Courageous witness within the Catholic Church

[kara speltz]

It is sad to say that within the Catholic church courage of convictions is rarely witnessed any more. I stand in awe of Fr. Geoffrey and know, ultimately, his courage and virtue will be rewarded. Please keep Fr. Geoffrey in your prayers. kara

STAND AGAINST PROP. 8
COSTS PRIEST DEARLY

Father Geoffrey Farrow is removed from his Fresno post after a sermon against the anti-same-sex marriage measure.

By Duke Helfand and Catherine Saillant
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

A week ago, Father Geoffrey Farrow stood before his Roman Catholic parishioners in Fresno and delivered a sermon that placed him squarely at odds with his church over gay marriage. With Proposition 8 on the November ballot, and his own bishop urging Central Valley priests to support its definition of traditional marriage, Farrow told congregants he felt obligated to break "a numbing silence" about church prejudice against homosexuals.

"How is marriage protected by intimidating gay and lesbian people into loveless and lonely lives?" he asked parishioners of the St. Paul Newman Center. "I am morally compelled to vote no on Proposition 8." Then Farrow -- who had revealed that he was gay during a television interview immediately before Mass -- added a coda to his sermon.

"I know these words of truth will cost me dearly," he said. "But to withhold them ... I would become an accomplice to a moral evil that strips gay and lesbian people not only of their civil rights but of their human dignity as well."

On Thursday, Fresno Bishop John T. Steinbock removed Farrow, 50, as pastor of the St. Paul Newman Center, which primarily serves students and faculty at Cal State Fresno. "Your statement contradicted the teaching of the Catholic Church and has brought scandal to your parish community as well as the whole Church," Steinbock wrote in a disciplinary letter that also admonished Farrow against "using the Internet as a means of continuing your conflict with the Church's teaching."

The priest also was stripped of his salary and benefits, and ordered to stay away from all church communities he had served. Farrow's comments at the end of the Oct. 5 Mass have left his congregation bitterly divided. On Sunday, some parishioners praised Farrow's courage for defending the rights of gays and lesbians, while others condemned him for challenging church doctrine without giving warning.

"It upsets me that we are allowing a ballot proposition to come into our church and divide us," said Teresa Huerta, who teaches at Cal State Fresno. "We are going through changes right now in society and the church needs to recognize that."

Frank Gallegos, a parishioner for 24 years, said he was dismayed that Farrow used the pulpit to deliver his message. "He ambushed us," Gallegos, 44, said while leaving the white concrete-block church with his wife and two children. "I don't wish him ill. I just wish he hadn't done it during Mass."

Parish leaders concluded two morning Masses on Sunday [October 12] with an apology to parishioners. Farrow's statements, they said, were not in accord with church teachings. Also, the priest did not inform church elders about his plans before delivering his sermon, said Deacon John Supino, who read a letter from Steinbock reaffirming the Catholic Church's support for Proposition 8.

Quoting Steinbock, Supino said the church teaches that sex is a gift from God to be acted on only by a man and a woman within marriage. But Proposition 8, he insisted, does not represent a condemnation of gays or lesbians. "The teachings of the church on these matters did not arise with Proposition 8 but have been in place for over 2,000 years," Supino said. [This is dishonest, since research has revealed that the early church once celebrated unions between same-gender couples, and there are liturgies for such services in its archives. --Lawrence]

Several parishioners inside the church applauded when Supino finished Steinbock's statement. A few rose and left as he was reading it. Katherine Allison, 46, hurried out of the church at the end of the 11 a.m. Mass with her 14-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter. She said she didn't want to stay to hear the bishop's letter. Allison said her entire family liked Father Geoff, as he was known. He taught a Bible history class Tuesday nights and seemed to be passionate about his work, she said. "There is nothing to apologize for," she said. "God tells us to speak the truth, and that's what he did."

Farrow became a priest 23 years ago, working in parishes in Visalia, Merced, Bakersfield and the nearby town of Arvin. A graduate of St. John's Seminary in Camarillo, he also served as a chaplain in the Air Force Reserve at Edwards Air Force Base near Palmdale in the early 1990s.

