Homosexual ‘cesspool’: Priest blows whistle on Ireland’s national seminary

Anthony Murphy

St Patrick's College, Maynooth, Ireland. http://seminary.maynoothcollege.ie

September 24, 2018 (Lumenfidei) – A priest and former seminary vocational growth counselor in Ireland has revealed for the first time the real reason he resigned from the country’s national seminary two years ago. 

Father David Marsden told Lumen Fidei in an exclusive interview about the existence of a powerful “gay” subculture in St Patrick's College in Maynooth, Ireland. 

The trained psychologist, who specializes in priestly formation, said that a homosexual network exists among seminary council and spiritual directors. In the face of such widespread dissent from Church teaching on sexuality, it was no longer possible to conduct proper formation in the seminary, he said, and he felt compelled to resign. 

Fr. Marsden relates in the interview how he became aware of the existence of the homosexual network and attempted, to no avail, to make it known to proper authorities. 

The priest’s testimony suggests that an active and secretive homosexual subculture is being allowed to thrive in the Maynooth seminary, with the approval of the ecclesial authorities.

Same-sex 'marriage' referendum, a forbidden topic in seminary

The year is 2015 and debate in Ireland is dominated by the State’s plan to change the constitution to allow same-sex couples to “marry.” With such a blatant assault on God’s plan for marriage one might expect the Church to be vocal in promoting the natural law, yet, despite the intensity of the pro-LGBT campaign, there was silence from much of the hierarchy. Priests and bishops did not speak. Were they afraid, unsure or compromised, we do not know. But the silence was deafening.

Even in the country's heart of Catholic learning — the Pontifical University in Maynooth — there was silence...apart from one lone clerical voice supported by the small group of orthodox seminarians.

During a meeting of the seminary council and heads of faculty, months before the referendum, Fr. Marsden suggested that the seminary hold a Novena, or Holy Hour, or consider some other prayerful devotion so the seminarians and college staff could unite in prayer for a good outcome. He recounted how instead of support, his idea was dismissed...by the President. It was clear that the other priests did not want to do anything spiritual or temporal to defend the teaching of the Church. In fact, Fr. Marsden was left with the impression that many of the staff preferred to remain silent and not even mention the referendum, never mind speak out against it. The staff dining room became a place where the referendum was never mentioned, he said.

In the run-up to the same-sex “marriage” referendum, Fr. David Marsden delivered two homilies in the seminary in which he spoke out strongly in defense of marriage between a man and woman. He denounced from the pulpit the notion that people of the same sex could marry.

It was after the second homily, he said, that he was called into the President’s office and informed that a complaint had been made against him. The identity of the individual was not revealed to him. Fr. Marsden told Lumin Fidei that he strongly suspects it was a friend of a homosexual seminarian who made the complaint as the Mass was on a Sunday morning and therefore open to all the students from Maynooth University.

Culture of fear

It was during this meeting that the President aired a concern that Fr. Marsden was becoming a ‘one issue person,’ the priest related. The implication was, he said, that the President was becoming anxious that the priest was speaking out too much about the referendum and homosexuality in general. Fr. Marsden said he responded by saying the only reason he could be called a ‘one issue person’ in the seminary was because he was the only person saying anything about the referendum or homosexuality. He told Lumin Fidei that this was likely because other staff members were either afraid to speak out or were homosexual themselves.

Despite the opposition from the staff, Fr. Marsden received much support and was admired by many of the seminarians, he recounted. But he was also aware of an active and vocal "gay" subculture operating freely in the seminary. When the referendum was passed in May 2015, the priest recounted how this group became emboldened to the point of having no fear in letting others know they were homosexual, sexually active, and in the seminary with the full knowledge and support of their bishops.

Against this backdrop, a group of faithful seminarians became concerned that the seminary not only seemed to take a liberal view of Catholic teaching, but also encouraged a “gay” subculture to develop within the seminary. Exasperated and at the point of desperation, one of the seminarians decided enough was enough and wrote an anonymous letter to the Bishops’ Conference pleading with the bishops to intervene. The letter named seven active homosexual seminarians.

