No bridge over troubled gay waters for St. Procopius Abbey

Back in October, Abbot Austin Murphy of St. Procopius Abbey and chancellor of prestigious Benet Academy, expressed being “deeply troubled” by Benet’s decision to hire a women’s lacrosse coach. in a same sex relationship. His New Year’s resolution was to pull the plug on the Abbey’s relationship with and annual $50,000 support for Benet which it oversees. ‘Doesn’t comport with Catholic teaching on sexuality’, Murphy cited, in his New Year’s lump of coal to Benet’s 1,400 students.

While the vast majority of America and much of the world has entered the 21st century on enlightenment over homosexuality, the Benedictine monks of St. Procopius Abbey, and much of the Catholic hierarchy, apparently prefer to fade into irrelevancy rather than switch.

Benet Academy elders initially bowed to the will of the Abbey, which founded Benet 120 years ago providing secondary educational excellence in Chicago’s western suburbs. They withdraw their coaching offer to the gay candidate after her same sex relationship was revealed. But a firestorm of pushback by over 4,000 students, alums and parents, ‘educated’ school administrators on the lunacy of their action to placate their delusional Abbey overseers.

That annual $50,000 withdrawn by St. Procopius Abbey might well be replaced by donations from enlightened Catholics and others of good will. Abbott Austin Murphy and his Benedictine monks would be wise to use their new revenue source for extensive psychological counseling to peel back the centuries of fear, ignorance and yes, loathing of the gay lifestyle.