Farrow, who said he realized that he was gay in boyhood, revealed his sexual orientation only to close friends and family. He told his parents just four years ago. "This was the secret I was going to take to my grave," he said. That changed when he received a June 30 "pastoral letter" from Steinbock's office in which the bishop condemned the California Supreme Court's ruling in May that legalized same-sex marriage, and supported the passage of Proposition 8, calling marriage between a man and woman the "foundation blocks for society." He compared the court's action to efforts by Nazi Germany and the Communist regimes in Russia and China to alter family arrangements.

"Let us pray for our Christian marriages and our Christian families, and for our children who will be subjected to brainwashing in our public school system regarding this matter," Steinbock wrote. Steinbock's letter threw Farrow into a moral quandary, he said, and prompted his sermon. "At what point do you cease to be an agent for healing and growth and become an accomplice of injustice?" he asked.

Farrow said he knew his comments would generate an uproar. He started to pack up his office the night before his address. He cleared his belongings from the church rectory within hours of greeting parishioners after church services. He left town so quickly that he was unable to find one of his two cats. He drove to Los Angeles, where he is staying with friends. Farrow sent Steinbock a letter last week saying that he would resume his pastoral duties unless he heard otherwise.

But in his disciplinary letter, Steinbock said Farrow had abandoned his assignment without offering to discuss the issues. Steinbock said he had no choice but to suspend Farrow, and he hinted that other penalties could follow, including defrocking him. Steinbock did not return calls.

[Contacts reporters: duke.helfand@latimes.com and catherine.saillant@latimes.com.]

[Matt Algren]

I'd encourage those who are so inclined to drop the good Father a note at his new blog at FatherGeoffFarrow.blogspot.com. Yesterday's post (http://fathergeofffarrow.blogspot.com/2008/10/i-received-this-e-mail-today-it-left-me.html) perfectly illustrates why Father Geoff's message is so important for the church to hear.

I received this E-mail today. It left me speechless.

John I. said...

Fr. Geoff,Your words resonate far beyond California. My family and I spent Saturday afternoon at the grave side of our gay son and brother. Yesterday would have been his 27th birthday. His Church turned on him viciously, abandoned him; and he ended up taking his own life last year. What a tragic waste of so much talent and promise. You are the kind of priest our seminarian son could have become. He is why what you (and so many other courageous people) do is so important. Be strong and uplifted by many loving hearts! +new Episcopalian in the heartland

[scott snedeker]

Condemnation by your enemies is praise indeed.

I apologize in advance to those who have loyalty to the Catholic Church for what I am about to post.

Tyranny! Predation! Inquisition! Torture!

In part because one elderly male hates Gays, Jews, women etc.

The Pope, Sovereign theocrat with power and influence over millions, ruling with fear of torture death or damnation for millenia over those who DARE to think differently!

How many have suffered needlessly? How many have paid the price for his predatory indulgence? How many have died? And what is yet to come?

Praise from this tyrant and from those who succor to him would be the ultimate insult!

While condemnation from such could not be better praise!

[Daniel]

It is sad to say that within the Catholic church courage of convictions is rarely witnessed any more. I stand in awe of Fr. Geoffrey and know, ultimately, his courage and virtue will be rewarded. Please keep Fr. Geoffrey in your prayers. kara

But I don't think Fr. Geoffrey is going to be rewarded for his actions. At least not by the church. The Catholic Church ie the Vatican, I am sorry to say, seems to have a way of crushing those who disagree with it. He's already been removed from his parish. What else is going to befall him? Excommunication? The pressure to take back what he said? I don't see any reward involved here.

Now. If the people in the pews revolted? Well. That might be something. But that happened already. And it was called the Reformation.

Do I laud his action? Do I think he is one brave soul? You bet. But that is hardly the reward he needs right now. What might do it? A hundred, yea- a thousand other priests standing with him. But I don't expect that to happen. My sense is that the Catholic clergy is not taught- by and large- to think for themselves. They are beholden- not to the people in the pews- but to those in the chain of command above them- going all the way to Rome.

[kara speltz]

Dear Daniel: I didn't mean to suggest the Church would reward him. Heaven knows better than that. As someone who does believe in an afterlife, I believe that reward is far down the road. But ultimately someone with the courage Fr. Geoffrey has exhibited will be rewarded.

And Scott I take no offense at your feelings concerning the church - and I fully understand them. I left the church for 20 years. As all churches are, the church is only as good as the people demand it to be and unfortunately we Catholics have been far too accepting of its failures.

