Announcement Designed to `highlight Hypocrisy" over Paedophiles

By Kevin Lee
Penrith Press
May 31, 2012

http://penrith-press.whereilive.com.au/news/story/announcement-designed-to-highlight-hypocrisy-over-paedophiles/

Former Glenmore Park parish priest Kevin Lee.

I HAVE been very moved by the overwhelming number of positive text and Facebook messages that I have received in response to my recent announcement of my marriage last year to the beautiful Josefina.

I know it must have come as a complete shock to everyone but it was deliberately orchestrated that way to draw attention to an issue that has fermented in the Catholic Church for decades, that of abuse by teachers, priests, brothers and even nuns in the church, and that many priests are living duplicity by having homosexual relationships.

In my role as representative of the Catholic Church in nine parishes throughout the Diocese of Parramatta I have observed one constant: people keep telling me that they don’t go to church because either they or someone in their family were abused.

All the while I wanted to believe abuses were rare and infrequent but in my experience they were so commonly talked about.

The church will contend that the percentage is quite small but in my mind it should not be any. Being around kids who enjoy my company was always uncomfortable because of general suspicions about priests who play with kids.

When I became personally aware of incidents that had happened in parishes I had been in, naturally I advised the relevant church authorities. In each case I reported, the perpetrator, although “investigated” internally, was always exonerated.

Like most of the naive and self-righteous Catholics who are telling me I should leave it to the Church itself to sort things out, I continued to trust that the next bishop would seek out and dismiss the imposters that still thrived under the pretence of celibacy.

When I didn’t feel that they took me seriously I had to tell the police.

Police involved in investigations of people I have informed them of have admitted being thwarted in their efforts because the church has effectively silenced victims with compensation payouts.

Some of the victims were deemed unreliable witnesses because they are now drug addicts or have criminal records. Sadly some have committed suicide.

When the paedophiles became close to home and one of my close friends attempted to take his own life over his inability to cope with traumatic memories of childhood abuse I decided I needed to up the ante.

I became a priest in a relationship and did many things unpriestly so that the hierarchy would be forced to dismiss me and therefore highlight the hypocrisy.

A priest who abuses a minor or commits sodomy on a person who comes for counselling is not dismissed from the clergy but a man who admits his love and commitment for a woman is.

The church acts swiftly on me but takes years of convoluted legal processes to deal with serious offenders.

Soon everyone will be told all the evidence I have accumulated and realise how judgment made against me without questioning have been seriously misguided.

As for those who have called me Judas or questioned my motives, I understand you are grieving and in grief comes illogical and emotional responses without thought.

I pray for you that you may discover the Christian faith because Jesus taught us to forgive our enemies and pray for them.