8 Priests Ignore Phoenix Bishop Olmstead

I went to school with a number of guys who were studying to be priests for Phoenix in the 1980's.



One of them was a young man who was very homosexual and to the best of my knowledge was never ordained--in fact he left suddenly along with his "lover" amid rumors that both had been married by a former classmate who at the time was a priest in Phoenix. This created quite a buzz at the time.



What is interesting and related to the current issue is that this young man's father was also studying to be a priest at the time at another seminary, one for older vocations. He was ordained and is one of the priests who is ignoring Bishop Olmstead's decree. (As I recall in his case his wife had died).



It will be interesting to see how all of this resolves itself, I think this is the first shots of a war that is about to break out into the open.



From 8 Priests Ignore Phoenix Bishop Olmstead:



"A week after they were ordered by the bishop to remove their names from a pro-gay statement, only one of nine Catholic priests who signed the document has complied.





The Rev. Chris Carpenter, pastor of Christ the King Parish in Mesa, said Tuesday in an e-mail to the media that he would remove his name from the Phoenix Declaration 'in fidelity to my promise of obedience and respect for the bishop of Phoenix and in the interest of parish and diocesan unity.'





He said he would continue to offer pastoral care to gay people and to stand with them 'when they are uncharitably or unjustly treated.'





The e-mail followed the publication in the diocesan newspaper and on its Web site of the first of three columns by Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted about homosexuality. Last week, Olmsted sent a confidential letter to the priests demanding they remove their names from the document, prepared by a coalition of Catholic and Protestant clergy called No Longer Silent. Olmsted said the columns are an attempt to respond to the declaration."