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For the record, he was baptized the day before he was ordained. And it appears from his postings that he lied about his beliefs in order to make himself acceptable for ordination. :-/ Fr. John

He had a two-year, pastoral relationship with a Catholic student who was an altar server and who was considering seminary. The student, as a Catholic, almost certainly already knew what the Catholic Church teaches about homosexual activity. In one of the articles on this, the student mentions...

A group that, apparently, is okay with ordaining a college student, without seminary training and very shortly after meeting him. It's clear from one of the articles that the ordination was almost instant upon contact being established with the bishop.

It would be one thing if they were asking for the priest's removal, not on the basis of the content of his faith, but in his manner of conveying them. If he had yelled at the student, called him names, used anti-gay slurs, disclosed private confessions to others, or otherwise behaved...

I don't believe I said that Old Catholics were a new group :-) However, they are very splintered, into multiple different sects, some of which are more serious and noteworthy than others. Some of them have actual long histories, parishes, parishioners, and stability. Others of them are...

By saying that he should avoid addressing the homosexuality itself, he is positing a kind of pastoral care formed by some other worldview than those of a Catholic priest. That's an even stranger idea, since the student coming to him was himself Catholic and altar server and spiritual child.

If you're suggesting that by being a chaplain in a public setting, he should be less focused on doctrine and more on counseling and pastoral care, then you are certainly positing a type of pastoral care or a type of counseling that is not informed by doctrine, belief, and worldview. What, then...

You said that, as a chaplain, he should avoid commenting on the homosexuality itself. That's what I'm saying is silly. To counsel someone that comes to him, he has to do so based on a given set of values and beliefs which, if he's a Catholic priest, are going to be based on Catholic teachings...

Also, the student in question now claims to be a priest, leading his own separate group: Keeping faith, defending sexuality - The GW Hatchet Without, apparently, the need for seminary and being ordained by a bishop that he just met.

But there's no such thing as generic pastoral care or generic counseling. What a pastor, chaplain, or counselor says, how he counsels, and what sort of care he gives is always going to be informed by and based on a particular set of beliefs, values, and a particular world view.

Exactly! That distinction should be common sense.

He is still bound to teach what he believes to be true. Of course, he should do it pastorally, but a chaplain in a public setting isn't a chaplain of nothing in particular and a preacher of nihilism. He is bound to be faithful to the truth and to his vocation, even in a public setting.

That's silly. He's a Catholic chaplain and he should never have to avoid saying what the Catholic Church teaches on a given issue. If the student wasn't Catholic, and had different beliefs, he could make clear that he was telling him the Catholic perspective, and that the student's own Church...

Meaning, then, that John Shelby Spong would not be considered Anglican (since he doesn't hold to the doctrines confessed in the creeds and doesn't believe in creeds in general)? In Christ, Fr. John

You can like or dislike Putin, but he really isn't a dictator.

Lutheran Benedictines?

Is it this group? Australian Old Catholic Church - Australian Old Catholic Church In Christ, Fr. John

Out of curiosity, what are you?

Canterbury concedes Anglican Communion has become "corrupted" | Anglican Ink Thoughts or comments? In Christ, Fr. John

The Ecumenical Patriarchate has glorified a new saint: St. Nikephoros the Leper. Here is his story: MYSTAGOGY: Saint Nikephoros the Leper Is Canonized By the Ecumenical Patriarchate In Christ, Fr. John