Church in Scotland in grave crisis due to "gay mafia" in the priesthood

Archdiocese website showing Milarvie as an active
parish priest

The editorial position of Witness is that any priest who violates his vow of celibacy should be immediately removed from active pastoral duty - and, if need be laicized.

The strange case of Fr. Paul Milarvie only confirms the crisis that is hitting the Church in Scotland after decades of coverup and deceit. This case is a perfect example of  the "powerful gay mafia" in the seminaries and priesthood that Fr. Matthew Despard has written so bravely about in his book Priesthood in Crisis.

In 2010 Milarvie was caught out in a drunken homosexual incident - possibly with another priest. The Sunday Herald reported the incident in this manner:

Milarvie as an :"ecumenical" expert

The complaints against him centred on two nights in the summer of 2010, when he invited another man to dinner at his parish house. According to Conti's written judgment on the case, on the first occasion there was a homosexual incident, the nature of which is disputed, after both men had "a large amount to drink". Milarvie later apologised.

To show the apology was accepted, the other man agreed to a second dinner, but complained he was then subjected to unwanted harassment, with Milarvie attempting to constrain him. After the man complained to the Archdiocese, the church held an in-house investigation.

Milarvie and the man gave evidence under oath to church lawyers, and Archbishop Conti gave his verdict on the case in November 2010. He declared there had been no crime, and claimed there had been "consensual" gay activity, rather than an unwelcome approach by Milarvie.

Milarvie listed on the Archdiocesan Curia

He added that, even allowing for the "morally reprehensible over-indulgence" in drink, Milarvie's actions had been "voluntary and totally unworthy behaviour on the part of a priest".

Both men were told to repent and offered pastoral and psychological counselling by the Archdiocese.

Milarvie's official "ecumenical" position with the
Archdiocese of Glasgow

All of this raises very serious questions: who was the other man? A priest? Given that he was told to "repent" and offered pastoral/psychological counseling by the Archdiocese I believe it highly probable. 

Archbishop Conti admitted that the moral crimes committed were "consensual", so it was not a question of homosexual rape. If so, is this other man also actively involved in pastoral ministry? 

Further, why would Milarvie be allowed to remain an active priest? And a member of the Archdiocesan curia as well? Does he have the power of blackmail over others? Would further investigations confirm Fr. Despard's book? I fear so. 

This incident and the subsequent "in house" cover-up only further confirms Fr. Despard. The return to active priestly ministry by Milarvie is a sin against Christ and His Church. Catholics should demand the immediate removal of Milarvie, and a full, open investigation on the "gay mafia" in the Scottish priesthood. 

On 16 May 2002 [Prot. n. 886/02/0] to an unidentified bishop, Cardinal Estevez, then Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, wrote:

This Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, conscious of the experience resulting from many instructed causes for the purpose of obtaining dispensation from the obligations that derive from Holy Ordination, and after due consultation with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, expresses its judgment as follows:

Ordination to the diaconate and the priesthood of homosexual men or men with homosexual tendencies is absolutely inadvisable and imprudent and, from the pastoral point of view, very risky. A homosexual person, or one with a homosexual tendency is not, therefore, fit to receive the sacrament of Holy Orders. [Emphases added]