The pastors of the two most gay-friendly parishes, as the newspaper puts it, in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, have resigned. Fr. George Wertin of the notorious St. Joan of Arc parish and Fr. Stephen O’Gara of St. Thomas the Apostle parish. In the past, both pastors had been admonished by the archdiocese for putting pro-gay material on their web sites, and Wertin was also told to stop allowing people other than priests or deacons to give homilies at Mass.
I love the spin put on the story. Wertin is 66 and O’Gara is 60. According to the normal rules in place in the US, pastors don’t generally resign until they’re 75, and even then some of them stay on longer because there are so few priests. But we’re told by the sympathetic reporter that Wertin and O’Gara weren’t forced out. Wertin, we’re told, has said “it’s time to move on after 40 years in ministry.” Since when do priests just retire and “move on.” The priesthood isn’t just a career and a job, it’s a vocation.
