Cleansing Sin From Within

I don't normally read Gawker but a few weeks ago I ran across a rather disturbing article which exposed a secret homosexual love fest among one bishop, priests, and seminarians in Florida. I was shocked to say the least.  One good thing happened out of all this though: faithful Catholics stood up and said enough is enough and they eventually were able to put a stop to this culture of corruption.

A group of lay Catholics calling themselves Christifidelis had been documenting these problems as part of their request to the Vatican for action.  From their report it has been shown that Bishop John C. Favalora ran a homosexual cabal in his Florida diocese. After reading the article I was horrified at what I had found out what went in the various churches under the "supervision" of Favalora.

Here are a couple observations/questions I have about this scandal.   I searched for additional information on these events but could not find anything in any of the major media news sources.   Hmmmm How come? Is it because this story would have put homosexuality in a bad light?  The media have no compunction about highlighting anything to do with priest sex abuse scandals within the Church so why wouldn't they cover this important homosexual Church scandal?

From Gawker:

"Favalora, who was the most powerful Catholic official in Southern Florida from 1994 until last year, stands accused of cultivating what one group of pissed-off Catholics describes as a corrupt "homosexual superculture" in the 195 churches, schools, missions, seminaries, and universities that constitute the Miami Archdiocese. If their allegations are to be believed, for sixteen years Favalora ran his organization like the don of a lavender mob, rewarding his favorite homosexual sons and forgiving their many indiscretions—rampant sex, hedonism, embezzlement, alcoholism, and the railroading of chaste priests among them—while punishing those with the temerity to complain."

In 2005 Christifidelis undertook their own extensive investigation of priestly misbehavior in the Archdiocese. Last year Archbishop Favalora was replaced by a conservative Archbishop named Thomas Wenski and it is very likely that the findings of Christifidelis played a huge role in Favalora being forced out.  A binder filled with their documented findings is called, "Miami Vice: A Preliminary Report on the Financial, Spiritual, and Sexual Improprieties of the Clergy of the Miami Archdiocese". Gawker has posted portions of that documentation to the public here.

"Andrew Dowgiert was, most claim, a good priest; a priest who had never been in trouble, who saved St. Justin Martyr when its pastor was nabbed for boy-rape. A great many of All Saints most devout senior parishioners liked and admired him. They wondered: Why was the Archdiocese defending a non-celibate homosexual with a history of unpriestly behavior, and casting aside a devout, heroic priest who'd single-handedly rescued one of its parishes?


"First they wondered privately. Then they wondered aloud. When a lay minister at All Saints named Gloria Luca was fired for wondering too loudly, they sought answers. Christifidelis was born." 

"Miami Vice" goes into great detail in explaining just how gay the Archdiocese of Miami is and was under Archbishop Favalora. Here is a list of the gay escapades of the Archdiocese of Miami as of 2005:


- A priest who's been previously mentioned in this story was known to plan regular "sleepovers" with seminarians at his rectory in southwest Miami, and owned a "luxury" property.


- A homosexual priest in Coral Gables owned "luxury" property and regularly used illicit drugs.


- A homosexual priest who served as principal at one of the Archdiocese's high schools poached sexual partners from among the seminarians at St. John Vianney.


- A homosexual priest in far, far south Miami kept attractive young men living in his rectory.


- A homosexual priest in the town of Miramar was co-habitating with his lover, who's also a parishioner.


- A homosexual priest in Miami had a lover who was also a priest in the Florida Keys. They co-owned a condominium at a Yacht Club.


- A member of the Archdiocesan Tribunal owned a condominium on ritzy Bayshore Drive, in Miami, with his male lover.


- An Archdiocesan official sought out "young boys from third-world countries, from unprivileged backgrounds, and recruited them for the Archdiocese's seminaries. These men [were] groomed to engage in sexual relationships with the older homosexual priests of the Archdiocese." Until 1998, this official owned a home with a male lover in northern Miami.


- Two homosexual priests, each with his own Miami parish, co-habitated in Miami Shores.


- Two homosexual priests, each with his own parish, were lovers; one liked to go shopping "with the girls" on Lincoln Road for feminine cosmetics; the other used to date one of the Archdiocese's male IT personnel.


- A homosexual priest in Sunny Isles liked to jog nude on the gay-dominated, clothing-optional beach at nearby Haulover Park.


- A monsignor liked to flash his willy at young men.


- A monsignor slept with his female (!) parishioners.


- A priest got busted attempting to buy sex from an undercover male cop.


- A homosexual priest pissed off parishioners by using a banana to demonstrate proper condom usage to young children, contrary to the birth-control method prescribed by the Church (abstinence).


- More recently, an associate pastor had received full pastorship at a church in the Florida Keys after being caught en flagrante delecto with his male lover—while the person who caught him, a Philippino priest, was booted from the Archdiocese.


While it is true that The Gawker makes jabs at the Catholic Church's belief that homosexual acts are a sin, the writer of he article does a good job of simply reporting the facts so I recommend that you read the entire article for yourself. One of my main points is that the Church needs to clean house from within and without any interference from the secular sphere.  This is a good example of Catholic laity taking on corruption and cleaning house from within.

Here is a link to the Gawker article.