We have previously noted that the Most Rev Salvatore Cordileone has stated that the Archdiocese of San Francisco would probably have to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Well, the time has come. From The New York Times:

Archdiocese of San Francisco Becomes the Latest to File for Bankruptcy

About a dozen dioceses and archdioceses in the United States are currently in bankruptcy proceedings as a result of multiple lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of children.

by Ruth Graham | Monday, August 21, 2023

Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone, photo from Archdiocese of San Francisco.

The Archdiocese of San Francisco, known for its outspoken conservative leadership, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone announced on Monday. The filing is intended to protect the archdiocese from what Archbishop Cordileone described as more than 500 civil lawsuits filed against it under a state law passed in 2019 that extended the statute of limitations for civil claims in child sexual abuse cases.

“We believe the bankruptcy process is the best way to provide a compassionate and equitable solution for survivors of abuse while ensuring that we continue the vital ministries to the faithful and to the communities that rely on our services and charity,” Archbishop Cordileone said in a letter addressed to Catholics in San Francisco.

Archbishop Cordileone signaled the bankruptcy earlier this month, warning publicly that the filing was “very likely.”

The article author, Ruth Graham, “is a Dallas-based national correspondent covering religion, faith and values for The New York Times. She graduated from Wheaton College and previously worked as a writer and reporter at Slate.” Telling us that she used to write for Slate is telling us that she’s a liberal, but what else would you expect from the Times? While she was very good at telling readers that several other diocese and archdiocese have been forced to file for bankruptcy over the cover ups of sexual abuse claims, she managed to write 547 words, and never mention what everybody already knows, that this is a crisis of having homosexual priests.

The Washington Post, the Associated Press, and CNN all did the same thing, tell readers about the bankruptcy, the sexual abuse lawsuits, and the Archbishop’s very conservative opinions, but not a one of those highly respected news services would tell the whole truth.

The John Jay Report, The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States 1950-2002, made it clear that:

The largest group of alleged victims (50.9%) was between the ages of 11 and 14, 27.3% were 15-17, 16% were 8-10 and nearly 6% were under age 7. Overall, 81% of victims were male and 19% female. Male victims tended to be older than female victims. Over 40% of all victims were males between the ages of 11 and 14.

Some people, including the homosexual-supporting Fr James Martin, SJ, and printed in the Jesuits’ America magazine, tried to make the excuse that homosexual priests were no more likely to be abusers than heterosexual ones, but that the victims were simply victims of availability, but that has virtually no credibility. When the majority of victims are boys in early puberty, ages 11-to-14, comprise the largest victim demographic, and males 15-to-17 are the second largest, you know that the abusers are looking at what is attractive to them, not just, to put it crudely, a hole to use.

Male victims tended to be older than female victims.

Anyone not trying to protect homosexuals would see that as evidence of a selection bias: the chickenhawks trolling for teenaged male meat. It could be argued that the true pedophiles, those going after prepubescent children, might not be as sexually selective,^[1]Even that seems questionable to me: I note that Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach now spending the rest of his miserable life behind bars — his earliest possible … Continue reading but the hebephiles, those interested in 11-to-14-year-olds, and ephebophiles, those interested in 15-to-17-year-olds, were clearly sex selective.

Whenever there is a truth that cannot be told, that is a truth that you must tell! In the current political climate, people cannot say anything even slightly condemnatory about homosexuals, so good liberals, and not even just the #woke^[2]From Wikipedia: Woke (/ˈwoʊk/) as a political term of African-American origin refers to a perceived awareness of issues concerning social justice and racial justice. It is derived from … Continue reading liberals, jump through all sorts of hoops to avoid telling a simple truth. The truth, it has been said, will set you free, and when it comes to the truth about homosexual predation in the Catholic priesthood — and not just the priesthood! — telling the truth can set you free from your job. I’m retired; I have no job from which I can be fired, so I can speak freely without worrying about the consequences.

Pope Benedict XVI recognized the problem, and stated that men with a homosexual orientation should not be admitted to the priesthood even if they performed no homosexual acts, something that even the more ‘moderate’ Pope Francis reiterated. Despite the protestations of William Saletan and Fr Martin and many other apologists, the Church, despite having a significant percentage of homosexuals in the priesthood,^[3]Andrew Sullivan wrote: We have no reliable figures on just how many priests in the Catholic Church are gay. The Vatican has conducted many studies on its own clergy but never on this subject. In the … Continue reading is realizing that the homosexual predation of priests has cost the Church billions of dollars, money lost not only in court settlements, but in parishioners no longer in the pews, no longer contributing to the Church.

And let’s face facts here: the Catholic Church has caused much of its own problem by not only ordaining homosexual priests, in the hopes that they can maintain their vows of celibacy, but covered up sexual abuse of minors when priests, normal and homosexual alike, have broken their vows. Many bishops who abused no one themselves nevertheless enabled the abuse of priests by not removing them from their duties, but quietly moving them to other parishes, without letting those parishes know about the priests’ transgressions.

There have been, and almost certainly still are, heterosexual priests who have abused children and teens. If the John Jay Report found that 81% of the victims of abuse were boys, that leaves 19% who were girls. The most recent case made public is that of Fr Alex Crow, who has run off to Italy with an 18-year-old girl, but was apparently ‘grooming’ her before she turner 18, and is suspected of trying to ‘groom’ or seduce other teenaged girls. But if heterosexual priests are 19% of the problem, than 81% of the problem can be worked on by much greater scrutiny of and attempts to end ordination of homosexual priests.

There are, of course, homosexual priests who have not sexually abused anyone, and if roughly 4% of all priests have been accused of sexual misconduct, that means that, again roughly, 96% have managed to keep their vows of celibacy. But 96% remaining faithful to their vows has still led to billions of dollars in losses, and thousands upon thousands of Catholics no longer in the pews, and the 4% who have been abusive have been an outsized, and devastating, problem. The math gets a bit rougher here, but if 4% have been the problem, and 81% of the abuse victims have been boys, then ¾ of the problem can be solved through greater scrutiny of current priests who are homosexual, and greater scrutiny of those attempting to enter the priesthood.

Yeah, I know: math is racist, and I suppose that using numbers to identify a serious problem in the Catholic Church must mean that math is heteronormative.^[4]I do not use the word ‘homophobic,’ because the structure of the word implies that I am afraid of homosexuals; that is not true. I do believe that homosexuality is just not normal, and … Continue reading

I come back to a point I have made before: we need a heterosexual, married priesthood! How many potentially good, even great, priests have never sought ordination because they knew that they could not commit themselves to a life of celibacy? How many new priests could we attract, how many would be able to answer God’s call, if they knew that they could have a wife and children?

And we already have married priests! The Eastern Rite Catholic Church has married priests, and in the United States, in the Latin Rite, there are over 100 married former Anglican priests who have converted to Catholicism and are allowed to continue as Catholic priests. The Most Reverend Mark Coleridge, the Archbishop of Brisbane, has suggested that the Church should allow married aboriginal men to become Catholic priests because there is “no way you’re going to recruit a celibate clergy in those cultures.” Which is better: a married priest ministering to Catholics, or no priest at all?

That truth is before us, but it is a truth we are not allowed to even whisper. I will do more than whisper it; I will proudly proclaim it! We need a married, strictly heterosexual priesthood. Such will not solve every problem, but it will solve many of them.