Rev. Father Musala Anthony
But can a monkey be a judge in a case that involves
destroying the forest. How can you be a judge in case where you are accused.
Comment
This letter below shows how Satan has entrenched the
deception in the catholic church. There are children who have been fathered by
the catholic priests but will go miles to defend and hide this sin. Some Catholics
will tell you that celibacy is not in the bible but the catholic church can not
do away with it. Some catholic women have slept and continue to sleep with
catholic priests but will go miles to hide this sin. The catholic church shows
the nature of Satan him self. Scripture says that the devils believe God and
even tremble but surprisingly the devils will never turn away from sin. The
devils shouted to Jesus, that we know you are the holy of God, but they have
never turned away from sin. People know
that the catholic church is unscriptural but refuse to turn away from it. Many
like Fr.musaala think they can reform the catholic church. Truth
is you can not be born again and remain in the catholic church. You can not live the catholic church without the grace of
God. I’m my self a former catholic saved by the grace of God. I also used to stupidly
defend the catholic church and its sins.
The logic of this guy who wrote the letter below is really ridiculous. He says ‘’Fr. Musaala’s Sins Are Not The Faults Of The Entire Holy Catholic Church’’ this is actually ambiguous. I think he meant that the sins in the catholic church that Fr.Musaala mentioned in his missive are not faults of the entire catholic church. This logic is faulty because the church is called a body of believers all believers are parts of this body. How can you have a sick heart and then claim that it is the heart which is sick and not my body. How can you have a bunch of priests who are sodomites, who father children and who impregnate young girls and then claim that the catholic church is not at fault.
The Kampala Archdiocese Judicial Vicar, the Rev. Fr. Andrew Katto-Kasirye, is of the view that, Fr. Musaala will remain on an indefinite suspension, as investigations into the motives of his missive, a stinging criticism of the sexual conduct of Uganda’s catholic bishops and clergy continue. “He is free to do as he pleases, ” said Dr. Kasirye. “The [Church] law is very clear. Priesthood is not a right but a privilege. And with this privilege comes laws and procedures a priest must abide by,” he adding: “What he (Fr. Musaala) raised is not new. If, however, he felt very strongly about these issues, the Church has platforms and procedures through which a priest like him can raise his concerns”.
But can a monkey be a judge in a case that involves
destroying the forest. How can you be a judge in case where you are accused.
Fr. Musaala’s Sins Are Not The Faults Of The Entire Holy Catholic Church
http://www.redpepper.co.ug/fr-musaalas-sins-are-not-the-faults-of-the-entire-holy-catholic-church/
Posted about 5 days ago by Patrick Mugumya
Fr. Anthony Musaala’s missive is not news to anyone, anymore.As I wrote this he had been suspended from perfoming sacraments in the Catholic Church and it’s my opinion that the suspension was the right thing to do.
Fr. Musaala’s open letter didn’t break any new ground.
I believe it only came to make news simply because the allegations were being retold by a priest, who is famous.
As someone who has lived very close to the Catholic Church, (our village home is less than a mile from the Parish and we are immediate neighbors to the Bishops retirement home. We actually used to pick for our enjoyment, mangoes and grapes from the Bishop’s compound, I learnt to play tennis and basketball with Priests, Brothers and Deacons, I spent two years in a preparatory seminary and many of my closest friends are ex seminarians) I can say I have heard more stories about priests and the Catholic Church than most ordinary people.
Priests and the clergy are mystical people and many people in society can’t help but gossip about them about almost everything they see or hear or fear about them.
But I must add that hearing about stories about people who lead the Church doesn’t make me an expert at all
What I can say is that what Fr. Musaala wrote in his missive is what I have heard a million times. And frankly speaking, I do not have any idea whether any of the allegations raised by him are true or false.
Before going further let me reproduce what my friend and ex seminarian Innocent Nahabwe shared with his pals on facebook.
‘Dear Friends, this is a personal note about something I feel very strongly about-faith. Please bear with me:
I have read with gladness the news that Fr. Musaala has been suspended from active service.
I was angered by his utterances. It pains me as a Catholic and a former seminarian to hear someone trying to make a quick shot at fame by uttering outrageous allegations.
