Rev. Scott Gale spent six months at Marathon’s Holy Saviour Church before making a surprising announcement to parishioners. As Rev. Scott Gale strode through Marathon’s Holy Saviour church Thursday morning, a parishioner sitting in a pew caught his eye and said quietly, “See you on Sunday.”
Sundays are typically busy for the outspoken Gale. But the day after tomorrow will be different — likely the last time the veteran cleric will address a congregation as an active priest. Gale, 47, resigned last month after revealing he is gay, and that he is no longer able to commit to being celibate. Most of Holy Saviour’s parishioners learned of Gale’s decision to pursue his “longing for a loving relationship” as they sat in the pews during regular services on New Year’s Day.
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It has become increasingly difficult for me to be an official representative of a church which does not accept and value my sexual orientation,” Gale declared in a two-page letter he read aloud. Many parishioners couldn’t believe their ears as Gale, who only arrived in Marathon last summer, delivered the startling news. [Source]
Again "the document" seems to be having a greater effect than I thought it would. Though sad it is good that he is living the priesthood before ditching celibacy. Just too bad that his “longing for a loving relationship” didn’t include Jesus. It also offers more proof that those who have same-sex attraction often becomes dissidents (he wrote a letter previously in support of same-sex marriage). This is not surprising since we all try to minimize our own sins and it doesn’t help when society is helping us in our efforts. It becomes a conflict of interest or really a conflict of "self-interest" in many of these cases where personal inclinations override Church teaching. Again an again they only prove the need of "the document" and do not help their case at all.
22 comments
Onward, Vanish Inquisition! The 40 years of suspended obedience are catching up on us, aren’t they?
Chastity? Yes we really mean it.
Celebacy? Yes we really mean it.
Purity? Yes we really mean it.
I’m hoping that the coming encyclical will help people discern the proper places of Eros with Philia and Agape. For too long we’ve suffered the tyranny of Eros devoid of connection and accountability to the others.
“accept and value my sexual orientation”
No Scott, the Church accepts and values you as a person. I am disappointed that he used the pulpit to make a public declaration of rebellioon. I am concerned for the judgement of the Bishop that gave him permission to expose the innocent of the parish to a priest’s desires for man to man sex, and his statement: �I admire (Gale) for having the courage to say, �This is who I am.��. Who’s to say, maybe the poor Bishop was just avoiding time in the slammer for hate speech.
Jesus values this man’s immortal soul, loves him beyond all telling and will forgive him anything, yet this poor, deluded fool still insists that his “sexual orientation” trumps all that. Go figure.
Let us pray that this priest doesn’t take anyone with him. I used to work down the hall from an ex-priest who was openly gay. He was always telling me that I have “ruined my life by getting married in the Church.” He even suggested that I should try to have an affair with a seminarian I had met a wedding because “I needed to experiment and the seminarian was just waiting for me to seduce him.” Needless to say after that comment I avoided him as much as possible. I am not sure I have meet a more evil individual. I shudder to think what he has done to Catholics whose faith is not strong.
Excellent comments. As to the bishop who admires this seriously misguided individual, maybe he should be making a similar speech.
Like the rich young man he turns away because he is unwilling to give up his “riches” to gain eternal life.
How sad.
What is sad here is a soul descending into mortal sin with obvious real desire to seperate itself from God.
As to his bishop, we must pray for him. He clearly was given much and will have much to answer for and not the least of what he answers for will be his admiration for some desirous cutting himself off from God’s grace and his apparent lack of concern for his brother priest’s immortal soul.
We really have to start calling sin by its name not to mention calling all forms of evil by its name.
Sooo….is he saying he was able to committ to celibacy BEFORE the Vatican document, and now, BECAUSE OF the document he can no longer keep his vow? Or is he saying that he could never keep his vow because he is gay and can’t control his urges and never could?
As someone said already, too bad Jesus was just not enough for him. Poor, sad, soul. I agree…I hope he doesn’t drag anyone down with him, but given the pattern of this type of priest, I seriously doubt he is going alone. Sad, sad time for our Church.
I do think we’re headed to a stronger, smaller, more faithful Church, though. Vanish Inquisition onward!
I agree with Julie. A stronger, smaller, and more faithful Church will arise, but to watch this ugliness still emerging all around us is sad indeed.
I have a friend who is a parishioner under this priest. His announcement has left his congregation stunned, wounded, and grieving. Let’s not be so confident of our own superiority simply because this is not our sin temptation; rather, let’s storm Heaven for this priest, the parishioners who have loved and trusted him, and all others who come under is influence.
