Her newsletter, Catholic Truth, has confronted priests about their alleged homosexuality and has named several as being gay or allegedly associating with gay men.
It claims to have privately challenged several more priests after receiving information that they attended a gay bar in Glasgow and has also, it says, confronted a seminarian, a prospective seminarian and a Catholic school teacher. In addition Catholic Truth is preparing a “dossier” on a priest it accuses of inviting a homosexual support group into his church and expects to identify him in the newsletter’s next issue.
Unsurprisingly what McKeever calls a “great work of charity” has not met with universal approval. The Archdiocese of Glasgow has labelled her group as “self-appointed heresy hunters” and accused her of harassment.
Ms McKeever, who intends to expose all priests “unconscionably living a double life”, claimed that she had been forced to take action because of an “unprecedented moral crisis in the Catholic Church”. Among those targeted is Father Ed Hone, a parish priest in Edinburgh. Catholic Truth accused him of inviting a group called Quest, whose members are gay and lesbian Catholics, into his church. Father Honesaid this of Catholic Truth: “The Catholic Truth is conducting a witch-hunt. What she is doing is utterly poisonous.”
The newsletter has also accused Father Gerry Livingstone of attending a reception to celebrate the civil partnership of a gay couple. Father Livingstone said yesterday: “That is a lie and it is all I am prepared to say on the matter.”
The first that many hear of McKeever is when a letter turns up on their doorstep or one of her “researchers” sends an e-mail. She insists that she always gives her subjects a fair hearing, but that is not how her victims see it. “She is relentless,” said one. “Her whole world vision is to root out what she calls ‘hypocrisy’ but that seems to be any kind of view that differs from her own. Her righteousness exceeds everyone else’s.”
This story is not new. Catholic Truth’s actions were first reported by the Sunday Herald last September. Essentially they are on the lunatic fringe of the Catholic Church (Every organisation has a lunatic fringe, I know - apart from, say, the Raelians which might just have a sensible fringe...). To say that the Church has had problems with sex scandals is rather an understatement, but what this little bunch of beady eyed fanatics is doing is idiotic and dangerous. Nothing they do will prevent a vulnerable child from abuse at the hands of a predator. The January edition of McKeever’s newsletter is a prime example:
one of the first scandals brought to our attention is that of the laymen, x and y who provide the music for the Mass in *****, offered by Fr *****. Apparently, their music is beautiful but x and y are widely believed to be much more than a musical duo: indeed ,it appears to be common knowledge that they have, for some years now, lived as an openly “gay” couple, with Father ***** a regular visitor to their flat and a popular guest at their social events. (I suppose by their logic Father **** should have purged the “evil ones” with fire and sword!)
However, when our research officer rang, x reacted angrily and refused to confirm or deny that he and y live together as a homosexual couple. Our subsequent
recorded delivery letter was refused and returned unopened; Since this triangular social is common knowledge within Catholic circles in Like x and y Father **** has ignored our recorded delivery letter, so we must presume that he sees nothing wrong in continuing his public friendship with this homosexual couple.
Oh the horror! The horror! A priest knows two men who may or may not be gay would hardly raise an eyebrow in the vast, vast majority of Catholics. I have a few suggestions as to how McKeever and her associates could better spend their time, one or two are even printable!