The 2000-year church cannot change traditions now because some horny priest somewhere wants to bonk unhindered. It’s in a church, a communion of willing believers who have faith and belief in a certain way that matters of faith should be handled. If one doesn’t feel the church fits well in their beliefs (he/she) is free to move and join the “advertised churches” and buy their pastor a Hummer or Jeep Cherokee.
Fr. Musaala is a populist preacher who would do well as one of the pastor/ Bishops in Kampala, I am sure. He could marry and bonk whomever he so pleases at will without anyone complaining. It’s his choice to remain in the church. Just as you can’t eat your cake and have it, you can’t be a priest in the Catholic Church and marry.
Arch-Bishop Cyprian Kizito lwanga
Sin happens and no one is innocent. So Fr. Musaala and those he says he advocates for will once in a while stray and father a kid or two. These priests are from our community. The same community that has thieves, pedophiles, murderers. So, much as there is scrutiny in the seminary, some hypocrites manage to go through and become priests. They are pretenders that shouldn’t have become priests in the first place.
The same reason, I am not one after spending five years in the seminary.
Does marriage stop men from preying on children under their care? No. We have heard of people with three or four wives who still go ahead and defile minors, sometimes their own kids.
Its not that they have been denied the right to marry! We have heard of ministers who can’t take care of their kids yet they are millionaires. Anglican priests marry but a few bad ones prey on their flock.
Now for Fr. Musaala and those of his ilk, marriage for Catholic priests won’t help much in as far as solving the concerns he is raising. Fr. Musaala, if you are digging, and you get tired, you don’t tell the land to go away, you go away yourself.’
I completely share Nahabwe’s opinion.
Now my views:
Do I think priests, sin? Yes. Like Nahabwe ably puts it, priests are not from planet Mars. They come from the same communities that you and I come from. We all commit sin sometimes.
But when we sin, the church gives us the opportunity to confess and be forgiven or be damned.
I could read from Fr. Musaala’s letter a confessional tone. But confessions must be pure and sincere. To me Fr. Musaala’s expose is neither honest nor sincere.
The church has channels and avenues through which priests can raise their grievances, their concerns and have them sorted. The church also has its own ways of punishing its own clergy and hundreds have gotten punished for various transgressions.
The media isn’t one of these channels. Fr. Musaala chose to write an open letter, not a letter to his Bishop or Archbishop. Fr. Musaala wrote to the whole world. Did he expect the world to change what is wrong in his Church?
I believe in openness, but I also believe in institutions. Fr. Musaala was not ordained priest yesterday, he has served in the Church longer than I have been an adult. He went there willingly and no one has forced him to stay.
He knows the channels through which to raise concerns and he knows very well that the media; the internet is not one of them.
I believe Fr. Musaala chose to write and leak his ‘open letter’ because he has something sinister against the Church. It’s his secret. And for this I say he deserves to serve his punishment.
Fr. Musaala wasn’t even truthful in his letter. If he knew what he was writing about, why didn’t he drop any names. Why not say Priest this or this Bishop this is living with a wife and they have kids?
The church doesn’t want priests or any of its clergy washing their linen in public but as a person I have no problem with someone being truthful, honest and sincere.
I believe if someone has genuine concerns about any thing, they are better off expressing themselves than suppressing themselves. If Fr. Musaala was sincere and he wanted action taken, why didn’t he address his letter to any authority?
What Fr. Musaala has achieved is not reopen debate about the centuries old question of celibacy in the Catholic Church. No, Fr. Musala has simply tarnished all the priests in Uganda and beyond.
Fr. Musaala is blind to the goodness of thousands of honest and God-fearing priests doing God’s work across the country.
By writing an anonymous letter alleging grave sins and crimes, Fr. Musaala has, as Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga put it, cast ‘a dark shadow of suspicion’ over all priests’ some of whom he has never met.
It’s very easy to say priest so and so is having sexual relations with this or that woman. But it’s almost impossible to prove it beyond reasonable doubt unless you are the priest or the woman.
It’s easy to allege that this priest has produced a kid but it’s almost impossible to prove minus DNA tests. Many women are not sure who is the father of their kids.
