MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, February 23, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Fr. Leo Tibesar, a Catholic priest, was scheduled to host an upcoming Catholic Association of Lesbian and Gay Ministries (CALGM) Fund Raising dinner at his parish in Minneapolis later this month, until the event was suddenly cancelled yesterday.
Fr. Leo Tibesar, dubbed a “well known and highly respected Same Sex Marriage and Gay Rights Activist” in official event announcements, has openly supported and been actively involved in movements that oppose the Catholic Church on the issues of marriage and homosexuality for many years.
The organizer of the event, a Father Bob Pierson is the treasurer for the sponsoring organization which features gay marriage. Elizabeth D really summed it up beautifully, how this entire thing is interconnected and very much alive in the Archdiocese and the Monastery of St. John's in Collegeville.
The monk Fr Bob Pierson who was the contact person for this retreat is also Tresurer for the sponsoring organization "Catholic Association of Lesbian and Gay Ministry" and almost all the other board members of this group can be verified online to be involved in other organizations explicitly in favor of homosexual "marriage"; at least one board member (an "inferfaith minister") performs same sex ceremonies. Based on web searching, the retreat leader Bob Pileggi is apparently a fallen away Catholic, has been a staff member of the pro-gay-marriage "Lambda Legal Defense Fund" for outreach and as coordinator of "The Marriage Project", and he also offers his services as an interfaith minister conducting custom weddings and other ceremonies clearly including same sex "weddings".According to the Abbey website, Father Bob Pierson is:
Father Robert Pierson OSB Born in Estherville, Iowa, 29 December 1955; ordained 2 June 1984 Father Robert earned his bachelor's degree in social science from Saint John's University and master of divinity degree from Saint John's University School of Theology/Seminary. He has served as a pastor, seminary rector, director of field education, spiritual director, vocations director, chaplain, director of campus ministry, faculty resident, member of the Saint John's Abbey Schola, cantor and abbey fireman.Selected quotes and stories about Father Bob Pierson who organized this event:
On the Catholic Church, he writes in the Pray, Tell blog:
There are aspects of our life as a Church that need to die so that we can experience the power of the resurrected life that God holds out to us this Easter Day.Father Pierson also lost his composure when an instruction was released in 2005 disallowing homosexuals from being in the priesthood. He was justifiably ridiculed by Diogenes at Catholic Culture after Pierson resigned from the Campus Ministry at St. John's: Brother Reinhart incredibly called the dissenting priest "courageous" and a man of "integrity". Here's part of the what Father Pierson wrote:
"For quite some time I have wrestled with conflicting teaching by the church -- that gays and lesbians are to be respected, but that somehow we are not fit for work in the church," said Pierson, who announced his decision in an e-mail message Wednesday to staff and students.Despite frequent and vociferous dissent from Catholic teaching, Father Pierson, like many others at they moribund Benedictine Abbey continue their scandalous behavior and are permitted by superiors of all kinds to persist in creating a poisonous habitat for the students and laity they are supposed to be serving.
"But with the new teaching, which says gay men are 'objectively disordered' and cannot relate properly to men and women, it became clear to me that I cannot continue in campus ministry," Pierson said.
"For me, I have decided that I am not disordered, that I can be an effective celibate gay priest, that I can relate effectively with men and women," he said. "I have chosen not to be dishonest about my thoughts and feelings, and to resign."
