Peterborough Bishop Nicola de Angelis is facing a human rights commission complaint from a gay parishioner.
The Catholic bishop of Peterborough, Ont., Rev. Nicola de Angelis, is facing an investigation by the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal for barring a homosexual member of his flock from serving on the altar. When 12 members of St. Michael’s parish in Cobourg, Ont. strongly expressed concerns to their bishop about Jim Corcoran, a homosexual altar server living with his same-sex partner, de Angelis ordered Corcoran to stop serving so as to avoid public scandal, as per church policy. Corcoran subsequently lodged a complaint with the tribunal against the 12 parishioners, the bishop, and the entire Archdiocese of Peterborough, on the basis that they had “used their distaste towards homosexuality to limit my right to serve my church and deepen my faith by serving on the altar and to pursue a vocation within the Catholic church.”
As a financial “remedy,” he is asking for $20,000 from each parishioner to be given to a charity of his choice and for the archdiocese to cover his legal costs up to $25,000. He is also asking for six non-financial remedies, including: that “the group of 12 parishioners be held accountable for their ‘un-Christian’ actions, in front of their peers in a public forum, by the bishop or the bishop’s superior;” that the bishop “preach a sermon at St. Michael’s church on the consequences of practising discrimination and the slanderous spreading of rumours, hate and innuendo;” and that the Archdiocese of Peterborough “develop and publish policies that support the human rights of all people within the church.”
Fr. Alphonse de Valk of Catholic Insight told The Interim that this is typical of gay activists who use Canada’s human rights commissions to “coerce others to accept their agenda and lifestyle.”
Fr. de Valk also criticized the human rights commission industry for “taking it upon themselves” to advance the gay agenda.