I stay because of a liturgy that is rich and comforting with the knowledge that as human beings we all fall short of the mark. If I hadn't found a parish like the one I'm in, I never would have returned. I am an out lesbian and I preach as a lay minister. We have had a TLGB group at my parish for more than 15 years, and have celebrated a Gay Pride Mass each June for over 10 years. This parish is a safe haven.

I cheer for our courageous dissenters who take a stand, specifically I am grateful to Fr. Roy Bourgeouis who put his ordination on the line to take part in a women's ordination and now for Fr. Geoffrey. Two such priests in just two months is hopeful. I pray that the Holy Spirit will christen us all with more and more courage to stand up and tell the truth and to demand justice within our church.

Kara

[Daniel]

Dear Daniel: I didn't mean to suggest the Church would reward him. Heaven knows better than that. As someone who does believe in an afterlife, I believe that reward is far down the road. But ultimately someone with the courage Fr. Geoffrey has exhibited will be rewarded.


Those on the front lines like Fr. Geroffrey pay a steep price for everyone else behind. Rather like Moses, who didn't get to enter the Promised Land.

I hope that changes. But frankly am not counting on it in my lifetime. Women still can't be ordained in the Catholic church. And historically, women's rights seem to go ahead of gay rights.

[BruceChris]

My church is full of them.



And women ARE being ordained, even if no one will admit it. Just Google "Womenpriests Movement"

www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org/

Roman Catholic Womenpriests reject the penalty of excommunication issued by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith on May 29, 2008 stating that the “women priests and the bishops who ordain them would be excommunicated latae sententiae.” Roman Catholic Womenpriests are loyal members of the church who stand in the prophetic tradition of holy obedience to the Spirit’s call to change an unjust law that discriminates against women.

Namaste', Bruce Chris

[Daniel]

That is- Catholic women being ordained. Glad to hear of it. And they get excommunicated? That's rich. But not unexpected I suppose. I guess the thought is that this will reach a critical mass at some point.

I wonder: do rank and file Catholics support the ordination of women?

[BrianB]

I don't go for the priest. I don't go for the people. I go to Mass because of the presence of Christ in the euchrist. You all may find peace in other churches or beliefs and that is fine. I feel peace like I have never felt in any other church when I go to Mass. I'm very sorry that the catholic church has done terrible things in the name of God. However, I can not abandon what I have found in the Holy Mass.

I believe women should be allowed to be priests. With the catholic churches record on change; don't hold your breath waiting for acceptance of women priests from Rome.

[antiochian]

I'm reminded of John J. McNeill, author of "The Church and the Homosexual," a Jesuit who was duly punished by Rome for his affirmation of lgbt people.

You know, the last pope apologized to the Jews for what his church did to them, he apologized to the Greek archbishop for the sacking of Constantinople... where is OUR apology for what the Catholic church did to US??

[Alecto]

I think we need to wait another 500 years. :(

[BruceChris]

After all, it took the Catholic Church almost 400 years to admit that they were wrong about Galileo. Come to think off it, I don't think that they actually admitted that they were wrong, they simply pardoned him, retroactively.

I believe that God has given us the task of educating the Catholic laity, with faith in the belief that the heirarchy will eventually follow.

God is still speaking, and one of the ways that He is speaking is through the findings of science. (This offends and threatens some conservatives, very much) Science seems to be telling us that sexual identity and orientation are inborn, and not under our voluntary control.

At this point, I'd have to say that we've had most of this conversation, before. :rolleyes:

Edit: Alecto, I think you've nailed it.

Peace and Love, Bruce Chris

[kara speltz]

After all, it took the Catholic Church almost 400 years to admit that they were wrong about Galileo. Come to think off it, I don't think that they actually admitted that they were wrong, they simply pardoned him, retroactively.
I believe that God has given us the task of educating the Catholic laity, with faith in the belief that the heirarchy will eventually follow.

God is still speaking, and one of the ways that He is speaking is through the findings of science. (This offends and threatens some conservatives, very much) Science seems to be telling us that sexual identity and orientation are inborn, and not under our voluntary control.

At this point, I'd have to say that we've had most of this conversation, before. :rolleyes:

Edit: Alecto, I think you've nailed it.

