A California priest who was defrocked in March after protesting the Catholic Church over its record on abuse says he was removed from the priesthood simply for being too critical.
“It hit me harder than I’d expected,” former Father Tim Stier, 73, told the Mercury News after his removal by the Vatican was disclosed last week. “I felt sad and angry. If I’d been raping kids, I wouldn’t be thrown out of the club.”
The former priest at the Corpus Christi Parish in Fremont, California, has been holding vigil for abuse survivors and the church’s marginalized believers since 2005, according to his blog. He was shaken after the 2002 bombshell report on clerical sex abuse and its cover up at the Boston diocese was exposed, on which the Oscar winning movie Spotlight is based, he said on his blog.
He has pushed for what he calls “structural reform” which he says means, “Include the Excluded: Women, Gay Persons, Abuse Survivors.”
In 2013, the Vatican opened an investigation into his protests and refusal to accept assignments at various parishes around the country after a local bishop lodged a complaint. At the time, he told National Catholic Reporter that the church needed to do more. He started releasing names of accused predator priests, and was asked by the California diocese to stop.
“Releasing the names of abusers not only tells people, especially survivors, that the church is serious, but it also can help those who have not yet come forward to have the courage to do so,” Stier...
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