It is understood that this letter was sent back from the bishops’ office to the President of the seminary Monsignor Hugh Connolly. But, rather than take action to investigate the claims in the letter, the seminary council began a witch hunt to discover the author. In the end, a completely innocent seminarian was accused, based on the fact that he had reported two seminarians – one of them his close friend – when he found them in bed together. No proof was given that he had written the letter. He was simply accused and thrown out of the seminary.

Notorious seminarian threatens Fr. Marsden

Fr. Marsden recounted how he challenged one of the most notorious homosexual seminarians about his disordered lifestyle. He was given the response: “My bishop knows, the seminary council knows, my spiritual director knows – none of them have a problem with it so neither should you.” The priest said he realized that he was being told to essentially shut up since this was none of his business. It was after this encounter that Fr. Marsden said he realized that it was now no longer possible to conduct proper formation in the seminary in the face of such widespread dissent from Church teaching that was blatant among the seminary council and the spiritual directors. It was at this point, he said, that he wrote a letter to Mons. Connolly tendering his resignation.

When Fr. Marsden tried to raise the problems he was seeing in the seminary with the Church authorities, the response he received was to not only ignore his concerns, but, to ridicule him for raising them in the first place. He recounted how one high-ranking cleric stated that “you see gays under the bed.” 

In the end, Fr. Marsden said he could no longer work in the seminary and retain his integrity. He chose to resign from what he describes as an “institution riddled by systemic disobedience to Church teaching.”

It was reported in the secular press during the summer of 2016 that the reason for his resignation was a conflict of theological outlook. But, the priest said, this reason was incorrect. There certainly was a divergence of theological opinion. In fact, many of Fr. Marsden’s friends related to him their amazement at how long he managed to stay in the seminary. But, it was the issue of homosexuality within the seminary which brought matters to a head. 

The seminary has long been a “cesspool of liberal theology and heterodoxy,” Fr. Marsden said. Because of this, those few staff members who, down through the years, maintained a fidelity to the Magisterium were often isolated and subtly persecuted, he added.

Dictatorship of blandness

Fr. Marsden described the model of formation in the Maynooth seminary as a “dictatorship of blandness,” by which he means that any sort of vibrant or orthodox expressions of the Faith on the part of seminarians were harshly dealt with and suppressed. Seminary staff resented students who used the internet for alternative, i.e. orthodox, sources of information about the faith. In fact, the term for such alternative sources that was bandied about on a regular basis during staff meetings was “shadow formation.” 

“The tripe they were getting served up by the theology faculty was in most cases utter drivel,” Fr. Marsden explained.

“It is my honest assessment that the formation and academic staff in Maynooth are either liberal or homosexual and a significant number are both,” he added. 

The Irish McCarrick?

Fr. Marsden also revealed that there may have been an Irish version of seminarian and priest abuser now-ex Cardinal McCarrick. Fr. Ronan Drury, a priest of Meath diocese, lived in the seminary until his death last year. Reading his obituaries and the praise heaped on him by bishops and the current President of the Seminary, Father Michael Mullaney, one might picture Drury as a learned and jovial priest, popular with all in the seminary which was his home for 42 years. He was Professor of Homiletics there since 1977 until his death last year. He was also editor of the liberal Furrow magazine for 40 years.

However, Fr. Marsden said he discovered a dark and secretive side to Drury. Known by his nickname “Kitty,” he was a notorious figure among the “gay” subculture in St Patrick's College. His behavior was such an open secret among the students that even the normally cautious Mons. Connolly felt it necessary to inform Fr. Marsden that a credible allegation of molestation had been made against Drury by an individual. The complaint was regarding inappropriate touching by Drury of this person. Later, a priest also confided to Fr. Marsden that Drury had molested him as a first year seminarian. Monsignor Connolly never suspended Drury. 

Fr. Marsden’s testimony suggests that a place like Maynooth seminary is a playground for the likes of Drury. He had daily one-to-one access to young male students. Many questions remain. Who knew about his abuse? Was his bishop informed?  If Mons. Connolly was concerned about his behaviour, what did he do to protect seminarians? Why was Fr. Drury allowed to continue living in the seminary with open access to vulnerable young men? 

