Nov 29, 2005

Why did Father Walker walk?

More on the Arizona priest who resigned because of alleged "'aggressive anti-gay positions' coming from the pope in Rome and bishop in Phoenix."

THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC reports ...

He said that Olmsted has been "aggressively anti-gay," unlike previous bishops, and that the Vatican also has taken anti-gay positions.

Among them:

• In 2000, the Vatican suspended the Rev. Robert Nugent, Walker's colleague in the Salvatorian order, from continuing a ministry to gays and lesbians in Washington, D.C.

• The Vatican is visiting American Catholic seminaries to assess their treatment of gay candidates, directly as a result of the clergy abuse scandal.

• Olmsted rejected the pro-gay Phoenix Declaration, signed by nine Catholic priests, after his two predecessors made no such move. He required the signers to revoke their support or risk their jobs. Walker did not sign.

• Finally, according to Walker, a Phoenix-area priest, whom he declined to identify, lost his job as pastor recently because of his homosexuality, a reason not disclosed by the diocese. Adamson said he knew nothing about that.
The article quotes Father Carpenter, a Mesa priest who is sympathetic to the cause of Father Walker:

"... Walker could be the first of many to step aside. He added that any priest who discloses that he is gay 'risks immediate reprisals.'"
If this is true, I wonder what will happen to THIS - PRIEST?

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