Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson said he led a confidential retreat a few years ago for gay Roman Catholic priests.
Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church and world Anglican Communion, said the Catholic priest group that organized the meeting had invited him to attend.
About 75 Catholic clergy from around the U.S. participated without notifying their bishops or provincial leaders, Robinson said.
I will take comments on this submitted by email only to at KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.
From RGB:
I hope +Gene consulted with the RC bishop into who’s diocese he entered to conduct this retreat.
From DNW:
I find it interesting that Bishop Robinson used this argument to further his case:
“I had said to them, ‘It’s too dangerous for you to come out as gay to your superiors, but I believe that if you work for the ordination of women in your church, you will go a long way toward opening the door for the acceptance of gay priests,” Robinson said.
This seems to be the exact argument that conservatives are using as to why one should *not* deviate from orthodoxy. Once you open the door to an innovation, it makes it easier for new innovations to be accepted.
DNW…I was just going to post that quote. It is the most telling in the entire piece.
From HE:
Sounds pretty fantastic to me, a secret network of gay RC priests holding a retreat and no one but the invitees knew about it? No one leaked anything about it for 2 years?
Gay priests are not news and celibacy remains celibacy regardless of one’s proclivities. As humans in a broken world priests are no more impervious to sins of the flesh requiring repentance than anyone else. What I find most disturbing is GR’s advise to use WO as a means of introducing the acceptance of gay priests by which I assume he means accepting openly non-celibate gay priests.
Alas, if this was the best he could advise I wonder if this comment did not draw at least one guffaw from his audience. No offense to my fellow believers but would it not be more expedient for gay RC priests to become gay Episcopalian priests rather than lock horns with the Magisterium?
I mean, c’mon now.