I have heard stories of priests having sex with women, with young girls a thousand times but I have never confirmed any. I also know of priests who have gotten arrested by police for allegedly defiling girls.
Fr. Musaala retelling the old rumours and innuendos without providing any evidence doesn’t make them less of rumours.
Reading Fr. Musaala’s letter gives the impression that all priests are sinful and this simply isn’t true.
Of course there could be priests engaged in criminal activities and if any one knows any of these it’s their duty as citizens to report them not to the Bishop but to the Police.
I believe there could be priests who may have strayed and broken their obligation to celibacy (I don’t know any myself) but priests are men and like a husband can stray, so can a priest.
Those priests who have fallen short of God’s glory have sinned as persons and not on behalf of the whole church.
Now let us assume one priest commits this terrible sin and the woman gets pregnant and delivers a child.
Should the priest be excommunicated from the church because he has done wrong, should the woman also be excommunicated for falling for the priest’s sinful advances or should the kid be killed because he/she is a product of a sin?
Does committing a sin make one less of a priest? Does it diminish one’s ability to do God’s work? I don’t think so. Didn’t Jesus say he was on earth because of sinners?
Does becoming a priest make you less of a man who is completely unattracted to the fairer sex?
And because some have fallen victim to fatal attraction, and because some have fallen victim to Satan’s evil scheme, should the Catholic Church’s doctrines on celibacy be forfeited or scrapped?
Should priests be allowed to get married because, as Fr. Musaala says some of them are living like married men with wives and children?
Is marriage the silver bullet that will stop priests from falling short of what is expected of them?
Do we as society expect too much from these priests and he clergy?
Fr. Musaala, reading from his letter, has lost his belief in the vocation of priesthood and could be living in terrible sin himself. His failure to stay celibate is his own failure as a person and not that of the whole church in which he is a priest.
If Fr. Musaala has lost interest in the church, it’s only fair that he exercises his options which are readily available to him and calls time on his priesthood and goes to live the life he finds more uplifting, not the double life he is living right now.
You can serve God in so many ways; you don’t have to be a priest.
Fr. Musaala has done his part and am sure God is grateful. Let him now confess his sins and move on and stop living a lie.
But let him not, because of the weaknesses in his heart, bring to shame, Gods Holy Church.
Priesthood is a vocation that is undertaken willingly and is never forced on anyone. It is not a prison sentence.
Catholic defend
Fr.A.Musaala over Homosexual allegations
Fr Musaala
accusation an attack on Catholic youth
The New Vision, Sunday,
5th April, 2009
By Jean-Marie Nsambu
IN the few years he has ministered as a priest for Kampala Archdiocese, Fr. Anthony Musaala has made a name, particularly among the youth. He serves very many, regardless of their faith or sex inclinations!
In and outside church, he is a crowd-puller. I have attended and sometimes even addressed many gatherings with him. In my seven-year term as Archdiocesan youth leader — ended last September — I cannot recall any disappointment working with Musaala, youth Chaplain at Gaba and later St. Matia Mulumba, Old Kampala Parishes.
On the contrary, I just admired his gift to draw droves of young men — and with emphasis — women. From other faiths, I can attest to many who willfully converted to the Catholic Church. With a ‘troubled’ youth background of himself, a story he often publicly shares, I know him as a straight vibrant priest that any soul would envy.
Against that context, I believe The New Vision Page 1 story, of Wednesday April 1, was anything, but a Fool’s [Day] joke. Nonetheless, I am saddened that the attempts to assassinate Musaala’s carefully built character, were given prominence.
It is intriguing to note the man (or woman?), Paul Kagaba was able to name him and not the “A European residing on Entebbe Road.” Is it not just because Musaala is a priest? Would it not be true that he has more to lose as a ‘parallel preacher’? And why shouldn’t we believe it is a ploy to attract donor funds for Kagaba’s church?
It is utter nonsense if I were hetero- or homosexual (or even just sexually active), to address a ‘press’ conference about it. To whom would I owe its benefit?
