2 Anonymous Priests: Silence Regarding Priestly Misconduct Is a Problem

NEW YORK (NY)
Patheos blog

December 18, 2018

By Fr. Matthew P. Schneider

Too often, the modus operandi in the Church continues to be ignoring problems priests have. So often we look at them and assume as long as they aren’t minors or major PR disasters, we can ignore them. This silence is a disaster! When we ignore serious misconduct in other spheres, we keep these priests from getting help and we open up to ignoring bigger problems.

I want to go through two anonymous examples of priests I’ve spoken with who feel obliged to remain silent regarding other priests’ immoral acts. Also, between the two I ill quote two prominent priests who’ve written about the reasons that priests don’t talk about his.

Anonymous Priest on Homosexuality
A few months back, a priest contacted me with a tale of actively homosexual priests and further sexual misconduct by priests. He hoped I could get his words published but since he wanted no names or even dioceses included, what he said would remain rumors. I won’t publish such rumors. I will, however, post his options regarding this silence, remembering they are only opinions.

This Anonymous Testimony
This priest feels silence on this topic is his only option. He said, “I am not permitted to discuss the homosexual nature of these incidents.” And, he followed up, “I don’t know how I can get beyond this until clergy homosexuality is accepted as a legitimate topic for deliberation and effective resolution.”

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