{"id":421,"date":"2011-02-17T12:28:54","date_gmt":"2011-02-17T18:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/?p=421"},"modified":"2011-02-17T12:28:54","modified_gmt":"2011-02-17T18:28:54","slug":"ex-prostitute-priest-sues-pro-life-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/ex-prostitute-priest-sues-pro-life-group-421.htm","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Prostitute-Priest Sues Pro-Life Group"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Raymond Gravel<\/a> is in the news again.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He is a colorful figure. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Back in 2006 the Globe and Mail<\/em> (article no longer available on line) reported<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Rev. Raymond Gravel had to get permission from the Vatican to run in a federal by-election. Now, the former prostitute who used to work in gay leather bars has to convince the voters of Repentigny riding that he is the right man to represent them.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(snip)<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He followed a childhood dream and entered the priesthood in 1982 after a rough-and-tumble life that included work as a prostitute and in gay leather bars between 1976 and 1982.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Gravel gave up prostitution after being so severely beaten by a client that he ended up in hospital.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

His tenure as a priest has not been low key, either. An outspoken advocate, Mr. Gravel has publicly decried the Roman Catholic Church’s position on same-sex marriage. He also received a disciplinary letter from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became Pope Benedict XVI. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Gravel was also one of 19 priests who created a tempest in February when they signed an open letter criticizing the church’s position on same-sex marriage and its opposition to ordaining gays.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“I would say that 50 per cent of the priests in Quebec are gay, but if I became a priest, it’s because I’m a believer and I believe in the message of Christ,” he said in an interview last year with Fugues, a gay magazine.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Life Site News criticized him, and he is suing them for $500,000. They report<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Regular readers of LSN will need no introduction to Fr. Raymond Gravel \u2013 he\u2019s the Quebec priest and former Member of Canada\u2019s Parliament who stated on a radio interview in 2004: \u201cI am pro-choice and there is not a bishop on earth that will prevent me from receiving Communion, not even the Pope.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Then, in 2008, he defended the awarding of Canada\u2019s highest civilian award to the country\u2019s \u2018father of abortion\u2019 \u2013 arch-abortionist Henry Morgentaler! During his political career he was rated as \u2018pro-abortion\u2019 by the political arm of the pro-life movement. He has also repeatedly and publicly criticized his church\u2019s teachings on homosexuality and abortion.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Even though LifeSiteNews reports have overwhelmingly reported on what Fr. Gravel himself has publicly said, he is suing us for libel. Among other things, he argues that he isn\u2019t pro-abortion, but he has said in the past that he is \u201cpro-choice.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s demanding $500,000 in damages<\/strong> \u2013 which, coincidentally, is a full year\u2019s budget for us. That would put LifeSiteNews out of business! <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

One does wonder how Gravel got himself ordained and has gotten away way with his public stances. As a former sex-worker he may well have some useful information about members of the hierarchy. Comment dit-on \u201cblackmail\u201d en fran\u00e7ais? <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Raymond Gravel is in the news again. \u00a0 He is a colorful figure. \u00a0 Back in 2006 the Globe and Mail (article no longer available on line) reported Rev. Raymond Gravel had to get permission from the Vatican to run in a federal by-election. Now, the former prostitute who used to work in gay leather […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,6],"tags":[492,491,490],"class_list":["post-421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-catholic-church","tag-homosexual-abortion","tag-prosttution","tag-raymonf-gravel","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podles.org\/dialogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}