Peace and Love, Bruce Chris

There's a joke between Catholics that says that you know the Church is acknowledging an error, when a statement starts off saying, "As the Church has always taught,"

Back in the 1750's when the Vatican finally acknowledged that slavery was "intrinsictly evil and against natural law," that's the way they started off the statement. But prior until then they had said that it was neither intrinsictly evil, nor against natural law.

If the words, "intrinsictly evil and against natural law" sound vaguely familiar to anyone, its because the Vatican has declared homosexuality to be both. Ironic, huh? They couldn't recognize that slavery was for hundreds of years, but they haven't hesitated to make sure everyone knows that homosexuality, in their warped minds, is.

The Church has never, to my knowledge, actually acknowledged the many errors they have made, sad to say.

Kara

[Matt Algren]

Michelangelo Signorile (from Sirius Satellite Radio' s OutQ) interviewed Father Farrow this week. He's very well spoken. I'm not Catholic, but we need to have more Father Farrows throughout the Church, be it Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, or whatever denomination.

Audio here. (http://www.signorile.com/2008/10/profile-in-courage-father-farrow.html) (It's about 14 minutes long)

edit: I just finished it, and the Father did confirm that he is receiving no salary, insurance, or any other compensation. He's working with the No on 8 people until the election, but then he doesn't know what he'll do.

[Daniel]

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-lopez26-2008oct26,0,6720232,full.column


Steve Lopez
October 26, 2008

So who is this Catholic priest from Fresno who stood up and spoke out against Proposition 8, putting his career on the line? As a gay man who finds the church's views on homosexuality so objectionable, why has he been a priest for more than 20 years and subjected himself to such moral conflict?

After reading my colleague Duke Helfand's story about Father Geoffrey Farrow and his recent career-suicide from the pulpit, I was curious.

Farrow agreed to meet me for lunch in the middle of a schedule that's gotten very busy since he became persona non grata to his employer. He's been asked to appear all over the state for rallies against Prop. 8, which would amend the California Constitution to say marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

Father Farrow, who was suspended by his bishop two weeks ago, strolled into the lobby of the Kyoto Grand Hotel in downtown Los Angeles wearing the collar.

"I'm still a priest," he said over lunch, though he fully expected to be disciplined for speaking to his congregation about Prop. 8 and wouldn't be surprised if he's ultimately fired.

For the moment, he's staying with friends in Los Angeles. Farrow, 50, doesn't know what he'll do after the election. He was suspended without pay and said his medical benefits run out at the end of the month.

Farrow, who lived in Cuba until the age of 4, grew up Catholic in Florida and knew as a teenager that he was gay. He dated girls "to keep up appearances" but was miserable about it, and he began questioning his faith.

"If God is omnipotent, why is there evil in the world?" he asked himself as body bags returned to the U.S. from Vietnam.

He looked into agnosticism and atheism, neither of which offered the answers he wanted. In his first year of college in Florida, he studied philosophy, read Cicero and mused on the meaning of history, civilization and the nature of God.

"I have a hunger for the transcendent," Farrow said. "This is too precise," he said of man and the universe, "to be a coincidence." And so he became a believer, once more, in the church he had been "carried to in diapers."

When I told Farrow that as an agnostic, I don't understand that leap, he described God as love and faith as trust.

"Trust is fundamental of all human relationships," he said. "Part of the attraction of the relationship with that person is that you're always familiar with them and yet always discovering them."

I love and trust my wife, I said, but she's real and doesn't need to prove that she exists.

"Precisely," Farrow said with a smile, as if I'd described his relationship with God.

When his family moved from Florida to Redondo Beach in the 1970s, Farrow, still closeted as a gay man, joined St. John's Seminary in Camarillo.

Is it possible, I asked, that becoming a priest was a way of avoiding coming to terms with his sexuality? Farrow had, after all, once prayed to God to "please make me normal, please make me normal."

"That's a valid question," he said, but he believes he was addressing his spiritual rather than sexual identity in becoming a priest.

Wasn't it a suffocating compromise? I asked. He had given himself over to a church that has, despite moderating its views in recent decades, condemned homosexuality and marginalized gays, even though in Farrow's opinion a sizable percentage of priests are gay. Farrow conceded that he has considered church teachings "monstrous," especially given the history of violence and suicide victimizing gays. But he said he has always believed in the church, if not in the men who led it. It's like loving a family member despite a falling out, or loving your country even as you doubt its leaders.

