Another doozy

A prominent priest here may face church discipline for criticizing Roman Catholic teaching on celibate priests, birth control and papal authority in a video that's gone viral.The video, posted last week on the website of St. Edward Catholic Church in Nashville, shows the Rev. Joseph Breen, longtime pastor of the church, call for the Roman Catholic Church to allow married priests and birth control. He also claims that Catholics don't have to obey the pope.

Although it was originally posted on the church's site and Facebook page July 20, complaints surfaced quickly after a conservative Catholic website called Creative Minority Report reposted the video on YouTube. Upset readers of the Report e-mailed Bishop David Choby of the Nashville Diocese demanding that Breen be disciplined.

Choby met Friday with Breen and asked him to remove the video, which Breen agreed to do. A second meeting is planned this week.

Rick Musacchio, diocese spokesman, said the bishop is looking at several possible disciplinary responses.

"The bishop takes this very seriously," he said.

Does he?

I wish I could buy into that.

The Bishop just got wind of the problems with this priest, did he?

Nobody in the decade he was in the seminary noticed the problem?

He doesn't have a file on this priest loaded with complaints about him teaching doctrinal errors?


Moreover, he has a priest saying right out in the open that you don't have to obey the Pope, including being a celibate priest and he sent the guy away without asking the obvious questions?

1. Are you celibate?

2. If not, what are the names and ages of the people you are sexually active with?

You call the man in to tell him to take down the video because it is causing you grief then you send him on his way without asking these critical questions?

These Bishops have been playing games for and with priests who dissent on celibacy right out in the public square.

It has been a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy for decades.


It's one thing for a priest who believes in the teachings of the Church, teaches them, tries to live by them and falls to a temptation. These kinds of situations call for the Bishop to pastorally care for the priest to see if they can get the guy back into the rhythm of celibacy with all the tools at his disposal.

It is entirely another thing for Bishops to make like they are shocked, shocked, I tell you, when a priest gets caught in a romp, or when he publishes his ideas openly and the faithful stampede a Chancery. It is a situation where the Bishop can no longer ignore the faithful.

When it makes the internet, it is the final frontier of a priest that has been demoralizing families and children in his own parish and all around town. A bishop can no longer pretend they are the last people in town to find out he had an opposition to celibacy and/or has been shacking up with their lovers and the folks at the Chancery.

Spare us the intellectual dishonesty, would you?