Fr. Marsden’s testimony also suggests that an active and secretive homosexual subculture is being allowed to thrive in the Maynooth seminary, with the approval of the ecclesial authorities – some of whom Fr. Marsden suspects are also same-sex attracted themselves.

Lumen Fidei reached out to various bishop trustees of the college for comment on Fr. Marsden’s testimony prior to publication, but no response was given. The current President of Maynooth seminary was also contacted, but he refused to answer any questions about Drury’s behaviour. 

It would appear that the circle of secrecy is protecting its own.

But the faithful will not accept cowardice or silence. An open and transparent investigation into the various scandals which have afflicted Maynooth seminary for at least 30 years must take place. Questions that need to be address include: Were payments made to silence victims, and who were the key figures behind the culture of cover up and secrecy? 

The only sure way to end the disease in Maynooth seminary is to send the remaining small number of faithful seminarians to the Irish College in Rome and to close the seminary for a year or more until such an investigation is carried out and the recommendations from it are fully implemented. If this cannot be accomplished, then the seminary should simply close. Fr. Marsden’s testimony suggests that Maynooth seminary is no longer fit for its purpose of forming Catholic men to be future priests. Parents should do all in their power to dissuade their sons from going there. 

The long suffering faithful and those seminarians who have been abused and persecuted deserve action and transparency. This is a defining moment for the Church in Ireland. Faithful Catholics should not rest until every bishop stands up and takes direct action to purge the filth from the Church.

Note: The Catholic Voice encourages any of Drury’s victims to come forward with the possibility of speaking in confidence about any abuse they experienced during their time in the seminary. Please email: info@catholicvoice.ie. You will be listened to in the strictest confidence.

Editor’s note: This article first appeared at LumenFidei.ie. It has been edited and published here by permission of the author. 

“Lord, to Whom Shall We Go?”

SEPTEMBER 1, 2018 BY MOTHER MARY ASSUMPTA LONG, OP 2 COMMENTS

We are deeply saddened by the news that comes in daily about the sexual abuse involving the hierarchy (cardinals, bishops, and priests) in the Catholic Church. We certainly believe that those found guilty should be punished and live out their lives in prayer, penance, and reparation. We hope and pray that the persons who have been abused will find support, love, and healing.

Our thoughts turn to all of those wonderful men in the hierarchy who love the Church and are faithful to her teachings, who must be going through their own Calvary with each report of the above. We think of the religious who have given their lives to the Lord and who were helped in their vocation discernment by some wise counsel of a priest. We think of the laity who are trying themselves, and also trying to raise their children, to love the Church and live by her teachings in a culture which gives very little or no support for so doing.

There will probably be many, weak in the knowledge and living of their Catholic Faith, who will use clerical abuse as an excuse to leave the Church, but hopefully [it will] make others stronger in the Faith. “Lord, to whom shall we go?” The Catholic Church has the fullness of faith, with all the means to lead men and women to holiness of life and to eternal salvation. The history of the Church has always been through crises, and at these times great saints were raised up. A good example of this was St. Thomas More, who was martyred for defending the Church of Rome when many of the hierarchy were defending King Henry VIII, who declared himself the Head of the Church in England. Thomas More is the one who has Saint before his name. Or we look to St. Catherine of Siena, who worked so hard to help bring Pope Gregory XI from Avignon to Rome.

In 1969, when Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was Professor Joseph Ratzinger, he gave a radio talk, “What Will the Future Church Look Like?” I will quote a few sentences from this talk. “From the crisis of today a new Church of tomorrow will emerge—a Church that has lost much! She will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning…. But in all [this] … the Church will find her essence afresh and with full conviction in that which was always at her center: faith in the triune God, in Jesus Christ, the son of God made man, in the presence of the Spirit until the end of the world.” I certainly think that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s words are surely applicable today.

So what should our response be to this crisis in the Church today? It calls us all to strengthen our own faith, to pray, practice virtue, fast, and sacrifice not only for those who have been abused but also for those who have caused this scandal in the Church. We desire all to receive the love and mercy of God.