"I'm not happy with the current administration," Farrow said, "but I haven't shredded my passport."

I asked if he'd had any relationships while serving as a priest.

Yes, he confessed. He seemed near tears and stopped short of sharing the details. But he said it had ended.

I wondered again how anyone could go through such an ordeal and remain committed to a church that considers it a sin for a gay person to act on biological urges. Whom do you even talk to for help? I asked.

"There are a lot of clergy who deal with this," Farrow said, telling me many priests in the Fresno diocese are gay. "You speak to each other."

But that's a form of silence as well as hypocrisy, and Farrow was increasingly troubled by his double life. Not long ago, he saw a woman crying in a church hallway and asked what was wrong.

"My son just came out to me," she said. "I was having a dinner party and I told him he couldn't bring his boyfriend."

"Do you know what you just did?" Farrow asked her. "You just told your son he was not as important to you as your dinner guests."

Farrow then had his epiphany when he was asked by a Prop. 8 supporter in Fresno to speak up in favor of the measure. He knew he couldn't and that in fact he had to do just the opposite.

"I am morally compelled to vote no on Proposition 8," he told his congregation, saying he had to break "a numbing silence" about church prejudice against homosexuals.

Among the critics in his own parish and beyond, there are those who quote the Bible to condemn homosexuality and gay marriage.

"The Bible is not a book, it's a library written over 15 centuries," Farrow told me, suggesting that Christianity has and should continue to evolve. "People who approach scripture in a literal fashion are attempting to manipulate God himself."

To Farrow, condemning gay and lesbian marriage is as offensive as the condemnations of interracial marriage not too many decades ago.

" 'Think about the children,' they said, and they're doing the same with this," Farrow said indignantly. "If a child is raised in a home where he's loved, that's a good home."

So why not just quit his job rather than wait to get fired?

Farrow said he still sees the church as home, and believes his new mission is to force this issue whether he's wearing a collar or not.

"They said I've caused scandal to the church," he said. "I think the real scandal is the thousands of gay and lesbian children who feel abandoned by the church of their baptism."

When he was in seminary, Farrow interned as deacon at St. Vincent's Medical Center and worked with terminally ill patients. As the end nears, Farrow told me, people say the things they never could utter. They are "more alive than ever . . . because they realize the futility of fear." He found them all contemplating the same questions.

"Were you true to your conscience? Did you do what you felt was right?"

And one more.

"What do you have in the end but the love you gave away?"

steve.lopez@latimes.com

[tdogg]

Where is the love in the Catholic church, in how this fine man was treated? Where is the love in firing him, leaving him with virtually nothing (save a few weeks of health care). Where is the love in humiliating him and treating him as less than human? This story made me sad when I first read it, and still does. But perhaps, we are seeing the beginnings of a true valient warrior for equality. Much love and respect to you Father Farrow. :love:

[antiochian]

Fundie Catholicism is only a branch of the nation's most popular denomination: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Pharisees, a.k.a. the LDP's.

[Jester25]

It's pretty sad when a religion is so divided that half are for love and half are against it.

[Matt Algren]

edit: I just finished it, and the Father did confirm that he is receiving no salary, insurance, or any other compensation. He's working with the No on 8 people until the election, but then he doesn't know what he'll do.
Father Tony over at Bilerico.com posted an update on Father Geoff and what he's doing now, and I picked it up on my blog as well (http://blog.mattalgren.com/2009/01/catholic-church-bribes-charity-to-keep-priest-jobless/). The Catholic Church is actively keeping him from being employed.

Late last year, Father Farrow had been seeking employment with the Los Angeles chapter of an ecumenical charity. CLUE, or Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, provides assistance to the working poor throughout California.

Father Tony of the Bilerico Project reports: (http://www.bilerico.com/2009/01/catholic_church_maliciously_blocks_new_j.php)

CLUE derives a significant part of its funding from the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Today I spoke with a member of CLUE’s board of directors, Rev. James Conn, a Methodist minister and Director of New Ministries for the California-Pacific Conference of the United Methodist Church. Reverend Conn had been directly involved in the recruitment and interview process involving Father Geoff.

