Slog

News & Arts

Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

« Chris Matthews Rips Reince Priebus… | SL Letter of the Day: Ground Rules »

Monday, August 27, 2012

Religion Take This And Eat

Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Aug 27, 2012 at 10:08 AM

How's that popey-shamey stuff workin' out for ya, father?

The Rev. Feliciano Torres Mofan, 58, was booked into Marin County Jail on suspicion of indecent exposure, soliciting a lewd act and nudity in a state park. He remained in custody Friday night in lieu of $2,500 bail.... On Thursday evening, a plainclothes ranger was walking at Chicken Coop Hill, in the shoreline area off North San Pedro Road, when a man approached and propositioned him for sex, Goering said. Then the man allegedly exposed himself to the ranger. The undercover ranger and another ranger nearby arrested the suspect and identified him as Mofan. When asked for his occupation at the jail, Mofan identified himself as a priest.

The story notes that Father Mofan has been "reduced ministry" since he suffered, er, a stroke back in 1999. And the archdiocese's spokesperson notes with some relief...

"The allegations, which do not involve a minor, come as a surprise to us," the archdiocese said. "The Archdiocese has never been aware of any type of illegal behavior, prior to these charges, by Father Mofan.

No kids raped this time! Nothing to see here! Move along!

FacebookShare

Comments (14) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

This is almost good news for the church at this point. "It's a grown up!!"

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on August 27, 2012 at 10:21 AM

The Catholic Church has finally realized its goal of producing one non-child molesting sex offender priest The Holy See must be ecstatic. I wonder what they have planned for the next 2,000 years.

Posted by Chef Thunder on August 27, 2012 at 10:30 AM

undercover ranger

The fuck?

Posted by K on August 27, 2012 at 10:31 AM

If this guy had a stroke, the part of his brain that affects judgment could very well be impaired.

Sorry. The Catholic church pisses me off as much as anyone, but I just feel sorry for the man.

Posted by Sheryl on August 27, 2012 at 10:37 AM

I'm sure this is the first time he's done this, and it's all because of those meddling gays!

Posted by seatackled on August 27, 2012 at 10:39 AM

Closeted and cruising in the park? Color me surprised.

If the church ever manages to wake up and live in the real world, where priests do have sex drives and aren't robots, maybe he could have gotten married and wouldn't have been out looking for discrete encounters in a park. It would certainly be a more stable, dare I say more (small c) conservative position.

Posted by muon1183

on August 27, 2012 at 10:59 AM

Catholic Church: "It's so unfair to blame us for this kind of behaviour. If it wasn't for all that '60's "Free Love" and "women are people, too" mumbo-jumbo, all this priestly perversion never would have been exposed in the media - I mean happened."

Posted by esperando on August 27, 2012 at 11:01 AM

@4, I don't think so.

Park cruising is a learned behavior of closet-cases (mostly). One doesn't accidentally cruise a park due to impaired judgement caused by a stroke. Park cruising actually has a fairly sophisticated set of customs and signals, and not something one does accidentally. Given his age, I'd guess it is more likely that he has been doing this for decades, and just never got caught before. If anything, I'd grant that the past stroke might have caused him to be more careless, and more likely to be caught. But I seriously doubt the stroke caused him to cruise a park in the first place.

Posted by Reverse Polarity on August 27, 2012 at 11:06 AM

Actually, certain strokes and other events can cause problems in this area.

Only a trained medical doctor with experience in this area could say for sure, not a "jury of his peers" who still think Angels exist and rode on Unicorns next to Jesus and the Apostles on Dinosaurs.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on August 27, 2012 at 11:15 AM

Any parent who exposed their kid to the Catholic Clergy should burn in Hell.

Posted by .....should, and will. is. on August 27, 2012 at 11:40 AM

Why not replace the host with pickles or sausages. There might even be some straight atheists who would be drawn to attend church, or "discern a vocation." Or something.

Posted by rob!

on August 27, 2012 at 11:52 AM

More Catholic "moral values"! Hahahahahahahahahaha! Oh, stop, you're killing me!

Posted by Pope Peabrain on August 27, 2012 at 12:17 PM

On impairment from a stroke or dementia: that would be present as implusive behaivior and a lack of inhibitions, not seeking out an established cruising spot. Can organic brain diseases create unusual sexual desires? Yes, that's been documented in the case of some tumors. I can't think of any for stroke victims - just horny guys who used to have the common sense to keep their pants on.

It appears the Catholic church violated the HIPAA Privacy Rule which regulates the disclosure of Protected Health Information held by (among others) employer sponsored health plans just so they could present him as a priest with a illness rather than yet another priest who is a sick puppy.

I love the quote, ""The allegations, which do not involve a minor, come as a surprise to us," the archdiocese said" because allegations involving a minor AREN'T a surprise?

Posted by DAVIDinKENAI on August 27, 2012 at 10:42 PM

These closet cases in the bushes have no manners. I would be pretty irritated if some guy hauled his cock out at me while I was walking in the woods.

This is an example of how destructive the closet is. When a straight guy gets propositioned like this he does not distinguish in his mind between the creepy closet case with poor social skills and gays at large. Instead it is just "some gay dude pulled his cock out at me."

Posted by Learned Hand on August 28, 2012 at 10:50 AM