By Michael Baggot
MCKINNEY, TX, May 13, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Texas residents are alarmed that Bishop Kevin Farrell has appointed Fr. Arthur Mallinson, a priest associated with a prominent website for actively homosexual priests and religious, pastor of the newly renovated St. Michael’s parish in McKinney, Texas.
Fr. Arthur Mallinson’s picture has appeared on the St. Sebastian’s Angels (SSA) website, a now defunct online network for actively homosexual priests and religious that featured pornographic images, sexually explicit comments, and derogatory remarks about Vatican churchmen, particularly against then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
In 1999, the reform organization Roman Catholic Faithful (RCF) exposed SSA and the fifty-three priests involved in the site. South African Bishop Reginald Cawcutt resigned after his activity on the site was revealed.
Barbara Kralis, concerned ex-parishioner of St. Michael, encouraged readers to take action in a Sunday column for CatholicCitizens.org.
“He is a priest who put his photo on a gay priest’s website so that he could make contact with other like-minded priests,” Kralis wrote of Fr. Mallinson.
“If anyone on this email list has family who are in this diocese of Dallas, who are worried about them being exposed to the machinations of such a perverted priest, please consider writing a letter Dallas Bishop Kevin Farrell and express your concern regarding this priest”
When she spoke with LifeSiteNews.com, Kralis had a series of questions.
“Why would our bishop promote a priest like this, what good is this going to do the people? Why wouldn’t he [Bishop Farrell] read all of the priests’ files very carefully? Why would he [Fr. Mallinson] be moved to a big, glorious parish?”
A spokeswoman for Bishop Farrell told LifeSiteNews.com that Fr. Mallinson is not supportive of any of the crude images or words found on the SSA site.
She noted that the SSA site was initially “not a site meant to provide an arena to find sexual partners.” Instead, it was meant to give participants “prayer and spiritual support to maintain and live a celibate lifestyle.”
According to the Bishop’s spokeswoman, Fr. Mallinson ceased activity with SSA in 2001 when it became involved in immoral activity.
“When it strayed from its original mission, he no longer wanted to be involved. He did not agree or condone comments about the Pope on the website. He ceased participation when pornography went on the website”
Stephen Brady, founder of RCF, told LifeSiteNews.com that his group first exposed SSA’s lewd activities in September 1999, more than a year before Fr. Mallinson’s departure from the group.
“We never caught him sending pornography,” Brady said of Fr. Mallinson. Nonetheless, Brady expressed concern that a priest would seek help to live celibacy from a pornographic site recounting male homosexual exploits.
“If he has to run to a website-that speaks volumes for flaws in his diocese.”
To politely express concerns:
Bishop Kevin Farrell
Bishop of Diocese of Dallas
PO Box 190507
Dallas, TX 75219
214-528-2240