Letter to Pax Christi members following bishop's resignation

What difference does it make? He is a bishop. There are plenty of married Catholic priests. Leave him be and celebrate his heterosexuality.

Is it just me, or is there anyone else here who is troubled by the idea that there are two teenagers whose father has been denying his paternity for their whole lives until now? Which is worse? Pax Christi needs a new leader or Pax Christi has been run by a deadbeat dad? I'm glad they're at least respecting the teenagers' privacy if not their dignity.

Yes, Celibrate His Heterosexuality! On one hand, it's such a relief to see a bishop resign because he admits to having had a heterosexual relationship. On the other hand, there are probably many bishops, who have also acted on their heterosexual tendencies, who aren't as truthful. For the Church it seems that breaking the Vow of Celibacy is only a sin if it is in a heterosexual relationship. Go figure, but then if you do, why don't you also scratch your head and wonder why homosexual relationships in the priesthood are ignored and easily forgiven, and sexual relationships only appear to be a SIN if they are in relationship with a woman!

Does anyone believe that Zavala is the only U.S. Bishop with a mistress? Maybe even with illegitimate kids? At least he doesn't seem to have raped any of our children! To bad the church cherry-picks St. Paul's epistles. Didn't he say a bishop could be married? Of course, he also said that, in God's eyes, in the new dispensation, there is neither male nor female. Someone should tell the good old boys who write the rules for ordination to reread that epistle.

Dear Sara TX2:

The same thought about the two fatherless (so far) teenagers troubles me too. What effect will the sudden appearance of an unknown father have on them, their relationshops with their mother abd with their friends?
However there is also another lesson that their father may have learned and that Church authorities generally need to learn and apply to their own actions: You cannot solve problems by covering them up, you only make them worse.

Hmm so if it was Maciel or a conservative it is evil but if it a darling of the Mahoney/Pax Christi crew it is natural?

Given how few priests and bishops apparently are actually able to live according to their vows of celibacy over the course of their lifetimes (see Richard Sipes' research, for starters), why it should be shocking that some of their liaisons result in children is beyond me. What's actually more shocking to me is how few apparently do; it does make one wonder if priests aren't just particularly good at making sure their women use contraceptives or if there aren't some abortions going on.

I do also wonder if one reason it seems the hierarchy has turned a blind eye to so much of the homosexual behavior in its ranks isn't because at least with homosexual relationships, there aren't any incovenient pregnancies to muck up the reputation of the Church. A quickie confession, and you are good to go. A baby, on the other hand, seems a permanent black eye for the priest or bishop who fathered him or her.

As for the difference between Zavala and Maciel---Maciel was a child sodomizer, raving drug addict, and fraud of the worst kind, and he founded a cult that was brainwashed to view him as a saint and has left thousands of people used and abused by both the Legion and Regnum Christi. The entire outfit was created as a system of deception and abuse. Trust me, as the spouse of somebody who worked for the Legionaries for nearly 15 years, I can assure you that Maciel's fathering of children (as terribly selfish of him as that was) was probably the least of his sins.

To compare Zavala to Maciel is grossly unfair.

The hierachy appears to feel that heterosex is the worse sin compared to the molestation of males. Maciel was allowed to molest boys as long as he continued to pay the Vatican, but when it came out that he had fathered children, he was brought to ground.
In the Sacramento diocese we have a case of a priest who molested a girl and he was reported to the police at once. Not to sugar-coat damage done to the victim, but his behavior was essentially that of a child playing "doctor". As others have pointed out, the possibility of children causes more problems for the Church than homosexuality.
Maybe there's something deeper here--that the hierarchy has a fundamental fear and hatred of women, just as in the Middle Ages.
Ray Mac