The tree is being pruned radically only to put forth more healthy and stronger shoots. If we are looking at a smaller Church, perhaps the best example we could take would be the mustard seed—the smallest of all seeds, but when grown becomes the biggest shrub of all and becomes a tree so big that the birds of the air come and shelter in its branches. (MT 13:31,32). So if all of us in the smaller Church are planted deeply in the belief and practice of our Faith, the Church will grow stronger and stronger and many will come to be embraced in the loving arms of their Mother.

Mother Mary Assumpta Long, OP
Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist
Ann Arbor, Michigan

https://www.hprweb.com/2018/09/lord-to-whom-shall-we-go/
www.sistersofmary.org

Fr. Altier Tells The Whole Truth about the Abuse Scandals!

Subject: Fr. Altier Tells the Whole Truth about the Abuse Scandals!

Date: August 24, 2018 at 3:42:07 PM CDT

To: info@catholicparents.org

 “Not simply a cover up, it’s an agenda; intentional and purposeful, to destroy the Church from within”

  
1924 homosexual infiltration began; reference given; beginning to seed the Seminaries, then the Priesthood, then the Bishops and Cardinals 

1929 Communist infiltration began

Listen: :  https://straphaelcrystal.org/homily/august-19-2018/   20 minutes long, riveting summary

The Fedit Sea in Which They Swim

The Fetid Sea in Which They Swim

Austin Ruse

The gaying of the Church is perhaps the most diabolical attack the Devil has ever launched against the Catholic Faith.

First, there is the massive damage done to the Church: the thousands of victims, the hundreds of millions in payouts, the bankruptcy of dioceses, and the cratering of ecclesial credibility.

And yet, in our society is there a more sympathetic group than gays? Is there a more favored group? So sympathetic are they, so eager are we to cover their sins and cower before them, that when the long Lent came and more than 80 percent of the victims were young men, we were eager to claim these homosexual assaults weren’t homosexual at all but pedophile, which we were quickly told has nothing to do with homosexuality.

Then consider that in order for the Church to regain her moral authority, in order to fight this terrible scourge, made even worse by recent revelations, the Church must turn on this most favored group and receive even more hatred and scorn for it.

Cardinal McCarrick’s crimes are at least something of a gift since no one can claim this was merely pedophilia. It was homosexual predation like practically all the others.

If you wonder how a Prince of the Church spent decades sexually assaulting boys and young men not only with impunity but with high honors and acclaim, look no further than this gaying of the Church. An authority on this is one Joseph Sciambra who has painstakingly chronicled this fetid sea in which the likes of Cardinal McCarrick swim.

When he was just beginning his gay life many years ago, Sciambra went to Catholic priests who did not try to dissuade him but rather confirmed him in his disordered desires. This helped to set Sciambra on a years-long path of sexual degradation. Nothing has changed since those days. In fact, according to Sciambra, it has gotten worse. There are now priests openly promoting the gay lifestyle, usually under the guise of gay-friendly outreach at the parish level.

Sciambra ranks the gay-friendliest dioceses: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Newark, Atlanta, Lexington, and Memphis. He gives “dishonorable mention” to Baltimore, Boston, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle.

A few months ago, Sciambra reported on a drag performer named Jay Malsky who for the past five years has run the homo/trans ministry at St. Francis de Sales Church in New York City. Sciambra posted a picture of the guy, wearing red sparkly shoes, handing out Communion during Mass. Sciambra ran a second picture of him all dolled up.

Sciambra quotes Malsky’s Facebook timeline that featured a crude drawing of an erect penis, “This is my boyfriend’s fat di*k. Ever since I was in middle school, kids teased me about loving fat di*k but I’m like whatever what I do with these fat di*ks is my biz not yours. #bodypositive #sexpositive.”

Everyone knows.