As confused as these men are, one of them had earlier approached me for assistance “to get publicity” in the Catholic publications, Leadership Magazine and Catholic Newsreport. At the moment I did not know why! But, my conscience rightly made me tell ‘Georgina’ Oundo, we were not interested in his (ridiculous) story.
I am aware of the Pentecostal fervor to ‘come forward’ and air out sins. I also know, to Christians, confession is imperative.
But, to confess to the world (not as by law stipulated), to the point of slandering others, is utter lunacy. Even as sinners, we are already God’s children. St. John says: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” [1 John 1:9] But, James adds: “Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” [James: 5:16].
He does not tell us to confess to the world. And these disciples got it from Jesus Himself, who says: “Therefore, if you were to offer your gift upon the altar (publicly) and were to remember there that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother (privately). Then come and offer your gift.” [Matthew 5:23-24].
Something about these allegations is sinister, if not dangerously slanderous. As a person that works with the youth — in thousands — my mind races with several motives that are seemingly behind all this.
Even in law, judicial officers would be reluctant to wholly believe ‘confessions’ that purport criminality of others. Chiefly, this is because when one knows their own guilt is detected, they will look for anything to earn sympathy (cheap empathy) by falsely accusing others. And the fact that it is someone outside the Catholic Church accusing, makes it more devious.
Prudence suffices for deeper analysis of these claims, as well as the church and persons of the accusers. To me, homosexuality is a crime in Uganda.
The first step, therefore, would have been for these men or women to turn themselves in and save public funds to hunt for them. Then, they would help the Police to bring in accomplices, but with tangible evidence.
Of course, this Kagaba man/woman may be telling a true story to the extent of the phenomenon of homosexuality. But, to name Fr. Musaala (and not the others), is very suspect, if not a direct attack on the priest’s major constituency — the Catholic youth. Unfortunately for Kagaba and company, it is a story that in its general outline could be true, but factors in a matter untrue.
The public should take it as lacking the desired double test of reliability and ‘corroboration’ that are necessary in materials particular! Let us arrest and charge these fellows.
The writer is a journalist, lawyer and former Kampala Archdiocese youth leader
Fr Musaala: Catholic priests’ celibacy is a fallacy
http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24337&Itemid=114
Friday,
22 March 2013 00:12
Written
by FR. ANTHONY MUSAALA
On March 12, the celebrity Catholic priest
Anthony Musaala wrote an open letter to bishops and the laity, in which, among
other things, he calls for the abolition of celibacy.
Musaala’s major thesis is that celibacy is not
working anyway, as the men of the robe are involved in affairs and fathering
children. The church has responded by suspending Musaala, but the priest
insists his concerns should be addressed.
The issue has raised impassioned debate with many
faithful apparently torn between facing an unpleasant reality and trying to
preserve the dignity of their religion.
Here we reproduce Musaala’s letter.
It is an open secret that many Catholic priests and some bishops, in Uganda and elsewhere, no longer live celibate chastity. From the numerous cases on the ground one might be forgiven for saying that most diocesan priests either don’t believe in celibacy anymore, or if they do, have long since given up the struggle to be chaste.
In any case it still seems important for priests
to vow even a woefully imperfect celibacy, if only for the sake of the hallowed
‘priestly image’. The church, however, still maintains the fable that most
Catholic priests persevere in celibate chastity fairly well, which fiction begs
belief.
All is not well
All is definitely not well with what I call
‘administrative celibacy’, in the Catholic church. It is a celibacy which
is more forced than consented to, and its effects are anything but good.
I suggest that now more than at any other time,
we must begin an open and frank dialogue about catholic priests becoming
happily married men, rather than being miserable and single, either before or
after ordination.
Although this may be quite a shock to many but
the alternative may be far worse. What do you think happens when lapses and scandals
by priests, sisters, brothers and bishops continue unabated , whether hidden or
not?
My forecast is that we will have a few more years
of catholic self-deception; perhaps ten, telling ourselves and the world that
everything is Ok, nothing serious. Then more scandals will surface.
As people become more enlightened (as in Europe)
there will be a crisis of faith, perhaps a sudden collapse, with many leaving
the church, either to join other churches (whose pastors may be no better, but
who appear to be less hypocritical about it), or to become agnostics,
especially the middle classes.