I should have done my rounds before doing my post I guess. It is a sad situation that should not have happened. There is only one thing to do in these situations when one is left stunned, saddened and feeling helpless (as I think would be the correct feelings here)…pray!
Laura – your comments are spot on! Thanks for reminding us of that.
(Saint?)Jimbob had a great suggestion for the bishop over at Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex: he (His Excellency) should have prescribed 40 days of prayer and penance at a reputable Benedictine monastery before agreeing to accept the resignation.
On the other hand, in the event that he left, it should not have been in so scandalous a fashion. I remember my first semester in college, when the Newman chaplain publicly proclaimed – from the pulpit at Sunday Mass – that he had “fallen in love” (albeit, with a female member of the university faculty). There I sat, stunned (I would certainly have been more stunned if he had “fallen in love” with a man) thinking this would probably not be a good time to go to talk with father about my vocation!
Laura, thanks for the reminder – you are right, let us not become smug and self-righteous: but for the grace of God…
He cannot stay a priest because he has to look for a loving relationship? I practice family law and I can assure you, if a client were to say to me that they can’t stay in the marriage because they have to look for a loving relationship, I ask, “What’s her/his name?” No, I suspect Scott Gale has already found someone and is using the recent encyclical as his excuse to get out, since he wants people to see him as the victim.
Notice how he wrested the Mass away from the worhsip of God and turned it into his own pity party. Good riddance. As for his parish, in the days to come many of them will admit that yeah, they saw some things and heard some things that made them wonder about him earlier. Most of them never put two and two together but somebody may have. He probably was about to be busted and decided to come out on his own terms.
Priesthood, like marriage, needs to be worked at and maintained, lest the priest fall out of love with his spouse (in this case, the Church). I don’t know him personally, but I’ll guess that he had stopped praying, both privately and the Liturgy of the Hours, lived from vacation to vacation, and probably took more than a few days off a week long before he came to the decision to abandon his priesthood. He has simply made public an interior decision he had already made long ago without telling anyone.
First off, gay or not, he is leaving as he himself said, because he was seeking out a “loving relationship”. So he obviously does not value being a priest and was probably having this homosexual affair over and over for some time and decided he was going to get caught and wanted to make the mass, the holy sacrifice of the mass which is meant to worship God and not himself and his gayness, to push forth his pity agenda and blast the church.
What I question is that there was a document that was in place since 1961 that is essentially the same as is being put forth and if the priest was smart he would just wait this out, as his Bishop by readingitno his comments as just going to overlook him being Gay anyway.
Actually this document is so much more lame than that of 1961 which totally forbids Gays, the new document just says they “have to be celibate”, which I guess means no sodomy, which is a double sin.
Sad commentary on the church, I guess after Boston goes into bankruptcy, then LA and then NY, then maybe the church shall learn that these past 40 years of liberaliation and experimentation have failed miserably
Jeff,
I was glancing at my kitchen table this morning and the cover of Cardinal Ratzinger’s memoirs caught my eye – Milestones. Hmm, I thought, I bet Jeff Miller could make a great parody on that – “Millstones: Memoirs of ex-priest” – for some reason I thought of this poor soul first!
Or maybe you would like to save the idea for a more high profile character (maybe another Cardinal! )
I’m Protestant so I don’t have a problem with cergy being married. Peter was married. My own pastor is married.
But I would never condone a homosexual relatiopnship. The the first church I attended we had an “ex-gay.” Personally, I felt he was still gay and still had those feelings, but he chose not to act on them. I always respected the hell out of him for that.
It’s terrible that his relationship with this other person is more important than Jesus and his Church.
Well hopefully this parish, that this priest worked in, will get a wonderful orthodox Roman Catholic priiest that will heal and strengthen a saddened and hurt community with continued prayers for their lost sherherd.
Put this in plain english: This priest just told a church full of people he’s going out looking for a _____ __ ___. Interesting that they didn’t kick his ___ out the door–an indication only of how low we’ve sunk.
I was saddened to learn that Scott was leaving the priesthood. Sadder still that he is being condemned by people who have never met him, who are making unfounded and Un-Christian comments about him. I am so uncomfortable with the blame and the anger which his decision has brought about. It is one thing to disagree with his decision. It is entirely different to superimpose one’s own fear, bias and lack of knowledge into this discussion.
Rather than condemning Gale or slandering Bishop Colli, perhaps it is time that we applaud Colli on being a supportive and non-judgmental authority within the church. To suggest that Colli is gay is incredibly juvenile and laughable. and if he were? big deal. We should all be so luck so as to be in a diocese with a shepherd as caring and concerned as Colli.
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