Then there is the homo/trans ministry called “Out at St. Paul,” which is located at the Paulist Father’s motherhouse, St. Paul the Apostle Parish in New York City. Sciambra reports this “ministry” hosted its “Winter Social” at a notorious gay bar called Rise in Hell’s Kitchen that is regularly listed as being among the best gay bars in New York and hosts “elaborate weekly drag shows” where the bartenders “wear nothing except jock-straps.” In March of last year, this same group held their “Spring Social” at a bar called “Bottom’s Up,” and they don’t mean their glasses.

Yet another homo/trans outreach, this one located at St. Francis of Assisi Church near Penn Station in New York, hosted its Mardi Gras party at Rise.

Jesuit priest James Martin has spoken many times at “Out at St. Paul” events and considers it an example of a “vibrant” homo/trans outreach.

Sciambra says there are several gay-friendly parishes in New York including my old parish, Blessed Sacrament on the Upper West Side. Blessed Sacrament hosted a Halloween dance party that featured heretical gay speakers including Carl Siciliano of the Ali Forney Center who says the Catechism is “homophobic” and who has spoken in favor of homosexual sex acts. The homo/trans ministry at Blessed Sacrament is headed by a man named John Gasdaska who “married” his boyfriend two years ago.

Everyone knows.

Sciambra reported on a homo/trans ministry leader named John Huân Vû in San Jose, California whose LinkedIn.com as an LGBT Ministry Leader, Young Adult Ministry Leader, Mass Coordinator, Eucharistic Minister, and Lector at St. Julie Billart Catholic Church. Vû married his boyfriend, Greg Ripa, in 2014. Vû also appeared in the movie “Owning Your Faith” produced by the gay-enthusiastic St. Paul the Apostle Church in New York.

Everyone knows.

The Archdiocese of Atlanta has allowed the Catholic Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to march in the upcoming “Pride” parade that will inevitably feature naked or near-naked men feigning anal and oral sex. The Shrine also hosts a regular potluck dinner for homo/trans couples.

These stories can be told from coast to coast, and from border to border, and it has all happened with the express support and even encouragement of pastors and bishops. Think back to when Cardinal McCarrick started his craven life of crime. There were very few, if any, gay-affirming parishes. Maybe in San Francisco. However, even there they were probably sotto voce. These days, they shout it from the rooftops. How much easier it is now for gay priests and bishops to practice their predilections. How much easier it is now to ensnare young men into such a life.

There is talk of investigations. I suggest they be run only by laymen and only by laymen with no connections to the hierarchical Church. The investigations must be staffed by professional investigators, former FBI agents, or former detectives.

They must be ruthless and fearless. They must cast a wide net. Any pastor of a gay-affirming parish must be scrutinized, as well as any bishop who allows such places in his diocese. This fetid sea, i.e.,these places, did not come about by accident. They are prima facie evidence not of building bridges, but of the kind of moral corruption that has brought us to this moment.

What we need is a New Inquisition. Nothing less will do. Souls hang in the balance.

Editor’s note: Pictured above is a rainbow flag held by “gay pride” marchers walking passed the York Cathedral on June 9, 2018 in England. (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

For the “Sake of the Church”

Brad Miner

Monday, July 30, 2018

A prediction: The McCarrick revelations will turn out to be a good thing. How so? Well, a part of the priest sex-abuse fairy tale is the cover-up.  We know this – and that the cover-up always magnifies the crime.

When a good priest has discovered the homosexual sins of a bad priest (let alone of a bishop), and if that good priest has gone to his pastor or to a bishop (let alone an archbishop), it’s likely that he will hear a version of this:

Thank you, Father. We must do something about this, and we will! But, for the sake of the Church, you must tell no one else. The media will pounce on such a story to discredit Catholicism itself. You’re brave to come forward. But I wouldn’t want you to risk your career by becoming the focus of an ongoing and sensational investigation.

That’s a high hurdle to jump in a Church that values hierarchy and discipline. But my prediction is that a great many priests who know of homosexual (and instances, too, of heterosexual) sins by priests (let alone bishops) will now begin to come forward.

I hope they will – every last one of them. Because the drip, drip, drip of scandal is really hurting the Church. If there’s a levee that needs bursting, we should welcome that: a torrent to cleanse the swamp.

