarians and transnal ans at the center of an vtigatn to homosexual behavr and activy at a small Catholic semary Connecticut apparently were ordaed to the prithood for the Archdce of Hartford and the Dce of Paterson, New Jersey — spe the revelatns outled a six-year-old report obtaed by the Register.

This prit was figured Holy Apostl’ vtigatn and was, acrdg to the vtigatn’s fal report, “directly volved hostg parti and engagg unacceptable behavr/homosexual activy wh select semarians om both the Dce of Paterson and the Archdce of Hartford.