One must remember that there are other challenges
facing the church, such as general weakening of faith, loss of sacramental
life, low incomes, dull liturgies, and the challenges of the media. Many of the
youth ( not the children) are already alienated from Catholicism and are easy
prey to proselytizing groups.
Naked truth
The number of catholic priests and bishops who
are sexually active in Uganda is unknown, but almost everywhere unedifying
stories of priests ‘sexploits’, are not hard to come by. These stories are told
in counseling or as anecdotes or by the media. They are told within the
parishes and beyond. They are told at home in families, in taxis, in hair
salons and in the markets.
What is talked about? Priests’ secret and not so secret liaisons with girls and women, coerced sex with house-maids, with students, with relatives; priests ‘wives’ set up in well established homes; priests involved with a parishioner’s wife; of priests romantically involved with religious Sisters; priests offering money for sex, and so on…
If you add to this, a fair number of priests’ and
bishops’ children scattered around the nation, who are carefully hidden from
view (and not so carefully!), not to mention children who are aborted at
priests’ behest, we begin to get the true picture of human weakness, whose
consequences are nothing less than catastrophic both for the priest and his
partners, and which cannot be concealed by taking a vow of celibacy, or by
retreats and more prayers.
Lessons from America
While in Europe and the States, the scandal of
numerous pedophile priests, whose victims are rightly suing the
catholic church is widely reported in the media, very little by contrast is
heard about priests and bishops in Africa who continue sexually abusing female
minors (or vulnerable women) with no legal action taken.
Obviously time has come for serious measures to
be undertaken, similar to those in Europe and America. Apart from legal action in
civil and ecclesiastical courts against offenders, strict ‘child
protection’ codes and practices, must be enforced, by the state which for
instance should prohibit young or vulnerable females from residing in parish
houses, where some of the abuses occur.
Deception, silence
Thus the unnecessary and unpalatable deception
about celibate priests, that they are chaste when they are not is clearly
contradicted by what is on the ground. The deception is of course not tenable
for much longer. Surely we must first tell ourselves the truth as a church,
that is to say, that celibacy has failed or is failing us, and then also tell
the world which we have been deceiving the naked truth, before we are
completely overtaken by events.
Unfortunately there is an ominous unhealthy
conspiracy of silence about these matters among the Ugandan clergy and faithful
alike, probably because priestly celibacy might be seen to be a hollow shell,
which it mostly is nowadays.
The laity for all their good will, are also
co-opted into this unwholesome silence, sometimes for lack of information,
sometimes because they believe that they have some ‘moral’ duty to be loyal to
an imperfect church. In truth their silence shores up the sins of priests and
the destroys many lives.
Wrong reasons
When I ask lay people whether catholic priests
should have the option to marry the answer is always NO; since they say, that
would make catholic priests like Anglican reverends! As if that was the worst
possible fate, yet Anglican clergy who are married certainly do not have the
same levels and same kinds of sexual lapses as their catholic counterparts..
Most lay people in Uganda would not like their priests
to have the option of marriage, yet it is their very own children, sisters,
wives who are being used and abused by the clergy!
The campaign
A campaign for optional married priesthood in the
catholic church is now required. This campaign is primarily a form of education
and purification. It is not be construed as a rebellion against established
doctrine but a reading of the signs of the times
Since there are no fundamental theological
arguments against a married priesthood (there are already some married priests
in the UK and Uniate Catholic Churches) but only arguments from tradition and
church discipline, I believe that it is a matter of time before common sense
prevails and marriage for the clergy in the Latin rite (i.e.
catholic) church is accepted..
I am aware that there is a big struggle
ahead. Unfortunately celibacy also serves certain vested interests in
the power structure of the church, and of course celibate priests are cheaper
and easier to deal with, even to manipulate, by ecclesiastical authority, but I
believe that in time we will be freed from this unnecessary yoke,
unhelpful as it is, which is all the more severe in Africa where family and
family ties are so crucial to one’s psychological equilibrium..
