“With one hand he giveth, and the other he taketh away.” Just when I get through praising Bishop Olmsted, a friend emails me with news that the good bishop has just appointed Fr. Peter Liuzzi, O.Carm, to the Phoenix diocese’s Presbyteral Council. Who is Fr. Luizzi? He is the former head of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles’ Gay and Lesbian Ministry. Seems harmless enough, right? No.
From The Wanderer, September 18, 1997, an article entitled “Diocesan Gay Ministries Group Moves Into the Mainstream,’ by Teresa Cepeda:
On September 4, 1997, Roger Cardinal Mahony of Los Angeles welcomed 170 Catholic homosexual activists to a conference in Long Beach hosted by the three-year old National Association of Diocesan Lesbian and Gay Ministries, the high point of which was a burlesque performed by Fr Peter Liuzzi O.Carm, his top “minister” to the Lesbian and gay community. Liuzzi pretended to bless attendees with puppy urine, and then simulated a strip show, tossing his clerical collar into the crowd.
So why is Olmsted bringing this priest into his diocese and giving him a position of some prominence? Why does it seem sometimes that every time a bishop appears to do something right, they then “compensate” by doing something wrong?
