"Let us be clear: The sin is not that there are homosexual priests – for the spiritual truth is that all homosexuals are created by God, and loved by God unconditionally. The sin is in the keeping of secrets and the denial of truth, which is a betrayal of the gospel values of compassion, justice, love, and service. Through this betrayal of gospel values and by hiding the truth, the Roman Catholic Church has paid the price of the trust of faithful devotion of Catholic laity who believed in the Catholic Church.

If the Vatican really desires to understand the clerical sexual abuse crisis, it must start by investigating itself: the diocesan and religious bureaucracies, its personnel and management policies, and the circumstances that led to the Church’s horrific failure to protect children and the Church’s further victimization of sexual abuse victims and their families. We place the fault at poor personnel management, a reluctance to hold priests accountable, poor leadership of the American bishops, a failure to honor gospel values, the scapegoating of gay priests.

This is our challenge to the Roman Catholic Church: Investigate your own offices, not the seminaries. Jesus pointed out, “How can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye while the log is in your own eye, and then you will see clearly?” (Matthew 7:4-5) The problem is the Catholic hierarchical system and its misuse of power, not gay men attempting to answer God’s call to priestly ministry."