Personal interest
One factor which has prompted me to take up this
campaign is my own biography. I am one of a handful of several priests who had
the misfortune of appearing in the press for supposed sexual trespasses In my
case, which was 2009, it was cited that I must be a homosexual, because I had
homosexual friends and went to homosexual gatherings. Not that I cared much
whether or not someone thinks that I am homosexual. Certainly I have been
called worse things than that.
In my defence I tried to point out that
I didn’t actually recall having had homosexual relations with any of
my rabid accusers, neither did they; which meant that hearsay alone became the
evidence . What I found troubling is what followed. Apart from all the pain and
scandal caused to all concerned, I found that even though all the allegations
were based on hearsay, I was being treated, by my superiors as the biggest sinner
in Nineveh.
Up till now judgments are being made
against me by ecclesiastical authority in the light of those events, which I
suppose is to be expected. I wondered about this and came to the conclusion
that priests who ‘get caught.’ like me, have to pay for the sins of all those
who don’t get caught. In other words failed celibacy requires scapegoats.
Some clergy are able to get away with the
grossest behaviour because of their age, position, influence or even
because of financial inducements.
So while I appear to have little moral authority
to talk about celibacy as a priestly virtue because of what may or may not have
happened to me in 2009, nevertheless I can point out the systemic immorality of
the institutionalized hypocrisy called celibate diocesan priesthood,
which severely punishes lapses when they appear, but condones the secret crimes
of many more.
I believe that there must be a new openness at
whatever it takes. The point is not that diocesan priests should leave the
priesthood and get married, but compel the church to offer the option of a
married priesthood. This will put an end to the double lives so many priests
are forced to live.
Cases heard:
I spoke with a 21 year old young man last week.
He is one of seven children of a catholic priest who happens to still be
serving within the Province of the Archdiocese of Kampala. The young man, who
is willing to testify, lived in a parish house with his father priest, even
serving on the altar with him, but having to pretend to be a visiting nephew.
At times he was assisted by his father to go to
school, but was later abandoned. On one occasion he drank poison in order to
end his life, due to the trauma, but was taken to hospital before he died.
Case one
Another is a personal friend. He was fathered by
a missionary priest of the White Fathers 58 years ago but is still suffering
the trauma of no real identity or home.
Although he has since received some minimum
compensation from the White fathers , he still feels that there was an
injustice to his mother who is still alive , who was sexually assaulted by the
said White father priest in his office when she was only sixteen. He wishes to
sue.
Case three
Another case is of a priest who seduced a member
of my youth group who happened to be in need of school fees, at Old Kampala,
She soon became pregnant by the said priest, disappeared from church activities
and from her home to be established in a ‘home’.
Case four
Another lady tells of how she went to confession,
only to be sexually molested by the priest, who fondled her breasts during
confession
Case five
When I was at secondary school, it was common
knowledge that various Brothers were having sexual activity with the boys. It
was called ‘jaboo’. As a pubescent teenager, my first sexual encounter was
actually with one of the brothers who invited me to his room on the pretext of
doing some extra chemistry equations. I was sixteen at the time. Later
I heard that several others had been through the
same thing..with the same Brother and with other ones..Some are still alive to
this day.
Action required
I do not believe either that these cases are just
a few ‘bad apples’ in the barrel, but rather they are symptomatic of a sick
system which has lost its integrity in this one area, but won’t admit it. Some
of these cases are clearly criminal in nature, especially those of sex with
children. They should be dealt with in a normal fashion and legal action taken
in civil courts either against the church, or against those priests who offend.
I am therefore compiling cases from all over Uganda.
I believe that if the all the victims of clergy molestations were to
come out and sue the church in civil courts, such abuses would sharply
decrease. I am also helping to set up a Victims Support Group, independent of
the church for obvious reasons, with guidance and help from similar groups in Europe and the States.
I have also engaged a human rights lawyer to
advise on the wider implications of clergy abuse on the basic human rights of
individuals, especially women.
Join me in this exciting challenge to bring fundamental change and renewal to the Catholic Church.
Join me in this exciting challenge to bring fundamental change and renewal to the Catholic Church.
Happy Easter.
FR. ANTHONY MUSAALA
