A recently fired gay priest thinks he should've been allowed to push LGBT slogans
• SOUTH ORANGE, N.J., July 22, 2015 (ChurchMilitant.com) - A gay priest who was fired from Seton Hall, a Catholic university in New Jersey, for touting the LGBT agenda, is now appealing to Pope Francis for help.
The priest, Rev. Warren Hall, was a campus ministry leader at Seton Hall until he lost his job — at the order of his archdiocese under Abp. John J. Myers — because he was caught posting a pro-same-sex "marriage" slogan on social media.
"I've been fired from SHU for posting a pic on FB supporting LGBT 'NO H8,'" he said in a tweet following his dismissal. "I'm sorry it was met with this response. I'll miss my work here."
That tweet was later deleted.
The "NO H8" slogan was popularized to counter a 2008 California proposal to ban same-sex "marriage."
His former students soon took to the Internet in support of the priest, starting a Change.org petitionrequesting his reinstatement. "This action is not in line with the teachings of Jesus Christ, nor is it in line with the words of Pope Francis, current leader of the Roman Catholic Church," declared the petition. Two months later, the effort seems to have effected nothing substantial.
The Archdiocese of Newark, while holding firm on the dismissal of Rev. Hall, has attempted to quiet the commotion surrounding the situation. "His tenure is ending at the university as director of campus ministry and he is available for another assignment. ... I think people are misconstruing an awful lot," said an archdiocesan spokesman. "The Church has long taught that every person is to be treated with dignity and respect."
Now, Rev. Hall is apparently taking the same approach as his students — as well as a lesbian in Philadelphia recently — and appealing to the Pope. He wants the Holy Father to, effectively, help push LGBT propaganda under the guise of tolerance and anti-bullying.
In his appeal, Rev. Hall encourages Pope Francis to "find time to listen to the challenges faced by LGBT people, especially those who are Catholic and wish to remain a part of the Church they have grown up in, which they love, and yet which it seems is alienating them more and more."
"Good teachers are being fired, pastoral and compassionate priests and religious women are being silenced, and accept it out of fear of being disciplined by their superiors," he claims, "and good, faith-filled people are leaving the Church as they witness all of this happening."
"As a gay priest, I am personally experiencing all of these things."
In Rev. Hall's words, "this can be the church of welcome" — a church, presumably, of the sort he and other "progressives," Catholic or secular, assume Pope Francis similarly envisions.
"Removing or firing LGBT people is doing more harm to the faithful than having a gay priest or teacher," warns Rev. Hall.
The priest maintains he's not promoting anything against Church teaching.