UNITED STATES
Voice from the Desert
Bob Hoatson
If Catholics wish to live by the axiom, “once a priest, always a priest,” than I guess I am still a priest despite the fact that I was voluntarily laicized in December, 2011. So, I write as a priest, ex-priest, inactive priest, renegade priest, or gadfly priest. I have been called all of these and more. The verbiage is irrelevant. What is relevant is that pedophile priests are not laicized as quickly as I was and most of them will always be priests despite their dastardly deeds which would have gotten them kicked out of most organizations by now.
The archbishop of my diocese wrote to me when I first requested laicization and told me he would highly recommend that my petition to the Vatican be approved. It was – in record time. His “glee” at my request was centered on the fact that I had been working with victims since 1981 when I reported sexual abuse of students by a priest at a large Catholic high school in Boston. I also have uncovered numerous cases of pedophilia in my home archdiocese and beyond. I asked to be freed to do this work full-time. The archbishop refused.
I told him I had to respond to the Holy Spirit and the law of the Church, which allows and encourages the faithful to establish charitable works and organizations. Canon law was written to protect bishops and whatever they determine to be the “law” for the rest of the faithful. Currently, God’s law is subservient to whatever law the bishops wish to utilize.
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