Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

It all started with this post, which resulted with the moratorium of the monthly gay mass in Park City, Utah. The March 17th Mass will be it’s last:

What Bussen didn’t expect was the immediate opposition within his own parish and the state - or the pulsing controversy his actions created across the country as the news spread via the Internet. He found himself in the midst of a firestorm of criticism.

For the past few years, an anonymous Catholic priest has been publishing a Web log about his struggles with his homosexuality. The writer describes being in the seminary in the 1970s when nearly 20 percent of the priests left to get married. He explored a slow awakening to his own sexuality, rampant homophobia in the church and the need to help other priests confront these issues. Eventually, the blogger writes that he is at peace with himself.

“My bishop gave me the supportive counsel,” he writes. “I was right in claiming, embracing and cherishing this dimension of my life. . . . This holy fire is sacred, not secret. It must not be trashed by anyone.”After Bussen began celebrating the Mass for gays and lesbians, some people concluded that he was the author of the blog and circulated it.

Some members of his parish confronted him and, Ozog says, he acknowledged he was the author. They felt it indicated a kind of moral ambivalence about church teachings and have sent a complete copy of the blog, now closed to the public, to the Vatican. In an interview, Bussen declined to confirm or deny the authorship or talk about his sexual orientation.

It took a while for me to finally publish the post pointing out who Fr. B was, because (1) I didn’t want to damage to reputation of an innocent priest, (2) nor do anything that was uncharitable and mean spirited in nature. After further discernment and making certain the priest of the blog was indeed Fr. Bussen, I decided that doing nothing would probably be more scandalous, as the doctrine he was teaching could, in fact, endanger his soul and that of others. I sent our blog post to Mark Shea. Knowing he has a huge reading audience, I hoped someone involved with the situation, given Fr. B’s ministry to those with same-sex attraction and his opinion on homosexuality being contrary to Catholic teaching, would eventually know best how to handle the situation. I just hope I did the right thing for the right reason. I wish Fr. B well and will pray for him. I have read that he has continued to be obedient to his vow of celibacy and also found some of his writings to be heart felt.

May God bless all our priests, especially those most in need of mercy.