DETROIT, Aug. 9 (UPI) — Michigan prosecutors are trying to determine if a defrocked Catholic priest violated his probation by celebrating mass for a gay religious group.
Harry Benjamin pleaded no contest in 2003 and served seven months in prison for sexually abusing a teenage boy in the 1980s. The terms of his probation bar him from being around children or teens.
The Detroit Free Press reports that Benjamin celebrated mass in Alexandria, Va., for Dignity, a group of gay Roman Catholics not recognized by the church. The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office learned of this when the organization checked on Benjamin’s background.
"We’re investigating what he has been doing in terms of his activities with Dignity, whether he’s been conducting masses and is in the presence of minors," a spokeswoman for the prosecutor said, adding that Benjamin’s probation does not bar him from participating in religious ceremonies.
Benjamin moved to Virginia in 1991 after he was laicized by the Vatican, a step that completely removed him from the priesthood. [Source]
It would be curious to know if Dignity was aware that this ex-priest was a homosexual abuser when they had him say Mass? I would not be surprised at all to find out that they did.
3 comments
I would not be surprised either. They probably don’t consider what he did to be abuse or morally wrong. These people are truly sad, and in some cases, like this guy, dangerous.
?”a step which completely removed him from the priesthood.” Your a priest forever by the order of Melchizedek. No. He had his faculties revoked but I would say the mass was illicit but probably valid.
I’m sure Andrew Sullivan will be all over this story. I think I’ll start holding my breath…
right…
now.