"The Catholic
Church Is The
Closet Of Gays",
Colombian Priest
Writes In His
Book
Out of
frustration at
episcopal
inaction, a
priest of the
Colombian
archdiocese of
Cali, has
written a book
on the ongoing
homosexual
scandals among
priests of the
archdiocese.
Father Germán
Robledo, former
head of the
archdiocesan
ecclesiastical
tribunal, wrote
that the third
largest diocese
of Colombia is
rife with active
and uncorrected
homosexuals and
heterosexual
priests who prey
upon young
people, have
fathered
children and
used parish
funds to pay off
the extortion
demands of their
boy-lovers and
the fees for
procurers.
The priest has
kept his
writings in
absolute secrecy
until they were
published,
calling it a
"bomb" for the
clergy of Cali.
Fr. Robledo, a
priest for 45
years who served
on the tribunal
for 23 years,
said that since
he first
presented his
allegations and
evidence of
sexual and
financial
misconduct by
priests in the
archdiocese, the
problems have
increased "due
to the lack of
control and
vigilance". He
indicated that
the Archbishop
has done nothing
to stop the
misconduct of
his priests.
The book,
titled, ¿Hacia
un celo gay?
(Towards a Gay
Clergy) is
intended, Fr.
Robledo said, to
"denounce a
tendency which
is presenting
itself within
the Catholic
Church".
"In the past 30
years," he said,
"the Church has
leaned towards
priests with
profiles with
effeminate
traces, sweet,
obedient,
submissive,
uncritical, and
who always
accept the
authoritarian
role of the
bishop and of
the other
superiors." He
asserts that 30
per cent of the
archdiocese's
priests are
homosexuals.
He denied that
the Catholic
discipline of
priestly
celibacy is the
problem, saying
that the
priest's life
gives
opportunities to
predatory
homosexual
pedophiles to
"lead a double
life".
"It is the
refuge of those
who do not dare
face their
families. The
Catholic Church
is the closet of
gays."
According to
statistics of
2006, the
archdiocese of
Santiago de
Cali, Colombia's
third largest
city, serves 2.2
million
Catholics out of
a total
population of
2.6 million.
n 2007, Fr.
Robledo,
formerly head of
the
ecclesiastical
tribunal for the
archdiocese of
Cali, made
public evidence,
including
videos, of
sexual and
financial
misconduct among
many of the
archdiocese's
clergy. Among
his allegations
were that
several priests
were conducting
ongoing sexual
relationships,
including with
women and young
boys. Some
priests have
secretly
fathered
children and in
two cases have
been sued by the
mothers for
child support.
In a letter to
Archbishop
Sarasti, made
public in the
newspapers, Fr.
Robledo spoke of
"chronic and
shameful
homosexual
conducts of
friends and
close
collaborators"
of the
archdiocese. In
a radio
interview,
Father Robledo
said that
Archbishop
Sarasti
responded to the
charges by
saying that such
acts belong to
the priests'
private lives.
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