Tuesday, October 13, 2009

"This awful seminary"

A few weeks back Cleansing Fire posted this photo of 25 members of the Fathers of Mercy and asked if anyone could identify the third priest from the left in the top row.

It turned out the cleric is Fr. Frank Fusare, C.P.M.

What made this exercise interesting is that Fr. Frank was at one time a diocesan priest here in DOR. He was ordained by Bishop Clark in 1996 and the combox conversation around the post (especially here) indicated that he had been driven out of the diocese because he insisted on preaching what the Church teaches on homosexuality.

I was interested in learning more about Fr. Frank and quickly found out that he was one of three presenters on Saint Joseph Communications' Confronting the Gay Agenda - The Catholic Truth About Homosexuality. Intrigued both by the title and Fr. Frank's experience in DOR I ordered a copy.

Fr. Frank's presentation is entitled The Effects Of The Homosexual Agenda and is a detailed account of what homosexual activists hope to achieve and the effects their success would have on society.

But what is really of interest is the following excerpt from the early part of his talk where he is, in a sense, establishing his credentials (my transcription and emphasis):

I can make these claims with 100% certainty - 100% - because I've not only read about this issue but for years I've heard with my own ears what militant, active homosexuals have to say by viewing their rallies and listening to their speeches and because I was forced to attend a seminary that protected militant homosexuals.

Now let me stop for a second and tell you that before I was a member of the Fathers of Mercy I was a priest in a diocese in this country, so the Fathers of Mercy did not send me to this awful seminary, it was the diocese that I was from originally.

That diocese, of course, is DOR and the seminary is St. Mary's in Baltimore, the "Pink Palace" of Michael S. Rose's Goodbye, Good Men.

In Chapter 4 of his book Rose writes,

According to former seminarians and recently ordained priests, the "gay subculture" is so prominent and accepted at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore that students have long nicknamed it "The Pink Palace."

Father Andrew Walter, ordained for the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut in 2000, spent several semesters at the Baltimore school as a seminarian for the Diocese of Patterson, New Jersey. The problem was so bad when he was there, he explained, that "some of the students and faculty used to get dressed up in leather to go to ‘the block,’ Baltimore’s equivalent to 42nd Street in Manhattan."

Seminarians, sometimes accompanied by faculty members, would do this regularly, Walter explained. "They would meet in the foyer, and then head for the gay bars."

That's the seminary that Bishop Clark forced Frank Fusare to attend.

Elsewhere in his book Rose quotes Fr. Charles Fiore of Wisconsin,

If the bishops and rectors don't know that this kind of rot is eating away-at the innards of the church, at its future vitality, that's misfeasance. If they know but do nothing to stop it that's malfeasance! And the faithful should demand a top-to-bottom housecleaning where such situations exist. Certainly they are not morally obliged financially to support this ecclesiastical incompetence.

I couldn't agree more.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gen said...

Well said, Mike.

btw, I had a chuckle when I had to type the "word verification." It was "gayborian." lol

Mike Shea said...

Gen.,

I wish I could claim I chose the verification "words" but, as we both know, I can't.

Ben Anderson said...

mighty fine work, Mike. You are the true professional amongst us amatuers.

Anonymous said...

Is it the local bishop who is responsible for the seminary? Does he have complete control of faculty appointments and conduct, etc?

Anonymous said...

And he's not the only former Rochester priest that I've heard speak the truth about this Diocese. So much corruption.

Anonymous said...

Ever wonder why we have a man from the Rochester gay men's choir, and probable non-Catholic (Thomas Warfield) performing as a liturgical dancer in our Cathedral for the Chrism Mass?

Bishop Clark probably had a hand or two in this...

Mike Shea said...

Anon. 11:41,

Baltimore's St. Mary Seminary is the responsibility of the archbishop of Baltimore. He is the person ultimately responsible for everything taking place there.

That said, other bishops who send their seminarians to St. Mary's (or anywhere else) have a duty to ensure that their men will receive adequate theological and moral formation.

As Michael Rose points out, the reports about St. Mary's (and certain other seminaries) were numerous and wide spread, at least among the clergy.

Bishops who ignored those reports have no excuse.

Anonymous said...

I agree. There have been far too many incidents at these particular seminaries for this to be ignored or merely dismissed as a couple upset rejected seminarians. There have been widespread problems of homosexuality and sexual abuse among the priesthood, and the root of this cause is what goes on in seminary. These candidates need to be rejected from the very beginning, not even making it into the seminary. There certainly shouldn't be a gay sub-culture, or culture since some seminaries are predominantly homosexual.

Anonymous said...

I find it interesting. There seems little we can do to have to have the local bishop change faculty and expell seminarians who conduct themselves in such a way. Perhaps some undercover action might expose these people.

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised that there haven't been pictures of seminarians at these schools dressed in drag and going to the gay bars.

John Cady said...

The local archbishop doesn't have full authority over St. Mary's. The seminary is overseen by the Society of St. Sulpice, a Roman Catholic body focused on the training and education of priests.