Let the flood come: of resignations and laicizations – perhaps hundreds of them. It will be destabilizing, and as a conservative I shudder at the prospect. But the miasma is now intolerable. The stench of suspicion is falling on every bishop, if not also every priest.

It must also be recognized that clergy engaging in sex-abuse is just a part of the problem. The 2004 John Jay College of Criminal Justice report to the USCCB ^[2] contains some good data on the crisis. But its purview was limited to the abuse of kids, 17 and under. No research was done about the sexual escapades of priests with men, 18 and older.

Those data would likely reveal a much, much larger scandal – one that would explode a key conclusion of the John Jay researchers as well as the Spotlight team at the Boston Globe and the likes of Fr. James Martin, S.J., namely that the scandals “have nothing whatsoever to do with homosexuality.” This simply cannot be true.

I’ll now tell a tale I’ve alluded to before at TCT. But first I’ll repeat what I’ve said to close friends, some of whom contribute to this website. Had I known in 1973 when I was about to enter the Catholic Church what we all know now about the extent of predatory homosexuality in the priesthood and the numbers of, by definition, sinful homosexual encounters among priests, boys, teens, and men, I would not have become Catholic. Thank God I didn’t know, because – despite these scandals – I cannot imagine any other spiritual home.

Former Vatican official Krzysztof Charamsa “came out” and was fired and defrocked

So . . .

Shortly after I made my profession of faith (I can’t recall the season because it was in California), I came home late from work and missed the 5 PM Mass at the church I attended. The celebrant, shaking hands outside, told me there was a 6 PM at a church a few miles away, so I drove there.

At the end of that Mass, a priest approached me in the parking lot. He said he’d never seen me at Mass before. I explained, and he said:

“I want to ask you something, but I don’t want to shake your faith.”

“How would you do that?”

“It’s something private.”

I held up my hands: Huh?

Short story shorter, he said he wanted to have sex with me.

“You’re under a vow of chastity,” I said.

“No, no. You’re a new Catholic. My vow is celibacy – not to marry – not chastity, yes?”

I went on to my car.

A few months later, back home in Ohio where I grew up, I went again to an evening Mass, and as I was receiving Communion, the priest whispered: “Come see me in the sacristy, okay?”

I’m embarrassed to admit the alarm bells didn’t go off. This guy was subtler. He asked if I’d come with him to say the blessing before a high-school basketball game a few days on.

At the end of the first quarter, he said, “Thanks for the company. I owe you a drink.” So we drove to a bar I’d never seen or heard of in the middle of downtown Columbus. When we got out of the car, he opened the trunk, took off his clerical collar, and put on a jacket that matched exactly the one I was wearing.

I got that sinking feeling. And, yes, the bar was a gay hangout.

“What’ll you have?” he asked.

“Any old beer,” I said, and he went to fetch it.

The bar was five miles from where I lived. I quickly exited, jogged a couple of blocks, and then walked the rest of the way home.

Then I visited a seminary, still considering a vocation to the priesthood. (I’d also visited another seminary and two monasteries.) The vocations director took me to dinner, and it happened again. I won’t repeat now what I said to him then.

At this point, I’d been a Roman Catholic for less than six months. The upshot was: I steered clear of priests for the next fifteen years, pretty much until I met Fathers Neuhaus, Rutler, and Schall.

This anecdotal evidence proves nothing. And I would qualify the meme in L’Affaire McCarrick that, “Everybody knew.” Lots did, but most people had no clue. Unless you were party to the rumor mill, you knew nothing about it.

But I’m not the only adult who was “hit on” by priests. I’m probably not the only guy to whom it happened thrice.

Let’s drain the swamp – for the sake of the Church.

https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2018/07/30/for-the-sake-of-the-church/print
Brad Miner is senior editor of The Catholic Thing, senior fellow of the Faith & Reason Institute, and Board Secretary of Aid to the Church In Need USA. He is a former Literary Editor of National Review. His new book, Sons of St. Patrick, written with George J. Marlin, is now on sale. The Compleat Gentleman, is available on audio.