Job openings for wayward clergy

Pope Francis ordered an investigation in October of the Italian Riviera diocese of Bishop Mario Oliveri, 70, who is known for giving “second chances” to wayward priests from across the country. Reports had surfaced that, among Mario’s priests was one openly publishing nude selfies on Facebook, another caught publicly flirting with the wife of a port captain, another dismissed from a cruise ship for molesting passengers, and another revealed to have a full-body “tribal” tattoo that he had exhibited while posing with the tattoo artist in the local newspaper. The diocesean charity’s manager estimated that about half of the bishop’s 175 priests were delinquents. 

Source:Daily Telegraph (London), 10-25-2014

Damien's note: When I was in seminary myself, something I never mention, it was well-known that there were dioceses in these United States that would accept seminarians who had been thrown out of other dioceses. Often this only meant that the seminarian who had been dismissed by one diocese was having trouble keeping up his grades in graduate theology. But men who had issues with addictive behaviors could also find a welcome in places where the bishop was desperate and willing to send problem clergy off to serve in small towns or rural areas. You do the math.