----------------The Letter---------------
Kids Are Being Hurt!!!
Thalamus Center
Early Childhood Psychological Development Growing Up Gay
June 7, 2011
New York State Senators
Dear ...... .....,
My name is Fr. Marty Kurylowicz, a Roman Catholic priest from the Diocese of Grand Rapids Michigan ordained June 16, 1979.
In March 1997, after attending a National Symposium of the New Ways Ministry that was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I learned that children as young as 4 and 5 years of age know that they are different. This feeling "different" is only identified in their adult years as being gay. However, the harmful influence of antigay social and religious norms -- in particular, for Catholics, the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings -- are severe and last throughout a child’s lifetime. The harmful effects are not isolated only to these children who grow up to be gay, but also affect their families, siblings, friends and anyone whom they might consider special in their lives. They are a prescribed societal sentence of implicit isolation, which place at risk of suicide so many innocent adolescents and young adults. They stifle an enormous amount of human potential in the world that otherwise could be put to use for finding cures for diseases, offering better ways of maintaining peace among people and improving the quality of life for everyone in the world.
After the New Ways Ministry National Symposium in March 1997, in good conscience I felt intensely morally obligated to "come out" as a gay Catholic priest to my parishioners at Holy Family Parish, Sparta, Michigan USA, to draw public attention to this implicit form of child abuse. This abuse is caused by the harmful influence of antigay social and religious norms, in particular, for Catholics, the Vatican’s unsubstantiated antigay teachings. My background study in this area is extensive, far beyond that of the average person. However, since I have come out, I have been subjected to overt as well as covert retaliation coming from the Vatican through the bishops of the Diocese of Grand Rapids. I was ordered to be sent away to be re-educated regarding sexual orientation, to subject myself to conversion or reparative therapy--not a lobotomy, but similar. I refused to consent to this inhuman treatment because of the obvious clinical research data. And because I did so, in retaliation I lost my regular priest salary for the past 14 years, my earned sabbatical terms and my status for any future assignments in the Diocese of Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA.
At the same time, an insider to the Vatican warned me that I could really get hurt severely by people in the Vatican. And even though this person was dead serious, I passed this warning off as being someone’s overactive imagination that was a bit bizarre. I thought, "After all, this is the USA, what do I have to fear?" However, this covert retaliation has been substantial. My car was repossessed in July 2009 and on June 26, 2010, I lost my home to foreclosure.
It seems no one wants to touch my case because it deals with the Catholic Church (although, in the last several months, the credibility of the Vatican has fallen considerably with regard to the decades of cover-ups of child sexual abuse cases). My case is about protecting children as young as 4 and 5 years of age. The 2009 amendment to the Federal Hate Crimes Law of 1969 does not seem to cover my type of situation, although it is a type of implicit hate crime. Unfortunately, there is not enough legislation out there to deal with most non-violent discrimination based on sexual orientation, nor enough legal precedent (especially with an entity like the church). It was mentioned to me that possibly Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (IIED) and/or some employment law claims could apply.
It comes down to the fact that there are no US civil laws to protect me (a gay out Catholic priest) in my defense to protect children as young as 4 and 5 years of age. It seems clear that lawyers are often scared of taking on entities that seem more powerful than the legal system and/or cases with no real precedents. Not only do they have to worry about not winning after all the effort they put in (including hours of research, writing memos/briefs, etc--which is all hard when there's not much precedent), but they have to worry about—as I would think--being silenced and harming their careers. I can easily realize that there are risks going up against powerful entities. The religious element of my case makes it difficult for lawyers. Most lawyers would probably not be Catholic and don't really understand the Catholic Church, how it works or what they'd be getting themselves into. This is probably especially true for organizations more geared towards LGBT and other civil rights. A lot of LGBT people are not Catholic for the obvious reasons of mistreatment and my situation seems like it could be a complex intersection of various legal issues as well as religion--probably several things most LGBT/civil rights lawyers don't really know a lot about.
If I do say so myself, I think that my case could be a watershed that frees everyone, because the reason for my coming out was specifically based on the lifetime psychological harm caused to children as young as 4 and 5 years of age who grow up gay (LGBT). Evidence of such psychological harm has been heavily documented through accredited scientific research for the past several decades. Including scripture cannot be used to condemn homosexuality any more than it could be used to condemn Galileo. These are facts and cannot be disputed by intelligent people. It would be about children worldwide who grow up gay (LGBT), which takes the issue of sexual orientation out of the adult arena, making gay civil rights (gay marriage) a must--who wants to deny children their civil rights? I only know this from my experience with coming out in a Catholic parish. People calm down almost immediately when you talk about children growing up gay (LGBT)--in part, I think, because many people can identify with this fact.
I am asking for monetary compensation for the past 13 years for the financial hardship caused, the unnecessary setbacks in advancing my education, as a priest and the damage to my reputation making it impossible for me to support myself, leaving me destitute. If the Vatican wanted to remove me from the priesthood, they should have done it immediately after I came out in March 1997. But they did not do this, likely because they did not want to fight the global publicity that they were against gay priests – even if gay priests remained faithful to their vow of celibacy. Instead, they let me continue on for 8 years before removing my faculties for cerebrating mass publicly in any Catholic Church - mainly because I would be allowed to continue to preach if they did not remove me, June 2006. It has been rumored by a priest that and likely my bishop that I was given more than 5 years to get on my feet to leave the priesthood. But I had no intention of leaving the priesthood. They were making it impossible for me to stay in the priesthood, but I had no intention of leaving the priesthood. Why would I leave the priesthood? It would completely destroy - the reason why I risked my life, to come out as a gay Catholic priest, to protect children worldwide, to help stop the severe implicit form of child abuse caused to children as young as 4 and 5 years of age worldwide by the Vatican unsubstantiated antigay teachings (as stated in the 2nd paragraph above). The Vatican would then be allowed to continue unchallenged in harming children worldwide in much the same way as the Vatican has been allowed to continue for decades worldwide to cover-up of the child sexual abuse cases.
I am seeking a legal cause of action to pursue, monetary compensation for the retaliatory treatment I have received and financial assistance for starting the Thalamus Center. The Thalamus Center is an educational international interactive web site on human sexuality to combat the severe lifetime psychological harm caused by unsubstantiated antigay teachings, in particular that of the Vatican. It is ignorance of human sexuality that is so harmful to children and world peace. The Thalamus Center is being designed on a similar format as that of National Public Radio, NPR web site. The Thalamus Center is focused on two areas of human sexuality from science (biology, physiology, psychology, etc.) and religion (all religions, ancient sacred texts, etc.) – operating 7 days a week, reporting, interviewing, and referencing researchers, scholars, theologians, including archiving data, listing all LGBTQ&I resources and addressing related current news media issues. The Thalamus Center would be employing a full time staff of 9 professionals, including related support staff members.
Is there any help for me in the USA?
Fr. Marty Kurylowicz, M.Div., M.S.
http://fathermartykurylowicz.blogspot.com/2010/09/gay-marriage-separation-between-church.html--------------- End of Letter Sent ---------------
July 2010 - this Letter was also sent to:
President of the United States
United States Congress
United States Supreme Court
United States Department of Justice
50 United States Governors
Read more:
http://thalamus-center-resources-msk.blogspot.com/2011/06/ny-gay-marriage-bill-gay-catholic.html
If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much.
Jackie Kennedy Onassis
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Ted Kennedy Eulogy May 23, 1994
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