I asked him if CLUE had denied Father Geoff a second interview specifically because the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles threatened to cut off all its significant funding for CLUE should Father Geoff ever be offered the position in question.

As Father Tony goes on to point out, Father Geoff was not attempting to pass himself off as a Catholic priest in good standing, nor was the position he was interviewing for related to the split between him and the church.

Let’s be blunt about what Cardinal Mahoney of the Los Angeles archdiocese is doing: In the middle of the biggest recession in decades, he is threatening to shut down a charity that helps the poor in order to keep a former priest from earning a living.

Shame on you, Cardinal Mahony. Shame on you for laying aside the words of Jesus and the needs of the poor in favor of mob tactics and pride.

[originalgrissel]

The irony astouds me! This priest stands up and defends the rights of a group that has been victimized and marginalized by the Catholic church for years and he is kicked to the curb and black listed, but if he had been a priest that molested dozens of children in his congregation he'd still have his job. The church would have just slapped him on the wrist and moved him to a new church, with his health benefits and retirement plan still firmly in place. Twisted!


There is really something wrong in this world when a church organization that claims to be all about morality punishes those that exhibit real moral courage and turns a blind eye to the victimization of those that can't defend themselves.

[Matt Algren]

On his blog, Father Geoff has confirmed the story (http://fathergeofffarrow.blogspot.com/2009/01/shocked-but-not-surprized.html) as reported. That is to say, he confirmed that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (the territory of Roger Michael Cardinal Mahoney) did threaten a non-profit charity for the poor in order to keep Father Geoff from getting a job at the charity. They did this in the midst of the biggest economic recessions in decades. They put the charity in the position of either acquiescing or shutting down, leaving thousands of the poor in California with no help.

That's some church.

[Daniel]

Some church indeed. One that cut off its nose to spite its face.

[antiochian]

What a sick, immoral organization--I won't even allow it the dignity of being called a "church." I am ashamed of the years I wasted worshiping at Catholic masses. :mad:

[dsdrane]

What a sick, immoral organization--I won't even allow it the dignity of being called a "church." I am ashamed of the years I wasted worshiping at Catholic masses. :mad:

...with the bath water.

Your time worshipping is more important than how it was done, with whom it was done, or where it was done. Even if you no longer believe, if your participation was heartfelt and done in ernest, you shouldn't be ashamed.

Be mad at the Catholic Church...but remember: just as the US could never be fully defined by W., the Catholic Church cannot be fully defined by any one pope (especially this one). There are good people in the Catholic Church who are trying to reform from within (some of them here on this site).

...not to mention the priest at the center of this post.

[Daniel]

Here's something we can do.

I encourage you to email a letter to the address at the end of this column- especially if you are Catholic. Name your church, Diocese and Priest for extra credit!

http://www.bilerico.com/2009/01/catholic_church_maliciously_blocks_new_j.php


Catholic Church maliciously blocks new job for Father Geoffrey Farrow
Filed by: Father Tony

January 23, 2009 6:00 PM

Have you wondered whatever became of that California priest who refused to give in to a directive from his bishop to instruct folks to vote yes to Prop 8?

If you've been following his blog, you know that Father Geoffrey Farrow was suspended for following his conscience but continues to work for LGBT justice.

The fact that he is barred from functioning as a Roman Catholic priest is bad enough, but recently, through mutual friends, I received some sad news about Father Geoff. News that makes me extremely angry. News that demonstrates the malice of a church that preaches the love of Jesus while deliberately persecuting a priest who for all the right reasons dared to follow the real teachings of Jesus.

Father Geoffrey Farrow had applied for a position with the Los Angeles branch of CLUE, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice.

CLUE identifies itself as follows:

We are an interfaith association of over 600 religious leaders throughout Los Angeles County who come together to respond to the crisis of the working poor.

CLUE derives a significant part of its funding from the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Today I spoke with a member of CLUE's board of directors, Rev. James Conn, a Methodist minister and Director of New Ministries for the California-Pacific Conference of the United Methodist Church. Reverend Conn had been directly involved in the recruitment and interview process involving Father Geoff.

I asked him if CLUE had denied Father Geoff a second interview specifically because the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles threatened to cut off all its significant funding for CLUE should Father Geoff ever be offered the position in question.

