This will be a big story. Catholic-haters will flog it, and Catholics will be embarrassed--and angry.
While Pope Francis has urged diocesan bishops to take more seriously the canonical discipline of clerics, the outgoing chairman of the U.S. bishops’ canonical affairs committee [Abp. Listecki] has not taken steps to address canonically reports of public cohabitation by a senior-ranking official in his archdiocese. ...
...A spokesperson for Archbishop Jerome Listecki of Milwaukee told The Pillar that the archdiocese has “spoken with” judicial vicar Fr. Mark Payne, who hired as a parish schoolteacher last year a layperson with whom he had maintained a public romantic relationship, and with whom he has shared a condo for decades. ...
Fr. Payne is pastor of St Eugene/Fox Point and St Monica/Whitefish Bay. He is also the priest who says the televised Mass on "Heart of the Nation."
There was some reaction to this "hire," and the teacher resigned.
You'll love this list of qualifications:
...Payne announced to families at St. Monica’s School that he had hired as a middle school theology teacher a man who “comes to us with a degree in theology, high school teaching experience, and was in formation to join the Jesuit order.” ...
Fr. Payne has the IQ of a chipmunk. Or maybe he thinks he's so damn valuable that he can't be fired. See the following:
...The priest did not mention that he and the man had owned a condo together since 2003, or that the man had for years depicted them as a romantic couple in publicly accessible social media postings reviewed by The Pillar: recounting their vacations together — including one with “another couple” — their commemoration of holidays, their efforts to redecorate their condo, and posting photos of the pair at Pride events and gay bars and clubs, both in Milwaukee and in other parts of the world. ...
How very fabulous!
It's publicly known. Then this genius priest hires his boy-toy to......ahhh..........teach........the grade-school boys. (And girls, of course.)
+Listecki has a problem and he hasn't figured out a way to solve it. He better figure it out quick.
UPDATE: A Milwaukee priest who maintained an allegedly romantic public relationship with a layman was placed on administrative leave Friday, while a formal canonical investigation into his conduct is initiated. ...
The Archbishop of Milwaukee has a problem. He doesn't take action until it is forced upon him. This is the second case in the last 30 days--the other concerned sending Catholic Charities money to a highly questionable "charity" in Kenosha whose executive director:
....supports abortion until birth for any reason, radical LGBT issues, pediatric genital mutilation, pornography in schools, and anti-gun policies. CUSH also condems “Christian nationalism.”...
When those positions of CUSH became clear, and despite the backing of two Kenosha priests for CUSH, the Archdiocese finally pulled the plug.
This is not a guy you want leading you into battle.
1 comment:
This entire episode has angered me to no end. I watch Heart of the Nation every Sunday, and I feel BETRAYED by Fr. Payne AND by Abp. Listecki for looking the other way for so many years. These men are supposed to answer to a higher standard, and, simply put, they have failed to do that. Both of them need to seek other employment.
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