As incredible as it may seem, Reverend Conn confirmed the truth of this and expressed his heartfelt disappointment over the fact that CLUE had to choose between continuing the interview process with an extremely promising and qualified candidate or risk losing the financial support of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Los Angeles that is critical to CLUE's work.

A second interview with Father Geoff had been scheduled for December 15, 2008, but on December 13, Father Geoff received a phone call from CLUE expressing disappointment over their decision to terminate the interview process solely because of the threat made by the archdiocese of Los Angeles whose representative on CLUE's board of directors had brought the situation to the attention of the highest level of authority in the archdiocese.

It is important to note that, in his interview, Father Geoff was not trying to pass himself off as a priest "in good standing" with the Roman Catholic Church, and that the bishop who suspended Father Geoff is the ordinary of a different diocese.

It is also important to note that the ministry performed by CLUE is to the poor. Its primary focus is not the LGBT community. Father Geoff would not be representing the Catholic Church on matters of faith and morals in his new position.

It is important to note that at the age of 51, after having devoted 23 years of his life to the Roman Catholic Church plus an earlier 7 years in the seminary, Father Geoff has had his medical benefits discontinued and is without income and assistance from his bishop. While it is disgusting that his bishop has turned his back on Father Geoff, it is infuriating to think that his bishop would conspire with the Cardinal Archbishop of Los Angeles to block gainful and appropriate employment.

I am well familiar with the jargon of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. They will say that they feel compassion for Father Geoff and that they pray for him, but their actions speak too strongly and demonstrate deliberate malice. They do not wish him well. And, God forbid that they should have ever proactively attempted some sort of out-placement effort on his behalf. Some bishops privately do that on behalf of priests who leave, but not the hard-hearted bishop who cut off Father Geoffrey Farrow nor the malicious Cardinal Archbishop of Los Angeles.

I am writing this because I've learned over the years that the Roman Catholic Church gets away with this kind of despicable and inhumane treatment of men who choose to follow their conscience only when its bad deeds are not held up to a strong light. Father Geoff does not wish CLUE to lose its funding and therefore has remained silent about this, but his friends have brought this situation to my attention, and I want Catholics in California and beyond to understand clearly the level of unchristian behavior and deliberate malice of which their bishops and cardinals are capable.

I hope you will consider going to CLUE's website and leaving them a message about your feelings (please keep in mind that CLUE wanted to continue its interview with Father Geoff so don't paint them as the "bad guy". If you want to leave a message for the real "bad guy", you may contact the office of Cardinal Roger Mahony.

Archdiocese of Los Angeles
3424 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90010-2202
213 637 7000
info@la-archdiocese.org

Ask them why they hate Father Geoff. When they assure you that they do not hate him, ask them to prove it and soon. Right now, more than their insincere prayers, he needs a job.

[Daniel]

The Cardinal does not answer- or receive it seems- email as evidenced in the reply I got this afternoon.

Unfortunately, Cardinal Mahony is unable to handle correspondence via e-mail. If you'd like to send him a signed letter by postal mail, please include your full name and postal mailing address and send it as follows:

Cardinal Roger M. Mahony
Archdiocese of Los Angeles
3424 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90010-2202

Thank you. *j

James R. Celoni
Applied Technology
Archdiocese of Los Angeles

Hiding behind a digital curtain like the Wizard of Oz? Email your State Senator or even the President and at least you know it got there.

[Matt Algren]

The Cardinal does not answer- or recieve it seems- email as evidenced in the reply I got this afternoon.



Hiding behind a digital curtain like the Wizard of Oz? Email your State Senator or even the President and at least you know it got there.
He's a 73 years old, so it doesn't really surprise me. Physical letters seem to be more effective anyway.

[Daniel]

He's a 73 years old, so it doesn't really surprise me. Physical letters seem to be more effective anyway.

Who doesn't do email? So old dogs can't learn new tricks?

Rubbish! This is not about age or inability. A secretary could read email to the Cardinal and he could respond or not at his whim. He chooses not to engage. Ok. That tells one something important.

Yes- actual letters are very effective. But this only reinforces the perception of one who is out of touch and wants to stay that way.

Oh....btw...I did include my full name and address in my email. At least when I write my senator, I get a response that indicates - in keeping with the times- that it was received. Not in this case however.

Ok....getting out the pen and paper.